This trip report is relatively short, and will include the following installments:

• Capital One Lounge DFW
• The Brown Hotel, Louisville, Kentucky
• Breeze Airways Nice Class, Louisville to Charleston
• The Club at CHS, a Priority Pass Lounge
• Breeze Airways Nicer Class, Charleston to New Orleans
• Q&C Hotel Bar, Autograph Collection by Marriott, New Orleans
• The Club at MSY, a Priority Pass Lounge

The Flight Plan

As flight plans go, this one was pretty simple. I put together a circle with stops in Louisville, Charleston, and New Orleans. The only complication was severe weather in Kentucky two days before my trip. That canceled my nonstop to Louisville, necessitating a rerouting through Chicago. At least AA canceled my flight the day before, giving me enough time to figure out an alternative. The final routing ended up like this (more wonky pyramid than circle):

• 12/12/21 AA 1106 Dep DFW International (DFW) 16:35, Arr Chicago O’Hare (ORD) 19:09
• 12/12/21 AA 3680 Dep ORD 20:00, Arr Louisville Muhammad Ali International (SDF) 22:28
• 12/13/21 MX 291 Dep SDF 13:45, Arr Charleston International (CHS) 15:20
• 12/13/21 MX 202 Dep CHS 18:00, Arr New Orleans Louis Armstrong International (MSY) 19:05
• 12/14/21 AA 1768 Dep MSY 09:42, Arr DFW 11:30

I won’t review the American flights, which are your plain Jane domestic coach flights. This flight from LA to Dallas gives you a good idea of the experience (albeit in Main Cabin Extra). The main event for this trip was checking out upstart Breeze Airways, both in Nice and Nicer Class.

I also did get in a few lounges on this trip. First up was the (then) recently opened Capital One Lounge DFW. Later, I discovered a couple of Priority Pass lounges I didn’t expect in Charleston (The Club at CHS) and New Orleans (The Club at MSY). As The Club lounges go, they weren’t bad, and actually decent options for airports of that size.

The Hotel Plan

This trip required two overnight stays, one in Louisville and one in New Orleans. No trip to Louisville is complete without a stop at the historic Brown Hotel, so that’s where I stayed. I booked a “Deluxe” room, but ended up getting upgraded to a club floor room. Why, I’m not sure, seeing as the hotel seemed deserted. But I certainly didn’t complain about the palatial room.

Next in NOLA, I booked a Marriott Autograph Collection property, Q&C Hotel Bar. In typical New Orleans fashion, he hotel formerly known as the Queen & Crescent is a charming historic property. Unlike the Brown, though, standard rooms are about the size of a broom closet.

The Food Plan

Of course, no trip of mine is complete without some frivolous pursuit of food. In this case, the real purpose of staying at the Brown was to eat a Hot Brown sandwich in its native habitat. Several places in Louisville serve up the ridiculously large open-faced turkey sandwich smothered in bechamel sauce. But there’s something extra special about getting one where it was invented. Along with the Hot Brown, I picked up another Kentucky original, a Derby pie. The Brown didn’t invent the pie; that honor goes to the defunct Melrose Inn in nearby Prospect. But the hotel serves up a fine version of the chocolate walnut pie in its own right. (Despite the poor presentation in a plastic box, it was quite tasty.)

And what trip to Kentucky is complete without some bourbon? Louisville Airport’s got you covered, with the Bourbon Academy Tasting Room to enjoy a flight before boarding your flight.

Now, some of you probably want to know, why go back and finish these trip reports now? Well, it’s been one excuse or another to proceed slowly over the last three years. But finally, I’m at a place where I have at least some time to write regularly again. And more importantly, get caught up so I can move on to my more recent boondoggles. The Breeze and Capital One Lounge posts went up long ago, with the rest going up in the next few weeks.  Enjoy!

Read the rest of this article at Introduction: Will Fly For Derby Pie.

Hawaiian Airlines (HA) Flight 362

• Saturday, December 28, 2019
• Depart: Honolulu – Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL), Terminal 1, Gate A19, 15:54, 21m late
• Arrive: Hilo International Airport (ITO), Gate 6, 16:48, 19m late
• Duration: 54 minutes
• Seats: 2A, 2B, 2E
• Equipment: Boeing 717-200

Check-In and Boarding

The Saturday after Christmas, Honolulu Airport was bursting at the seams. That actually made the priority check-in come in handy. Regular security looked pretty nasty, too. The three of us had Pre-Check, so we got through in about 10 minutes. My mother had to go through the regular line, though, and it took her a good 15 additional minutes. Interisland First Class passengers can visit the Premier Club, but we decided not to go given our relatively limited time. Our inbound plane arrived nearly half an hour late, though they made up a little time cleaning up. We headed on board our 717 about 20 minutes behind schedule. It’s a plane I remain irrationally obsessed with, so I was quite excited to be flying this bird.

Stepping onboard, I saw a Hawaiian Airlines 90th anniversary badge painted by the door.

Hawaiian Airlines B717 Interisland First Class – Seating and Interior

As I took my seat, the First Class FA welcomed us on board. I mentioned my family decided to take over the entire cabin (since we booked 7 out of 8 seats). That gave the FA a good laugh.

Hawaiian Airlines B717 Interisland First Class consists of 8 seats in a 2×2 configuration. The seats are 18.5″ wide and feature 37″ of pitch, a gain of 7″ compared to Economy Class. These planes aren’t exactly spring chickens; our aircraft entered service on October 25, 1998. Perhaps surprisingly, the brown leather seats were still in pretty decent shape.

Legroom was certainly generous in these seats, with room to fully stretch out my legs.

For comparison, below is legroom in the coach cabin, which we flew back from Hilo to Honolulu. These seats felt really tight, even for the advertised 30″ of pitch.

My son certainly enjoyed the extra room to eat his Ruffles (the “orange cheese chips” as he calls them).

No in-flight entertainment is offered on board interisland flights. However, given that Honolulu – Hilo is probably the longest flight in the system, it’s not like you have time to miss the IFE. Of course, the greatest part of being up front in a 717 is how quiet it is up there. With the engines far behind you, it’s serenely quiet at cruising speed.

Hawaiian Airlines B717 Interisland First Class – Food, Beverage, and Service

The FA sprang into action a mere 8 minutes after take-off with a beverage service. Since I was flying First, I indulged in the obligatory mai tai. Including a mai tai selfie, of course.

There’s no food service, but passengers do receive a packet of “Pau Hana Cafe” snack mix. Although it’s packaged as “made exclusively for Hawaiian Airlines”, it’s not much different from what you find at other airlines and lounges.

My son, however, took a liking to it, helping himself when I got up to go to the bathroom.

Despite the short duration, I found service quite good on this flight. The FA warmly welcomed us on board, and hustled to provide efficient service. He even managed to offer drink refills despite just 34 minutes of flight time. That’s pretty impressive, even for an 8-passenger cabin.

Flightseeing

A mostly clear afternoon meant some really nice flightseeing on the way to Hilo, despite a filthy window. Before we even left the airport, we saw Alaska’s beautiful “Spirit of the Islands” livery on the taxiway.

Much like our flight back to the mainland a few days later, our route gave us outstanding views of Honolulu. Again, you could see the entire city stretching out past Diamond Head, and up into the mountains.

This flight heading southeast took us a little farther away from Diamond Head. You could still see straight down into the crater, though. And this time, a cloud deck created a pretty scene with the mountains disappearing into a sea of white.

Later, we passed over the island of Moloka’i, first over the dry leeward side, then the wet windward side.

As we began our approach to Hilo, we flew over the windward slope of Haleakalā on the island of Maui. I really hoped to see the summit of Haleakalā itself, but I picked the wrong side of the plane. Doh!

Final Thoughts

Do you really need the extra legroom and free mai tai on a short interisland flight? No, and so ordinarily, I wouldn’t pay for First Class on these flights. I’d rather save the money and settle for some free POG juice instead in coach. But if you anticipate checking a lot of bags, it might actually make sense. Occasionally, the buy-up to First runs less than or equal to the cost of two checked bags. If that’s the case, might as well spring for it.

Read the rest of this article at Review: Hawaiian Airlines B717 Interisland First Class.

Hawaiian Airlines (HA) Flight 44

• Wednesday, January 1, 2020
• Depart: Honolulu – Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL), Terminal 1, Gate E1, 12:33, 3m late
• Arrive: San Jose – Norman Y. Mineta International Airport (SJC), Terminal A, Gate 4, 19:56, 11m late
• Duration: 5 hours 23 minutes
• Seats: 12A, 12B, 12C
• Equipment: Airbus A321neo

Check-In and Boarding

We actually started our day with a tag flight from Hilo, so we checked in there. Hilo is a tiny airport, so check-in took hardly any time at all. As with all flights to the mainland, all passengers must undergo an agriculture screening. Make sure to do this and get a sticker before check-in, or they’ll send you back to get it done.

As we taxied to the gate in Honolulu, we passed ANA’s Honu A380. What does this have to do with Hawaiian Airlines? Nothing, but you could use some extra Honu A380 in your life.

Our layover at Honolulu was right at 2 hours, so I took my son planespotting to stretch his legs. Not far from our gate was a nice Japan Airlines Dreamliner.

Boarding began about 40 minutes prior to departure. Economy Comfort receives priority boarding immediately after First Class. Thus, we were among the first onboard the Economy Class cabin.

Hawaiian Airlines A321neo Extra Comfort – Seating and Interior

This particular A321neo entered service just two months prior to our flight. Ahhh, you could still get a whiff of that new plane smell. Anyway, Hawaiian’s Extra Comfort is kinda-sorta their equivalent to Delta Comfort+, American Main Cabin Extra, etc. It’s the same coach seat, but with 5 extra inches of pitch (35″ vs. 30″). The A321neo features 44 Extra Comfort seats in a 3-3 configuration, though spread over two separate sections. Well, I guess to be precise, three sections. Extra Comfort includes the first three rows of the Economy cabin, the exit row and the row behind, and then the overwing exit row and the two rows behind. The seats definitely looked brand new.

Differentiators between Extra Comfort and standard Economy are the color scheme (teel versus light brown) and the “Extra Comfort” moniker on the headrest.

I found legroom quite generous in these seats, with enough room to completely extend my legs.

Meanwhile, my son had plenty of room in his seat to curl up and sleep with the armrests raised.

All that said, Extra Comfort seats are the standard 17.3″ wide, so they’re not exactly spacious in that regard. Seat comfort, though, was decent. Despite the slimline design, Hawaiian’s A321neo seats feature adequate padding and thigh support. I didn’t experience back pain or saddle sore on this 5 1/2 hour flight. We flew Southwest from San Jose on the way over, and Hawaiian’s seats definitely win in the comfort area.

Similar to the Boeing 737-MAX, the A321neo interior includes mood lighting. The soft colors create a relaxing atmosphere aboard the coach cabin.

The other area where I really like the A321neo – it’s noticeably quieter than a standard A320 family aircraft. Even in Row 12, relatively close to the engine, it’s really quiet at cruising altitude.

Hawaiian Airlines A321neo Extra Comfort – In-Flight Entertainment

Similar to American and Southwest, Hawaiian offers only streaming entertainment on board. To that end, the seatback includes a phone/tablet holder to keep your device in place. While possibly user error, I had difficulty keeping my iPhone 6s from falling out. And my eyesight isn’t great, so I had trouble watching on my screen with the phone on the holder. Really, I’ve tried, but I just really don’t like this whole BYOD trend.

Each Extra Comfort seat includes both a USB port in the seatback, and a 110V outlet on the floor between seats. While I prefer outlets at seatback level, these forward-facing outlets aren’t bad, as you don’t have to contort to try and plug a device in. Note: only Extra Comfort seats include 110v outlets. Standard coach seats come only with USB ports.

Hawaiian offers a fair selection of options on its streaming service. While I’ve seen better, there are enough movies and TV shows to keep you occupied, especially on a shorter flight to the West Coast. The offerings include a selection of kids shows and international (mostly Japanese) TV and movies. With Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted on tap, I watched a few episodes as we crossed the Pacific.

Of course, there’s always the moving flight map. This one is OK. The mobile version provides basic flight information and a map position, but doesn’t offer much in the way of zoom or other points of view. Perhaps this has improved in the last three years..

Hawaiian Airlines A321neo Extra Comfort – Food, Beverage, & Service

Unlike extra legroom products on the other major domestic carriers, Hawaiian offers no differentiation in Extra Comfort as far as food and beverage goes, at least on Hawai’i-Mainland routes. That means unlike Main Cabin Extra, for example, you don’t get alcohol for free. About 45 minutes after takeoff, FAs offered a “Pau Hana Cafe” service. On this route, that included a chicken and pesto hot pocket, sweet onion chips, and chocolate covered macadamia nuts. And, of course, the obligatory POG (passionfruit-orange-guava) juice. If you don’t fancy POG juice, a full selection of soft drinks, tea, and coffee are offered.

Perhaps surprisingly, the hot pocket wasn’t bad at all. It had a reasonably flaky crust, and I found the filling fairly tasty. And of course, who doesn’t like chocolate covered macadamia nuts. The problem? This wasn’t really enough. I still felt hungry after finishing off the meal. The FAs did come back through with a second pass of the snack basket a little while later, which helped. But I really wished for something a little more substantial.

As for service, I often say the best coach service is the one you don’t remember. That’s because you usually remember service in coach for all the wrong reasons. Service on this flight definitely fell in to the former category. The FAs were pleasant, the meal service efficient, and they did make a couple of snack/water runs throughout. A perfectly reasonable experience in the back of the bus.

Flightseeing

Of course, half the entertainment on a flight to or from Hawai’i is the free stuff you get looking out the window. This flight definitely didn’t disappoint. New Year’s Day 2020 was a beautiful day in Honolulu, making the departure to the east nearly perfect. Our initial path right along the coast gave us a perfect view of Honolulu, all the way down to Diamond Head.

Soon after, we flew parallel to Waikiki Beach, with a spectacular view of the beach and mountains beyond.

Our flight path then took us right past Diamond Head. Close enough, in fact, for a view straight down to the visitor center in the crater. (We’d visited the crater just a few days before.)

I thought this shot was especially cool, showing the city suburbs crawling up into the mountains.

Finally, as we left Hawai’i behind for good, we passed Hanauma Bay and then Makapu’u Point, the easternmost point on Oahu.

In this second photo of Hanauma Bay, from a little farther out, you could easily see the far suburbs of Honolulu going up the hillsides.

Makapu’u Point was the last land we’d see for quite some time.

About 30 minutes later, a fitting end to our Hawai’ian vacation – a rainbow courtesy of some showers over the Pacific.

Then, about 2 hours before arrival, the sun set the building marine layer off the California coast ablaze.

Hawaiian Airlines A321neo Extra Comfort – Final Thoughts

Hawaiian Airlines doesn’t provide a lot of extras with Extra Comfort, besides the extra legroom. You get priority boarding and security, but that’s about it. Nevertheless, with prices ranging from $55-95 each way, depending on demand, that’s actually not a bad price for the extra room on a 5 1/2 hour flight. American, for instance, charges about the same for Main Cabin Extra from Dallas to Los Angeles. The only real difference is free alcohol.

Read the rest of this article at Review: Hawaiian Airlines A321neo Extra Comfort, Honolulu to San Jose.

Note: this post is part of my trip report series about my quick trip to Manchester in February, 2020.  Click here for the trip report index and introductory post.

Sunday Roasting and More in Manchester

My friend Kyle from Live and Let’s Fly heartily recommended a visit to Albert’s Schloss for a traditional Sunday roast. My original itinerary had me arriving in Manchester by air at 9 am. Unfortunately, the winter storm had other ideas, canceling my onward flight from Toronto. British Airways originally rebooked me on a flight departing London at 7:45 pm. With my reservation at Albert’s Schloss booked for 6:30, that simply wouldn’t work. Fortunately, with some quick thinking, I booked a one-way rental car to Manchester.  It saved my trip, but also meant an early afternoon arrival, leaving me not much time to explore the city.

Fortunately, soon after arriving, a break in the weather brought sunshine to the city center. I used the opportunity to stretch my legs and take a walk around area. The ornate red sandstone exterior of the Kimpton Clocktower certainly basks in the sunlight.

A short walk from the Kimpton Clocktower is St. Peter’s Square. Front and center in the square is the Manchester Central Library. The rotunda-style library building, built in 1930, resembles the Roman Pantheon.

Next door is the Town Hall Extension building. Constructed in 1938, it is an addition to the Manchester Town Hall building. Currently, it houses the Business Section City Library. The building’s designer, Emanuel Vincent Harris, also designed the Manchester Central Library. While many consider the library one of Manchester’s notable landmarks, the Town Hall Extension receives mixed marks from architecture critics.

Speaking of which, next to the Town Hall Extension is…Manchester Town Hall. The gothic-style Town Hall was completed in 1877, but council meetings are no longer held here. Instead, these occur in the Town Hall Extension instead. However, the old building still sees use for special events and conferences. It was also where the results of the Brexit referendum were announced on June 23, 2016. When viewing the building from St. Peter’s Square, the Manchester Cenotaph sits in front of the building. Though not the war memorial’s original location, the City Council relocated it here in 2014.

One of the unique aspects of St. Peter’s Square is the juxtaposition of new and old. Right next door to the historic Town Hall and Library buildings are modern office buildings.

While here, I made a quick stop at The Vienna Coffee House. As the name implies, it’s a Viennese-style coffee shop. On this blustery day, I enjoyed a flat white and a tasty chocolate cake. Besides coffee, the shop also serves breakfast and lunch, along with afternoon tea service after 2 pm.

After a quick rest at the hotel, I took the short walk down Oxford Road to the University of Manchester. Why the University? To visit Blackwell’s Bookshop to buy a children’s book or two for my son. I quickly found Judith Kerr’s classic The Tiger Who Came to Tea, which seemed appropriate for my trip to the UK. The book came with a kid’s size teacup, which my son still uses for tea on the weekends.

Anyway, the university traces its roots to 1824, though the University of Manchester itself only dates to 2004. At that time, a merger of the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology and the Victoria University of Manchester created what is now the University of Manchester. The centerpiece of the Oxford Road campus is the Old Quadrangle. Most of these Gothic-style buildings date from 1873 through the early 1900s. Whitworth Hall stands as the most well-known, and is where commencement is held each term.

