Tier Point Run to Hawaii/San Juan in Feb 2014: Day 2 – London City LCY to Shannon SNN

The hotel bed was very comfortable – I woke at 5:30 – a touch later than my normal time of waking – although I had two beers the previous night, and that’s a lot for me on a school night.

There were a couple of problems with the room that I reported as I checked out. The shower door wouldn’t close properly – it was ok – but it wasn’t right. And the two critical lights: the desk light and the standard lamp didn’t work, so the room was really dimly lit.

No big deal but hopefully we won’t hit these problems when we come back in Nov for the tennis.

Breakfast in the Exec Lounge was good – better than I expected. Nice fruit, selection of cereals, some bacon and scrambled eggs, and toast and fresh bread ready to cut.

I did have the option of a full buffet downstairs but that would have cost me £20 or so, and I just don’t think it’s worth it (not good for my waistline either).

Getting to London City airport via the DLR was very straightforward. I got on at South Quay and headed north to Poplar where I got off, walked across the platform and got on the next train heading to the Woolwich Arsenal.

It took all of 20-25 mins from the hotel, and a short walk and I was into London City airport.

Although I had my BP, I went to check in to see whether they could get me my AA BPs for Newark-Los Angeles and Los Angeles-Honolulu. They couldn’t but they unboarded me and this seemed to do the trick.

I got my BPs after the check in agent seemed to enter a lot of info including my passport etc. Not sure why. Anyway the outcome was what I wanted so all was good.

Headed down to Gate 24 and I found that there was only 11 pax due on BA001 today. So the likelihood was that I would get row 1 to myself.

Settled myself into my seat with a full view of G-EUNB and I was offered a coffee which I had to accept in the absence of any Starbucks in the building.

Held my conf call with my team at 9am and there were a few concerns over timescales for one of the projects we have on the go.

Little bit of a distraction from enjoying the comforts of business class travel, but I think it’s a necessary evil – far better to take a little bit of pain on a daily basis throughout my travels than things build up over a week and I have a lot of pain when I get back.

I also think it demonstrates commitment to my client and my desire to get the job done successfully first time. However on the other hand I also know its never good if you can’t leave your team to get on with things if you are away for a week. It’s a difficult balance I find at times.

Boarding started at about 9:30 for a 9:50 departure. We left a few mins early and we were quickly into the clouds. I had a personal welcome from the CSD and a good conversation about my final destination. He was well informed, interested and very accommodating. He was a shining example of good BA service and he made me feel special.

The flight was very smooth and uneventful really. We had our canapés which were primarily fish based – I’ve never been a big fan to be honest – these were fine and harmless.

We arrived at Shannon in good time, and it was only a few mins before we were off and into the rabbit warren of corridors to get to US Pre-Clearance.

I was first through and used Global Entry – always good to keep your eye in. However when there’s no one going through normal immigration it’s never quite the fastest way to get through. However that wasn’t important today.

I just like using it and the feeling it gives me of acceptance in the US.

The BA waiting area was fully cordoned off, so I needed to dip under the barriers – someone came and removed the barriers later on.

Managed to get on to wifi to post some updates and download my photos. However I couldn’t download my video of landing at Shannon – some issue with the way my Android phone talks to my Mac using USB.

Follow the whole story here: Tier Point Run to Hawaii/San Juan in Feb 2014