Back into action, Up to the Top/Back in the Back – Well – Colour me…

The Wrap up: Well Colour Me Impressed.

Back into action, Back to the Back Up to the Top – To Chicago with American Airlines, American Eagle and British Airways

LHR-ORD, ORD-YYZ-LHR

Index:

• Dodging the Sword of Damocles (The Introduction)
• To Heathrow, T3 Lounges
• AA99 London Heathrow T3 to Chicago O’Hare T5
• Hyatt Regency O’Hare
• One Time Exception: A Loop Around the Loop
• To ORD, Chicago AA Lounges
• AA4008 Chicago O’Hare T3 to Toronto Pearson T3
• The Hell of Toronto Airport, and an unexpected dinner…
• BA098 Toronto Pearson T3 to London Heathrow
• Homeward Bound
• Colour me… – THIS SECTION

Well, lets wrap this all up, draw some conclusions and comment.

The British Airways First Lounge – A LOT better than before. The staff seemed more awake and willing to help, whilst the F Lounge retained its peace and quiet.

The AA FlAAgship Lounge (LHR) – Whilst it’s a smaller lounge than the BA Lounge, the breakfast service was tightly focused with good service with good facilities.

American Airlines Transatlantic – it proves that the right seat – even in economy – it can make a big difference. The service was pretty reasonable if uninspired, but it did the job getting from point A to point B. For those of you who like quick immigration (or having a quick service inflight) – seating in the front section of Economy is a must.

The Hyatt Regency O’Hare – A VERY Strong performance by the team at the Hyatt Regency again. Top notch service, new smellies and a well maintained room. Apart from my usual moan about WiFi in the conference area, not much to criticise about at all.

The AA AAdmirals Clubs – Functional, and did the job. At least the WiFi was up to speed and Vodka seemed pretty good. Decent hiking boots are needed if you get a gate change though and you need to switch lounge.

American Eagle – For a short run, an impressive service (even addressed by name throughout which BA and AA mainline didn’t even do). It’s making me warm up to doing domestic runs in the USA – even down the back of the plane.

Toronto Airport – Bring me the head of the designer of Toronto T3 who can’t seem to work out that people want to make international connections there, and I’ll show him what the heck it’s all about when you’re on an increasingly tight connection.

British Airways Galleries Lounge Toronto – A reasonably sized lounge with lovely agents. And I’ll remember it as the home of my first BA opup.

British Airways Club World on the top deck of a 747 – Well, if I ignore the kids who were one row infront of me, it was a great flight. Food and service was appropriate to the length of flight, whilst the seat was excellent. And yes, I can see why people pay out £1000’s for a Club World seat…. and one day… I may do so again.

Whilst the flights may had been expensive this trip, I actually felt like I got value for money both in terms of service and enjoyment. Everything actually was rather good… which makes a very nice change for one of these TATL trips where I end up moaning about things constantly. The OpUp of course was the icing on the cake that turned a weekend around for me.

Will this last into the Autumn when I again take to the air to do a trip to Chicago? I don’t know. There is only one way to find out though….

And how did the presentation go? Very well actually… And besides, most of you won’t want to hear about how to take better pictures at home with an alternative twist. Honestly. You don’t. The things I can do with a torch and crappy pink Fujifilm camera would make some cry in amazement and wonder.

That and the following lines went down well:

• The best camera you have is the one that is in your hand – Chase Jarvis
  
• It’s better to have a blurry photo of something that you want rather than having photos of something that you don’t want – Kai Wong, Digital Rev
• Make it black and white and almost anything can pass for art – Kevincm

When in doubt – Black and White. Covers all sins 😉

The fact I do it differently is completely besides the point… (or drop me a mail at blog@ghettoife.com and I’ll see what I can dig up that’s safe… ish.)

That’s your lot for this trip. But wait! There’s more to come!

There’s another trip coming up that should provide amusement as I head back to the United States of America – and this time to Denver and Beyond. Tune in for “Getting the BAcon in with Aer Lingus and British Airways” coming… sometime soon.

Heck, you could win some rather fetching “Remove before Flight” keyrings 😉 over the few weeks or so!

Until then, toodle pip!

Your comments and feeback are welcome as always.

If you represent an organisation who has been reviewed in a Trip Report and wish for clarification over any issue, please contact me directly at blog@ghettoife.com stating your credentials and the nature of the query requiring clarification. A response will be sent to you as soon as is possible.