After walking around the campus for a few minutes, I headed over to the Manchester Museum. Also on the grounds of the University of Manchester, the museum’s permanent exhibition is a natural history gallery on the first three floors. Front and center is Stan, the T-Rex. Perhaps someone should talk to Frontier about adding Stan as their next tail animal.

Also watching over the gallery is this enormous skeleton of a sperm whale.

In additions to dinosaurs and fossils, there’s also some miscellaneous wildlife exhibits. This one dealt with cats of all sizes and their prey.

Meanwhile, this one included a collection of various penguin skeletons.

Though I wanted to see more of the museum, I walked in pretty close to closing time, and so I only had time to explore the first two floors. So I headed for the doors to walk back to the hotel – only to find a raging hailstorm outside. Turns out Ciara had one last trick up her sleeve before heading east. Anyway, after waiting a few minutes for the hail to stop, I headed back to the hotel to get ready for my roast.

And so it was on to Albert’s Schloss, about a 10-minute walk from the Kimpton Clocktower. Despite the stormy weather, this place was packed. That made me glad that I made a reservation. Thanks to the advance booking, though, a friendly hostess brought me to my table immediately.

I started off with a beer flight. Dark beer is usually my preference, and so it was my favorite of the bunch.

As I sipped my beer, I noticed a parade of classic cars heading down the street in front of the restaurant. Turns out this was part of a film shoot, ostensibly set in New York but filmed in Manchester. (One of the waiters tried to tell me the name of the movie, but it was so loud inside, I couldn’t make it out.)

Finally, the pièce de resistance – my Sunday roast main course. I ordered the Cheshire pork belly with roasted potatoes, sweet potatoes, seasonal greens, Yorkshire pudding, and chips.

This was all quite delicious. The pork belly in particular was quite nice, tender with a well-rendered and crispy skin. Meanwhile, the mashed sweet potatoes had a good helping of brown sugar sweetness. And the Yorkshire pudding made an excellent bread to sop up the tasty brown gravy. I also ordered an apple streudel for desert, though I apparently forgot to take a photo. The Sunday service is a decent value to boot, £23 for two courses or £27 for three.

My one complaint – the dining room gets really loud. Like, loud enough you really can’t even hear the waitstaff as they take your order. In other words, don’t plan on coming for some quiet Sunday evening conversation. But as a representation of a joyous Sunday roast atmosphere, it’s just fine.

Needless to say, I slept well after stuffing myself. The next morning, I had a little bit of time to walk around before heading for the airport. First, I paid a visit to Exchange Square and the Corn Exchange building.

The Baroque-style building was constructed in two phases between 1896 and 1903. Originally used as a corn exchange, it fell into a state of disuse after World War II. After suffering significant damage in the Manchester IRA bombing, its owners repurposed it as the Triangle Shopping Center. Today, the building houses a food court and a 114-room apartment hotel.

Just northwest of Exchange Square is Manchester’s most notable landmark, Manchester Cathedral. Construction began on the cathedral in 1421, though work only finished in the early 16th century. However, in the early 19th century, the interior was largely scored to be finished in Roman cement. Unfortunately, this severely damaged the structure, with an extensive restoration replacing nearly all of the stonework between 1868 and 1898.

From the Cathedral, I then circled back through the city centre back to the hotel. Right in front of the cathedral, I was surprised to find a statue of Mahatma Gandhi. I later learned the Manchester City Council placed the statue here in 2019 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Gandhi’s birth. It’s a little interesting they placed it in Manchester. Gandhi had little connection to the city, aside from a short visit in 1931.

A series of pedestrian malls and cobblestone streets wind their way from the Cathedral back towards Albert Square. I found things oddly quiet for rush hour on a Monday morning. Perhaps road and rail disruptions from Ciara were to blame. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the quiet walk, admiring the mix of old and new buildings.

Final Thoughts

1 pm Sunday to 9 am Monday isn’t nearly enough time in Manchester, but I enjoyed a delicious roast, and a brisk walking tour of the city.

Read the rest of this article at Sunday Roasting and More in Manchester.

The Routing

I spent my three days in Finland in Inari, in the far north of Lapland. Getting to the Arctic Ocean, though, requires heading to Norway. (Well, technically that gets you to the Barents Sea, but it’s considered part of the Arctic Ocean.) After looking at several options, I decided to head to Ekkerøy, a small peninsula on the eastern edge of the fjord Varangerfjorden. Of course, anyone who follows my road trips knows I have to drive in a big circle. So I chose two different routes to come and go. To reach Ekkerøy, I headed along the north shore of Inari Lake, then east along the Varangerfjorden. On the return, I drove west through the Teno (Tana) River valley before heading south to Inari. Here’s a map of the full route:

The route followed the E75 about 65 km north from Ivalo, then Highway 971 along the north shore of Lake Inari. Continue 130 km, crossing into Norway where the road becomes Route 92, to Neiden. Here, turn left and follow the E6 80 km to Varangarboten. Turn right and rejoin the E75 to Ekkerøy, a further 65 km.  On the return, retrace your steps to Varangarboten, but this time, continue towards Tana. Just before Tana, 77 km from Ekkerøy, turn left at Route 865. Cross back into Finland about 20 km later, where it becomes Route 970. After about 50 km, reach the town of Utsjoki, and turn left to return to the E75. Another 125 km gets you back to Inari. One thing to remember – Norway is one hour ahead of Finland.

As far as crossing a country border, driving between Finland and Norway is like crossing between US states. There’s no border controls, so you literally just drive across, unless you have goods to declare at customs. I rented my car at Hertz in Finland, and going to Norway only entailed paying a €40 fee. (For €40, don’t get cheap. Just tell them you plan to drive to Norway and pay the fee.) There are no tolls on any of these routes. Like driving in Arctic Alaska, make sure to keep plenty of gas in reserve in case the weather traps you somewhere. Unlike the Dalton, though, I found gas fairly readily, in Neiden, Varangarboten, Vadso, Tana, and Utsojoki.

And finally, why Ekkerøy? I wanted to see the Ekkerøy Bird Cliffs, a natural landmark home to tens of thousands of nesting kittiwakes (seagulls). Unfortunately, they high tailed it out of town a few weeks before my visit. But the landscape of the fjords is equally fascinating, birds or no birds.

Date of trip: Sunday, October 23, 2022

A Nordic Road Trip to the Arctic Ocean

Sunday, dawned cold and frosty after the previous day’s first snowfall of the season. Unlike the previous day, though, Sunday dawned with a beautiful sunrise over Inari Lake. No, I’m not usually a sunrise person, but a 9 am sunrise in the Arctic is doable.

The first stretch along the E75 proved easy enough. Though still snowpacked in spots, the road’s in good shape, with light traffic and no snow. As an FYI, speed limits on regional roads in Finland are 100 km/h in summer, and 80 km/h in winter. The winter speed limits weren’t up yet, but the snowpacked roads made for slow going. At least my rental came with studded winter tires, making the going a little easier.

As I turned northeast along the north shore of Lake Inari, I hit a pretty good pocket of snow. I hoped for some nice views of the lake to the right, but the topography really doesn’t cooperate. Finally, about halfway along the shore, I found a pullout with a decent view of the lake below. I first surveyed the slushy mess of the road going and coming.

There are hiking trails you can take down to the lake, but I didn’t have the proper shoes for icy conditions. It sure did look pretty down below, though.

As I crossed the border into Norway, conditions improved, and the sun even came out. And then, as we reached the town of Neiden, I saw a waterfall just off the road. That called for an impromptu photo stop at Neiden Falls. Since it was still early in the season, the falls were still running pretty good. One thing that stood out – the low sun angle even at 1 pm in the afternoon this far north. It looked and felt more like early evening.at midday, even in October. Quite the difference from the midnight sun I experienced in Alaska.

As I headed north out of Neiden on the E6, the landscape transformed into a more mountainous one. The fresh snow, especially on the hills behind, made it a magical wintry scene. I said the landscape of the Brooks Range in Alaska was unlike anything I’d ever seen. That’s still true, but the Arctic covered in snow is pretty darned close.

A few miles north, I headed into a pullout with some hiking trails heading into the surrounding countryside. I didn’t have much time, but enjoyed the view of the winter wonderland surrounding me.

Once again, notice the dim midday sun as the long darkness of winter rapidly approaches.

The stretch from Neiden to Varangarboten features the most spectacular scenery of the  trip. Initially, you wind through low mountains dotted with occasional glacial lakes.

As you continue north, the road occasionally drops down to the fjords of the Varangerfjorden. It’s absolutely stunning in winter, with the snow capped peaks all around.

At other times, the road heads back up into the hills.

Heading east out of Varangarboten, the weather turned once again, with snow falling along the Barents Sea. This was probably the most treacherous section of road up to that point. Thank goodness for snow tires…

But the weather can change in an instant in this hostile environment. Not even 20 km farther, there wasn’t even a trace of snow, as temperatures here remained a few degrees above freezing. The little Norwegian villages you pass through provide an interesting contrast to the barren landscape.

If you didn’t know better, you might think you’re in coastal Ireland or Scotland.

A few miles short of my destination, I stopped at a pullout overlooking the Barents Sea. Yes, that’s a rocky beach down along the shore. The windy, 36 degree afternoon kept any potential visitors at bay, though.

At long last, about 4 hours after leaving Inari, I reached the village of Ekkerøy.  To reach the bird cliff, on the edge of town, turn right at the sign for Ekkerøy from the E75. The sign also includes a board for the “Fugelokalitet Bird site”.  Continue on the road through the village, then turn left at the sign that says “Feriehus”.  Then immediately turn left again, and you’ll see the parking lot for the bird cliff on the right. There is a sign with a trail map and description at the lot.

A short, 1/4 mile trail leads down to the ocean and the bird cliff. The trail is easy; however, there are large stones which become very slick in rain or fog. I’d think twice about wearing flip flops, even though the trail is short and easy.

At the bottom of the trail, you reach a rock-strewn beach that leads to the bird cliff. In season, you’ll find tens of thousands of birds on these cliffs. On this dreary late October day, though, it was just me and a couple of other humans braving the elements for a walk.

Of course, what I really came for was to stick my hand in the Arctic Ocean. And so, at last, I made my way down to the unforgiving Barents Sea. Like the main trail, the walk down isn’t hard, but the stones get slick in the rain.

And yes, I did stick my hand in the sea. I’d guess the water temperature was around 40 degrees. My mother mocked me for not sticking my feet in the water. Too bad, I didn’t bring a towel to dry off, and I hate wet socks more than anything.

After about half an hour here, I headed back to Inari. On the way, I hit the most treacherous conditions on the trip between Varangarboten and Tana on the E6. Sun earlier in the day melted much of the snow off the road. But the feeble evening Arctic sun meant it turned into a sheet of ice as sunset approached. Conditions quickly improved after I turned onto Route 865 to head to Finland. As I reached the border, I found a landmark I wasn’t expecting. The road passes through the northernmost point in both Finland and the European Union.

This marked my second trip north of 70 degrees latitude, though not my farthest north point on this drive. Earlier in the day, the E6 reached a latitude of 70 degrees 18 minutes around Varangarboten. My first trip north of 70 degrees holds my personal record for farthest north travel, though. That’s Deadhorse, Alaska, at 70 degrees 21 minutes north.

While I was there, I also took the opportunity to photograph the welcome signs to both Finland/EU (westbound) and the Norwegian county of Troms og Finnmark (eastbound).

After a brief stop here, I continued through the Teno Valley towards Utsjoki. While I hoped for some clearer skies and a sunset, this drive through the river valley certainly was bucolic.

Though slower than normal due to occasionally bad road conditions, the return trip also took about 4 hours.

Bonus Coverage – The Drive from Inari to Rovaniemi

I mentioned earlier that I booked my flight home from Rovaniemi, rather than Ivalo. That meant a 322 km (~200 mile) drive the next day.

I left the hotel a little before 9, and the sun began to rise on the way to Ivalo. I reached Leviäsalmi Lake just as the sun began to come up. A beautiful start to a beautiful day.

The sun soon rose above the horizon as the E75 highway hugged the shores of Leviäsalmi Lake and the forests of Lapland.

Heading south from Ivalo, I encountered my first wildlife of the trip, a herd of reindeer. Unlike the caribou I encountered along the Dalton Highway, these reindeer aren’t completely wild. Rather, they loosely belong to the native Sami herders that call Lapland home.

Though the roads were OK leaving Inari, a fog started to settle in approaching the ski resorts of Saariselkä. That made the roads a tad icy as we reached the mountainous terrain of the area.

The icy landscape didn’t last long, though. Continuing south of Saariselkä, the snow disappeared for good as the elevation dropped. The rest of drive to Rovaniemi was a much flatter forested landscape, like the ones you might find in northern Minnesota or southern Canada.

Nature had one more surprise and delight, though. Thanks to the frosty air, a sun dog appeared in the cirrus clouds up in the sky.

Final Thoughts

Though the conditions made things a little challenging, a road trip through Arctic Lapland and Norway is an easy day trip. If you fancy crossing a trip to the Arctic Ocean off your bucket list, it’s an easy add-on if you’re spending a few days aurora chasing in the fall or spring.

Read the rest of this article at A Nordic Road Trip to the Arctic Ocean.

Note: this post is part of my trip report series about my quick trip to Manchester in February, 2020.  Click here for the trip report index and introductory post.

The Kimpton Clocktower Hotel, Manchester

• Oxford Street, Manchester M60 7HA, UK
• Website: https://www.kimptonclocktowerhotel.com/
• Amenities: fitness center, pet friendly, free social hour, business center, free in-room snacks, 2 on-site restaurants

The hotel is an easy walk from most of central Manchester’s main attractions. It’s 10 minutes or less from the Science and Industry Museum and the University of Manchester, and about 15 minutes to Manchester Cathedral. While adjacent to the Manchester Oxford Road train/bus station, it’s about a 10 minute walk to Manchester Piccadilly. Manchester Airport, meanwhile, is 15-30 minutes by car, or 25 minutes by train.

Date of stay: Sunday, February 9, 2020

Check-In and Common Areas

After an…unexpected…3 1/2 hour drive from London to complete my journey, I sure was ready to head straight to my room. Fortunately, I found no line at the check-in desk, and headed towards my room within a few minutes.

A few words about the history of the hotel before getting started with the review. The building, originally completed in 1895 and expanded in 1912 and 1932, housed the Refuge Assurance Company. The Manchester-based insurance company used the building as its headquarters until 1987. After sitting unoccupied for several years, then-English hotel chain Principal Hotels repurposed the building as the Palace Hotel in 1996. Except for a 3-year stint branded as a Le Meridien from 2001-2004, it operated as the Palace Hotel until 2016.  It then reverted to The Principal Manchester, until its rebranding as a Kimpton in October, 2020. IHG actually suggested the hotel would take the Kimpton flag after it purchased Principal in 2018. Indeed, even in its pre-Kimpton days in early 2020, the hotel looked and felt much like a Kimpton.

Anyway, with that out of the way, the ornate lobby still maintains much of the original design, with numerous references to the Refuge Assurance Company. It’s a straight walk from the front door to the check-in desks through the rotunda. In addition, you’ll find some snacks and beverages for sale to the left of the desks, near the staircase.

The massive rotunda is unmistakable.

Neither is the giant horse sculpture in the middle of the lobby.

One thing I did find interesting was the relative lack of lobby seating, given it’s size.  There’s only a few benches under the rotunda, along with a couple of scattered chairs/couches.

The Kimpton Clocktower has two on-site restaurants, The Refuge and the Winter Garden. The Refuge offers full-service dining and a bar, whereas the Winter Garden offers afternoon tea and cocktails. In addition, The Refuge offers a Sunday Roast from 1-8 pm, if you don’t feel like heading elsewhere.

The hotel also boasts a large ballroom, along with several meeting rooms.

The Clocktower also offers bikes free of charge, for those who prefer to explore the city by bike rather than on foot or by Metro.

Of course, the most noticeable common area of the hotel is the distinctive clocktower. You can’t miss it walking around the Manchester city center. Somehow, I managed to get a few minutes of sun in the middle of Winter Storm Ciara, letting the historic building bask in all its glory.

Kimpton Clocktower Hotel Manchester – Guest Rooms

One thing you’ll notice straight away – the historic building has some odd shaped sections. The corridor leading to my room slanted inwards noticeably, for example. The design here isn’t particularly noteworthy, with muted colors you might find in any chain hotel.

I booked a standard room with two single beds. The beds take up the right side of the room, with some eclectic artwork and a mirror between the beds.

Also between the beds was a very old school rotary phone. I haven’t seen one of these in years. Anyone else remember the days when your cats would play with phone cords while you tried to talk?

To the left of the beds by the window is an armchair and small side table. While conveniently located to the bed, space to actually work is definitely lacking.

That’s but one of the…odd…design choices of this room.  There’s a TON of wasted space between the beds and the TV. I mean, the extra space is nice, but the layout feels very odd. More than that, at the other end of the room, you have a proper sized work desk – but no chair. I guess they intended it as a standing desk?

The other problem with this setup? The TV is so far away from the beds, it’s a little hard to see. Though the giant screen makes up for that somewhat. On the corner of the table is a “Tuck Box”, basically a small basket of complimentary snacks. One notable omission, though? There’s no coffee or tea maker in the room, so you’ll have to go elsewhere for your fix. Fortunately, there’s no shortage of places to grab a coffee or tea in the Manchester city center.

Plugs are reasonably plentiful, with one on the nightstand between beds, and two by the TV table. The problem, though, is the plugs by the table just aren’t very practical. Since there’s no chair to go with the table, you can’t really work with a laptop there, leaving you to work on the bed. That’s not the best idea, especially when jet lagged.

The bathroom, meanwhile, is surprisingly spacious for a historic hotel. It features a classic sink, with separate hot and cold taps, along with faux brick tile that feels representative of the building’s history. Personally, while I like the look, I find the separate taps a little awkward. If you want to rinse with warm water, you’ll need to mix hot and cold in a cup.

The bathroom features a shower/tub combo, with a deep soaking tub. It is a bit of a high step to get in, but I appreciated the deep soak after a very long travel day. Meanwhile, the shower includes both a rain shower head and a handheld unit.

Like the sink, the bath features some very classical looking knobs. It did take a while to figure out which knob controlled what. Water pressure was excellent, and the water nice and hot.

Toiletries are provided by Azzi Perfumerie, a British luxury brand though made in Italy. I found them high quality, and thankfully the bulk dispensers worked properly.

