Tier Point Run to Las Vegas in Feb 2022: Day 1 – London LHR to New York JFK

I had what seems to be a recurring discussion with the lounge agents at Millionaire’s Door as to whether I wanted the business class lounge, or was I a GGL member?  I couldn’t help but think: why don’t you just scan my boarding pass and you might find out?  Doh…

Some thought inside of me forced me into popping out and picking up another Starbucks. I need to break out of that habit since it’s an expensive habit to be in. In the UK it’s about £4 for the coffee I order. In the US, it’s closer to £8! That’s a lot of money for a coffee.

Grabbed a bite to eat in the First Lounge to keep the wolf from the door. Table ordering (as a result of covid precautions) is still in place and I went for a curry with rice and a naan. Very nice indeed.

My flight to New York was due to leave from Gate B47 so I left the CCR about an hour beforehand.  I walked slowly along the Transit Walkway – the first travellator was being maintained so that was out of action. This is a nice serene place to be compared to the trains which tend to be busy and noisy.

Unsurprisingly, at the gate it was a bit of a farce.  Lots of people patiently waiting, but no firm commitment as to when we might start boarding.  The gate agents were lounging around, so it was clear not a great deal was happening anytime soon. Expert Flyer initially suggested my flight was going be delayed by 15 mins; then 30 mins.  At about 1:45pm (15 mins before we were due to leave), there was an announcement indicating they were expecting a one-hour delay, but the gate board didn’t change, so for passengers turning up, it must have been a tad confusing!

Finally onboard into seat 7K and I settled down with my first glass of champagne.  With me being in Club World, rather that First, that meant it wasn’t LPGS. I could tell but it was nice enough. However, that didn’t stop me from managing to slip in a second glass before we pushed back about 80 mins late.

We eventually took off at 3:40pm and the captain advised that he expected it to be about an 8-hour flight due to the strong winds.  It was already starting to look pretty tight in terms of catching my connection to LAX.

There was no noticeable effect of the high winds on take-off.  We were soon up to cruising altitude and onboard service commenced not long after.  By this point, I had started watching Gone Girl with Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike. Great film and always worth a watch.

Lunch was a roast beef rib dinner, which was quite nice.  More champagne was enjoyed to wash it all down.

At the end of the film, I decided to get some kip and I was happy enough with about 2.5 hours.  By the time I awoke, we had 3.5 hours to go.  I played games on my phone and watched the air navigation map system for a bit. It wasn’t desperately exciting to be honest, but it’s surprising what you are happy doing when you need to kill some time.

With about 90 mins to go, I was offered a snack of a sausage roll. Based on previous experience, I asked whether the sausage roll was supposed to be hot – it was supposed to be. Assurances were provided by the cabin crew that they would make sure it was hot.  10 mins later, I got my tea and an apology for the delay.  A further 20 mins later, I finally got a vaguely warm sausage roll which filled me up. It wasn’t that impressive: late, lukewarm and stodgy.

We landed with me having about an hour before my next flight to LA.  Luckily the taxiing was a short one for T7 but we had to be tugged onto stand at Gate 10 and then there was a delay in getting the door open. All of these little delays add up.

By this time, I had received an email from Delta advising me that I was booked on a flight from JFK to Las Vegas on Sat afternoon.  I’d assumed that AA had thrown in the towel and my seat on the flight to LAX in an hour had been released.

I thought someone might be waiting for me on arrival and as expected, there was an American Airlines woman hanging around on the air bridge – I was the second person off the aircraft and was about to run for customs, when I heard her mention my name.  I went back to the aircraft door and checked whether she was looking for me.  She was and we jogged down to customs where she called a favour from Roger to speedily process me through. From there, she gave me an Express Connections envelope and told me to add my boarding card to it.  She pointed me in the direction of the Air Train and wished me good luck.

Would I make it in time?

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