Hello live from 33,000 feet somewhere over the Atlantic approaching Europe.
As I blogged about a few days ago, American invited me to try their new 777-300ER in business class between New York and London, which I took them up on.
What was supposed to be a quick transatlantic hop turned into my longest transatlantic flight ever, as I spent over 13 hours on the 777-300ER due to a weather delay.
Anyway, stay tuned, as I’ll be sharing all the details, including double deicing, double refueling, triple safety videos, and a visit from the po-po, shortly. It was quite the flight, to say the least!
@AndyF - well said about George's shameless plugs for his own site. Opportunistic bashing to generate controversy whenever one is also self promoting is pretty shameless of you George.
@ Alan -- Handy indeed! You can read about it here:
http://www.aa.com/i18n/agency/Booking_Ticketing/Reaccom/oneworld_tkt_policy.jsp
@Lucky - wow that Oneworld rule sounds handy!! Have you got a link to anything re it? Could be a handy thing to keep a note of...
@ George - Nice try, but your post smells like an "advertisement" for your own site -- trolling Lucky to get attention, i.e. directing traffic to your advertisement-heavy site.
Remove your URL, or remove the ads from your site and maybe your post will seem more genuine.
@ Sam -- First at the gate, then on the tarmac, then back at the gate. More details on that later.
@ Ismael -- I thought my nearly five hour connection was enough, but it wasn't. Fortunately OneWorld has an awesome rule whereby you can be rebooked if you misconnect, even if it's on separate tickets.
@ George -- Respectfully out of my hundreds of trips a handful of them have been comped, and as...
@ Sam -- First at the gate, then on the tarmac, then back at the gate. More details on that later.
@ Ismael -- I thought my nearly five hour connection was enough, but it wasn't. Fortunately OneWorld has an awesome rule whereby you can be rebooked if you misconnect, even if it's on separate tickets.
@ George -- Respectfully out of my hundreds of trips a handful of them have been comped, and as far as I can remember there was never more than one from a single travel provider. My job is to keep you guys happy, not companies.
But rather than tell you that, let me say this -- when I write my review I'd love your feedback as to whether you think I'm fair or not. If you honestly think I'm not being fair I'd really like to know.
@Jason
I understand your point but I do wonder what your definition of "shillig" is?
For me, there is a BIG difference between an impartial review and paid for sponsorship. Personally I think it's impossible for a reviewer to impartially review a product paid for by the company that produces the product he is reviewing.
Lucky wouldn't keep getting "free" trips if companies weren't "happy" with his reviews.
I think it should be...
@Jason
I understand your point but I do wonder what your definition of "shillig" is?
For me, there is a BIG difference between an impartial review and paid for sponsorship. Personally I think it's impossible for a reviewer to impartially review a product paid for by the company that produces the product he is reviewing.
Lucky wouldn't keep getting "free" trips if companies weren't "happy" with his reviews.
I think it should be banned as it contravenes advertising standards. But, until it is, I think this blogger has an obligation to put a large disclaimer at the top of this post informing the reader that this post has been paid for by American Airlines.
It is an ADVERTISEMENT not a blog post.
Oh, and I think Lucky earns enough from this blog through, ahem, öther means (credit card shilling - doesn't he hold the record for most aff links in a single post), to afford his own place tickets.
Did you build enough of a buffer in LHR to make your Amsterdam flight? In these cases, what do you do when you are on two seperate tickets?
So you sat on the plane for 4 hours? At the gate or on the runway? I guess you could really use the seat to it full potiential. Still, that is along time, like going to HK, almost!
Sam
Popo eh? Flight attendant saw you taking pictures in the cabin? ;-)
No live trip reporting? Come on, man? That's the reason they have international wifi:)
On a more serious note: you really did get more bang for buck with those SWUs.
Glad to see your flight still got in ahead of the one from ORD. Saw the event log on flightstats but it didn't reveal much - can't wait to see your writeup.
I have no problem with Lucky taking a comp flight. He disclosed it in his post and I feel pretty confident that I can filter accordingly. If you read this blog at all you'd realize Lucky isn't in the habit of shilling. His "travel blog" has a lot to do with experience and the more products he flies the richer the blog is. So George, if you don't like American picking up the tab on...
I have no problem with Lucky taking a comp flight. He disclosed it in his post and I feel pretty confident that I can filter accordingly. If you read this blog at all you'd realize Lucky isn't in the habit of shilling. His "travel blog" has a lot to do with experience and the more products he flies the richer the blog is. So George, if you don't like American picking up the tab on this one are you volunteering to pay for it so you can help someone you consider a peer maintain their journalistic integrity? Give me a break. It's a blog for God's sake. And if I were Lucky I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for George's check to arrive.
@ Zhong Liang Ong -- Almost the entire delay was on departure in New York. Nearly six hours.
@ JackDaniels -- Yes, American has wifi on their new 777-300ER aircraft.
"American invited me"
So, this is paid for advertising not a travel blog?
You had wifi on the TATL?
How was the service during the 5 hour ground delay? Hope they served the meal at least so you could sleep once airborne
Not quite what AA had in mind, eh?
How bad was the delay from JFK? Had a relative from ORD-LHR at 10:25PM CST experiencing a 28 minute delay departing.