So overall, I have to give the room a mixed grade. The look and feel is very much Kimpton, more boutique than chain hotel with a mix of eclectic and historic design touches. But the design of the room itself is really quite clunky and confused. There’s a lot of wasted space, along with no usable place to work.

The evening reception didn’t exist yet when I visited. If it’s anything like the one at the Kimpton Argonaut in San Francisco, though, it’ll be a nice perk for hotel guests.

The Kimpton Clocktower Hotel Manchester – Location

You really can’t ask for a better location in the Manchester City Center. The hotel is adjacent to St. Peter’s Square, both the historic heart of Manchester and a hub for the city’s light rail system.

You’re also within easy walking distance of Exchange Square and Manchester Cathedral, roughly 15 minutes northwest.

And when you’re in the mood for a Sunday Roast like I was, the famous Albert’s Schloss is less than 10 minutes away.

Final Thoughts

The Kimpton Clocktower Hotel Manchester has the boutique hotel feel you expect of a Kimpton. It’s a mix of historic and eclectic that you see with the brand worldwide. It also enjoys an ideal location in Manchester, an easy walk to many of the city’s main attractions. My main complaint is the odd layout of the standard two single bed room I booked. There’s just a lot about the room that isn’t very practical. At the price I paid, it’s an excellent value, though prices can easily run 3x that rate during peak times.

Read the rest of this article at Review: The Kimpton Clocktower Hotel, Manchester.

This post is part of a larger trip report series about my trip to Alaska in August. Click here for the introductory post.

Denali Grizzly Bear Resort

• MP 231.1, George Parks Highway, Denali Park, AK
• Website: https://www.denaligrizzlybear.com/index.html
• Amenities: food truck, RV park, picnic tables, general store, guided tours, guest laundry

Like most hotels around Denali, the Denali Grizzly Bear Resort operates seasonally.  The resort typically opens from mid-Mayo mid-September (May 20 – September 12 in 2023). As mentioned above, it’s 7 miles south of the park entrance, at MP 231.1 of the Parks Highway. While on-site services are limited, several restaurants/shops are in Denali Park, 9 miles north. There are also a couple of restaurants a few miles to the south. When driving from Fairbanks, it’s 127 miles down the Parks Highway (Highway 3), about a 2 1/2 hour drive. Meanwhile, if driving from Anchorage, it’s 231 miles up the Glenn and Parks Highways, about 4 hours. The hotel can provide shuttle service from the Alaska Railroad Denali depot with advance notice.

Dates of Stay: August 6-9, 2020

Check-In and Common Areas

We drove in all the way from Wiseman, so we didn’t arrive until after 8 pm. Though the front desk was already closed, the clerk left the room key outside the front door. The next morning, we stopped in to sign the receipt and provide the credit card. I used that opportunity to take some photos of the entrance area. If you’ve stayed at limited-service tourist motels near National Parks out west, the overall feel looks really familiar.

Just like those family-style resorts out West, there’s plenty of kitschy tourist stuff out front.  First is the obligatory cheesy sign stating that cussing, spitting, and chewing are allowed.

There’s also a few items to amuse the kids, like these photo cut-outs and a cute bear-shaped directional sign.

At the exit, there’s also a helpful reminder to avoid a certain Griswold-like situation.

As an aside, yes, failing to retract the RV step can result in a very, very bad day. My dad once forgot to store the step after a stop at Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco. A closed shoulder on the Golden Gate Bridge took care of that problem, with unfortunate results.

There’s also a Thai food truck on the property, but during our visit, it wasn’t open. There are no other food/beverage facilities on the premises.

All guests receive access to a guest laundry facility behind the office.

Down by the Nenana River, there are several common use picnic tables with fire rings for cooking. While these are meant primarily for guests tent camping, any resort guest can use them.

And of course, the views of the Nenana River are 100% free. (You do need a state fishing license if you want to fish, though.)

Meanwhile, the Alaska Railroad tracks run on a bluff just the other side of the river from the resort. If you’re out and about as the train rolls through, you’ll get a nice view of the Denali Star train heading down the tracks.

The resort’s setup certainly is family friendly, with plenty of room for the kids to run around, and enjoy a cookout along the river.

Denali Grizzly Bear Resort – Campground

In addition to the hotel, the Grizzly Bear features a campground for both tents and RVs. The RV sites are large enough for full-size RVs, both with water/electric hookups, or dry sites (no hookups). The RV sites do NOT include sewer hookups, but there is a dump station near the office. All RV sites currently cost $60 per night.

The resort’s tent camping sites are down by the river. In addition to the picnic tables and fire rings, campers have access to common use bathrooms and showers. There is a fee to use the showers, though. These are similar to the facilities available at RV parks, which is to say, not fancy but functional. You might want to consider bringing paracord, a versatile rope that can come in handy for various purposes, you can get one on the Paracord Galaxy website.

A unique feature of the resort are the “tent cabins”. These are small cabins with beds, but no heat, water, or electricity. Essentially, it’s a way to camp without having to remain exposed to the elements outside. These run $52-60 per night, compared to $36 per night for a regular campsite.

Denali Grizzly Bear Resort – Motel Rooms and Cabins

The resort features two types of hotel accommodations, standard motel rooms and several stand-alone cabins. In total, the resort has 119 motel rooms at the back of the property.  Most of these front the Nenana River, although two buildings instead face the mountains. These are basic rooms, including two double beds, cable TV, a coffee/tea maker, and bathroom with tub and shower. There is a breakfast building across from the rooms, but it’s only available for groups of 14 or more.  Rates range from $309-329 per night during peak season, and $259-279 per night during shoulder season (first 3 weeks of the season in late May/early June).

Our family, however, decided to spring for a cabin. The resort features 30 cabins with varying amenity levels and price points. At one end are three very rustic cabins, with electricity but no water or toilets. With these cabins, you can use the same common restrooms available to campers. One such cabin is the “Mushers” cabin, which sleeps 4. Rates range from $128-155 per night.

One step up are two cabins with a toilet and sink, along with a picnic table out front. This includes the “Bootlegger” cabin. Rates for these cabins range from $172-182 per night.

One step up from these, meanwhile, are the 22 “Basic” cabins, which essentially contain the same amenities as motel rooms. These are also priced identically to the motel rooms, ranging from $259-329 per night, depending on season.

Finally, the resort features three “premier” cabins, which add a full kitchen to the mix. These range in price from $260-310 per night for the “Hunter” cabin, to $399 per night for the “Alpine” and “Railroader” cabins. The only difference between the three is sleeping capacity – 4 for the Hunters cabin, 6 for the other two. In addition, the Hunters cabin has no TV. Since we only needed room for three, we selected the “Hunter” cabin. (Although we took this trip 3 years ago, peak season pricing hasn’t changed much. We paid $280 per night in peak season.)

The cabin itself is recessed into the trees a bit, providing a quiet setting (it’s the cabin next to the blue SUV).

You actually have to walk to the back of the cabin to reach the entrance. This cabin includes a long front porch. While the porch technically overlooks the river, it was blocked by tree growth when we visited.

Close to the door is a small bench to sit and listen to the river a short distance away.

Upon entering the two-room cabin, you’ll find the kitchen to the right, and the dining area to the left. The kitchen comes fully equipped with a range, oven, small fridge, and basic utensils. So, you can cook all your meals here if desired. Note that the nearest grocery store is 18 miles north in Healy, so you’ll need a car.

The dining area includes seats for 4 around the table, and a small lounge chair.

During our stay, my son celebrated his 4th birthday. We marked the occasion with some cupcakes and candles we picked up in Fairbanks on the way in.

Also in the kitchen is a gas fireplace, which had plenty of oomph to keep the entire cabin warm. Even in early August, nighttime lows drop well into the 40s, so the heat came in handy.

The bedroom is small and simple, with two double beds and a couple of old photographs on the wall.

The bathroom, meanwhile, is tiny. The sink, thankfully, is outside, because the toilet/shower area is too small to get a usable photo. At least the water was plenty hot, and the water pressure good.

The resort does have WiFi, but guests only receive half an hour free for their entire stay. I found cell service pretty well nonexistent by the river, so you’ll need to pay for WiFi if you need to stay connected. The hotel charged $15 per day when we visited; it was fast, at least. On the bright side, the Grizzly Bear is one of the few hotel accommodations in the area that doesn’t charge “resort” fees for “free” WiFi.

Overall, I found myself a little surprised at just how basic this cabin was. Though we paid considerably less at Boreal Lodging, I found that cabin better appointed. Of course, it’s simply supply and demand at work. Denali gets a ton more visitors than Wiseman, and so lodging naturally costs more.

I Appreciated Their Flexibility, But…

First things first – I greatly appreciated the Grizzly Bear’s flexibility in re-tooling our vacation. We originally planned this trip for June, but while Alaska re-opened in time, Denali remained largely closed until July 1st. By the time this became clear, we were within the 60-day cancellation window. I figured for sure we’d flushed 50% of our money, but I reached out to the property about rescheduling. The resort’s manager graciously agreed to apply our full deposit to a re-do in August. He didn’t have to, but I appreciated that he did. That’s why I often prefer to use mom-and-pop establishments over chains, even at the expense of hotel points.

But…we found ourselves put off by the cancellation of all housekeeping services during our stay. I don’t actually mind the trend towards making daily housekeeping optional. If I’m traveling alone and staying somewhere only a couple of days, I really don’t need it. But it’s a different story when traveling with a 4-year old. You end up generating a lot of trash…and the bathroom especially really needs a cleaning daily. What really irritated me, though, was the front desk clerk’s insistence that nobody could clean our cabin “for our protection”. For once, I wish somebody could just be honest. “Our hotel is only 1/3 full, so we can’t afford to provide housekeeping right now”.

Final Thoughts

The Denali Grizzly Bear Resort is a decent enough option in the area, especially for those who prefer an actual hotel to a vacation rental. No, it’s not cheap, and the cabins are basic for the cost. But the resort is conveniently located to the park and other services, the accommodations functional, and I greatly appreciated the flexibility provided to reschedule our trip. It’s unfortunate they chose to play the hygiene theater game, but then again, who didn’t in the summer of 2020.

Read the rest of this article at Review: Denali Grizzly Bear Resort, Denali Park, Alaska.

Weather Woes Threaten My Short Vacation

Many months ago, I planned a review trip centered around Virgin Atlantic’s new Upper Class on the A330-900neo. The catch? This required getting to Tampa by Wednesday, February 1 at 8:50 pm. Granted, booking separate tickets in winter always poses a risk in case of winter weather mischief. But starting in Dallas and catching the long-haul in Tampa seemed as low risk as just about anything. The other option involved catching the A330-900neo in Boston instead. No way I’m willing to take that chance in winter.

Anyway, about a week and a half before my trip, I became concerned about winter mischief. The official forecast for February 1 said 40s and maybe some rain in Dallas. But some of the weather models suggested trouble, and I’ve seen enough of these patterns to recognize it as one likely to overperform. Sure enough, by the weekend, it looked like an extended Texas ice storm headed our way. Cancellations started piling up on Monday. By Tuesday morning, I found this outside my door. (Yes, those of you from up north are probably laughing your a**es off.  But this amount of sleet shuts the DFW area down.)

My son certainly enjoyed the unscheduled school holiday, though.

About a week before my trip, icy conditions looked increasingly likely the first half of Wednesday. With that in mind, I booked an “insurance policy”, a refundable ticket on the last flight from Dallas to Tampa on Southwest for Tuesday night. During the night Monday, Southwest already canceled my originally scheduled Wednesday flight. For most of the day, though, it looked certain that the 9:25 pm departure to Tampa would actually operate. By 4 pm, with the flight still on and the incoming flight only 20 minutes delayed, I started making final plans to head to the airport. Then I got the dreaded text message from Southwest – flight canceled. Nothing available for Wednesday, either, with significant freezing rain expected on top of the sleet.

Ultra Low-Cost Carriers to the Rescue

The trip seemed doomed, but I stubbornly refused to give up. I scoured the Flighty app for alternatives. Spirit had a flight to Atlanta out of DFW, delayed to 11 pm but still scheduled to go. Now, Atlanta isn’t Tampa, but there are something like 16 flights a day between the two cities. So I decided to book it – but nothing else in case the flight canceled. A same-day booking, even on Spirit, wasn’t cheap at $223, plus $51 for a Big Front Seat. But if it saves the trip, it’s worth it, I thought.

Amazingly, I managed to find a Lyft driver willing to take me to the airport. Even more amazingly, said driver got us there in one piece. (Relax, he received a very generous tip for his trouble.) Even more super amazingly, as we headed to the airport, the inbound aircraft took off for Dallas. This might actually work! So as I sat at Terminal E waiting, I looked for options to get to Tampa the next day. The only flight that wouldn’t set me back $500+? A one-way on Frontier. Frontier is notoriously unreliable, but the flight timing provided a 7-hour connection in Tampa. Surely even Frontier could get that right. And so, I booked the one way plus a bag for $137, and crossed my fingers. (As an aside, I found this flight earlier, but decided not to book until I was certain the Spirit flight would operate.)

Boarding time came at 10:25, and we actually did start boarding the plane. I don’t think I’ve ever been happier to settle in to a Big Front Seat.

I left home in kind of a hurry, and so I ordered a cheese tray. Yes, it’s the same cheese tray that’s been on the Spirit menu since at least 2018.

After this crazy day, I seriously considered treating myself to a BuzzBall.  Then I thought better of it, given my plans to enjoy myself on the plane the next night…

Anyway, an expiring Bonvoy free night certificate got me a free room at the Renaissance Concourse Atlanta Airport. The next morning, bag drop at the Frontier counter took only a couple of minutes. (Interestingly, nobody asked to see ID.) With Pre-Check pretty quiet at 10:30 am, it took only a few minutes more to reach the gate. Sonny the Lemon Shark even arrived early to take us to Tampa.

Boarding began on time. Legroom is tight, but with a half empty plane, I ended up with an entire row to myself.

All’s Well that Ends Well

Sonny even got us to Tampa a full 23 minutes early. This meant a 3-hour wait until the Virgin ticket counters opened to drop off my bag. But seriously, I didn’t care at all. I made it onboard Virgin’s swanky new Upper Class on the brand spanking new A330-900neo.

The rest of the trip went off without a hitch, and I thoroughly enjoyed my glimpse of the Scottish Highlands two days later.

Exceptionally good fortune smiling down on me? Perhaps. But on this one day at least, my trip ended up salvaged from a pair of much-maligned ULCCs. That just goes to show you, when trouble strikes, don’t just give up on your long-awaited trip. Look for options even from nontraditional sources. Sometimes they could just bail you out when you least expect it.

Read the rest of this article at A Scottish Vacation Saved By – Spirit and Frontier.

NOTE: if the northern lights photos appear blurry and grainy in desktop mode, I apologize in advance.  I’ve literally been working on these for months to get them right, to no avail. I promise, they look just fine in a photo editor, but then degrade when uploaded.  User error of some kind no doubt, but I finally had to give up to get this published.

When/Where Is the Best Place and Time to See the Northern Lights in Lapland?

This site provides a pretty good overview of the optimal places and times to go aurora chasing in Finnish Lapland. In a nutshell, there’s three general tips for successfully finding the aurora borealis:

• The best timeframe is October through March, though the aurora is technically visible from late August through April. Hint: October and March still provide plenty of darkness, but also enough daylight to get in some non-aurora activities.
• Head north, but not too far north. Prime aurora viewing occurs around 68 degrees north latitude, where the lights appear roughly 3 out of every 4 clear nights. Chances actually decrease slightly as you head north of 70 degrees latitude. Major destinations in this area include Kittilä, Ivalo, and the ski resort area of Saariselkä.
• The best viewing generally occurs a couple of hours either side of midnight, but sometimes even earlier in the evening.

For my trip, I headed to Inari, a small town on a lake a little north of Ivalo. I’ve provided a map of Finland below for reference so you can get an idea of just how far north this is.

The reality, though, is that aurora chasing resembles storm chasing in a lot of ways. Namely, there’s a great deal of blind luck involved. You can encounter a spectacular light show before dinner on your first night in Lapland. Or you could spend a week there and see nothing. You’re relying on both clear skies AND the magnetic disturbances that create the aurora syncing together on a given night. That makes it largely a crapshoot. For that reason, I strongly suggest spending at least 3 nights in Lapland, and preferably 4 or 5. Odds are you’ll end up with at least one night where things work out. On my trip, the second night came through with an incredible aurora display, but the other two went el busto due to persistent cloud cover.

Of course, if you fancy seeing the northern lights, you’d best prepare for the cold. Late October proved bearable, with temperatures hovering right around freezing in Inari. Temperatures bottom out in late January, with average highs in the mid-teens Fahrenheit. The coldest nights, though, can reach 20-25 below zero. Since aurora chasing usually involves spending considerable time outside in the dead of night, prepare yourself for the conditions.

As for the best time of night to see the northern lights, you often hear stories of people sitting out in fields at 3 am. So is that really necessary? The answer is, not necessarily. If you luck into a clear night with good aurora conditions, you might get your fill of the lights by dinnertime. Other nights, you might pull an all-nighter, waiting for a brief break in the clouds to appear. I got incredibly lucky on my second night in Inari, with skies clearing by 7 pm and staying that way. That gave me my fill of the aurora borealis by a reasonable hour. Don’t count on that happening, though.

The biggest thing is you need to find someplace, well, dark. In other words, away from city lights. If there’s too much light pollution at your location, you might need to walk or drive elsewhere. The good news is, if you go to northern Lapland, the E-75 highway includes plenty of pull-out parking areas. Many of these are at picturesque spots along little lakes. Just picture this scene after dark with the northern lights setting the sky ablaze…

Another thing you need to do? Read up on how to change your camera settings to properly photograph the northern lights. And practice how to change them before you get out in the field. Trying to change settings for the first time, in the dark, in 20 degree weather, with gloves on? Not the easiest thing to do. This guide provides some good advice, but it’s trial and error to a large degree, based on local conditions. I’d also learn how to use photo editing software. Bad comes to worse, you can photoshop imperfect pictures after you get home.

Do You Need to Book a Northern Lights Tour? Or Can You DIY?

Practically every hotel catering to tourists in Lapland offers guided northern lights tours. In winter, this usually involves a snowmobile or dog sledding tour out onto a frozen lake or remote outpost. Meanwhile, during shoulder season (fall or late spring, when there’s insufficient snow or ice), these tours involve hiking in the remote forests and/or driving to areas known to be favorable for aurora viewing. The benefit of these tours is you get a local guide who knows exactly where to go. And in mid-winter, sledding out into the middle of a lake sounds pretty cool. That’s probably not something you want to do on your own if you don’t know the area.

