Springtime Transatlantic Aventures
Another trip with British Airways and American Airlines
In this Adventure
- So, 80 more Tier Points. Always demanding more, British Airways…
- Off to Heathrow Terminal 5 with Flixbus
- British Airways Galleries South Lounge and T5B Lounge
- British Airways BA295 London Heathrow to Chicago O’Hare in World Traveller Plus
- Into the USA and the avid Hotel, Des Plaines
- Hyatt Regency O’Hare
- Airplane Art Extra from the Hyatt Regency O’Hare
- Midwestern Dining at its Finest – Chilli’s
- Deep Dish Pizza Special at Pequods
- A Monday Adventure
- Back to O’Hare, AA Lounge
- AA90 Chicago O’Hare to London Heathrow in Main Cabin Extra
- Luggage Trolley Drifting – Rushing to the bus
- Was it worth it?
Editors Introduction
And hello again. Welcome to the Aperture Science Enrichment Centre… Sorry – wrong script. Welcome back to the joy of long-haul transatlantic travel, with it time to cast my eyes on how American Airlines and British Airways are doing (and what could be one of the last times I keep my focus on these airlines, depending on my plans in the future).
For those of you who are new, it’s time to pay some attention to the passenger experience onboard, as well as things that catch my eye during my travels, be it making me smile, grimace, or just shake my head in frustration.
And sometimes, one airline can do that in 30 minutes flat.
Onto the usual bit. Whilst I am using Grammarly a lot more than I should (dyslexia is a pig and gets me most days of the week, even when I pay attention), my usual detractors who moan about my spelling and grammar can read this press release I wrote a few years ago about this inconstancy and how I deal with it.
On with the show.
Always demanding more, BA….
I swear that British Airways can be a demanding partner sometimes. They try to gaslight you into spending more money than is good for you by saying, “I might treat you better,” when we all fully well know that they’ll run off with your cash and give it to another their CEO and accounting department, saying, “Look what I got for you! Love me!”
Or I’ve been watching too much Anime these days. Mainly Mobile Suit Gundam 00, “I May Be a Guild Receptionist, but I’ll Solo Any Boss to Clock Out on Time” and “I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 years and Maxed out my Level!” and taking the wrong message.
Or are the microtransactions in Pokémon Go and Star Trek: Lower Decks Games?
I digress.
Before British Airways pulled a dirty one on all of its frequent flyers (before pulling back a little), I booked my trip to Chicago, trying to find the most fun way there and back in the vain attempt for more tier points.
Initially, I found a lovely, tasty fare to take me to Chicago via Madrid. Of course, the American Airlines booking engine would price the ticket and then refuse to proceed with the booking. Because either the American Airlines booking engine hates me, or it was phantom availability.
I believe it hated me, and I’m sticking to that.
I therefore decided to try to go with a simple there and back to Chicago and try to upgrade to Premium Economy on the way. Except spring-time pricing is turning into Autumn pricing – with the lowest transatlantic fare with baggage coming in at £555 or so.
And as for Premium Upgrades… what upgrades? Sigh. They were priced for “expensive” rather than value.
In addition to this, the early flights to Chicago O’Hare had vanished from the booking engines – with a 7:50 departure, arriving at 11:50. Now that annoys me – as I like to maximise my stays where I can (and normally have a laundry list of things to do before I see my friends first thing when I travel).
Thus, the earliest outbound flight was 11 am from Terminal 5 with British Airways, and the latest flight at a reasonable cost was with American Airlines.
Sigh. Not the way around I like to do this, but it will have to do.
The Other Shoe Drops
And I thought that would be it. No more qualification worries to worry about. That was until I rechecked my BA account a few weeks ago.
And found that I need 80 Tier Points to retain Silver. You do not want to know the swear words that were going through my mouth.
So I decided to keep an option open – in case I wanted to go around the firkin to Dublin and back, I kept a redemption on standby and a paid ticket ready to book once I got to Heathrow.
Just in case my plans changed.
As such, I booked a one-way ticket to Heathrow Airport with FlixBus, which had recently started operations between Birmingham, Heathrow and Gatwick Airports, with a much more condensed stopping pattern compared to National Express.
It also helped that FlixBus was a lot cheaper. National Express wanted around £30 one way, FlixBus wanted £16.47, including seat reservation, baggage and booking fee each way. This still beats National Express by a good £20 to £30, excluding the extra fare needed for Ubers rideshares to shuttle me back and forth.
For the main part of the stay, I’d need to be at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare in Rosemont.
With it also being spring break season, hotel prices were high, too. Even factoring Uber/Lyft rides back and forth, the avid Hotel in Des Plaines/Rosemont would do the trick nicely at just under £100.
Right. There’s a plan. Let us go and give British Airways more money. And maybe visit the United States of America in the process.
Next:
Off to Great Charles Street Queensway. Time to grab a FlixBus over to Heathrow T5.
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