Tiers and Dreams – AA99 London Heathrow – Chicago O’Hare

Chicago XV – Tiers and Dreams
AA99 – London Heathrow T3 to Chicago O’Hare T5

Contents:

• Tiers? And Dreams? Huh?
• Off to Heathrow, American Airlines FlAAgship Lounge
• American Airlines AA99 London – Chicago – THIS SECTION
• Crowne Plaza O’Hare
• Back to O’Hare, AA AAdmrials Club
• American Airlines AA1380 Chicago to St Louis, St Louis AAdmirals Club, AA1685 St Louis to Dallas Fort Worth
  
• DFW and AAn CEO encounter…
• American Airlines AA1180 – Dallas Fort Worth to San Juan
• The Intercontinental San Juan and #Rucksackgate
• San Juan International Airport
• American Airlines AA1591 San Juan to Dallas Forth Worth
• More messing around DFW
• American Airlines AA1618 Dallas Fort Worth to St Louis International, A quick STL Stop, American Airlines AA1186 St Louis to Chicago
• The Hyatt Regency O’Hare with a Rucksack gate update
• One Time Exception: A Chicago Photographic Interlude
• O’Hare Take 3, AA AAdmirals Club
• AA3360 Chicago O’Hare to Toronto Pearson
• Toronto Airport Omnishambles – The Long Wait, BA Toronto Lounge
• BA96 Toronto to London Heathrow featuring the British Airways Boeing 787 Dreamliner
• Homeward bound
• The long and winding road

AA99 London Heathrow T3 to Chicago O’Hare International T5
American Airlines, Boeing 777-200ER, Seat 21J (later 20J), Main Cabin
35 Tier Points Earned, 3953 Miles Flown, 7904 Avios Earned

The photos:

• Set 1 – http://www.photoblog.com/kevincm/2013/10/11/aa99-london-to-chicago-1.html
• Set 2 – http://www.photoblog.com/kevincm/2013/10/12/aa99-london-chicago-2.html
• Set 3 – http://www.photoblog.com/kevincm/2013/10/13/aa99-london-chicago-3.html

I was welcomed aboard, and directed down the right hand side of the plane to my seat… that was one row behind the bulkhead in a perfect position to exit the plane later.

Legroom

Loading wasn’t exactly fast… or plentiful for that matter. Still it gave me time to look at my environment and watch the world go by.

With 10 minutes to go, the self-loading freight had boarded, with the front main cabin looking quiet… and the rear main cabin was doing a bit better – certainly a light load today to the windy city.

Also, the front row of Economy was clear, so when a member of the cabin crew came round, I asked if I could switch seat. Authorisation was given, and I switched to the front row.

Much better!

Soon enough pushback began, as did the safety video – which had to be repeated three times, as it wasn’t displaying in the First Class cabin. Put it like this, by the time the video was complete, we were well on our way to taxiing towards 27R.

I’m still getting used to the new livery…

Still, the crew ensured the plane was buttoned up and everyone was safe, and we lined up for takeoff.

The take off was spritely, with a route over Ireland, following a Great Circle track northwards – with landfall near Goose Bay, and a track via Montreal towards Chicago. So, there was nothing different from the normal in terms of routing of the flight.

Route for today

As the plane cleared the cloud layer, the grey turned into a brilliant morning – even if it was a bit bumpy climbing.

With 10,000ft clearing, it was time to explore the In Flight Entertainment… and yes. We all know what is coming next…

Well… I found a couple of episodes of The Big Bang Theory… but that was my interest filled for 44 minutes.

IFE Controller and stowed point in a bulkhead seat.

And oh… waiting for the next show. AVOD? Maybe not.

Now, putting a sickbag on a bulkhead seat is not a good idea to make a GhettoIFE system – where the heck am i going to mount this thing? So necessity becomes the mother of all invention…

Balance is a very fine thing! (on the iPhone: Pokemon Rival Destines Battle at the Nimbasa City Gym. This is where I should warn you all is that I’ve gone slightly Pokemad as I was playing FireRed up till a few weeks ago… and have started on Pokemon X too…)

This of course piped the cabin crew’s interest when it came to the drinks service (as in how the hell I managed to balance a phone on the screen? Was I using suction cups?).

Still, a can of Diet coke came along, and so did breakfast. The usual offering of Omelette or Pancakes was offered – I went for the omelette

Tray

Open Tray

Coke, Fruit and an Axew

Omelette

Lets put it like this: nothing was overly bad about this. The omelette tasted fresh, whilst the bacon was a bit rubbery (what else is new), whilst the fruit was cold too. The bottle of water and the snacks were stowed for later on (that’s a good idea – giving out the snack tray early), whilst the coke was cold… and wet.

Service was conducted at a slow pace – which suited the cabin and me. Clear down was done reasonably quickly, with another can of coke offered, and the lights in the cabin were shut off for the 8-hour flight across the pond.

I tried to take advantage of this, and popped the seat into full recline (the joy of having no one behind you so you don’t feel guilty at all when doing this), and got a bit of rest – I’d wager 3 hour or so. Normally I rest my head against the bulkhead… but this time, ended up resting my head on… the headrest… on the next seat.

Good thing no one was sat there. Although the mark on my head was quite impressive.

Meanwhile outside, the view changed as we begun our trek across the Labrador coast and onwards into Canada.

The problem sitting in 20J is simple… you get an awful lot of wing in your photos…

The crew themselves were friendly and chat able to, and were willing to take an interest with their customers – although not visible much outside the main service periods – requiring a wander to the aft galley for drinks.

With less than 1 and a half hours on the clock, the crew rolled out again for more food. And again, it was the usual pizzathing with pasta for the arrivals snack

Well I think the bread thing is a pizza related item, and the pasta is pasta. The pastry item was hot, along with the filling (although not easy to cut up with plastic cutlery), whilst the pasta was nicely chilled … and edible.

These things are important when you’re stuck down the back of the plane.

With time ticking on, I completed all the paperwork I was going to need, and the plane was cleared down as we the plane turned for Michigan, and tracked down the state, before crossing Lake Michigan.

Of course, the welcome to USA video played, crashing the IFE system again.

Don’t think we’re meant to see this…

Welcome to the USA video

With that done, screens were to be stowed and then, large as always, Lake Michigan came into view

Also, gate information (that was wrong) was also posted

As the plane descended, there were the usual bumps, but soon enough, the plane was lining up for O’Hare.

Touch down was a spritely affair, but after a medium length run, the plane was welcomed to the USA with a taxi past T1, over the bridges, past T3 and finally over to T5

The competition at T1.

Yup. That looks lie ORD.

We parked up at the international terminal (Gate 5), and then the mass scrambles for the exit began.

Scrambling through business class

I thanked the crew on exit – and headed downstairs to immigration.

Overall: If there is one thing I ask for on a regular long haul trip, it is consistency. And this is where AA99 excelled in. Consistent service, consistent food, consistent product. Whilst it may not be the best product in the sky or an exciting product, it’s not a bad product per say.

I just wish there were more drink services during flight….

Next: US Immigration and The Crowne Plaza O’Hare

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