The downside? Guided tours aren’t cheap. The hotel I stayed at, Wilderness Hotel Inari, prices tours starting at €115 per person. Tours also have a fixed length (usually 2-3 hours), so flexibility is limited.

My trip in late October was too early in the season for a snowmobile or sleigh tour. Lapland did receive its first significant seasonal snowfall the day I arrived, but the lakes weren’t frozen yet. Since paying for a tour just meant driving out somewhere to view the lights, anyway, I decided to rent a car and do it myself. Remember, though, this involves driving in a foreign country in potential winter conditions. (I’ll post on this later, but I found driving in Lapland easy enough, given the lack of traffic.)

How To Get to Lapland

Three airports service Lapland – Ivalo (IVL), Kittilä (KTT), and Rovaniemi (RVN). Here’s a map so you can get an idea of where these are located.

Ivalo and Kittilä are very very small airports with limited service. Finnair serves Ivalo via a nonstop from Helsinki. During non-peak seasons, however, the return goes via Kittilä. There is also a once-weekly nonstop on Saturdays between Ivalo and Frankfurt on Lufthansa. The only service to/from Kittilä is Finnair’s service to Helsinki. However, similar to Ivalo, flights from Helsinki during non-peak seasons go via Ivalo.

Rovaniemi offers the most frequent service. Finnair offers daily nonstops to Helsinki, of course, but numerous others carriers (mostly LCCs) provide seasonal winter service to 13 other European destinations. If you visit Rovaniemi, you can check out Santa Claus Village year-round. That’s something I really want to take my son to before he figures out Santa is dad.

I took the nonstop from Helsinki to Ivalo on the way up, which takes about an hour and a half. On the return, there was no practical way to fly from Ivalo. So I drove the 3 hours to Rovaniemi to catch the nonstop to Helsinki from there. And now on to the best part…

Aurora Chasing in Finnish Lapland

Dates of visit: October 21-23, 2022.

In my case, “aurora chasing in Finnish Lapland” ended up rather anticlimactic. That’s because I lucked out and enjoyed a fantastic show right on the hotel grounds. Wilderness Hotel Inari sits right on the shore of Inarijärvi (Lake Inari). The lake makes an ideal scene for aurora viewing, and in deep winter, you can sled out on to the lake and view the lights literally out onto the ice. Alas, it’s not cold enough for that in late October, so I settled for viewing at various points along the lakeshore.

The night I flew in to Ivalo brought the first major snow of the season to Lapland. While that transformed the landscape into a winter wonderland, it also meant overcast skies. So night one went down as a bust. The next day, snow continued on and off most of the day, leaving this wintry scene as sunset approached.

That made me skeptical of the forecast calling for skies to clear by 7 pm. Sure enough, though, the clouds really did clear by then. Soon enough, I heard a bunch of people gathering outside. I step outside, and…wow. The aurora borealis had made her appearance. And so I grabbed my camera and coat, and headed down to the lake. The lakeshore in this area is oriented northwest to southeast, and so I headed to the northwest end first, closest to my cabin. Here, green flames appeared to shoot up into the sky from some clouds in the background.

I then worked my way to the center of the hotel’s lake frontage, offering a clear view out over the lake. By now, the aurora had taken on more of the sky, with some hints of red coming through.

As the first phase of the light show began to fade, the lights began making shapes. A half octagon surrounded by green fire, anyone?

One thing to remember about the northern lights is they tend to ebb and flow through the night. After putting on a show for 30-40 minutes, the lights went dim for a bit after the above photo. Soon, though, the lights reappeared to the southeast, this time less bright but with more reds and oranges.

Soon after that, the clouds returned. I used that opportunity to warm up and make some calls back home. Around 10, the skies cleared out once again. And this time, the aurora put on a truly special show. One I didn’t even need to leave my room to enjoy. I sprung for an “igloo” cabin, which features a heated glass roof on one side facing the sky. The selling point is the ability to watch the aurora while lying down in bed. And guess what? When the conditions cooperate, you really can watch the show in bed.

The second show featured a much more vibrant aurora, with the lights truly dancing across the sky. I’ll let the photos do the talking here.

And thanks to the early show, I actually got to bed at a reasonable hour, a little after 11 pm.

I’ll talk about this in another post, but if your aurora chase goes full el busto, there are plenty of other things to do in Lapland. Arctic night makes things more challenging; Ivalo records no daylight from December 4th through January 8th. But you can still do quite a bit in the area, whether it’s visiting reindeer or husky farms, wildlife viewing, ice fishing, skiing, etc. You can even do what I did and drive to Norway to see the Arctic Ocean.

Final Thoughts

I’ve long wanted to see the northern lights, and I’m really, really glad this trip to do some aurora chasing in Finnish Lapland worked out. In a future post, I’ll share more of the things I did on my 3-day trip to the top of the world.

Read the rest of this article at Aurora Chasing in Finnish Lapland.

Note: this post is part of my trip report series about my quick trip to Manchester in February, 2020.  Click here for the trip report index and introductory post.

Four Points by Sheraton Toronto Airport

• 6257 Airport Road, Mississauga, Ontario
• Website: https://www.marriott.com/en-us/hotels/yyzpa-four-points-by-sheraton-toronto-airport/overview/?scid=f2ae0541-1279-4f24-b197-a979c79310b0
• Amenities: airport shuttle, on-site restaurant, fitness center, indoor pool, meeting rooms, guest laundry

The Four Points by Sheraton Toronto Airport is walkable from Terminals 1 and 3 at Pearson. It’s a shorter walk from Terminal 3, though. From Terminal 3, first go to the arrivals level downstairs. Then head out the doors, and turn left along the access road. Walk along the sidewalk past the end of the terminal, and bear left through an employee parking lot. You’ll then come to an access road that leads to a traffic light at Airport Road (Highway 7). Cross the intersection at the light, head left, and the hotel is immediately on the right, next to the Element. The walk takes about 10 minutes.

If coming from Terminal 1, you first need to use the “Terminal Link” shuttle train to Terminal 3. Or if you prefer not to walk, the hotel offers a shuttle serving both terminals every 30 minutes.

If you want to take the Union Pearson Express to the city, you’ll either need to walk to Terminal 3 and then take the Terminal Link back to Terminal 1, or take the shuttle to Terminal 1. As for other stuff in the immediate area, if you’re in the mood for Indian food, there is a sizeable Indian neighborhood about 2 kilometers west on Airport Road. There’s a bus stop (number 7) in front of the hotel heading that direction if you don’t want to walk. I didn’t have time to look around much more than that.

Check-In and Common Areas

It was well past midnight by the time I arrived, but luckily I found no line to check in. If you need a snack or drink, a small selection is for sale next to the front desk.

The lobby area is…spacious and functional but unfortunately oozes cold, cookie-cutter minimalism.

There are several seating areas, including a dining-type table, some couches, and high-backed chairs.

There’s also a large-screen TV, though it’s oddly far removed from any seating.

The hotel does offer a business center in the lobby, albeit a small one. It includes two computers and a printer, helpful if you forgot to print your boarding pass.

In addition to the business center, there is a fitness center and indoor pool. The fitness center includes a few treadmills, stair steppers, and weights.

Meanwhile, the indoor pool is decent sized and includes a whirlpool tub.

I received a room on the first floor, which meant only a short walk to the room. The corridors are likewise nondescript, and pretty typical for a mid-range hotel. Everything was clean and well-maintained, though.

Beware that if you bring a vehicle, parking isn’t free. The hotel charges CAD 28 daily. As with many airport hotels, they do offer “stay & fly” packages including a set number of days of parking at a discounted rate.

A friendly front desk agent stored my bags as I headed to the city, and was nice enough to ask if I needed a shuttle upon my return.

Four Points by Sheraton Toronto Airport – Guest Rooms

Guest rooms are a little on the small side, but overall I found it clean and comfortable. And most importantly, since it was about 15 degrees outside, the heat worked well. This hotel keeps the choices simple; there is only one room type, with 1 king or 2 queen beds. The room I received included 2 queen beds. A blackout screen on the window worked well, and noise wasn’t a problem despite proximity to the airfield.

As mentioned, these rooms are pretty small, with the bedding taking up most of the space. The mattress was comfortable, though, and there’s plenty of pillows provided. While there isn’t room for a separate sitting area, there is a desk directly in front of the beds.

If you like watching TV from the bed, it is well-placed in the center of the wall, easily viewable from either bed. On the other hand, it’s an awkward angle while sitting at the desk.

One big plus of these rooms – there’s no shortage of plugs. First, 0n the desk is an outlet with four 110v sockets and four USB outlets.

Next, the nightstand features an alarm clock with two additional built-in 110V and USB outlets each.

Needless to say, I think it’s physically impossible to run out of outlets to plug in your stuff.

Meanwhile, towards the bathroom is a coffee/tea set, a safe, and a small refrigerator. Waiting in this area were two complimentary bottles of water for my Bonvoy Silver status.

Across the way is a (very small) closet, but somehow, they managed to get an ironing board and a couple of robes in here.

The bathroom is likewise small, but makes fairly efficient use of the space. It includes a shower-tub combo and a surprisingly spacious sink area.

Four Points uses “Activ Body Care” toiletries in bulk dispensers at this property. This is a brand specific to Four Points, but there’s a secondary market on eBay if you’re so inclined. I didn’t find the toiletries particularly noteworthy one way or another. They were fine, and at least the bulk dispensers actually worked.

WiFi is free and pretty fast. I took full advantage of it the next morning figuring out a fix to my severely delayed London – Manchester flight.

Overall, though the room is small, and the decor unexciting, it did the job for what I needed. It was clean, well maintained, and the bed was comfy.

Four Points by Sheraton Toronto Airport – Food & Beverage

The Four Points by Sheraton Toronto Airport features Moments Restaurant for on-site dining. I’ve seen several comments that the restaurant is closed for lunch, though the hotel lists hours as 6 am – 10:30 pm. I ventured into Toronto for lunch, so I only ate breakfast here. The hotel offers breakfast for two inclusive rates at a modest upcharge (CAD 10) on AAA rates. Thus, I decided to book the rate with breakfast.

The included offering is a buffet, with an OK selection of items. Cold items include yogurt, cold cuts, fresh fruit, and cereal. There are also a few hot items, including oatmeal, scrambled eggs, potatoes, bacon, turkey sausage, and baked beans & tomatoes. It’s nothing special, but fine for the price point. (If we’re being honest, it’s a bargain if you’re paying CAD 10 for breakfast for two.)

I did find the bread and juice selection disappointing, though. By 8:30 am, the bread selection was largely picked clean, with only a few pieces remaining. Juices, meanwhile, are canned and not very good at all. You get what you pay for, I suppose. There is a waffle maker if you’re in the mood for waffles, though.

The restaurant itself has two seating areas, one up front with the breakfast buffet, and a secondary area behind. As with all Four Points properties, the restaurant offers its “Best Brews” craft beer selection in the evenings.

Final Thoughts

Don’t get me wrong, a Four Points isn’t something I’d go out of my way to recommend. But for an airport hotel at this price point, it’s an acceptable choice. It’s convenient to the terminals, the rooms are quiet and comfortable, and the service was friendly. You could do worse if you need a short stay at YYZ.

Read the rest of this article at Review: Four Points by Sheraton Toronto Airport.

So I decided to try again in a week – and it occurred to me that my son would be on school break. He’s started asking about daddy’s “field trips” where I take crazy review trips by myself. Rather than do this one myself, I asked Ashok if he wanted to join me. He excitedly said yes, and so we made plans for our first avgeek father and son day. And, you might say, an introduction to my crazy review trips.

A Day Almost Foiled Before It Started

This trip sort of got foiled before it even started. I mentioned I planned this specifically to review United’s 737-MAX 9. But less than 24 hours before departure, I received notification from Flighty of an equipment swap to a 737-900ER. Well that sure stinks. My son’s too young to appreciate canceling a trip because of an equipment swap, and besides, he was beyond excited at that point. So I decided to roll with it and enjoy our day together anyway.

Kicking Off Our Avgeek Father And Son Day

Unlike the previous Tuesday, this morning started cool but sunny. We made it to the airport around 9:15 for our 10:49 departure, and headed to the Capital One Lounge. For the flight, I picked up a sandwich for me, and some milk and a yogurt parfait for Ashok. Meanwhile, we had just enough time for a cup of coffee and some planespotting. Ashok enjoys the big windows looking out over the Terminal D ramp area. (You can also see his tiger carry-on, which he brings with him on every trip.)

As we watched, a very nice Qatar Airways 777 rolled by on its way to the gate. My son, though, was more interested in the trucks and tractors running around on the ramp. I’ll have to talk to him about priorities…

Soon after, we headed back to the Skylink to go back to Terminal E with boarding approaching. On the way, we passed a trio of 777s, two from Qatar Airways, and another from Emirates.

United Airlines Economy Class Review

• First flight: United Airlines (UA) Flight 2004
• Tuesday, December 20, 2022
• Depart: DFW International Airport (DFW), Terminal E, Gate E9, 10:47, 2m early
• Arrive: Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD), Terminal 1, Gate C15, 12:59, 11m early
• Duration: 2 hours 12 minutes
• Seats: 27E, 27F
• Equipment: Boeing 737-900ER

Our flight to Chicago, United 2004, boarded on time, and we headed onboard in Group 3. The cheap seats on the 737-900 aren’t particularly exciting one way or another. Seats are 17.3″ wide with 31 inches of pitch in most seats. With a fair amount of junk shoved under my seat, it did feel pretty tight. The little guy had enough room for his legs and feet, though.

United has multiple versions of the 737-900 in its fleet. This one had 117 standard and 42 Economy Plus seats, all in a 3-3 format. Economy seats looked fairly recently refurbished, with United’s signature blue leather interior.

I almost forgot, we posed for a quick selfie before getting going.

These planes have no in-seat IFE, but they do at least have power outlets, with two for every set of three seats. These rank as my least favorite location for a plug. It’s hard to find the socket, and cords tend to get stuck in feet.

I brought my laptop so Ashok could watch videos, but he had no interest in that. Instead, he wanted to play card games the entire way. So I never had to deal with the tangled cord thing. On the other hand, playing cards on two tray tables takes some slick contortion skills…

My son always commandeers the window seat when we fly. This time, though, a filthy window made it difficult to see out. Nevertheless, he enjoyed staring out just the same. Especially as we passed some snow-covered  ground over central Illinois.

Service on board the flight was, again, nothing particularly noteworthy. For the record, on a short domestic flight, I regard that as a good thing. I enjoyed a stroopwafel, my son some pretzels, we both ate our to go bags from the lounge, and we shared a soda. Well, technically, we ordered our own, but the FA was nice enough to hand us both full cans. The whole can is too much for Ashok, so I shared his and took my can with me.

The aforementioned dirty window made it hard to flightsee, but I did manage a few decent photos. First, as we taxied to the runway, we spotted the old Flying Banana at Terminal E.

Then, as we headed to the C gates at O’Hare, I spotted this nice United 757-300 that landed right behind us. This plane certainly caught my son’s eye.

As an added bonus, we arrived 10 minutes early. This United Airlines economy class review was off to a good start!

And that’s where the “fun” began. As we parked at the gate, Flighty sent me a notification of a tail number change for our return flight. Originally, our A319 was coming from Colorado Springs, and left on time. But United changed it to a plane coming in from…Vancouver. You remember what happened in Vancouver on December 20th? That’s right, the snowstorm that nearly basically shut down the airport. The plane, already more than 4 hours late leaving the gate, wouldn’t arrive until 45 minutes after our scheduled departure. And sure enough, Flighty soon sent an alert of a 90 minute delay for our flight. It also seemed pretty clear that plane was stuck on the taxiway and not moving.  Lovely…

Anyway, nothing we can do about that, so Ashok and I went to find some food. He wanted pizza, so I took him to Reggio’s in the C Gates food court. The food court was packed, so we walked a little and found and empty gate area to sit down. It’s lousy pizza, but he enjoyed a slice, which is what matters.

After lunch, he REALLY wanted to explore the tunnel to the B gates, so I obliged.

That plane stuck in the snow in Vancouver finally took off after 2 hours on the taxiway, which meant a nearly 4 hour delay for our flight home. (I did look into alternative flights. Unfortunately, in the peak of the Christmas season, nothing turned up.) At the time, my son was on a playing cards kick, so we spent most of our extended layover playing card games. With occasional breaks for climbing on the sofas while moving around to empty gate areas, of course.

Finally, our 2-hour layover turned into 6 came to an end. Our flight home was ready to board!

• Second flight: UA Flight 1011
• Depart: Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD), Terminal 1, Gate C30, 19:27, 3 hours 38 minutes late
• Arrive: DFW International Airport (DFW), Terminal E, Gate E8, 21:48, 3 hours 16 minutes late
• Duration: 2 hours 21 minutes
• Seats: 27A, 27B
• Equipment: Airbus A319

This plane was a real “ghetto bird” as my friend Matthew at Live and Let’s Fly would say. Not only did this plane not have any in-flight entertainment, it had no power ports in deep coach, either. The faded writing at the bottom of the seatback shows this plane’s age, too. At least legroom felt a little better than on the 737, despite only 30″ of pitch.

The seat itself at least looked recently refreshed.

Oddly, I flew on an United A319 to Newark last April – and that plane had power ports in standard Economy. United is slowly refurbishing its A319s to increase the First Class cabin from 8 to 12 seats, and as part of that re-do, deep coach apparently gets power ports, too. Anyway, below are a few photos from that April flight, showing the Economy cabin in its 3-3 configuration. For A319s with in-seat power, the outlets are below the armrests on the seatback in front. These are much easier to reach than the underseat outlets on the 737-900.

This return flight proved equally uneventful once underway. No stroopwafels on this flight, but Ashok and I enjoyed a package of Biscoff. And we played more card games, somehow managing not to lose a single one underneath the seats. There was no flightseeing on this leg, with the entire trip occurring after dark. Oh, the Biscoff provided the oomph needed to finally jar my son’s loose tooth out. That made his first flight with just dad all the more memorable for him.

We finally made it back home WAY past Ashok’s bedtime. But with no school the next day, and a visit from the tooth fairy forthcoming, he didn’t mind at all.

