Tier Point Run to Hawaii in Jan 2023: Day 5 – New York (JFK) to London (LHR)

By Nige on Mon 30 Jan 2023 at 23:42
Type: Post
Story: Tier Point Run to Hawaii in Jan 2023
Tags: British Airways | JFK | LHR | London | New York | Trips | USA

It took me about 5 mins to walk from Gate 31 to the Chelsea Lounge in Terminal 8. The lounge dragons welcomed me in. It seemed a lot quieter than it was on my outbound, last Fri. I guess the day of the week makes a big difference. The staff suggested the loads on the flights were lower than normal today.

Once I settled in, I updated the blog and then decided to head out for a walk around the terminal. Just before leaving, I thought it wise to check flightaware.com to see whether there were any delays etc. There was indeed a delay. I was now looking at a 22:50 departure rather than a 20:00 departure, so a 3 hour delay. No big deal for me, since I have loads of time at Heathrow before my flight over to Budapest.

Checking the departure boards around the terminal, it was still showing as 20:00 and on time. I queried this with lounge staff, and they checked and double-checked. Firstly, they were not aware of the delay, and secondly, they didn’t know why the departure info around the terminal was out of date.

Terminal 8 seemed to be really busy on my terminal walkabout. But I really appreciated the opportunity to stretch out my legs. When I have had the opportunity, I have been able to fit in 20,000+ steps each day. Today was (obviously) a shortened day and I’m not quite close to the 10,000 steps as yet.

When I got back I decided to head into dinner in the Chelsea lounge. After all, I had almost 5 hours to waste. I ordered the fish and chips (all meals appear to now be available in the Chelsea Lounge), which was nice, although there was no tartare sauce provide. I also ordered a glass of LPGS, although that seems no more. As an alternative, I chose the Hampshire sparkling wine, which was very nice indeed.

Whilst I was sat at the table, I heard an announcement for me. I popped over to see why they called my name and I was asked whether I would like to move to the BA176 which is slightly earlier. I said that if I could get a window seat, then I would be happy to move. I left it with them.

BA176 was due to leave at 19:30 and I was only told I was on that flight after the first boarding call was made, so I had to hot foot it down to Gate 18 where boarding was in full flow. I suspect that BA decided it was in their best interest to move me rather than run the risk of another UK361 compensation claim (if the delayed BA116 led me to miss my Budapest flight).

Flight: BA0176 Equip: 777-200
Sched Depart: 19:25 Actual: 19:47
Sched Arrival: 07:20 Actual: 07:07
Takeoff: 20:12 Landing: 07:02

Onboard into seat 01K, and I was ready to go. I received two glasses of LPGS and a saucer of nuts. It’s not really a saucer, but you don’t hear that word very often now, do you?

We pushed back late due to some minor maintenance issue, and we took off about 8:10pm. As soon as we were safely in the air, I was enticed into ordering dinner, even though I really didn’t need it.

I reached the starters and the tiredness really hit me. I threw the towel in at that point and enjoyed about 4 hours kip instead.

The captain woke me with his announcement 40 mins out, and I enjoyed a cup of tea.

The only other point worth noting was that the WIFI didn’t work throughout the flight. I could reach the Click here for First Class free access and then I entered the robot check. At that point it hung for 30 seconds before going back to the Click here screen. The cabin crew blamed it on various things, including the BA WIFI is never very good over water… Ugh?

We arrived onto a remote stand near to the T5 C Gates. Not a great end to a flight that BA considers its flagship service, is it? At least the passengers that turned left on boarding, ended up on the first bus to T5 Arrivals.

I tried the automated kiosk and as expected I received the irritatingly repetitive “Seek Assistance” message. The queues weren’t long though, so it wasn’t a big deal. When I reached the Border Control guy I asserted to him that they clearly hadn’t caught the guy they were looking for; we laughed at each other and he gave me my passport back and confirmed there was nothing wrong with my passport!

Follow the whole story here: Tier Point Run to Hawaii in Jan 2023