Mmmmm! BAcon! Intresting Times – Off to Denver and Beyond with Aer Lingus and British Airways

Mmmmm! BAcon! – Off to Denver and Beyond with Aer Lingus and British Airways
Back to DIA, AA Admiral’s Club

Index:

• A Conference… why not?
• Early morning New New Street, Aer Lingus EI263 London to Dublin
• A Dublin transit, DAA Lounge
• BA827 Dublin to London Heathrow
• The Hell of A Heathrow Transit, BA F Lounge
• BA219 – London Heathrow to Denver
• Staybridge Suites, Denver Tech Center and a road trip
• The Cheyenne Mountain Resort, Colorado Springs
• A road trip back to Denver, Crowne Plaza Downtown Denver
  
• Photographic Interlude: Downtown Denver
• Denver Airport, American Airlines AAdmirals Club
• BA218 Denver to Heathrow
• Heading Homeward
• Interesting times – THIS SECTION

Wrapping up

Lets review and make notes.

Aer Lingus – Again, a very solid performance on a very short leg. The same friendliness and good service always makes me smile… and whilst they may play the Low Cost Carrier game, there are some parts to Aer Lingus that don’t see it at all.

Dublin Airport – If T2 is the shining beacon, then someone needs to tidy up T1 a bit more. Saying that, the facility is functional, and the free WiFi makes a difference if you’re stuck waiting for a plane..

BA Shorthaul/ExBMI – were perfectly functional, delivering a basic service for the time the plane as in the air… and it was nice to be aboard an old BMI plane if I’m, honest

Heathrow Airport – What an absolute omnishambles – both as a transit and as an arrival. From a reasonable experience the past few trips to massive queues, poor planning and poor luggage delivery… a very poor impression this time. Oh, and having to deal with Gate 10 as well…

British Airways First Class Lounge – Again, a focus of “can do better”. The food presentation wasn’t great, and the choices were not what I expected of such a facility.

British Airways Long Haul – What the deficiencies there are on the ground are made up by some great crews in the air. The crew managed to turn a situation around and made  for two very pleasant flights. The crew of the outbound segment were pretty much the “perfect” crew, whilst the inbound upgrade was a very nice touch.

The Staybridge Suites and Crowne Plaza Denver are two good hotels for two different reasons – and both served their purposes well with good service and a very nice upgrade at the Crowne Plaza.

As for BAcon itself – a great experience learning from others, identifying new ideas as well as meeting a lot of the family that makes up Boarding Area… and beyond. Lots of food for thought, as well as a few things to chew over when I have 10 minutes in my life. The venue at the Cheyenne Mountain Resort was a great choice, and made for a very comfortable venue for the conference.

Before I wrap up this trip report, I would like offer a very special thanks to Randy Petersen and the team at Boarding Area for setting up this event, to Rapid Travel Chai who kindly put up with me giving me a lift to Colorado Springs, and to FlyGracefully for giving me a lift back into Denver. I’d also like the thank my office for not refreshing the DataCube. Again.

Coming Next: As the summer season rears its ugly head, I’ll be sitting on the ground for a bit unless something special comes up. I do have a Chicago Trip coming in October, but if sometime interesting happens in the meantime, I’m sure you’ll be the first to know about it.  I will be reviewing other things as I get a chance during the summer (as I have some big rail trips coming up), and who knows… there could well be some writing when it happens.

What’s that terms seems to follow me? “Oh yes. May you live in interesting times”.  My times just seem to be very interesting.

For now, I’ll bid you adieu, and thank you for reading this mammoth of a trip report (although they all seem to be long these days…)

Your comments are as usual welcome