London- Chicago, June 6, 2011
3944 miles
6348 km
Long time since I don’t write about my flights and since I don’t write from the Sky, but I have to say that either my flights have been nice and smooth lately (like the one to London, Venice, San Diego, Las Vegas…) or terrible to even mention like the one to/from Cancun. I mean I enjoyed so much my time in Cancun, but the flights there and back were not as pleasant. I flew United (straight flight) and by the name I already knew it wasn’t going to be great!
Anyway, now I’m on my BA 295 flight going back home to Chicago.
I already love going to T5 at Heatrow airport: first of all you can eat at Carluccio (which is just outside the security line, so before the unpleasant process of standing in line and get X-rayed or touched at least you have an happy stomach) or have a lovely cappuccino at Caffe’ Nero also outside the security. As my flight was early I opted for a cappuccino and croissant and then passed through security. The check in and bag drop were fast and easy. Not so fast the security line, but easy and didn’t get X-rayed or touched…thank you Brits! At least they know that leaving on their baskets all the items we have and getting checked for metals is enough already.
And after this, a paradise of chic stores is right in front of your eyes and you immediately check were is your wallet, which you are surely going to use for the next hour at least (almost 2hrs for me as I arrived early at the airport).
Immediately in front of you there is the new “2012 Olympics in London” store and next to it you have Harrods! Then downstairs, Ted Baker, Prada, Paul Smith, Links, Kurt Geiger, Mulberry…It is truly amazing! This is the best airport and the best terminal.
After having left in some of these shops quite a few British pounds (and I don’t even want to know how much that is in dollars!) I leave some spare time for my manicure, as I know there is an express mani/pedi at zone B where the flight for Chicago has always been. Wrong thinking unfortunately…they probably decided that people going to the US can do their manicures over there (as they have an Opi salon almost every 100 metres) and moved the Chicago flight to zone A, where there is absolutely …nothing!
Oh well, I go to sit down while I wait, check my facebook and then The Times. They start calling for boarding on time and I wait for all the people in line to go in first…I totally don’t understand why I should wait in line for 100 people or so to go inside, when I can sit down comfortably in the hall and go boarding when they are finally all in.
And here I am now, in my flight…I had a meal, watched a movie, cached up on some work, bought 2 presents from the BA shop magazine (and 1 is some cute nail polishes of course!) and now I am writing my blog. The flight is full, but it’s all very comfortable anyway: must be because there is more legs room, the pillows are cuter, the ear plugs are actually comfortable to keep on and the flight attendants are kind and well mannered…and I am comparing all this to my AA flight from Chicago to London…Do you know the difference between traveling in a cab or in a limousine? Pretty much this is the difference between AA and BA. You would tell me: why didn’t you book BA all the way? Well, I did…but this year these 2 Companies made an alliance and many flights from BA have been replaced with AA flights, so if you want to travel at a certain time you pretty much don’t have an option. The thing is that they absolutely don’t have the same standards and when you are in an AA flight you kinda paid the same money to receive much less, way much less. Not a good move really…at least not for the customers!
Just went to the bathroom and it’s actually big for an airplane (maybe bigger than the bathrooms you might actually find in some tiny London studio flats)! This aircraft must be new and it’s definitely improved (it actually smell good too): it even has a well deserved “crew resting area”.
The flight attendant noticed my parfume while I was standing in front of the bathroom, waiting for my turn: she said that my parfume was smelling so lovely and asked me which one it was. So I told her: it’s the new Hermes “Jardin sur le toit” with my perfect French accent…so she asked me again as she didn’t quite get it and I repeated very slowly “Jardin… sur...le toit” …she tried to repeat what I said with no luck so I told her “Garden on the roof” and she said “ah thank you!”…Oh well, not sure she’ll ever find it, but I did my best.
Still 3 and half hours to go: I guess I’ll go ahead and read my Brit Vogue magazine. I’m closer to Chicago than to London now…and I feel like a big piece of my heart has decided to stay there!
