Tier Point Run to Tucson in Oct 2024: Day 5 – New York JFK to London Heathrow LHR

My walk through T8 was easy enough. The terminal felt busy, and due to the little time I had between flights, I decided I wouldn’t bother going to the lounge.

So, I headed straight to Gate 14 and checked that they would be calling Group 0. Interestingly, the gate team asked to check my boarding pass.

I assume they must have a list of passengers they can expect in Group 0. Perhaps they didn’t have anyone on their list.

It turned out to be another BA IT fuckup. My boarding pass didn’t have my BAEC number on my booking again, even though the lounge agent at Heathrow apparently fixed that for me before my outbound flight.

New boarding passes were issued, and it was another 20 mins before boarding commenced.

I decided to pop to Starbucks to catch up on my lack of half-decent caffeine source. The staff in the T8 Starbucks store seemed to be amateurs.

They had problems opening the till and taking orders. Customers ahead of me in the queue decided to walk away. It was a tad embarassing to be honest.

I stuck it out and enjoyed my drink on the way back to Gate 14. The downside of having a hot drink was that it made me overheat.

I waited patiently for boarding to commence. There were a lot of impatient passengers gathering around the gate looking for some action, but it was some time before anything happened.

Two wheelchairs were allowed on first, then two premiers were escorted on board. Then there was a 5 min wait – why?

Then, we had a call for families and those that needed extra time to board. Fair enough.

Finally, a few mins later, we had a call for Group 0. Why so long? Why can’t Group 0 passengers board immediately after Premier passengers? Especially when there are so few of us.

It just feels like BA’s approach to recognising loyalty is a bit superficial. I think I must have been tired and in a grumpy mood.

Finally onboard through door 1L, which meant that every man and his dog traipsed through First Class to get to their seats.

I settled into 01K. It was the old First Class suite, so I wasn’t overly chuffed with that. But I hoped I could sleep most of the flight back to the UK.

The captain announced that we would be taking off from the runway furthest from the gate, so it was going to take sometime to reach the runway.

He also advised that there was a long queue of aircraft waiting to take off, so we should expect to be on the ground for around 45 mins after pushing back.

Not the longest I’ve taxiied at JFK, but I wasn’t in a rush. I had plenty of time at Heathrow.

I settled down for a sleep, but sleeping wasn’t what my body wanted. I think as a result of the coffee I had just before the flight. Bit of a dumb move that.

I did get a few hours kip, but it was very turbulent at times. Glad Vick wasn’t with me.

I had a good old British pot of tea and stewed the right amount, which was nice and refreshing.

I decided to bypass breakfast onboard. I decided to wait until the arrivals lounge, or even the CCR for that.

Worked out an approach to minimising my hand luggage when travelling on to Malaga and Helsinki. I would get a shower in the Arrivals Lounge, then go through TFW to the CCR, where I could until early afternoon.

I’d then exit T5 and take the bus back to the car so I could dump my rucksack before returning with the basics.

Then I’d go through TFW again.

We arrived about on time into Gate B35, and for once, BA was really quick at opening the door. I managed to skip past the slowbies to get to door 2L, so I was first off.

Follow the whole story here: Tier Point Run to Tucson in Oct 2024