V-Flyer

The day stated off rather early at 3am, mostly due to my own, we shall say excitement of going on this trip and nothing to do with the bottle of JD consumed the evening before. After quickly throwing the bags in the back of the truck we were on the road for our 30 min drive to LAS.

With US 95 now completely widened and the ungodly hour of our travels we made good time, which was thrown out the window by the mess that is LAS parking.

Grabbing a trolley for the mounds of luggage,3 suitcases, 3 carry on bags (5 day trip) we headed off to the terminal to drop off the luggage and pick up the boarding passes.

Well for those of you that have had the pleasure of checking in in Y at LGW this is the mess we were greeted with.

For some strange reason AA sees fit to rope off the first class check in...all well and good, but when you have 2 check in terminals, 20 people with all their baggage space becomes rather limited.

Throw in a hangover from hell and a sales rep that was getting on my nerves with his laptop bag ('hun, have you ever seen anyone strangled with their laptop bag ? because if this MF hits me with it again your going too') which was soon quelled by our names being called to come check our luggage in.

For once I made it through the TSA checks without being stopped, though in saying that we did have an issue, for some reason Mrs Scrooge felt in was only proper that I use my passport as ID, now being hand made by Hull craftsmen it is of course falling apart, the TSA agent being a federal employee of course looked at my pale white skin (Vegas winters suck) and jumped to the logical conclusion that by some strange piece of luck she had corner Osama Bin Landen.

Agent
'there is a problem with this passport'

OBL
'Whats that'

Agent
'There appears to be pages torn out of it'

OBL
'I don't think so'

Agent
'See right here'

OBL
'No, that would be where the glue has failed, if you push this piece of paper against that page you will see that the pretty patterens match' hangover now going into overdrive

Agent
'Do you have another ID'

OBL
'Sure'

Now I swear she spent 5 minutes checking the greencard and drivers license, but I guess in the end she was happy.

Anyways...as there is no AA lounge at LAS it was of to the gate with a quick stop to pick up some reading material on route.

At the gate I got that sinking feeling that every husband gets when they realize that they have forgotten something, but can't place what it is, and they start praying that it wasn't something the wife gave orders to have packed because the world will come to an end without it.

After a quick rummage in my carry on my second to worst fears came to be, no Bose QC2's....how in the hell am I going to live through a 4 1/2 hour flight without my QC2's [:0] a quick look up the terminal had me thinking I could run down to the electronics place and pick up a pair under the guise of a present for Mrs Scrooge...nope..it's 6 am..every sane person is still asleep...s**t

Oh well, so it was meant to be, no QC2's, I will survive.

Boarding is called, I reach down to pick up the bags and am abruptly pushed aside by a lady with her rather sad hubby in tow. These people are the American equivalent of the people from Hull that wear to much gold jewelery and insist on tell you how much it costs, the agent checking the boarding passes therefor had to be informed that they were sitting in row 1, the nice FA greeting them had to be told in such fashion as I am sure the President would have if he had seen fit to join us. Now of course they had to be seated in front of us, bold moves had to be made as no QC's to drown out the drivel coming from this lady. So I turn to Mrs Scrooge and rather proudly tell her in a voice loud enough to be heard through out the entire cabin that the reason we picked row 2 was because row 1 is the worst row to have on a 757 due to it having a lot less legroom.

Preflight drinks are offered, OJ, water or coffee, sorry row 1, no champagne.

Plane is full, empties taken and from there a rather boring flight, which is something I enjoy, an exciting flight can only mean bad things, unless it means sneaking off to the lavs at 3am.

Breakfast was an omelet or cereal, so omelet it was, which when combined with the fruit actually turned out to be a pretty good meal.

