Wednesday Afternoon: Must be time to head to the airport – Summer Tier Points
In this… epic.
- When will I learn to jump on a fare?
- Wednesday Afternoon.. off to the airport
- EI273 Birmingham to Dublin Airport
- Into Dublin for some Donuts. And Pokemon
- The Travelodge in Swords, Dublin Airport
- Pre-Clearance fun at Dublin airport, 51st and Green Lounge
- AA291 Dublin to New York JFK – Business Class
- A Manhattan Char Siu Adventure
- Back in the Secure Area, Flagship Lounge and AAdmirals Club
- AA2652 New York JFK to San Francisco International – Transcontinental Business Class
- The Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport
- Do the BART into San Francisco, The Intercontinental Mark Hopkins, San Francisco
- Sausalito: Which ferry to take?
- Halfway across the Golden Gate Bridge
- Fooding around San Francisco
- The Crowne Plaza, San Francisco Airport
- Early start at San Francisco airport
- AA164 San Francisco International to New York JFK – Transcontinental Business Class
- The joy of terminal swaps, BA Pre-departure dining
- BA174 New York JFK to London Heathrow – Club World (Business Class)
- An Early Morning Change at Heathrow
- BA828 London Heathrow T5 to Dublin Airport – Club Europe
- Doughnuts and coffee shops – Exploring Dublin
- Once more with feeling at Dublin Airport
- FR666 Dublin Airport to Birmingham Airport
- 600 TP: Done
Wednesday Afternoon
The run up for this trip… shall we say… has been more stressful than usual.
By that, I’m spending hours on support calls and fixing things rather than actually packing and prepping stuff for travel. This was still the case on Wednesday morning where I was mostly packed… and quietly praying I didn’t miss anything.
The bag is on the right for another discussion another day. The bag on the left is… in the correct colour scheme.
Eventually, the time to go came.. and I made it as far a the front gate before remembering I had missed one important thing: the Intercontinental Two-for-One voucher.
Oopsie
A quick dash inside, and voucher in hand I was once again ready to head off, with the Uber dropping me Birmingham New Street.
Once at New Street, I went to the machine to confound myself how I’m getting to Birmingham Airport.
This is just too complex some days…
With a ticket in hand I headed to Platform 1, where the Virgin Trains service to Euston. I jumped on for the 10 minute ride to Birmingham International. without much fuss, the train delivered me to the next station
Platform 1… somewhere down here.
On-board the Pendolino to Birmingham Airport.
The future site of the HS2 Terminus in Birmingham
The apron at Birmingham Airport. Note the Emirates A380. We’ll get back that in a bit.
Exiting Birmingham International station, I followed the signs for the airport and airrail link. Of course, there were some travelers who jollification started a lot earlier than planned, with some people not understanding a “a train every two minutes” concept, and holding the doors to the shuttle open.
To the Airrail link!
Sigh
Eventually, we got under way, with the four gentlemen swearing like sailors – only to shut up when they saw a child.
Sometimes the best lessons are learned the hard way
I exited at the airport station, and left the gentlemen behind, and headed to the self check-in kiosk to get my boarding pass for the flight. And yes – I still love paper boarding passes – it’s part of the romance of flight to me. Your view might differ.
After navigating the silly Rockwell Collins software (and the awful user interface), I had a boarding pass.
Hello Nemesis. We meet again.
Seriously. What person puts a delete button in the bottom left of a keyboard?
Now for the next challenge. Security. And let’s just say that that I should had learned a lesson about BHX security and holiday times, with a 20 minute wait to clear.
To the chaos.
Organised Chaos.
Be kind, rewind. I mean stack your empty trays back in the machine.
At least the queues kept moving, and I was cleared quickly. Which helps. Once in the queue to be screened, the process was quick and efficent.
With that done, it was time to play dodge the perfume sprayer in Duty Free – because the next priority was to get coffee. Because. Coffee.
Because, Coffee.
With an Iced Americano in hand, I headed to the International wing of both Birmingham airport – nominally to watch planes coming in, but also to watch for my A320 to arrive too.
To the International Pier!
So.. it’s summertime. And that means Birmingham Airport is moving its summer traffic at a rate of knots.
TUI Boeing 737-800
Thomas Cook Airbus A321 (ex Monarch Airways)
Primera Air Boeing 737-800
Also preparing to depart was an Emirates Airbus A380
There are various debates about the A380 – with proponents and detractors on both sides. But it can pull off one trick with the travelling public – the ability to get young and old to stop and watch the plane move and take off.
They see me rollin’… they see me whalin’….
Even at Birmingham Airport (which gets two of them a day visiting).
I also noticed the inbound Aer Lingus A320 pulling into the airport. That was my cue to head to the gate at number 43.
To the gate!
I was cleared at the gate with my boarding pass zapped. With that formaltiy complete, it was time to wait again
My chariot to Dublin
After a short wait for passengers to bussed off the plane (as they are travelling though the Common Travel Area – and thus deemed a UK arrival), it was our ten to board the waiting flight, our gate was opened – and I took my leave of Birmingham to begin the next adventure….
Next: EI273 Birmingham to Dublin
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