Holiday to Indian Wells in Mar 2025: Day 2 – London Heathrow LHR to Los Angeles LAX

By Nige on March 6, 2025 at 6:04 pm
Type: Post
Story: Holiday to Indian Wells in Mar 2025 Category: Travel
Tags: Hilton | Holidays | LAX | LHR | London Heathrow | Los Angeles

We negotiated over the timing of the shuttle bus back to the terminal. I obviously wanted to catch the first bus at 4:30am and the Vickster wanted to catch the 7am.

The 6am bus was an acceptable compromise.

That meant the alarm was set for 5:20am. We were looking forward to a decent sleep, but a good night was not had by all.

The air con wouldn’t go below 19 deg c, so Vick was too warm.

I woke at about 10 mins before the alarm was due to go off, and Vick was up like a shot as soon as the alarm sprang into action.

I expected the bus would be popular, so being in the queue early to guarantee you get a seat is paramount.

There was a decent sized queue by the time we arrived about 15 mins before, but I made sure we were one of the first to board the bus.

It was a little bit on the chilly side first thing. Fresh is the right word to describe it.

When you know you are heading into a warm environment, “fresh” is lovely. If you could be stuck out in the cold air for longer than you would like, “fresh” is a less positive feeling.

We arrived into the First Wing and headed through a relatively quiet security.

We were welcomed back into the CCR, and we settled into one of my preferred seats in the corner out of the way.

After the last incident at breakfast in the CCR, when I somehow managed to faint, we took the brave step of enjoying a bite to eat out on the terrace.

Vick went for the eggs benedict with gluten-free toast. I went for my normal full English with brown toast. A good start to the day!

We headed down to Gate B39 via the transit walkway as normal. We went early so that we could pick up a Starbucks in the B Satelite terminal.

We enjoy taking advantage of Group 0 boarding, but we were invited through an hour and 15 mins before departure time. That’s a record for us!

We were invited to board ahead of others. We took our seats 01K and 02K, and enjoyed the hospitality.

We both enjoyed a bucks fizz to get us into the mood, and we were also offered an odd plate of nuts, etc, on the side.

We pushed back a few mins late, but we were soon into the air, and we could start enjoying the first class service in earnest.

We both decided to pencil in lunch for 12:30pm, and in the meantime, I watched The Pelican Brief, and Vick started watching the first series of Suits.

The cabin crew seemed to be a little new. I was asked whether I would like to have dinner with Vick (who was sat behind me) and I had to explain that there was no buddy seat in the new first class suite.

The cabin crew members assigned to us had to go and check with her colleagues, before confirming that we could not dine together.

The starter for me was the soufflé which was gorgeous as always. Vick said her crab stuffed in an avocado roll was top notch.

For main, we both went for chicken koi soi, which was nice, but not outstanding.

For pudding, I went for the apple tarte tatin, which was very tasty.

Wifi was in and out all of the time. It was certainly not a service that anyone could work on. I complained on board, but all they could do was send feedback to Customer Relations.

We both grabbed some kip mid flight, which was appreciated, and we both enjoyed a pot of tea when we woke up.

We both watched the Suits box set. Perhaps due to us listening to the Suits podcast. Vick got further into season 1 than I did. But it’s such a great show that watching it again was a joy.

I enjoyed the steak sandwich as a light bite. Vick had a salad. The plan was to head out to a local Cheesecake Factory in the afternoon, so we didn’t need to overeat on the flight.

It was very cloudy and dull on final approach into LA. It was a really murky view of the city. We could hardly see the Hollywood sign in the distance.

It felt really good when we landed. It had been a long flight – over 10 and a half hours. It was time to stretch our legs!

We arrived into Gate 156 ahead of schedule. Unfortunately, there were a number of passengers that were dawdling in exiting the aircraft.

We overtook them on the way to Passport Control! Ha!

Global Entry was empty and had been further enhanced. There were no kiosks at all now. Just a facial recognition system and a quick chat based on random selection.

We walked around World Way to LAX-IT and ordered an Uber. $70 for the drive into Hollywood. A bit more than we were comfortable paying, but it was effective, quick and easy.

We got into our studio suite room at Hampton Inn & Suites on Vine Street without delay. Vick needed a snooze, which gave me chance to update the blog.

Dealing with the timezone difference meant that we didn’t do that much in the afternoon/evening. We just about managed a brief visit to the Cheesecake Factory at The Grove. Even that was in question at one point!.

It was raining and cold. Certainly not the weather we had hoped for from California.

Holiday to Indian Wells in Mar 2025