Final Thoughts

You know the best part of this father-son day? I didn’t spend a single minute doing anything work related, something I haven’t done in a very long time. We literally used the entire day to spend quality time together. And that’s making me look forward to finding another vacation day to do this again.

Oh, yeah, about those final thoughts on the actual United Airlines economy class review. The plane swap and subsequent delay were annoying, but otherwise, this was perfectly reasonable for domestic coach. I mean, what more do you need than a stroopwafel for breakfast?

Read the rest of this article at Avgeek Father And Son Day – United Airlines Economy Class Review.

(And yes, I do intend to post about about my experience aurora chasing in Lapland. I’ve just been having a devil of a time getting the photos to format properly.)

Singapore Airlines (SQ) Flight 26

• Tuesday, October 25, 2022
• Depart: Flughafen Frankfurt am Main (FRA), Terminal 1, Gate B46, 09:13, 38m late
• Arrive: New York – John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), Terminal 4, 12:35, 1 hour 25m late
• Duration: 9 hours 22 minutes
• Seat: 2F
• Equipment: Airbus A380-800

Note that while the Frankfurt – New York Fifth Freedom route continues, the A380 disappears effective May 15, 2023. Instead, Singapore plans to deploy a 777-300ER after that date. Unfortunately, while First Class will continue to be offered, it will be the “standard” First offered on the 777. See reviews by Brad and Rocky for more info. So you can no longer look forward to Suites on the cheap on this route. Also note that Saver pricing now costs 97,000 KrisFlyer miles, up from 86,000 when I booked.

Check-In and Boarding

If there’s one letdown about the Singapore Suites experience in Frankfurt, it’s the lack of a distinctive check-in process. Compared to Air France La Première or Lufthansa First, Singapore offers pretty much…nothing…at Frankfurt. Sure, you get a dedicated Suites Class check-in desk, but there are no special lounges or other special services. No, I don’t expect Singapore to offer its own First Class lounge at an outstation. But when other world-class products like La Première offer things like escorts to the gate, even at outstations like Barcelona, it feels like Singapore can do better.

All that said, I appreciated the dedicated check-in, because take a look at the Economy queue…

Singapore Airlines Suites Class passengers at Frankfurt receive access to two lounges, the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge, and the Lufthansa Senator Lounge. I arrived at the terminal nearly 3 hours early, so I had plenty of time to visit both lounges. I’ll post reviews of both later.

Due to a late arriving aircraft from Singapore, our flight also took a scheduled delay of 35 minutes. I headed over to the gate about 15 minutes prior to boarding, hoping to hop on board early. What I encountered was a rather chaotic scene, with signs denoting boarding groups but long, disorganized lines for each. (Supposedly, Singapore offers a roped-off area up front for Suites Customers, but I didn’t see it.) As boarding began, I asked a gate agent if she could point me to the Suites line, and she quickly invited me to skip the queue and head onboard. Singapore uses two jet bridges for the A380, one for the upper deck and one for the lower. After heading down the bridge for the upper deck, a FA warmly welcomed me on board and directed me to my suite.

Singapore Airlines A380 Suites Class – Seating and Interior

In this configuration, Singapore offers just six suites on the upper deck of the A380 over three rows. Note that some versions of the A380 have the Suites on the lower deck. These aircraft feature 12 suites over four rows, with two sets of middle seats. The setup sort of resembles the Kosmo 2.0 Suite on Korean Air’s 747. However, the overall design is much more distinctive, and the walls seem to go up higher.

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And of course, there’s just always something special about a staircase on an airplane.

My only minor complaint is that the high suite walls make the aisle seem dark.

As for the suite itself, holy moly, the space is huge. Measuring nearly 50 square feet, the A380 Suite features a recliner seat and a separate bed. This contrasts to the standard F product, which features a regular seat that flips forward into a bed. I’ve taken pictures from a variety of angles to provide a better idea of the entire space. Looking in from the door, the recliner looks forward from the back wall, with the bed stowed in the forward wall.

As a point of reference, here’s how the space compares to some competing First Class “closed suite” products. First, Korean Air’s Kosmo 2.0 Suite.

Second, Air France’s La Première suite on the Boeing 777. I count this as a “closed suite” since the curtain wraps around the seat completely.

Yes, it really is a massive footprint for an airplane seat.

For takeoff and landing, the recliner faces forward, looking like a standard premium class seat. However, these recliners offer considerably more width than most seats, at 35 inches.

What makes the seat particularly innovative is the 270 degree swivel feature. You can look straight ahead if you want. But you can, for instance, turn the seat 90 degrees to look straight out the window.

Or you can swivel 45 degrees to the left for a better view of the TV.

Or swivel a full 90 degrees left to line up with the tray table. (I’ll have photos of the table when describing the meal service.)

Thanks to the large footprint, the suites include a very large amount of storage space. First and foremost is the storage closet by the door. It’s plenty large enough to hold a full-size carry on, plus quite a lot more. Got carried away at the duty free before boarding? No sweat, you’ll have plenty of room to store all your goodies.

In the back corner, there’s a “cradle” style compartment large enough to store a backpack or laptop bag.

Or you can also shove a backpack or small bag underneath the tray where the top of the bed folds down. Speaking of which, when not sleeping, the tray can double as a storage space for small items.

As you can see from the first few photos, there’s also storage along the window for personal items like phones or cameras. Finally, there’s one last storage compartment holding the headphones. It’s a decent nook to stick a wallet, passport, or glasses. (Personally, I never use these spaces for anything but glasses. As absent minded as I am, I’m all but certain to forget whatever I stick in there.)

The suite contains two sets of controls. First, next to the window is a control panel to adjust the lights, window shades, and “Do Not Disturb” sign. This aircraft features full blind-like shades that can be fully lowered while sleeping.

Meanwhile, the seat controls are on a touchpad in the recliner’s left-hand armrest. The bottom part of the touch remote controls the swivel, while the top is supposed to control recline. The contrast washed out in the lighting, but the swivel control is pretty simple. You push the picture of the window to swivel towards the window, “TV” to swivel towards the door, and the airplane to put the seat back in take-off/landing mode. However, I think the recline settings might have been broken on my remote (more on this later). Below the touchpad is a remote control for the TV.  There is an additional “TV” button at the bottom of the touchpad which moves the TV towards or away from the seat.

Singapore Airlines places an orchid at the front of the armrest that connects to the tray table. It’s a nice touch, perhaps intended to mimic the rose provided in Lufthansa First. I also hadn’t noticed this previously, but even the wallpaper in the back has some nice floral designs.

So what about the door? I’ve been critical of the trend towards business class seats with doors.  Mainly because the ones I’ve tried, like Delta One on the A350 or the new BA Club Suite, feel like…a business class seat with a door. But I do think if you’re going to do a suite with a door, this is how you do it. The enormous space, combined with the high walls, make this feel like a real enclosed room with the door closed.

But wait, there’s more! In two pairs of suites (1A/2A and 1F/2F), the wall by the bed lowers, allowing the two suites to transform into a double bed. 1F was occupied, so the FA couldn’t demonstrate. But it’s a terrific option for couples traveling together.

Needless to say, there’s plenty of legroom in these seats. When in the take-off/landing position, my feet couldn’t touch the bed folded against the wall.

But what about the most important part, the bed? When you’re ready to sleep, the bed folds down from the wall. Unlike seats that recline into a bed-like space, this is an actual, honest-to-goodness bed. I had the FA make the bed for a much needed post-lunch nap.

Singapore’s Suites Class bed includes a thick mattress pad. From my perspective, the bed and suite were really comfortable, and I slept soundly for a good 3 hours. But I should also note that I like my bed on the firm side, and prefer a warm cabin. There’s several reviews out there commenting that the mattress is too firm, and the placement of the bed by the wall contributes to making the suite too warm.  Both are valid criticisms.

So were there any things I didn’t like about the space? There were a couple. First, when in take-off/landing mode, the seat sits pretty far back from the window. Looking out the window requires leaning forward quite a bit. For that matter, maybe it’s an illusion due to the size of the suite, but the window seemed rather small.

Second, try as I might, I just couldn’t get the seat to recline. It’s very possible it was user error, or maybe a busted controller. Either way, the lack of recline did impact seat comfort after a couple of hours. I also found the padding a little on the hard side. The firmness worked for the bed, but not so much for the recliner.

Meanwhile, Suites Class passengers have access to two lavatories at the front of the cabin. The lavatory to the left is a standard sized A380 lav, though it does have a nice sitting bench in front of the sink. The one on the right, though, is another story. While there’s no shower like on Emirates’ A380, the lav is huge. There’s not only plenty of space to move around, but also a separate sitting area in front of the vanity mirror. Combined with the mood lighting, it’s arguably the second fanciest setup in the sky.

A bouquet of flowers in front of the large mirror adds a touch of class to the space.

The one addition I wish for? A window, because who doesn’t love a window in a lav?

Overall, purely from a hard product standpoint, this is one impressive offering. While I haven’t sampled the Emirates A380 suite (that’s coming in November), it does beat beat all of the other products I’ve tried so far. In my opinion, it even edges out La Première on the 777. But how does it stack up in the soft product?

Singapore Airlines A380 Suites Class – In-Flight Entertainment

The centerpiece of Singapore’s IFE in Suites Class is the 32″ TV screen featuring the KrisWorld entertainment system. The screen takes up quite the amount of space in the corner by the door. As mentioned earlier, it can also swivel towards the recliner if desired.

A second controller by the window contains a dual display.  However, it isn’t possible (at least as far as I could tell) to view different programs on the TV and controller. Rather, it’s just a duplicated display. I suppose that’s useful if you prefer to face forward or look out the window while using the IFE.

The KrisFlyer system is quite good, with a wide variety of Western, Asian, and Bollywood TV series and movies, both new and classics, and even regional specialties like anime and Ultramax. Perhaps best of all, there are several full seasons available on demand. While this relatively short 8-hour flight isn’t necessarily the best for binge watching, those full seasons surely come in handy on ultra long-haul routes. (As an aside, I remember a very early iteration of KrisFlyer on a SQ 747 back in the late 1990s. It certainly felt revolutionary at the time, but it’s come a LONG way since then.)

I did find it interesting that KrisFlyer differentiates between “Bollywood” and “Indian Regional” for specific South Indian languages. That’s something you usually see lumped into one category.

There are even Singapore-centric channels, including one dedicated to Formula One.

And of course, if you don’t want to watch TV or movies, there are plenty of other selections available. This includes games, music, and even audiobooks and podcasts.

Don’t even want to do that? There’s always the moving map for your viewing pleasure.

As far as power for your own gadgets, each suite includes two 110V power ports and USB ports. The first set is underneath the window and auxiliary IFE controller. This area includes the headphone jack, an HDMI port, and a contactless payment reader (if you fancy on-board duty-free purchases).

Then, underneath the seat is a second combo 110v and USB port.

Speaking of which, Singapore provides Bang & Olfusen noise-canceling headphones in Suites Class. These are excellent, but unfortunately, use a special adapter that is incompatible with a personal device.

Singapore does offer WiFi on its A380s. Suites Class passengers receive free WiFi for the entire flight with no data caps. Business Class and PPS Club members, meanwhile, receive 100 MB of free WiFi. For those not eligible for free WiFi, pricing is as follows:

• A “chat pass” is $3.99 (good for 2 hours only, for apps like WhatsApp, FB Messenger, etc.).
• A 100MB pass is $9.99.
• A 200MB pass is $15.99.
• A three hour pass with no data caps is $15.99.

While I find these metered plans obnoxious, there is at least an unlimited plan available, though time limited. The bad news? Speeds weren’t very good. This seemed odd, as this aircraft is a newer A380, which entered service in 2018. Nevertheless, speeds were mediocre at best, and borderline unusable at times.

Singapore Airlines A380 Suites Class – Food & Beverage

Here’s where I’m probably going to draw some flack from the bloggerati. While the soft product rated very highly in my book, I came away less impressed with the food & beverage. Yes, I probably spend too much time obsessing on airline food and drink. But it’s an important part of the experience for me, so it does make a difference in my book.

I’ll start off with an admission of inexcusable user error – I forgot to Book the Cook. It’s not that I didn’t know about book the cook. I simply forgot about it until it was too late. Some of the selections available from Frankfurt certainly looked good, and might have changed my opinion. Anyway, things started nicely enough with an offer of a pre-departure beverage. The one time I drink champagne is when it’s PDB time. And there’s no way I was missing this #champagneselfie featuring Dom Perignon 2009. The FAs were nice enough to take a photo both of the bubbly getting poured, and of me with the expensive beverage. Included with the beverage was a ramekin of warm mixed nuts. (You can choose Krug Grand Cuvée if you prefer. Or one of each if you really want to go wild.)

And then, of course, selfie time…

So why does someone who doesn’t care about champagne care about a glass of Dom Perignon? Back in the 1980s, while I was in grade school, my late father and I used to enjoy dreaming about stuff we couldn’t afford. Fancy cars, big houses, anything in the “I want to make lots of money at work and buy that someday” bucket. My dad didn’t drink, but one day he read about Dom in a magazine somewhere. My dad didn’t drink, but the obscene price tag caught his attention. And so it became one of those things he’d hoped I’d get to try when I grew up. It took 30+ years, but I can just imagine his face lighting up if I could tell him I finally enjoyed that glass of Dom. And so here’s to you, dad…

Anyway, after offering beverages, the FA handed out menus for the flight to New York. Meal service on this route includes both lunch and a pre-landing snack.

The wine selection is impressive. In addition to the aforementioned Dom and Krug, the list includes a selection of vintage whites and reds.

Singapore also offers an extensive selection of cocktails in Suites Class, including the iconic Singapore Sling.

Don’t drink (or not in the mood) and want something other than soda? There’s also a selection of mocktails available.

The liquor selection, while not as impressive as ANA First Class, does include one notable item. That’s the Macallan Lumina, which retails for $300 a bottle.

Finally, Singapore offers a large selection of coffees, espresso drinks, and teas. The tea selection, in particular, has to be the biggest I’ve seen in the air, one that takes up 2 full pages. Note that while not specifically shown on the menu, the FAs can make typical espresso drinks like cappuccino.

Formal meal service began quickly, about 20 minutes after take-off. I ordered a Singapore Sling to go with SQ’s signature satay. I enjoyed the Sling, which I found well-balanced; not overly sweet but refreshing. While I’m sure this will get me skewered in some circles, I’m not a huge fan of the satay. That’s partly because I’m not a huge fan of the dish in general, as I find the peanut sauce too sweet. Although advertised as “spicy”, it’s probably a 2/10 on the heat meter. The chicken is good quality, though. And the onion and cucumber shaped like a lotus is creative presentation.

After appetizers were cleared, the FAs offered another drink. This time, I switched to the Bordeaux. However, they didn’t have the 2008 listed on the menu, and offered a Chateau Leoville Porferré 2007 instead. This wine runs about $100 a bottle in the US, assuming you can find it.

This Bordeaux had some nice berry notes, and almost a slightly carbonated feel on the finish. It’s perhaps a little on the bold side, but it paired decently with my main course (I’ll get to that in a second). Next up was the bread basket, and I took an excellent pretzel bread. The roll was warm and soft, with a melt-in-your-mouth texture.

That was soon followed by the appetizers. I passed on the caviar (yes, I know, blasphemy) and went with the sea scallops and red pepper soup instead.

The sea scallops were beautifully presented, and was a decent dish overall. While I enjoyed the sauce, I detected more turmeric than carrot (it didn’t overwhelm the dish, though). I also found the scallops nicely cooked. The red pepper soup, though, was a big miss. The fish dumpling wasn’t my thing, at all, and I found the soup itself remarkably bland for a pepper soup.

Then came the main course; I went with a Chinese selection and ordered the braised pork ribs.

Once again, I received a beautifully presented dish. But once again, the dish came in too bland. It had good potential, with a flavorful sweet sauce, but the steamed vegetables screamed for some spices. Notice a recurring theme here?

Now the time came for desert. I briefly thought about the cheese plate, but I really wanted something with ice cream. So I went with the lemon tart (note the typo on the menu, with “cirtron” instead of “citron”).

I usually don’t do deserts with lemon, but this one worked. The lemon wasn’t too overpowering, with the ice cream providing a nice balance. And it’s not often you come across a well-executed meringue on an airplane. And of course, I couldn’t resist ordering the Macallan. This single malt is smooth rather than smoky, and has a very nice caramel apple flavor. It’s a nice whisky to slow sip and draw out a fancy meal.

Meal service from start to finish took about 90 minutes. That seems appropriate for a westbound daytime flight. You can ask the flight attendant to speed up the meal service if you prefer to get some extra sleep.

Following my nap, I asked for a cappuccino, which the FA happily brought within a couple of minutes. Singapore offers proper espresso drinks in Suites Class, a much appreciated perk.

About an hour prior to landing, the FAs offered the pre-landing snack. This time, I decided to try the cheeseburger sliders.

These actually were pretty good. The beef wasn’t hammered, and the onion jam gave the sliders a nice flavor. Too bad I wasn’t terribly hungry at this point. Afterwards, I tried a cup of the “1837” hot tea. It’s a nice, smooth blend. It’s just too bad it’s impossible to make a proper boiled tea in the air. (And what I would give for a lounge that can make a proper loose tea at the bar…)

So why did I feel unimpressed with the overall meal service? It’s the inconsistency as much as anything else. The scallops appetizer and the pre-landing snack were good, I enjoyed the wine selection, and The Macallan was a nice treat. But I found the main course and the soup mediocre, and everything needed more heat. As much hype as Singapore gets for its First Class meal service, it didn’t meet the mark IMO.

In-Flight Service

In this regard, the product really did match the hype. The cabin service was simply excellent from start to finish. Reading other reviews, I feared the service might be too over the top to the point of feeling intrusive. But this crew struck the perfect balance between attentiveness and giving you space to savor the experience.

From the very start, the primary FA warmly welcomed me aboard, and took a few extra minutes to give me an overview of the suite when I told her it was my first time aboard Suites Class. Bonus points for helping me take the photo with the Dom, too. During meal service, both Suites Class FAs ensured drinks stayed filled while pacing the meal as each passenger preferred.