Sleepy time for Mr and Mrs Scrooge, only to be woken up an hour later by Mrs Scrooge deciding to tell me that the nice fluffy red blanket she had wrapped around her had malted all over her white outfit....thanks hun I will stop the plane and find a lint brush, of course knowing I was about to spend 5 solid days with her I replied something long the lines off 'would you like my blanket, we will get a lint brush as soon as we get off the plane and I will write to the FAA demanding an investigation' [;)]

The last hour of the flight was very rough, I enjoyed it, but from the looks of the other pax I was the only one. Smooth landing, straight off the plane (ahead of row 1) only to be greeted with something you no longer see at airports...a smoking room...no wait it gets better, an out door smoking room, there is a god !

So the bad habit taken care off, the 5 mile hike to get the luggage and greeted by our friends at the door.

All in all a flight that gives me hope for domestic flights, though I can not wait for VX to start flying LAS - MIA.

Interesting TR, although I am not liking the Hull references and feel them inaccurate (people from Hull would not want/be able to tell you what they paid for their gold jewelry, as most don't actually pay for it!)

Oh and I think maybe a new passport is in order, you obviously look dodgy so getting quality id might be good!

So I turn to Mrs Scrooge and rather proudly tell her in a voice loud enough to be heard through out the entire cabin that the reason we picked row 2 was because row 1 is the worst row to have on a 757 due to it having a lot less legroom.

Mrs JP insists I book row 1 on AA 757 so she can put her legs up against the wall, I like you prefer row 2[:D]

Nice TR - pretty much feel that on internal flights the breakfasts are the best meals, a nuked omelette is tolerable, unlike some of the beef steaks/ribs or chicken whatevers - bad news. Some airlines (United, Continental as I recall) have the cutout at least in row 1, but as I recall American does not, right? It's been a while.

Yes...Mrs Scrooge commented on how much legroom there was (she is used to US first which has 37' but seems a lot closer) then promptly tucked her legs under her butt, curled up and went to sleep...women are strange.

Originally posted by MarkedMan
Nice TR - pretty much feel that on internal flights the breakfasts are the best meals, a nuked omelette is tolerable, unlike some of the beef steaks/ribs or chicken whatevers - bad news. Some airlines (United, Continental as I recall) have the cutout at least in row 1, but as I recall American does not, right? It's been a while.

Actually the dinner on the flight home was far better, pasta with a meat and cheese sauce...it was very very good, but as it is, I am happy to get a meal on any domestic flight right now...even in first.

Originally posted by Scrooge
Yes...Mrs Scrooge commented on how much legroom there was (she is used to US first which has 37' but seems a lot closer) then promptly tucked her legs under her butt, curled up and went to sleep...women are strange

....

Actually the dinner on the flight home was far better, pasta with a meat and cheese sauce...it was very very good, but as it is, I am happy to get a meal on any domestic flight right now...even in first.

You know, you're right, I do tend to make the mistake of ordering meat cuts far too often, and they don't do well. Unlike creamy sauces - which BA seems to use a lot in Club Europe, for example.

I have fond memories of two transatlantic meals even in economy. I did AA JFK/SFO in 1999 in Y and got a hot breakfast, and a cold snack at lunchtime. These days you'll get on an 8am to the east coast from california, even in first they'll chuck breakfast at you, and that's your lot. You get off the plane starving .....

Originally posted by Scrooge
After a quick rummage in my carry on my second to worst fears came to be, no Bose QC2's....how in the hell am I going to live through a 4 1/2 hour flight without my QC2's [:0]

Boy, I know what you mean - nearly did the same recently and my heart rate only subsided 30 mins after finding them!

Originally posted by Scrooge
Smooth landing, straight off the plane (ahead of row 1) only to be greeted with something you no longer see at airports...a smoking room...no wait it gets better, an out door smoking room, there is a god !

OMG where?????

Oh hell...we flew into and out of the E gates, it was down by gate 42 if my memory serves me correctly.

On the food subject...now that I stop and think about it VS served something very similar on a LGW - LAS flight a couple of years ago...it was good then as well.