Tier Point Run to Los Angeles in May 2024: Day 3 – London Heathrow (LHR) to New York (JFK)

By Nige on Thu 16 May 2024 at 15:49
Type: Post
Story: Tier Point Run to Los Angeles in May 2024
Tags: British Airways | JFK | LHR | London Heathrow | New York | Trips | USA

I was awoken abruptly by the alarm this morning – I was clearly in a deep sleep.

I caught the 5am Hoppa Hotels bus and bypassed the e-ticketing system, which failed miserably over the last couple of days.

The bus was nice and quiet. Just one small older woman sharing the bus on this trip.

Arrived into T5 and picked up some new boarding passes at The First Wing (TFW).

First opportunity to test out the new and improved scanners at TFW Security. Had one belt to myself.

Into the CCR, and first thing on my agenda was to check whether Starbucks was open. It is still boarded up. That suggests something significant is happening. That’s a lot of revenue down the drain, with its main outlet being closed for 3 months+.

After a brief walk around the terminal, I headed into breakfast on the CCR terrace.

It’s always nice, but nicer when the Mrs is sharing it with me. I was hoping that Mango had allowed her to sleep in peace overnight – perhaps the earplugs were deployed again?

Flight: BA0117 Equip: 777-200
Sched Depart: 08:20 Actual: 08:19
Sched Arrival: 11:05 Actual: 10:54
Takeoff: 08:40 Landing: 10:43

All good in the Billingham household re sleeping. Good to get that confirmed with the Vickster early in the morning.

As soon as the gate was announced, I headed down to the Transit Walkway heading to Gate C61. Thought I would pop in to Starbucks ahead of boarding.

The queue at Starbucks was fairly long, and it was slow moving, but I got my first Starbucks in a month or so. I’d toyed with the idea of ordering a Latte, but I chickened out at the last moment.

Down to Gate C61 and the gate area was clear, and staff were happy to show me through as a Group 0 passenger. I grabbed a seat and enjoyed my coffee whilst I waited to board.

On into seat 02A. Group 0 passengers were allowed to board before Group 1 were allowed through. Another good example of managing boarding.

Got a menu. This is the first time I’ve been offered breakfast onboard a flight to the USA! Something new for me.

Having already had a nosh-up in the CCR, I decided to keep things relatively light and go with the smoothie and some pastries.

We pushed back a min ahead of schedule and we were on the runway a few mins later. Third in the queue for runway 09R.

The movie selection was awful, but I chose Killers of the Flower Moon with Leonardo Di Caprio, based in Oklahoma Osage county about oil and the unlawful killing of Indian land owners.

Breakfast was served, and it wasn’t very special, although the service provided by the cabin crew was excellent as always.

The tea wasn’t desperately hot, and the pastries were soft. Tasty enough, though. So, breakfast was not a great success.

I finished off the film, which was way too long. Interestingly, based on a true story. I read up about it in an interesting article I found online: How Much of ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ Is Actually True?.

I grabbed some sleep for a couple of hours, then moved on to the light snack.

I ordered the chicken salad, followed by a fish finger butty. I’ve not had one of those for years, so I could not resist.

The chicken salad was nice and fresh. I ignored the free anchovy that came along for the ride.

The fish finger butty was massive and tasty. It came with ready salted crisps, which were unnecessary, to be honest.

The final dish of this flight was a trusty panna cotta, which was very nice.

We arrived into Gate 20 at T8 and just for a change it didn’t take very long before the airbridge was attached. I also managed to scoot through the small business class cabin and get into prime position to deboard the aircraft at door 2L.

Overall, it was a very smooth flight with a good crew looking after me.

Follow the whole story here: Tier Point Run to Los Angeles in May 2024