It was between meals where service shined the most, though. Perhaps recognizing I preferred a more hands-off approach, the FAs were there instantly if I needed something, but otherwise, left me to enjoy the experience. That ability to adapt to each passenger takes skill, and is similar to the exemplary service I received in Lufthansa First. (All I can say is, thank goodness nobody tried to remove my shoes…)

Flightseeing

Frankfurt is one of my favorite airports for planespotting, and this morning certainly didn’t disappoint. As we pushed back towards the taxiway, I first spotted an Etihad 77W headed to Abu Dhabi later.

Next up, a Sun Express 738. I’d never heard of Sun Express, an airline founded in 1989 as a joint venture between Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines. The airline operates a leisure-heavy operation with a fleet of mostly 737s throughout Europe.

Then, as we reached the taxiway, I got a clearer shot of a Condor plane in the old livery (pretty sure it’s a 767-300).

As we headed to the runway, I spotted an Ethiopian 777 in the distance. I’ve seen the Ethiopian 787 before, but I’d never captured the Triple Seven.

And finally, as we lifted off, a shot of Lufthansa’s iconic 747.  Long live the Queen.

Shortly after take-off, the clear morning afforded a nice view of the German countryside below.

Unfortunately, things clouded over shortly thereafter, and remained overcast the entire way across the Atlantic. The puffy clouds were picturesque, at least.

Skies finally did clear briefly over northeastern Quebec, giving a glimpse of lands quickly becoming ice covered.

The clouds finally broke again on final approach, as we flew along the barrier islands south of Long Island. As you can see in the last shot, there was quite a bit of fog around JFK, finally breaking as we approached midday. That same fog mucked up domestic flights pretty good, ultimately delaying my flight back to Dallas by about an hour.

After landing, we headed to the penalty box, and proceeded to wait. And wait. And wait some more. Incredibly, JFK has just one gate capable of handling an A380. Our flight has a scheduled arrival time of 11:10. An Emirates A380 to Dubai has a scheduled departure time of 11:20. That by itself guarantees a trip to the penalty box. But then, the Emirates flight had issues loading baggage, and so we ended up stuck there for nearly an hour. Not Singapore’s fault, of course, but annoying nonetheless. Luckily I had plenty of time to make my connection, so no real harm.

Anyway, once we finally got moving, I saw a couple of interesting sports-themed jetBlue A320s. The first was a Brooklyn Nets livery.

And the second, a special livery dedicated to the J-E-T-S Jets! Naturally. (As a Cowboys fan, as long as it’s not the Giants, it’s all good.)

One other neat find – an Air India 77W preparing for the long flight to Delhi.

Singapore Airlines A380 Suites Class – Final Thoughts

To be honest, I’m a little torn about what to think here. Rocky dropped the dreaded overrated label on Singapore’s Business Class. I’m not quite ready to go that far on Suites Class. The hard product and service are objectively great. I found the food less than great, though, clearly outgunned by ANA, Lufthansa, and even Korean Air. Meanwhile, the ground service at Frankfurt really isn’t “First Class” at all. Air France and Lufthansa really set the standard there. If Air France can offer escorts to the plane on a connection from Barcelona in Business Class, and Lufthansa can offer escorts to passport control at an outstation like Washington Dulles, then why can’t Singapore offer anything special at Frankfurt or JFK?

Perhaps it’s a case of the hype setting the bar impossibly high. But I left this flight placing Singapore Suites a distant third behind La Première and Lufthansa First. Maybe a true ultra-long haul up front might change my opinion.

Read the rest of this article at Review: Singapore Airlines A380 Suites Class, Frankfurt to New York.

The History of East Boston

Before I start, perhaps a more accurate description is “short walking tour of Jeffries Point”. Although it was a short walking tour of East Boston, I only had about 2 1/2 hours to get back to the airport after making a couple of phone calls home. So I didn’t really have time to go through the all of Eastie.

Anyway, East Boston, aka “Eastie”, originally was a separate settlement altogether. East Boston originally consisted of five separate islands – Noddle’s, Hogg, Governor’s, Apple, and Bird. The islands remained largely undeveloped until the 1830s. At that time, William H. Sumner laid out a street grid on the largest island, Noddle’s, which led to the first residential settlement. Jeffries Point, on the southeast side of the island, became the first developed neighborhood in 1834. A sugar refinery and the shipbuilding industry soon followed, turning East Boston into a boomtown. The rapid expansion let East Boston’s big brother, the City of Boston, to annex the town in 1836.

So what happened to the other islands? Hogg Island, which separated East Boston from Revere and Winthrop, was connected to Noddle’s via landfilling in the 1940s. As for Apple, Bird, and Governor’s Islands? These were also landfilled in the 1940s, later subsumed by the runways and taxiways of Logan Airport.

Perhaps Eastie’s most significant contribution to Boston’s history is its role in immigration to the United States. Starting in the mid-1800s, Eastie became known as “Boston’s Ellis Island” for the many immigrants who settled here. In the 19th century, Irish and Canadian immigrants settled first, followed by Russian Jews and Italians. Moving into the 20th century, Southeast Asians settled here, and more recently, Hispanic immigrants from Central and South America. One particularly famous Massachusetts family traces its history to Eastie. The Kennedy family immigrated from County Wexford in Ireland in 1849, settling in a small home on Meridian Street.

How to Reach East Boston from Logan Airport

To reach East Boston from the airport, Terminal A is the best starting point. When you exit on the lower level, first head left towards the taxi stand.

Though it’s hard to tell, the sidewalk continues along the bus lane extending past the terminal. After a short walk, you reach the end of the bus lane at Hotel Drive.

Walk to the left, and you’ll reach a large intersection. From here, Tomahawk Drive continues straight, Transportation Way is to the right, and Harborside Drive is to the left.

From here, you can go straight along Tomahawk Drive, along the south side of the large Massport parking lot. Or you can turn right and walk along the north side of the parking lot. I followed this route, which led to a Shell station at the next traffic light.

Then head left at the traffic light, walk around the building, and continue to the red crosswalk. The crosswalk leads to Maverick Street; finally turn right to enter Eastie.

Here’s a quick map showing the walking route I took to and from the airport.

Short Walking Tour of East Boston

It was past 1:30 at this point, so getting some food was first priority. I thought about Santarpio’s Pizza, where JFK waved to the crowd during his Senate run in 1954. But I ate pizza for dinner the night before, and wasn’t really in the mood. Instead, I found Carmella’s Market, an old-school Italian market on Everett Street. It’s really a small deli counter that also sells some Italian staples. The menu is taped on flyers both inside and outside the store, with a variety of sandwiches on tap.

Inside, there’s but a single table to sit and eat. An open deli counter displays the day’s selections. You can order meats and cheeses to go, and take some staples with you.

I ordered “The Taft”, a prosciutto and soppressata sandwich with provolone and vinegar peppers. The bread is freshly made, and simply put, it’s one delicious sandwich.

Now, since there’s only one table, where can you go to eat your meal? Fortunately, Piers Park is just three blocks south, so I headed there in search of a picnic table. I found one with a great view of Boston Harbor and the downtown skyline. Beautiful early fall weather – 63 degrees and full sunshine – made a perfect day for a picnic.

After enjoying my sandwich, I headed down to the water to take in some skyline views and admire the sailboats in the harbor, which can be bought from a local boat dealer. The park, while not crowded, saw a healthy number of Bostonians visiting to enjoy the beautiful day.

A large marina pays homage to the neighborhood’s roots as the center of Boston’s shipbuilding industry.

Meanwhile, a look back towards Jeffries Point from the pier provides a great view of the neighborhood. The residential neighborhood, as seen here and in the following photos, provides a glimpse of the contrast found in historic urban neighborhoods throughout the USA. Housing shortages and the increasing pains of commuting push people to rediscover close-in, historic neighborhoods. However, with that push comes the teardowns, as the value of the land underneath dwarfs that of the structure. In sprawling cities like Dallas, this spawned the “McMansion”. You’re surely seen it – the cookie-cutter suburban home about two sizes too big for the lot replacing the historic single-family home that sat there. In Jeffries Point, you’ll instead see a mix of quaint old rowhouses interspersed with the hideously ugly “Big Square Box” apartment building common in modern architecture.

Anyway, after a few minutes relaxing and enjoying the view, I retraced my steps to the airport. This time, I headed down Everett Street, one of the main streets through Jeffries Point. A beautiful, quiet Saturday afternoon is one of the best times to walk through neighborhoods like this one. Tourists are few and far between, but you’ll see the locals out and about enjoying the weekend with their families. And as I alluded to before, the odd mix of historic rowhouses and modern Rubik’s Cubes.

Final Thoughts

If you have a long layover at Logan, a quick walk through Eastie is a very doable itinerary to stretch your legs and grab a bite to eat. That’s especially true if you have a long layover at Delta’s Terminal A, where you don’t have access to any Priority Pass options. And the restaurant options don’t exactly rate highly in the first place…

Read the rest of this article at Eastie For an Afternoon – Short Walking Tour of East Boston.

United Bundle Offers – A Bad Deal!

I recently purchased a United Economy ticket from Dallas to Chicago. Why? Because I really want to fly the 737-MAX 9, and that’s the most convenient routing to try it. (Don’t ask me why. I guess it’s because I’m irrationally obsessed with the MAX in the same vein as the 717.) Of course, flying to Chicago on a weekday in December returns some pretty low fares.

As I’ll explain later, it’s generally NOT a good idea to choose the “Economy Plus” option. It won’t save you money, and the booking code provides no benefit if crediting to a partner program.

When you purchase a ticket on United, you’ll usually see a buy-up offer for extras like this:

While I’ve seen these for years, I rarely gave them a second glance. Most involved some sort of checked bag offer, and none of my recent United flights warranted a bag.

In this case, though, the pricing jumped out and caught my attention. All of these bundle offers center around Economy Plus seating. And the price seemed awful high for a flight from DFW to Chicago. Though it’s $6 cheaper to buy out of Economy Minus here than when selecting the fare, it’s still not a good deal. That’s because Economy Plus seats on this flight, if purchased separately, run from $59 to $77. In other words, you save up to $15 by waiting until the seat selection screen.

I suppose if you REALLY want one of those $76 or $77 seats, buy the bundle and save a few bucks. (And if you bought an Economy Plus “fare” – really just an Economy fare with an $80 seat fee – you come out behind every time.)

As for the other offers, they’re not any better. If I wanted to buy Economy Plus, I’d pick a window, which goes for $66 on this flight. So if I picked the seat and paid for a checked bag, that’s a total of $96. Why pay $7 more than you have to by purchasing the bundle? For the last bundle offer, I guess it depends on how much you value priority boarding. If you’re in Economy Plus, you already get Group 3, so does Group 2 justify an upcharge? In my mind, no, but maybe it’s worth it to you.

The value propositions deteriorate further when buying a Basic Economy ticket. These United bundle offers popped up when I clicked the Basic Economy fare.

Meanwhile, here’s the seat assignment a la carte pricing for Basic Economy on this flight:

Seat assignments include preferred seats, so I guess if you really want that $41 preferred seat, you get a slight discount. (Most “preferred” seats on this flight go for $25 or $26. And frankly, I don’t see any value in a standard coach seat a few rows farther up to begin with.) But otherwise, you lose with every possible seat. Even when checking a bag, you’re still better off paying the $30 for the bag and $16 for a window in the back than buying the bundle. The only one that sort of constitutes a “deal” is the checked bag plus United Club pass.  This results in a price of $47 for the pass, or a $12 discount off the standard price. Personally, I wouldn’t pay $47 for a United Club pass, but YMMV.

For that matter, if you value a seat assignment, why buy a Basic Economy fare on this routing to begin with? The buy-up to standard Economy Minus is only $17, which gives you access to all standard seat assignments. And then you can take a regular carry-on to boot.

Final Thoughts

Granted, these United bundle offers vary each time you buy a ticket, so maybe these provide real value on occasion. But based on my offers, why would you ever buy most of these? United’s price points just don’t make much sense at all. Now, throw in a cheeseburger, and you’ve got my attention…

Read the rest of this article at United Bundle Offers Are Often A Lousy Deal.

As mentioned, I managed to find AAdvantage Saver space for 57,500 miles for this flight. That meant an out-of-pocket cost of just $5.60 for this 10+ hour flight.

Finnair (AY) Flight 20

• Thursday, October 20, 2022
• Depart: DFW International Airport (DFW), Terminal D, Gate D8, 16:52, 3m early
• Arrive: Helsinki – Vantaa Airport (HEL), Terminal 2, 10:34 (+1), 36m early
• Duration: 9 hours 42 minutes
•  Seat: 2A
• Equipment: Airbus A350-900

Check-In and Boarding

I arrived at DFW just about 2 hours prior to departure, and found a nearly empty check-in desk. I asked the gate agent if it was an empty flight, and she clarified most passengers were connecting passengers. Annoyingly, by boarding pass failed to include my TSA Precheck credentials. However, I found the closest security line nonexistent at mid-afternoon, so it took only a few minutes to get through regardless. Interestingly, even though American’s Flagship Lounge at DFW reopened several months ago, Finnair continues to direct its guests to the Capital One Lounge. Admittedly, the Capital One Lounge is objectively superior to the Flagship Lounge. But I still find it interesting that AA’s Oneworld partner directs its premium passengers to a competitor lounge.

Anyway, after an hour in the lounge finishing up last-minute emails, I headed to the gate at scheduled boarding time. There, I found boarding already underway through Group 3, so I headed straight onboard. A flight attendant warmly welcomed me on board, and directed me left to the Business Class cabin.

Finnair A350-900 Business Class – Seating and Interior

The new Finnair A350-900 Business Class certainly features a unique concept. That is, the fixed-shell seats that don’t recline at all. Finnair describes the Collins Aerospace “Air Lounge” seat as akin to a “classic piece of Nordic furniture”. At first glance, the seats appear no different than other Business Class seats. The dark blue fabric is stylish, though, and combined with the wood finishes, definitely gives off a Nordic feel. Depending on which version of the A359 you fly, the cabin features either 30 or 43 seats in a 1-2-1 configuration. Seat pitch is 78″, which is fairly standard for Business Class.  Seat width, though, significantly surpasses most business class products, at 25″.

Note: I borrowed (with permission) several of these photos from my friend Matthew Klint at Live and Let’s Fly. More on why that is later. Matthew flew the A330, but the seat/interior is essentially identical to the A350-900.

If you choose a middle seat, the default configuration includes a tall panel that provides plenty of privacy. However, Finnair says these panels can be removed to create a larger shared space. If you’re traveling with a companion, and want to socialize, that makes these potentially superior to standard reverse herringbone seats.

So the question everyone wants to know the answer to – how comfortable are the seats? You might think the lack of recline makes the seats uncomfortable. However, I found the seats really comfortable in the seated position. I tend to slouch when seated, and these seats lend themselves to slouching. In addition, generous padding makes the seat comfortable on the back and upper thighs. In fact, the seat proved a little too comfortable. Before dinner trays were even cleared, I fell asleep in the seat sitting up – and then woke up 8 hours later, 25 minutes outside Helsinki. I ended up just sliding down and curling up in the seat without realizing it. Thanks to the 25″ of width, it’s really easy to curl up and sleep, even without the bed made.

If you do want to properly make the bed, though, it’s a two-step process.  First, slide the seat forward using the controls under the armrest (the fourth button).

Then flip the legrest up to make the flat bed.

Though the footwell looks narrow, it actually provided more than adequate foot space.

The new Air Lounge also includes a couple of useful storage areas. The first is at the back of the seat, where the headphones and IFE controller are stored.

The second is near the ottoman/footrest, which contains two cubbies with plenty of space for a phone/tablet. The A330 includes a separate bottle holder, but here, it’s plenty deep enough to hold a bottle of water.

Air Lounge seats feature an oversized table by the window with an integrated wireless charging pad. I’m a cheap-a** with an old phone that can’t charge wirelessly, so I couldn’t test how it worked.

There is also a reading light at the top of the backrest.

One thing that surprised me was how small the windows are.  You do have to lean forward quite a bit to see outside clearly.

Meanwhile, waiting at each Business Class seat was a Marimekko amenity kit, along with a mattress pad and blanket. Unfortunately, I forgot to take the kit with me, but Finnair’s website provides the following details regarding contents:

• Lip balm
• Facial cream
• Sleep maks
• Ear plugs
• Toothbrush

Amenities are provided by L:a Bruket, a high-end Swedish brand.

I found the blanket quite comfortable, part of the reason I slept so well even partially sitting up. Unfortunately I can’t comment on the mattress pad, because I never got around to making the bed.

Speaking of L:a Bruket, the Business Class lavatory also features its products. The hand wash and lotion had a mild, pleasant scent. I found the lavatory itself a bit on the small side, though the FAs maintained it well throughout the flight.

There is also a bottle of disinfectant spray in the storage area next to the sink.

If I had one criticism of the seat, I agree with Matthew that it’s not terribly comfortable when trying to sit up straight. The extra wide seat really lends itself to those who slouch or contort themselves when sitting – like sitting on a couch or lounger at home. That suits me fine, but YMMV.

In-Flight Entertainment

As with most modern Business Class seats, the Finnair Air Lounge provides both power and USB ports. The 110V power port is at the side of the seat, at foot level. I found this placement a little awkward. You have to contort a bit to reach it, and it’s hard to find in a dark cabin.

The USB ports, meanwhile, is in the headphone storage cabinet. Finnair helpfully provides both USB-A and C ports, so you’re covered no matter what kind of phone you have.

Speaking of headphones, Finnair provides PhiTek noise canceling headphones in Business Class. These were fine; the actual noise cancellation wasn’t great, but sound quality is decent.

The new Business Class seats feature very large, high definition TV monitors. The home screen even includes approximate meal timings to help plan your sleep schedule. The schedule further shows times at both the departure and destination points. That’s helpful if you’re trying to plan out how best to adjust between time zones.

The IFE system includes a solid variety of movies, TV shows, and games. Whether you’re looking for something new, or a little more classic, there’s plenty to keep you occupied on this 10-hour flight.

Finnair also offers WiFi on board the A350-900 long-haul fleet. Although some sources claim Business Class passengers receive free full-flight WiFi, this is not the case. Instead, Business Class passengers receive one hour of free WiFi. Beyond one hour, WiFi cost is $6 for one hour or $18 for the full flight, with no data caps. I tried the one hour of WiFi, and I found speeds adequate for basic web browsing and Instagram.

If you don’t fancy TV or movies, the IFE of course offers a fully functional moving map. While the zoom isn’t great, the moving map offers much more detailed information than most systems. This includes detailed information about the plane’s location, in this case, passing over the Gulf of Bothnia.

