Tier Point Run to Palm Springs in Dec 2023: Day 1 – London Heathrow LHR to New York JFK

After deplaning the Dublin flight, I immediately have to choose between whether to go landside or head to Flight Connections. There tends to be someone checking boarding passes at the corridor that heads to Flight Connections.

Today I decided to go the Flight Connections route for a change. It seemed to cause a stir as the staff didn’t really know what they were looking for on my boarding pass and were getting confused between domestic connections and international connections.

Got there in the end. I found Flight Connections appeared to be fairly busy, but there were no queues at the boarding pass scanners and the security area was very light.

I was soon through and back into the CCR.

I picked up my bag and then almost bumped into Nigel Evans MP, who gave me the sort of look that suggested one of us recognised the other!

Then, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber joined him and they sat at the bar having a chat. An unusual pairing if you ask me.

I headed down to Gate B42 and got there about an hour before departure. I got into a discussion with the gate staff and when asked which group I was in, I was invited to come through into the waiting area due to my Group 0 status. Wow!

To be fair, the only benefit I gained was to sit in the pen at the top of the escalator for 10 mins before being allowed on board. Even then, Group 1 was right behind.

I need to stop whinging! A benefit offered by BA to recognise GGL status only comes once in a blue moon!

I was soon on board into seat 02A and not long after that I had my first glass of LPGS. This was an older 777-200 with old first and the new CW seat. The IFE was past its prime and the choice of films was pretty tired.

The captain announced that we would be delayed due to more BA IT issues, likely with flight planning again. We pushed back 30 mins late as a result.

I watched most of the last Indiana Jones movie with Phoebe Waller-Bridge. It was vaguely entertaining, but not so much that I could be bothered to watch the last 15 mins or so!

Dinner was served about 45 mins after take off. I started with hors d’oeuvres, which were ok – out of the three things, two of them were fish-related, so the Vickster wouldn’t have been happy!

As a starter, I ordered the double soufflé, which was excellent as it always is. Really light and fluffy with a tasty sauce.

As a main course, I went for my second turkey dinner of the season.

The turkey was OK, if a tad dry. The pig in blanket was nice and meaty and the veg was fresh and satisfying.

However, I felt stuffed afterwards. As if I really had eaten way too much during the day.

I couldn’t contemplate having pudding, and I would have to forgo the burger later in the flight as a light meal.

I had my bed made up by the relatively attentive cabin crew. Unfortunately, after ordering items (e.g. a glass of water), they did take longer to deliver the said item than one would hope.

I enjoyed a good couple of hours kip, before enjoying a pot of tea and then I readied myself for getting off at JFK.

After landing, we were held a little while before being able to arrive into Gate 20 at T8. I managed to scoot through the small business cabin to get prime position for deplaning.

I am always amazed at the rabbit warren of corridors that lead you to immigration and there was a horrendously long queue at passport control, so I was overjoyed at having Global Entry! To be fair that wasn’t too quick either, even though I was the first in the queue!

Through the Baggage Reclaim area and I immediately ordered an Uber to take me to the Hampton Inn, JFK.

Previously I had taken the AirTrain to Federal Circle and hoped that a shuttle bus would arrive, freezing my pants off, so this time I decided to invest $18 to ride in some level of comfort.

The Uber/taxi area was a real mess, with vehicles all over the place waiting for their riders to turn up. Eventually my Uber appeared and I was in my hotel room within an hour of the aircraft arriving on stand.

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