We flew into SFO some 18 days prior for our West Coast Road Trip comprising:
4 nights in San Francisco: cold, better than I expected, hotel was rubbish, next time I’ll stay in the city not Alameda and not hire a car at the airport, just use the Muni.
1 day/night at Santa Cruz & Pebble Beach: not enough I’d give this more days next time
9 nights in LA did Disneyland, California Adventure, Universal, Six Flags and all the tourist sights
3 nights at Vegas at Signature MGM Grand, saw Penn & Teller, had a great time but next time won’t take the family!
We checked out of the Signature and drove up to Treasure Island, had a walk about there and wandered down the Strip to see the Bellagio fountains. At 4pm it was time to head to the airport. Here’s where it goes wrong. I drove past the Welcome to Vegas sign, onto Sunset and took the tunnel to the airport, arriving at T3. At no point did I pass a sign that said Rental Car Return. So I kept on going, back thru the tunnel, all the way out of the airport and finally found a sign and it took us to a building south of the I-215. It could have been better signposted that’s for sure.
Dropped off the car and headed for the shuttle bus with all the luggage. Once on the shuttle bus and the doors were about to close I heard my son, looking panicked, say he’d left something in the car. I dived out the closing doors and told my family to go ahead to the terminal, ran back to the car which was still being processed, and found it. He had left 26 cents in his cup holder. Grrrrrrr!
Back to the building and caught the next bus to T3. Thru the tunnel again. Arrived at terminal 1, the bus didn’t stop, drove back out and back into the tunnel. Thankfully we weren’t pressed for time but I and 20 other strangers suspected we were being kidnapped! The bus then arrived back at the rental centre, didn’t stop, turned around in the road and went back into the tunnel (now my 5th time) and this time he took the correct turning for T3. At no point did the driver explain what was going on or even apologise afterwards.
Reunited with the family, made our way to a quiet Virgin check-in and got waved up to the UC check in desk who gave us a lovely first-name service. I wasn’t able to pre-book seats like the outbound trip report, 24 hours prior I did online check-in however according to the map the flight was full and we’d been allocated and could not change 55AB & 55ABC. Happy with those seats.
TSA/security was also empty. Kerb to airside in less than 6 minutes. We’re definitely not in Florida… A quick spin about the shops and had a cracking burger from Carl’s Jr, one of the best ever despite the poor kitchen staff being chronically understaffed.
Sat at gate 3 which had lovely views of G-VBEL Lady Freedom, the same 787 as our outbound. Interesting to note BA275 from Heathrow landed on time at 7pm, and was still sitting waiting for a Hawaiian to clear gate 1 some 90 minutes later. The pilots must have been fuming with the ground ops.
The flight was called by what sounded like a ground crew’s first day on the job, very nervous on the announcements but she’ll get there! We sat at the gate to be one of the last on board as we weren’t worried about overhead locker space. My one disappointment? Didn’t they used to have bottles of water sitting on the seat? I was expecting some and as a result I had to ask the crew for some water.
Pushed back slightly late at 9.20 and joined a queue of 6 planes waiting to take off from 28R. Next to me was a slightly annoying person on a phone call during the safety video “yeah bruv, I’m on a plane innit”. They had their tray table down and had to be told to put their seat belt on.
Vegas is hot and high and today was particularly hot, I was expecting a long take off roll and we got one! Settled into the flight and dinner was served 40 minutes later at 2230. The food arrived before the drinks service. The choice was chicken curry or mac and cheese, most of us lumped for the curry. As I’d had dinner in the airport I felt I was forcing it down me out of necessity. Drinks arrived 10 minutes after the food.
Hit turbulence soon after, Yeah Bruv next to me already asleep without seat belt on had to be woken up, they still didn’t put it on. There was a baby a few rows ahead at the bulkhead who on the other hand was impeccably behaved.
I actually managed to sleep for most of the way back, as did my family. Woke up at 5.15am (or 1.15pm) with the window blinds still forced dark but the mood lighting switched on. At this point I would have preferred some natural light.
5.40am/1.40pm was served a sausage and cheese croissant (veggie option is without the sausage), fruit and yogurt. Breakfast offerings have improved.
Just off the coast of Ireland turbulence hit again and the pilot said it would last 40 minutes, after the initial bump we felt nothing but the seat belt signs stayed on. Yeah Bruv got up to go to the toilet and soon a lot of passengers who had just woken and not had a chance followed suit.
Landed on time at 1520 on 27R. As we were up the back we were pretty much last off the plane, no worries as surprisingly there wasn’t a queue at the border! Then we waited for the baggage. And waited. Then about 10 bags (so one container?) appeared, then the empty belt was switched off. No announcements.
The Emirates A380 from Dubai arrived after us and their bags started to appear. Coincidentally both Emirates and Virgin use Dubai owned dnata for ground services at Heathrow. Checked my AirTags and the cases were still sitting next to the plane. I went over to the baggage desk, which was manned (take note, BA) and they kindly put out a call for the waiting passengers. Still my bags didn’t appear until 1 hour after we parked at the gate, and I was one of the first to get all mine.
Bus to Purple Parking and was on the M4 spur by 5.30pm. Roadworks on the M6 and then the M74 closed delayed me somewhat so didn’t arrive home until 2.30am however the drive home was much easier than I expected as I’d had such a good sleep on the plane.
So it was a bit of an unknown driving to Heathrow however it worked out much better than we expected. It opens up so many more options for us going forward if we can’t get reasonable prices from Manchester. Another bonus is this is the last time I’ll be paying for 5x flights and so bye bye economy seats, I never want to travel economy again!