There’s also a very, very cool tail camera that I enjoyed watching on and off. It first caught my eye as we taxied to the runway at DFW…

…then flying over the clouds covering the aforementioned Gulf of Bothnia…

…and finally, on final approach to Helsinki on a gloomy Friday morning.

Finnair A350-900 Business Class – Food, Beverage, & Service

The party began early with an offer of a pre-departure beverage. I requested a glass of champagne for the obligatory champagne selfie. (I also must say, I love Finnair’s glassware. It’s uniquely different and elegant, in my opinion.)

Finnair offers Joseph Perrier Cuvée Royale Brut in Business Class. I’m the wrong person to offer a critique on champagne. I don’t drink it very often, and frankly can’t tell between a bad and good one. But it’s a moderately priced ($40-45 a bottle) champagne that rates pretty highly from what I can see. It also has an interesting history; it’s long been a favorite of English royalty, dating back to Queen Victoria and King Edward VII.

Along with PDB orders, the FA handed out menus for the flight’s meal service. I give Finnair credit for stocking local Finnish drinks, including a Finnish desert wine, Finnish gin, and long drinks (gin plus fruit soda). If you’re not in the mood for alcohol, the blueberry juice is quite good.

Meal service began about 20 minutes after take-off with a round of beverages. With the Finns famous for their gin, I ordered a Helsinki gin & tonic. (Apparently, I didn’t take a photo.) Just 10 minutes later, meals were served. Surprisingly, the meal came out with all courses served at once on a single tray. While I generally prefer the main meal in courses, it does make sense on an eastbound redeye, as this maximizes sleep time. On this route, dinner consists of two fixed appetizers, and a choice of main course. I went with the portobello and cheese ravioli, along with a glass of chardonnay. The ravioli came accompanied by some sort of cheese sauce, along with a choice of bread.

I wasn’t a big fan of this meal, mainly due to a mediocre main course. While the ravioli itself was fine, the sauce was way too thick, and largely lacked flavor. I also found the hummus too grainy, though I enjoyed the crisp, fresh veggies. The shrimp, at least, was a winner, juicy with a tasty, light salad. I then finished up with the cheese plate and the Finnish desert wine. If you like red ports, you’ll like the Valamo XO, which had a really nice vanilla finish.

While I regarded the meal itself as average at best, I commend Finnair for their efficiency here. As I enjoyed the last of my cheese, I enjoyed sunset out my window, just 70 minutes after take-off. On an eastbound red-eye, a quick meal is arguably the most important thing.

As I mentioned early on, I nodded off right about then. And proceeded to wake up 8 hours later on final approach to Helsinki. Unfortunately, that meant I missed breakfast, and the opportunity to try a cappuccino. Of course, after a horrendously awful tax season, honestly I needed the sleep more than anything else.

I also found service rather uninspired on this flight. It wasn’t objectively bad, but it wasn’t particularly great, either. The FAs seemed to be going through the motions, trying to rush through service more than anything else, and the whole experience felt rather cold. Considering I encountered warm, friendly service throughout my stay in Finland, that was unfortunate.

Flightseeing

On these eastbound red-eyes, most flightseeing opportunities occur early on, mainly of the planespotting variety. Frankly, DFW isn’t the most exciting when it comes to planespotting, but I caught a few decent ones as we taxied out. First up – a Qantas B787-9 next door at Terminal D.

Up next, a real smorgasboard of different aircraft out on the apron. From front to back, a Contour ERJ-145, a Sun Country B738, and a Qatar Airways B772.

As we turned left, we enjoyed a closer drive-by of the QR 772.

And maybe the Flying Banana isn’t noteworthy, but who knows how much longer Spirit’s…loud…livery will stick around.

We quickly transitioned to dinner service after take-off, and I didn’t wake up until final approach to Helsinki. As you’d expect in late October, low clouds dominated the landscape as we descended.

As we dropped below the muck, there was still quite a bit of fall foliage on display in Vantaa.

Finnair A350-900 Business Class – Final Thoughts

So what did I think of Finnair’s unique new Business Class? I think the seat itself is a winner. There’s tons of storage, I found it comfortable for both relaxing and sleeping, and there’s plenty of good options for both couples traveling together and those valuing privacy. And yes, the interior feels decidedly Nordic, a nice touch. But service was mediocre, as was meal service overall (though the drink selection is quite good). For those reasons, I left this flight a little disappointed. Nevertheless, for 57,500 miles to get all the way to Finland nonstop, I can’t complain too much.

Read the rest of this article at Review: Finnair A350-900 Business Class, Dallas to Helsinki.

I paid $629 cash for this flight. Because you really don’t want to know how many SkyPesos Delta wanted to redeem miles for this flight…

Delta Air Lines (DL) Flight 1108

• Saturday, September 17, 2022
• Depart: Boston Logan International Airport (BOS), Terminal A, Gate A20, 17:14, 9m late
• Arrive: San Diego International Airport (SAN), Terminal 2, Gate 47, 20:11, 16m early
• Duration: 5 hours 57 minutes
• Seat: 2A
• Equipment: Airbus A321neo

Check-In and Boarding

I flew to Boston from DFW in Economy Comfort, with a 4+ hour layover before my onward flight. Boston actually has several Priority Pass options, both lounges and restaurants, for long layovers. Unfortunately, all of these are in Terminals B through E, and Terminal A is the one concourse not connected airside to the others. So with that in mind, I decided to walk to East Boston for lunch and to stretch my legs. (I’ll have a separate post on that experience.) Upon returning to the airport, the Pre-check line took all of 3 minutes on a Saturday afternoon. Boarding began more or less on time, and I settled into my second row seat on the port side up front.

Delta A321neo First Class – Seating and Interior

Delta outfits its A321neo First Class with 20 seats in a 2×2 configuration. Pitch checks in at 37″, and the seats measure 21″ wide. That’s pretty much standard fare for Delta domestic First. What does make the seats unique, though, are the winged headrests and beefed up dividers.

The end result is an incredibly private space for domestic First. When seated and leaning back in your seat, you’re actually quite well shielded from your seatmate.

Of course, while that’s great when traveling alone, there is a noticeable drawback when traveling with a companion.  Namely, it’s difficult to converse with your companion unless both of you lean forward. It’s essentially the same reason criticism I have of reverse herringbone business class seats. There’s no good options for couples traveling together.

Some also complain the winged seat design makes it difficult to see out the window. I didn’t notice that issue; in fact, with the oversized windows, outward visibility is good.

Meanwhile, those big windows and large overhead bins provide an open, airy feeling throughout the cabin.

Legroom felt typical for Delta domestic First.

The seat also includes a couple of useful storage areas.  One is between the seats, with a good size storage bin situated around the seat divider.

The other is underneath the armrest, with a large cubby featuring plenty of space for a phone/tablet and headphones.

Speaking of armrest, it’s a large one, with a built-in tray up front to hold beverages.

As or seat comfort, I found it a mixed bag. On the one hand, the seatback itself felt comfortable for a 6-hour flight. Back support is reasonably good, despite the thin seat padding. In addition, the seats offer ample recline, making it easy to find a comfortable position. The recline itself is a bit awkward, though. Push the button and lean back, and the seat jerks backwards abruptly. So use caution when reclining.

On the other hand, seat cushion comfort leaves something to be desired. I fell asleep after dinner, and woke up – twice – with sore upper thighs. The cushioning simply isn’t adequate enough to ward off saddle sore. That’s a problem, given Delta assigns the A321neo generally to longer routes.

In-Flight Entertainment

For starters, Delta includes both a 110V power outlet and a USB outlet at each First Class seat. Delta positions the power outlet at the back of the seat, in the shell. Personally, I like this setup, since you can then store the power cord in the cubby below the armrest. With that, you don’t have to worry about getting your feet tangled with the cord. This outlet also includes a standard USB outlet.

In addition, there’s a second USB outlet underneath the IFE screen.

Speaking of IFE, the A321neo features high resolution screens at each seat with a full complement of Delta Studio entertainment. I personally just prefer seatback entertainment to stream to your device setups, and so I prefer Delta’s approach. Disney’s “Bears” certainly looks good on these screens.

Delta is currently testing Bluetooth functionality on these screens, and so you could use your own wireless headphones to listen to seatback entertainment.

The A321neo features the same Delta Studio entertainment system, which provides a good selection of TV, games, and movies.

Delta A321neo First Class – Food, Beverage, and Service

No pre-departure beverages were offered on this flight, so service began about 20 minutes after take-off. I decided to give Delta’s Old Fashioned-in-a-can (the Tip Top Old Fashioned) a try. (Insert variation of the Prince Albert in a can prank here.)

It’s alright. Not nearly as good as the butter pecan Old Fashioned you can get at the Capital One Lounge. And in general, when I think cocktail in a can, I immediately think of Buzz Balls. I’m guessing that’s not the impression Delta is hoping for.

Anyway, the FA took meal orders prior to pushback, and I chose what she described as a “beef tart”. (The gentleman behind me misheard this as “beef heart”, which prompted laughter throughout the cabin.) The FA then served dinner about 15 minutes after drinks. I wouldn’t describe what I received as a “tart”; more like a pot roast with mashed potatoes. The meal came on a single tray, with a side salad and what looked and tasted like a panna cotta.

Whatever the main course was, it was legitimately delicious. My last pot roast in the air came courtesy of British Airways, with an unfortunately subpar cut of beef. This one, though, was tender and wonderfully flavorful, with the tender veggies an excellent complement. I ended up not leaving a trace. Historically, Delta’s First Class meals haven’t rated very highly, and they were by far the slowest to restore meal service post-pandemic. But if this is representative of their new offerings, they’ve upped their game significantly.

To cap things off, I ordered a Woodford.

And since we missed the PDB, I saved the selfie for the post-meal Woodford.

Meal service took about half an hour from start to finish, concluding about 75 minutes after take-off. That’s a decent pace for a daytime westbound flight. And at that point, I nodded off for a good two hours.

Delta has a reputation for superior service among domestic carriers, and this flight proved no exception overall. While the First Class FA did skip pre-departure beverages, she took good care of the cabin otherwise. She personally introduced herself to each passenger, and came through several times to refill drinks throughout the flight. And she just seemed to genuinely enjoy her job in general.

Flightseeing

I always enjoy planespotting at BOS, and today provided no exception. As we pushed back, we passed another A321neo, this one coming in from Denver.

As we taxied out, we then passed an Air Canada Boeing 737-MAX8, my first time seeing one of AC’s MAX8s.

Of course, no visit to BOS is complete without encountering a jetBlue A320.

And finally, as we reached the runway, an ITA Airways A330-200. ITA itself might be a basket case, but that blue livery sure is gorgeous.

A few minutes after take-off, we passed what I think is Nahant, to the south of Lynn, where Boston Harbor transitions to the larger Massachusetts Bay.

Later, it was a quiet evening for flying over the Upper Midwest, with just some puffy clouds below.

Finally, the final approach into San Diego is simply spectacular, with a low fly-by of downtown. I only wish it were daytime to get some better pictures.

Despite getting out of the gate a little late, we arrived in San Diego a full 16 minutes ahead of schedule.

Final Thoughts

Delta certainly has come up with a unique new First Class product, one which provides an excellent level of privacy and storage for a domestic narrowbody flight. And Delta continues to deliver with super service compared to its domestic rivals. The setup isn’t idea when traveling with a companion, though.  Given that this aircraft is increasingly used on leisure-heavy flights to Hawai’i, that’s something to keep in mind if splurging while traveling with a companion. The bigger problem I have, though, is that the seats just aren’t all that comfortable, with poor bottom cushioning a problem. That really is a problem, given this aircraft’s typical use on longer domestic routes. Though that’s also easily fixable just by improving the padding.

Read the rest of this article at Review: Delta A321neo First Class, Boston to San Diego.

Note: this post is part of my trip report series about my quick trip to Manchester in February, 2020.  Click here for the trip report index and introductory post.

British Airways Galleries Arrivals Lounge LHR T5

Location

As the name implies, the lounge is meant for arriving passengers, and is located landside just after exiting immigration. Head for the orange lifts pretty much in the middle of the main terminal area. Head up one floor to find the entrance to the lounge. Incidentally, there is ample signage directing you to the lounge throughout the terminal.

Access

The following passengers may access the Arrivals Lounge provided they arrived on a long-haul flight:

• British Airways First and Club World
• British Airways Executive Club Gold card holders

Note that I’ve seen conflicting information on whether American First/Business/Concierge Key members can access the T5 Arrivals Lounge. The British Airways T5 information page only lists BA customers as eligible.  Other sources, however, suggest that AA premium class passengers can access the lounge. The point is largely moot, though, since American currently flies only out of Terminal 3. You might as well just use American’s arrivals lounge at T3.

Current operating hours are 5 am to 2 pm daily.

Date of Visit: Saturday, February 9, 2020

British Airways Galleries Arrivals Lounge LHR T5 – Review

Although I visited the lounge pre-pandemic, it remains largely unchanged, with two notable exceptions discussed later.

Upon entering, you’ll notice two large main rooms.  Straight ahead is a large, open dining area. A couple of rows of bench seating in the back complements several rows of tables.

This is where the major difference comes into play, though. Back in February, 2020, the British Airways Galleries Arrivals Lounge LHR T5 featured a buffet breakfast. The main attraction? Traditional English breakfast items, along with fresh fruits and a selection of juices (boxed, though, not fresh).

As is typical of all of BA’s Heathrow lounges, there’s also a Union coffee station.

I’m normally not a breakfast person, but with a 3-hour drive to Manchester ahead of me, I loaded up on some bacon, baked beans & toast, and yogurt to power up first. It was all tasty and hit the spot before my long-ish drive.

So what’s the big change? While the coffee station remains, the buffet no longer exists. Instead, British Airways replaced the buffet with a QR code ordering system. Though the general offerings remain the same, an attendant brings what you want to your seat. Personally, I’m a fan of these new QR code systems. I often get engrossed in work in a lounge, and it’s just easier to not have to get up to get something.

As you leave the dining area and head left, you’ll find the main seating area. Based on recent photos, this area remains pretty much identical. It includes several comfy couches and tables, and I found it much quieter than the dining area. I also found plugs in reasonable abundance, but don’t forget your UK adapter.

Pre-pandemic, the seating area included a large selection of magazines and newspapers along the wall. A magazine rack felt like an increasing rarity even in early 2020. Sadly, even this anachronism disappeared, a victim of the pandemic.

The one thing I don’t love about the space is the lack of natural light. With no windows, you only have the light from the terminal itself. And at 5:30 am on a February day, light is, well, nonexistent in England. Anyway, continue past the back of the seating area to find the “hydrotherapy zone”. It’s a MASSIVE shower area. You do need to check in with an attendant, but with 94 (yes, 94) stalls, I doubt you’ll ever experience a wait. Before reaching the shower stalls, there’s a handful of lounge-type chairs if you want to lie down for a few minutes.

As for the shower area itself – the pods look quite industrial.

Inside, the industrial look continues. If anything, it reminds me of the work camp-style restrooms at Deadhorse Camp in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. Don’t get me wrong, they’re perfectly functional, the water’s hot, and they get the job done. But the look isn’t particularly luxurious, they’re a little tight space wise, and the stalls are showing their age.

There is a small table to hang your towel and store your clothes.

As with other British Airways lounges, Elemis provides the toiletries.

The T5 Arrivals Lounge used to include an Elemis Travel Spa, but like all other Elemis Spas at Heathrow, it was closed during the pandemic. Supposedly, the spa area has now been repurposed with four cabanas, similar to those found in the Concorde Lounge.

Final Thoughts

British Airways’ Galleries Lounges at Heathrow Terminal 5 generally leave something to be desired. The Arrivals Lounge, though is actually a pretty good one. Yes, I complained about the look of the shower area, but really, most using Arrivals Lounges come for two things. One, a bite to eat, and two, facilities to freshen up. And on both of those counts, the British Airways Galleries Arrivals Lounge LHR T5 succeeds pretty well.

Read the rest of this article at Review: British Airways Galleries Arrivals Lounge LHR T5.

Note: this is the final installment in my Canada trip report from October, 2019.  Click here for the trip report introduction and index.

Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge Toronto Transborder Area

Location

In the Transborder (F) Gates in Terminal 1. Initially, I had trouble locating this lounge, especially with the terminal construction at the time. After exiting the US Pre-clearance facility, you’ll see the elevator for the Maple Leaf Lounge. At the time, the elevators were across from a duty free shop, but that may be different now after construction. Take the elevators up to Level 4 to reach the lounge entrance. Warning: I’ve heard of extreme elevator crowding at peak times, generally 7-9 am weekdays. This is because there is no alternative to the elevator, i.e. no stairs available as an alternative. At 10:45 am on a Sunday, I encountered no issues.

Access

The following passengers may access the Maple Leaf Lounge:

• Business Class and Premium Rouge passengers.
• Altitude Super Elite and Aeroplan 35k, 50k, and 75k members.
• Star Alliance Gold members.
• Canadian-issued Aeroplan credit card holders.
• Note that except for Premium Rouge passengers, passengers may bring guests for $30 before 11 am and $20 after.

Hours of operation are 4:30 am to 9 pm daily.

Date of Visit: October 20, 2019

Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge Toronto Transborder Area Review

This is a pretty big lounge. The best way to describe it is a semi-circular series of seating areas around a central food station. Along the outside, a large seating area stretches along the windows. Unfortunately, the view out is largely obstructed due to a low-rise building next door. A huge missed opportunity, in my opinion, since Pearson offers nice views otherwise. The decor throughout is fair. I appreciated the splashes of color, as opposed to the cold, grey minimalism en vogue in the 2010s. But the furniture was starting to show its age in spots.

Between the outer circle and the kitchen is another decent sized sitting area.

In late 2019, the lounge offered a self-service buffet and drinks. I arrived at 10:45 am, with the transition from breakfast to lunch underway. Breakfast items were slim pickins, with some yogurt, cereal, fruit, and hard-boiled eggs left over.

There’s also a Lavazza coffee machine that produces a reasonable cup of coffee. At least for coffee non-snobs like me.

About 15 minutes after arriving, the attendants brought out the lunch spread. It offered a decent fresh salad and soup selection, and a couple of mediocre looking hot items. Sorry, the photos of the hot items didn’t come out, but if I recall, there was pasta and rice.

A well-stocked drinks refrigerator provides a good variety of soft drinks.

