Petra, Cairo, More Mileage Running

Le Meridien Cairo Airport

After the security bag check at the entrance, easy check-in at the front desk where my Gold status got me Executive Club floor and lounge access, pretty deal at only 4,000 SPG points for the night. 

Very nice room.

The view from my room...

... with the club lounge next door... 

... where I headed for breakfast.

Downstairs in the lobby waiting for the T2 shuttle.

Jeez, at the gate even more security with one duffus wanting to take away my mini battery supply.  An argument following and I won the arguemnt after I told him to check the sizer which the check-in agent had used.  

After my miserale garbage ATH-LHR flight last month, what a pleasant surprise to find a short-haul Business Class cabin that I might actually enjoy.

My seat 3A. 

Meh, I think I'll stick my Bose toady.

Pre-departure beverages were offered by our excellent crew.

Today's menu.

We pushed back on time and taxied our for take-off.

Showtime, BA J style.

My Chicken terrine starter was very good, with "Waldorf" salad and balsamic reduction. 

The frehs seasonal salad with vinaigretter was excellent.

As was my seared fillet of beef despite being pretty well done.

After a movie and a 90 minutes nap, we're on descent to Heathrow.  Very nice BA flight, comfy seat and excellent service.  And it looks like we'll be on time with plenty time for my transfer to T3 and my AA flight to JFK... or so I thought.

Naturally, there was no WIfi on the BA flight or pretty much any BA flight for that matter.  So it wasn't until we had landed and I got my cell messages... that I'm not going to JFK and was rebooked on the 3:30pm BA nonstop to LAX.  Ah, crap.

And then downstairs to argue my way into T5 where the dragon first insisted that I go to T3 and talk to American.  Seriously?  I'm rebooked on a BA flight from T5.   Why would I go to T3.  I'm on a BA ticket.   Wow, she finally gets it.  Oh yeah, how about my checked bag which is tagged to JFK and then LAX.  Tap, tap, click, click and she says it's now rerouted on my flight to LAX.  Yeah right... in my dreams. 

At T-60, I headed out for the train and the distant C gates.   Gotta give Emirates credit for the in massive in your face billboard just before T5 train.  

Gate C57 at the far end of the concourse.

My One World Emerald status got me into the Priority Lane and I was in the first wave to board.

O.M.G.  This is Business Class??  What a load of garbage this is.   Since I was rebooked on this flight at the last minute, EF showed no available window seats.   After the Galleries Lounge dragon confirmed a light load, I opted for a middle middle seat in the empty back of the upper... hoping that I wouldn't have an cell, er rather seat mates to stare at.

What a stupid layout.  Also seems like a pretty inefficient use of space.  Pretty sure that one could put the same number of real Business Class seats in the same space.

A peek back into Premium Economy.

OK, I guess that the bulkhead is not bad if you have to fly Premium Economy.

My cell for the next 11 hours

Holy sheet.  This the seat to the left??

And the one to the right.  God forbid anyone would sit there and have stare at each other even if its just during take off and landing.  Who was the idiot that thought that this would be a good idea? 

My view.  LOL.

Checking the seat map before we depart.  Looks like the lounge dragon blocked 58D so I'm pretty sure that I be all alone in the middle.  Hmm, row 57A and 57K are now open.  Meh, I'm going to stay in 58 and shiut myself to the world.

Today's menu.

Gotta love the Brits... if I'm peckish??   Jeez, speak English.  

My companion for the next 11 hours.

One of the (few) best things about BA is the cute pre-flight safety video, featuring a variety of British celebs.

Once in the air, my walled in cell with dividers fully deployed.  If you don't want to interact with people, this is a great seat.   LOL.

One of the two forward cabin upper deck lavs.

Service was very good.  Perhaps the crew feels sorry for the garbage hard product.  A G&T to start.

And another one.

Showtime, BA Club World style.

Hmmm, looks a little like this morning's starter.  The Chicken and duck terrine was very good, with fennel purée, nazelnbut and carrot salad with walnut granola. Terrines must be a BA thing,  In any event, this was better than most AA's starters.

For my main and from experience, a big No to British beef BA style.  My Chettinad chicken with coriander rice and tadka dal was absolutely spectacular.  I love Indian food and this dish was simply amazing.  

Dessert was also delicious... a duo featuring carmelized orange tart and chocolate, almond and salted caramel crisp with caramel sauce.

Yeah, that'll work.

I slept for a good 5 hours, watched another movie and then felt peckish and decided to try to late-flight-snack.   As good as the main meal was, the snack was... not so much.

The starter salad was surprisingly tasteless considering that it had everything but the kitchen sink.

But it was downright gourmet compared to the disgusting "warm sandwich of steak".

Completely and utterly inedible.

We landed on time and was only a few meters from the upper deck exit door.  

And now off to baggage claim to see if I my bag (and my laptop and my life) had made it.

After 30 minutes and no more bags coming off the carousel, it became apparent that my bag did not make flight.  That sucks.  However, pleasant BA baggage rep was at the carousel and seemed to be expecting me as she had my name on her list.  She confirmed that my bag was still in London but would be the first flight tomorrow arriving at 2pm.  She promised to email a tracking number and an hour later, I did have my tracking number.

Shortly after I got confirmation that BA has my bag and will be on BA283 tomorrow.

And then the next afternoon, confirmation that my bag was at LAX and waiting for courier pickup.   The courier delivered my bag at around 8pm the next night, or about 24 hours after I landed at LAX.  The saga ended well as the contents were intact and my laptop worked perfectly after I turned it on.

My impressions of BA...

I had dreaded this day but in the end, BA exceeded my albeit low expectations.  Staff and service were excellent, and except for the late-flight LHR-LAX snack, catering and food were very good.  But that dreadful A380 Club World hard product is simply inexcusable.  If I had paid retail, I'd have been royally pissed.  But then again, I paid next to nothing for the flight and it got me closer to BA Gold status.  And colour me impressed by BAEC.  Since my LHR-JFK-LAX was changed to LHR-LAX, I was concerned about not getting my carefully plotted Tier points. Kudos to BA though as within 24 hours and without any action on my part, my EC account had been credited with Original Routing Credit and I got my 350 Tier points for LHR-JFK-LAX.  

LAX to Honolulu

At around T-55, I headed out for the long, ugly walk to Terminal 5 and the lovely Gate 53B.   

Upgrade requests today?  Yeah, that ain't gonna happen.

Ugh.  6+ hours in this thing?   If I was interested in a good flying experience or was travelling with Mrs. SFO777, we'd be on Hawaiian.

And we're off.

I worked most of the flight, although not quite as productive as I could have been if the advertised Wifi was available.  I thought it a little odd that AA claimed Wifi was availlable on this flight.  

But in the end, nothing... just the teaser telling is what we already knew.  

And then there was the tray table for both 3A and 3C, which I discovered are connected and were not locked into position... causing them to both collapse and fall forward unless you used your knees to keep them in place.  Apparently a roll of duct tape is SOP on AA flights and our FA and I were able to improvise to keep the trays upright for meal service.

I had pre-ordered my meal today going with the Chicken Katsu.

Showtime, AA style.

The chicken katsu was tasty especially with the BBQ sauce.  

From the snack basket later in the flight.

On descent over Honolulu before turning back on a very cloudy day.

We arrived 20 minutes early and I headed to the Admirals Club to do a little work before re-boarding the same plane for the return flight back to LAX.