November 15, 2019
There’s really not much to today other than enjoying the fact that I flew business class back home from London.
Now, it was part of the original plan to fly business class on the way home as I talked about in this post.
But…before enjoying any of the associated benefits, I had to endure sleeping at the airport.
Wakey wakey, get out of the gatey
Again, from yesterday’s post, I didn’t really do much at the gate other than blog a little, play Pokemon Go some, and attempted at napping. The first time I attempted at going to the bathroom, I got stopped by custodial staff . Apparently they thought I was gonna go back into the main terminal area, which is a no-no past when it closes for the night.
After that, they set up a rope barrier right outside of the gate, but still with access to the restrooms right next to it.
Geez.
I shared Gate 7A with probably like 8 other people, but everyone had their own corner or row of seats. No problem.
At about 4:15AM, they made an announcement that the terminal was open again, and that we were free to leave the gate. I was already kind of awake by then so I gathered my stuff, and headed out.
The lounge I wanted to go visit didn’t open til 5:30AM, so I had about an hour to kill in the terminal.
I went to the main departure lobby for Terminal 3. By then, there were a good handful of people walking around. Most stores and food places weren’t open yet.
I just played around on my phone the entire hour. Yes, more Pokemon Go.
When it was almost 5:30AM…I started walking to the lounge.
Cathay Pacific Business Class Lounge
Because I flew business class this day, I had complimentary access to most of the airline lounges that are partnered with American Airlines in the oneworld alliance. I had British Airways, Qantas, and American Airlines as strong contenders for lounge time, but I opted for Cathay Pacific because they had the best reviews, and previous Cathay Pacific lounge experiences have been spectacular. And I could have lounge-hopped, but being tired, I just wanted to stay in one place.
As a fun fact, Cathay Pacific is a Hong Kong-based airline owned by Swire, which is a conglomerate also based in London.
After checking into the lounge, I had breakfast from their buffet. I kept it simple with an omelette, sausage, and coffee. After eating, my next most pressing need was to shower.
By this point, it was probably about 24 hours since I last showered and I had lots of travel in that time. Most premium airline lounges have showers, and I like using them to refresh before a flight. Or to take a real shower on a long layover.
After showering, I still felt a little hungry. Cathay Pacific lounges typically have a Noodle Bar serving up Asian classics. I decided to have some dim sum and wonton soup.
After that…I set up camp on a chair looking out towards the tarmac. I utilized the fact that there was an actual bar while enjoying the views, blogging, and reading. At some point I tried taking a nap too.
From 5:30AM to 11:00AM, I was in the lounge! After lounging around that whole time, I headed to my gate to board my flight.
American Airlines #57 London-Heathrow to Miami, Business Class
For this 8-hour flight, I had an enjoyable time sitting in business class. The food was great, the flight attendants were attentive and friendly, and I got to watch a handful of movies and shows.
When you book business class with American Airlines, especially with international flights, you can pre-select your meal up to 30 days before the flight. I opted for the beef top steak with mashed potatoes, veggies, and gravy. Tasty.
For the pre-landing meal, I chose the mini-pies (meat, because British). Also tasty.
For movies, I watched Godzilla: King of the Monsters and The Secret Life of Pets 2. And to finish out my flight, I watched the available episodes of Fixer Upper and Big Bang Theory.
At some point, I did engage the seat’s lie-flat mode and attempted at taking an hour nap. I tried keeping in mind the actual time in Texas so I wanted to make sure that I didn’t sleep for most of this flight to get my body clock back on track.
All in all, a good flight. Then we landed in Miami…
Miami International Airport and Flight Home
When I arrived at Miami International Airport, I had a little bit of an issue with going through Customs. I had trouble with the kiosk. It wouldn’t complete the process and print my slip that I needed to hand to the officer. I explained this to the officer when I got to the desk, and I was told to go see another officer who could scan passports manually to complete this part of the process. That was no problem.
But then…I got stopped on my way out of Customs. I got pulled in for questioning. I guess since I had originally come from Israel, they flagged me for further security procedures. It was really no problem. The Customs and Border Control officer asked what I did in Israel and handchecked my bags.
After passing through all of that, I bee lined for the main Admiral’s Club lounge. I wanted to test out an access policy that states that if you arrive from an international flight in business class with a connecting domestic flight the same day, you get complimentary access to the Admiral’s Club lounge.
Turns out–it works!
I didn’t much time to enjoy the lounge. I grabbed a few snacks and a glass of red. It was pretty crowded too. After downing my wine and finishing my snack, I headed off to the gate.
The entire flight boarded the plane. But we never pushed back from the gate. The pilot came on after a while and said that some computer had fried on the flight deck and that we had to deplane and switch aircraft/gates.
I wasn’t too concerned with it because I half-expect delays most of the time, and I had flexibility.
We had a two-hour delay. And the new gate was across the terminal.
So…I looked up an airport map and saw that there was another Admiral’s Club lounge close to the new gate so I headed there. I think most other passenger’s had the same idea, but went to the main one I was in earlier.
I chilled here and enjoyed another glass of wine and some more snacks. But it was more relaxed, and less crowded.
It came time to head to the gate.
We boarded. Then departed. Then landed at DFW. I didn’t do much on the flight home as I kind of slept and kind of did some reading. I was exhausted.
I finally arrived home at about midnight-thirty. And I immediately went to bed.
This officially concludes my Israel pilgrimage!
Stats
Total Cost of Pilgrimage = $562.88
- No further costs incurred / food and drink taken care of with lounges and flights
Total Travel Time = ~40 hours
- LHR Terminal 3 +8 hours, including 6 hours in lounge
- Flight from LHR to MIA +8 hours
- MIA +4 hours
- Flight from MIA to DFW +2.5 hours
Ending Weight = 162.2 lbs
- I weight myself on Day 0. Only gained 1.4 lbs–not bad for all the eating I did these past 9 days!
Would you rather pay more money for shorter travel time? Or would you pay less money for longer travel time?
Navigate to other days:
- Day 0: Preparations and Initial Thoughts
- Day 1: Going MAD
- Day 2: Subway Struggling in Madrid
- Day 3: The Fastest and the Slowest
- Day 4: Up In the North
- Day 5: A Day At the Beach
- Day 6: Avoiding Missiles and Apollonia
- Day 7: Let’s Avoid More Missiles Today
- Prev> Day 8: One Last Time Before Leaving
JR is a full-time engineer working in the aerospace industry. Apart from having such a fly job, he flies unto the arms of Our Lady and the Church pursuing his faith and a relationship with Christ. Over the past several years, faith and flying via pilgrimages became a thing. When he’s not being fly, JR hangs out with family, friends, his chihuahua, and with thoughts of the next trip.