Meanwhile, the lounge offers quite a selection of beer on tap, wine, and mid-shelf liquors. While too early for a drink, it’s a nice selection for what’s effectively a domestic lounge.  They actually had two liquor selections, one next to the wine, and one above the glasses.

Note that post-pandemic, food and beverage is offered through the “@ la table” online ordering system. Scan the QR code at your seat, select from the menu, and a staff member brings your order to your seat. I’ll detail the system in my review of the International gates lounge at Toronto, later.

Next to the kitchen area is another seating area with some dining tables. If you want extra space to spread out, there’s a few booths in the back.

Speaking of the dining area, imagine my surprise to find magazines! I haven’t seen these in a while. Along with the magazines are North American clocks and a flight board.

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There is overflow seating in nooks and crannies throughout the lounge. This includes near the dining area, and a hidden area behind the inner seating section.

During my Sunday morning visit, the lounge was maybe at half capacity, so it felt quite spacious and quiet. I’m curious to see how busy things get during the morning rush, though.

Meanwhile, behind the dining area is a business center, with several cubicles, computers, and a printer. This is one of the better equipped business centers I’ve seen in some time – but where are the chairs?

The lounge also offers a couple of additional amenities. One is a kids playroom. There is a sign on the door prohibiting parents leaving kids unattended to go drink, or something. Consider yourself forewarned.

There’s also a TV room with a few nice theater-style seats and tables.

The lounge offers showers, but they were occupied during my visit, so I couldn’t get any photos.

I did notice one significant issue in this lounge – a serious lack of power points. I finally managed to find one at a seat by the window. That’s really not good in this day and age where everyone has electronics. However, I did find the neat amenity found in all Maple Leaf lounges – the charging lockers. Just plug in your phone, create a passcode, and charge your phone while you eat and drink.

Final Thoughts

I have to say, the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge Toronto Transborder area seemed – really nice for a Transborder lounge. At least I expected far less, more along the lines of a domestic Admirals Club. Perhaps it seemed nicer since I visited at a quiet time. I will say, crowding certainly makes a big difference; the Maple Leaf Lounge in the International gates didn’t seem nearly as nice, though it was pretty packed during my visit.  The lack of power ports is a significant problem, though.

Read the rest of this article at Review: Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge Toronto Transborder Area.

United Airlines (UA) Flight 2674

• Thursday, April 21, 2022
• Depart: Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), Terminal C, Gate C136, 16:58, 2m early
• Arrive: Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), Terminal 7, Gate 77, 19:35, 23m early
• Duration: 5 hours 37 minutes
• Seat: 21L
• Equipment: Boeing 787-10

Yeah, I know, I live a charmed life. I managed to find a flight that actually departed Newark on time…

Check-In and Boarding

My flight from Dallas arrived at Gate C96 just before 2 pm, giving me a 3-hour layover in Newark. With no Priority Pass options at Newark at the time, I grabbed some food at Saison instead. (You can now use the British Airways lounge with PP, but only until 2 pm.) The croque monsieur was so-so, though if you like Old Fashioneds, they have quite a mix-and-match selection. You can pick any whiskey from their large menu to use as the base.

As an aside, I also like the mobile ordering system they have at EWR. Find a seat, order off your phone, and your food and drink appear when ready.

Anyway, after sipping a second Old Fashioned, I headed to the gate a little before 4. Our Dreamliner was ready and waiting, having arrived from Frankfurt several hours earlier.

Boarding began on time, and I crossed over the aisle to head to the right side of the Premium Plus cabin.

United B787-10 Premium Plus – Seating and Interior

I’ve flown both the 787-8 and 787-9, but never the stretched 787-10 variant. United’s B787-10 Premium Plus layout isn’t any different from the -8 or -9. Seating consists of three rows in a 2-3-2 configuration. Seat pitch is 38″, and width is 19″. While pitch bests Economy Plus by 3″ and standard coach by 7″, the seats measure 1.7″ wider than all Economy seats. The brown leather seats with purple trim look do look nice, I must say.

One thing you will notice about the 787-10 are the oversized windows, sort of along the lines of Delta’s Airbus A220.  The big windows really give the cabin an airy, open feel when fully brightened during daylight hours.

On the way out, I snuck a photo of the Polaris cabin. Functionally, it’s the same as the Polaris cabins on other 777 and 787 aircraft. You can check out my transcon Polaris review from 2017 here.

Premium Plus seats include a movable footrest, similar to American’s Premium Economy seats. As someone who tends to slouch when sitting, I’m not a huge fan of these footrests in general. It makes discomfort in the lower legs when I slide down. But nearly all Premium Economy products offer them.

With the footrest stored, the seats feature ample legroom.

As a point of comparison, here’s legroom in American’s Premium Economy seat. It’s quite comparable.

Seat controls are simple, controlled by two buttons on the oversized armrest. One controls recline, and the other extends the legrest. The IFE controller also stows in the armrest next to the seat controls, and I think this represents a design flaw. Notice the lack of gap between the armrest and the seat cushion; this made it difficult to remove the controller without it getting stuck. Finally, the seats also have a small storage compartment for phones, headphones, etc. on the other side of the controls.

With the adjustable legrest and generous seat padding, the Premium Plus seats are very comfortable. I purposely avoided sleeping on this daytime flight, but I certainly wouldn’t mind dozing off in these for a few hours. I found these seats more comfortable than American’s PE seats. The adjustable legrest helps, as does a more comfortable headrest, which provides superior neck support.

As for the rest of the cabin, there is a small plaque at the front notating that you are in Premium Plus.

The lavatories are decent sized, with Sunday Riley toiletries on tap. Premium Plus passengers are permitted to use either the rear Polaris cabin lavatories (at the front of the PP cabin), or the first set of Economy lavatories by the galley.

Speaking of Sunday Riley, you likely noticed this in the seat pictures, but Premium Plus passengers received Sunday Riley amenity kits. I certainly didn’t expect amenity kits on a domestic transcon, so color me pleasantly surprised. (Going forward, Premium Plus will also sports pouch versions of the new Away amenity kits.) Not a huge fan of the plastic pouch, but it’s very well equipped for a Premium Economy kit. (The face cream, lip balm, and hand cream are a sample of what’s inside.)

United B787-10 Premium Plus – In-Flight Entertainment

United’s Premium Plus seats come equipped with large, 13-inch IFE screens, which provide excellent resolution. The screens also helpfully display the seat number on the home screen. Helpful when someone appropriates your assigned seat and then magically can’t speak English…

Premium Plus features the same “United Private Screening” entertainment system.  There’s a large selection of movies, TV shows, and games; I settled in for a few X-Files reruns between getting some work done.

There is, of course, a moving map features. I found this one rather bare bones as far as moving maps go. It’s possible it was user error, but I couldn’t find the zooms and views you see on American’s A321 and Delta’s A220 systems, for example.

United provides Premium Plus passengers with basic noise-cancelling headphones. The headphones themselves are of average quality. Not the best out there, but far from horrible. My main complaint with the headphones is that United uses a nonstandard jack. That means not only can’t you use the headphones with your equipment, but you also can’t plug in your own headphones into the IFE.

A 110-V plug and USB outlet are at the back of the seat, by the storage compartment. The location is good for plugging in a phone, as you can easily store it in the compartment while charging. I also find this a superior plug location to under the seat, as you don’t have to guess where to plug in your laptop.

I needed to get some work done, so I purchased a WiFi pass for this flight. United recently reduced prices to a flat $8 for Mileage Plus members, or $10 for non-members. Or you can purchase a day pass if you need it for connecting flights. It was reasonably fast on this flight; not great, but sufficient to upload/download files on our cloud-based file storage system.

United B787-10 Premium Plus – Food, Beverage, and Service

First the bad news – I apparently deleted my photos of the Premium Plus menu. So while I have photos of the meal, I don’t have the entire selection documented.

Meal service began quickly, about 30 minutes after takeoff. Service more closely resembled Economy, with drink and main course orders taken at the same time. I ordered the ravioli (I think pumpkin and squash) and a glass of white wine. The meal also included a side salad, bread roll, pretzels, stroopwafel, and cheesecake. Though served on a single tray, United does use real tableware in Premium Plus.

I found the meal pretty tasty overall. The salad was fresh, and the ravioli decently cooked, with a nice level of sweetness to the sauce. And of course, there’s a stroopwafel, which automatically makes any meal a winner. The dinner roll earns a demerit, though. It was packaged and stale. Meanwhile, I can find absolutely no information about the wine, a South African chenin blanc. But I found it decent enough, with a nice tartness that cut through the sweet pasta sauce well. Overall, a perfectly decent meal for Premium Economy.

About an hour and a half before landing, the FAs offered a pre-arrival snack and drink. The snack was a fixed offering of hummus, grapes, crackers, and tabbouleh.

This meal was less successful than dinner. I’m not a fan of tabbouleh to begin with (I truly hate mint), and the hummus was too grainy.

I did enjoy a Buffalo Trace with the snack (plastic cup notwithstanding).

The mask mandate ended two days before this flight, so I also enjoyed a proper beverage selfie for the first time since February, 2020.

As for service flow, on one hand, I appreciated the efficiency of both meal services. Both offerings took just over 30 minutes from start to finish. The Premium Plus flight attendants were also friendly enough. But I rate the service mediocre overall, mainly due to the lack of service between meals. Nearly three hours passed from the end of dinner service until the FAs began snack service. And in all that time, I didn’t see the flight attendants out and about once. By contrast, on a recent Alaska Airlines flight from Love Field to San Francisco, the crew managed to serve drinks twice in coach.

Flightseeing

Despite the cloud cover, it was a nice late afternoon weather-wise in Newark. Our location in the terminal, along with our taxi route to the runway, made for some great planespotting with the New York City skyline in the background. First up, a butt shot of a couple of United jets seemingly taxiing towards Lower Manhattan.

Panning out a little, nearly the entire Manhattan skyline came into view.

Next, a United Triple Seven photobombs the set, with a United tail parade for good measure.

As we began taxiing, we passed a 737 seemingly on its way out of Midtown.

And finally, up close and personal with another Dreamliner.

Once airborne, the low cloud cover remained persistent for much of the first 2/3 of the flight. That unfortunately limited flightseeing opportunities much of the way. Over southwestern Kansas, though, we did pass some interesting thunderstorm formations off to the north.

Later, we passed some pyrocumulus from a forest fire over northern New Mexico.

About an hour and 15 minutes before landing, we passed just south of Humphrey’s Peak, the highest point in Arizona. The lowering sun and some clouds surrounding it gave it an almost ghostlike appearance.

We began our descent into Los Angeles not long after crossing the Colorado River. And I soon found myself on a very familiar flight path. Flights from Dallas to LA usually pass just south of Lake Arrowhead on descent, and this flight followed the same one. The setting sun set the San Bernardino Mountains aglow on this descent.

Soon enough we found ourselves slicing through the Inland Empire, with Mount Baldy off to the north.

Then we made a close pass to Ontario Airport, with a full view of the airfield below.

Our flight path took us just south of downtown LA, providing an awesome view of the skyline. Unfortunately, the low light made it impossible to get a good photo. But we did a close enough fly-by of SoFi Stadium for a decent shot.

Thanks to some decent tailwinds, we arrived in LA early, reaching the gate 23 minutes ahead of schedule. I’d spend the night near the airport before heading home the next morning.

United B787-10 Premium Plus – Final Thoughts

United’s Premium Plus product has a lot of promise, thanks largely to a good hard product. This is a really comfortable Premium Economy seat, one that I think would hold up well on a longer Transatlantic or Transpacific flight. The problem, as is too often the case on domestic carriers, is that service needs to step up a notch. It wasn’t objectively bad, but it wasn’t particularly good, either, with a flight crew that was friendly but not at all proactive. The end result is a product that seems good, but not particularly special.

As for pricing, an off-peak, midweek (mid-September) flight on this route commands a $200-250 price premium for Premium Plus over Economy. When flying Transatlantic, Premium Plus generally costs $200-400 more than Economy on a roundtrip basis.  That’s a reasonable price for what you get, in my opinion.

Read the rest of this article at Review: United B787-10 Premium Plus, Newark to Los Angeles.

I booked the return in Comfort+, and paid $523 cash for the round-trip ticket. (And by the way, yes, I know the cover photo is an A220-100, not a -300.)

Delta (DL) Flight 691

• Saturday, April 9, 2022
• Depart: DFW International Airport (DFW), Terminal E, Gate E15, 19:29, 6m early
• Arrive: Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP), Terminal 1, Gate C9, 21:48, 11m early
• Duration: 2 hours 19 minutes
• Seat: 3A
• Equipment: Airbus A220-300

Interestingly, this also marked my first flight through MSP. A consequence of living in a hub that Delta abandoned 20 years ago, I guess.

Check-In and Boarding

After a visit to the excellent Capital One Lounge, I took the Skylink back to Terminal E to board my flight to Minneapolis. That’s the one drawback to the lounge; if you aren’t flying out of Terminal D, you have to end your visit early to return to your terminal. Anyway, while the stories of operational meltdowns made me nervous, this flight went off without a hitch. Boarding started on time, and we buttoned up a few minutes early for our trek north to Minnesota.

Delta A220-300 First Class – Seating and Interior

This A220-300 was close to brand new, entering service in late 2020. First class features 12, 21″ wide seats in a 2×2 configuration, with 36″ of pitch. The First Class cabin itself sports the typical look for Delta First. Note that seating is identical to the A220-100; the only difference is 15 extra seats in Comfort+ and 6 extra in Main Cabin. Similar to its smaller cousin, the interior feels bright and airy with its oversized windows.

Although Delta’s A220s feature 1-2″ less pitch in First than similar narrowbodies on American and United, legroom still felt spacious. Note, however, that reports indicate legroom in the bulkhead row leaves much to be desired. One of the reasons why I don’t like bulkhead seats in the first place.

All seats feature an oversized center armrest, and push-button recline controls. My only complaint – I found the tray table a bit difficult to unfold. While the armrest includes a button to release the table, it required a firm yank to take it out.

Not unlike the firm yank my son used to give our poor cat’s tail…

The window side armrest, meanwhile, is standard issue for a domestic First seat.

What did surprise me a little was the rough condition of the seats given the newness of the plane. The setback already had several scuffs and marks.

As far as amenities go, Delta provides a mini-bottle of water at each First Class seat.

I found seat comfort good overall. Granted, DFW to Minneapolis isn’t a long flight, but back and thigh support remained solid throughout. The big difference with the A220, though, is how quiet it is compared to other aircraft. The P&W geared turbofans are supposed to be up to 75% quieter than older engine designs. Supposedly, the engines can emit a whale-like sound at low speeds, though I didn’t hear it on this flight.

Overall, though, while I consider the A220’s seating a substantial improvement over other planes in “deep coach”, First Class didn’t feel much different from the existing Delta product. Perhaps that’s because 2-3 vs. 3-3 in coach makes a big difference, whereas the 2-2 configuration in First doesn’t change.

Delta A220-300 First Class – In-Flight Entertainment

Some may disagree, but I find the setback TVs offered by Delta a meaningful positive differentiator over the competition. I just find it much, much easier to watch on a large screen at a distance, as opposed to trying to stream on a small phone or a laptop right up in your face. Delta’s First Class monitors are nice and large, at 13.3″.

Resolution is also excellent, and the Delta Studio entertainment selection offers plenty for a short domestic flight.

Delta Studio also offers a decent selection of games, though I wish they offered the Golf Simulator game formerly found on AA.

Naturally, I ended up spending a lot (truthfully, too much) time playing with the moving map. If you’re an avgeek that likes moving maps, you’ll really like this one. On launch, the system provides the aircraft’s tail number.  N303DU is, I believe, the 3rd A220-300 delivered to Delta.

The flight map itself provides a wide variety of views, along with some interesting information like pitch, roll, and heading. The downside, though, is that these didn’t update in real time. I had to exit the flight map and restart to get them to update. I’m guessing this was a glitch on my screen, but it was annoying nonetheless.

As far as in-seat power, First Class seats include both a USB port and a 110V power outlet. While I appreciate the placement of the outlet in front of the seat, I still prefer American’s A321 outlets. There, the placement at eye level makes it easier to keep your cord from getting tangled in your feet. (Once again, though, note how the cabin shows its age, with the scratch marks around the USB port.)

Food, Beverage, and Service

Helpfully, Delta provides food and beverage menus on the in-flight entertainment system. Unfortunately, they offer only snacks on this route. While this route checks in just under Delta’s 900-mile cutoff for First Class meal service, I thought Delta made an exception on this route pre-pandemic. I could be wrong about that, though.

Beer, wine, spirits, and a couple of craft cocktails are offered complimentary.

I considered ordering one of the cocktails, mostly to see if the FA knew how to make it. On my last couple of Delta premium cabin flights, I got blank looks when ordering it. In the end, though, I went with one of my odd couple combos – Biscoff with a gin & tonic.

While I’ll never turn down a Biscoff, I do think Delta can do better with snacks on a route of this length. Sure, hot meals on a 2-hour flight aren’t really necessary. But these are the exact same snacks served in coach. Even a fruit & cheese box would provide a more premium experience.

The First Class FA provided good service, at least. He managed to offer 2 drink refills, along with a second helping of snacks.

Flightseeing

Though an evening flight, the long April days afforded a brief chance at flightseeing before sundown. As I settled in to my seat, I spied the A220-300’s little brother, the A220-100, at the next gate.

With sunset just around the corner, we enjoyed golden hour as our plane taxied to the runway. Terminal C had that late day afterglow with the sun setting right behind it.

We took off to the south, with a fantastic view of the Trinity River and Dallas skyline to the left. (The scuffed, dirty windows once again surprised me for such a new plane.)

We also passed close to DFW’s little brother, Love Field, just before hanging a U to head back north.

About 20 minutes later, the sun set over the plains of southern Oklahoma.

The rest of the flight proceeded uneventfully in the dark, and we arrived about 10 minutes early to a chilly Minnesota night.

Delta A220-300 First Class – Final Thoughts

I regard the A220 family as a big step forward for coach passengers, with the roomier 2-3 configuration, oversized windows, and noticeably quieter interior all adding up to a much more pleasant experience. In the pointy end, though? It’s objectively fine, but can you say it’s radically different from other planes? Not really. So oddly, this is one plane I’d pay a premium to fly in the back of the bus, but not up front.

Read the rest of this article at Review: Delta A220-300 First Class, Dallas to Minneapolis.