akaggie05 said:

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Flew DFW-LHR and back within the last week. BA on the way over and AA on the way back. Both flights went off with no issues and very pleasant onboard service.

The problems I saw were at both airports. Not sure if it's understaffing or what, but the security screening at Heathrow was insane (even the fast pass line), and they were warning people to double and triple check to make sure that all liquids and large electronics were taken out of carry-on bags before sending through the x-ray. Said it was an hour and a half wait for manual screening if your bag got pulled. Sure enough, there was a crowd of very distressed people standing around after the metal detectors looking at a long table of piled up bags, waiting for some non-existent security staff to come do a manual search.

Back at DFW, the immigration hall was jam packed. I have Global Entry and breezed on through in about 2 minutes, but the other lines were snaked around every which way and people were coming unglued with the line handlers and with each other. It was a bad scene with people yelling about missing their connecting flights, etc.

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This just seems to be the MO for British airports. I flew through Manchester late last year and they had the same stringent checks on liquids and same threats of missed flights if you left anything in your bag. Funny enough they're about to get rid of thr 100 ML limit yet they're enforcing it much more strictly than the US.

Yeah, I've flown in and out of both Heathrow and Manchester quite a bit (both pre and post-COVID). Agree that the Brits are weirder about carry-on screening (got the full treatment one time because they didn't like my rats nest of charging cables and power adapters), but yesterday's situation was clearly just a continually growing pile of bags waiting to be screened... but nobody around to even begin to do it.

Heathrow wouldn't let us through with liquid fruit/yogurt pouches for my kid without a prescription. They held us up for 20+ minutes. We got our doctor on the phone that was cracking up as he wrote it. He even wrote that my kid will suffer from malnutrition if he doesn't have them because of how ridiculous it was.

The supervisor looked at it for maybe 3 seconds and then waved it through.

Wow. I flew back to IAH from Heathrow a few Saturday's ago. Granted, it was Terminal 2 and United, but we got through in just a few minutes. I was expecting much worse.

Not sure what it means when the co-pilot gets out his road map:

Means it will be an IFR flight

I Follow Roads

And on a serious note, it's an aviation chart, not a road map

Canyon - all 24 of us were watching with interest. He pulled out the map and folded it all kinds of ways to look at it all the while we all knew there were no roads anywhere nearby. The trip was from Boulder City, NV to Lees Ferry. The only roads anywhere nearby were the North and South Grand Canyon rim drives. Maybe one that goes East from Lake Meade. The map may have had natural landmarks listed?

Actually it was interesting how many man-made structures, fences and wells were scattered all around with apparently no visible car roads on the North Plateau. You cannot fly over the National Park but you can over the canyon outside the Park. Surprised just how low Lake Meade is just now.

mike073 said:

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Canyon - all 24 of us were watching with interest. He pulled out the map and folded it all kinds of ways to look at it all the while we all knew there were no roads anywhere nearby. The trip was from Boulder City, NV to Lees Ferry. The only roads anywhere nearby were the North and South Grand Canyon rim drives. Maybe one that goes East from Lake Meade. The map may have had natural landmarks listed?

Actually it was interesting how many man-made structures, fences and wells were scattered all around with apparently no visible car roads on the North Plateau. You cannot fly over the National Park but you can over the canyon outside the Park. Surprised just how low Lake Meade is just now.

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Did he turn around and tell y'all to "stop pissing yourselves, give me a stopwatch and a map and I'll fly the Alps in a plane with no windows"?

This was his third trip to Lees Ferry. His typical flight is from Bolder City to the Bar 10 Ranch and back which he does now. Before he flew the chopper to and from the Ranch and the River takeout for the rafters.

Good fun teasing him and he gave it right back.

All this talk of air travel - both good and bad - has led to a place where I want to get back on a plane for a flight to somewhere fun. I just got back from London a couple of weeks ago; you'd think I'd have gotten fill.

I like flying, even these days where the experience is meh. There were days when United flew out of Easterwood and I'd try and hammer out four legs in one day:

CLL to IAH
IAH to either Lubbock or Amarillo
LBB/AMA to IAH
IAH to CLL

It was awesome for the United Mileage Plus account. Lol.

Edit to add - the LBB and AMA flights were work related...not the fun stuff I started my reply with...sorry for turn in the conversation

scd88 said:

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All this talk of air travel - both good and bad - has led to a place where I want to get back on a plane for a flight to somewhere fun. I just got back from London a couple of weeks ago; you'd think I'd have gotten fill.

I like flying, even these days where the experience is meh. There were days when United flew out of Easterwood and I'd try and hammer out four legs in one day:

CLL to IAH
IAH to either Lubbock or Amarillo
LBB/AMA to IAH
IAH to CLL

It was awesome for the United Mileage Plus account. Lol.

Edit to add - the LBB and AMA flights were work related...not the fun stuff I started my reply with...sorry for turn in the conversation

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Back when I used to fly a lot for work (and prices were good), I was about 1000 miles short of 1K in late December. So I looked for the cheapest flight, flew to Boston after work, got upgraded, drank whiskey on the plane, Uber to the bar at Legal Seafood, ate a lobster, drank more whiskey, Uber to an airport hotel (free with points), took the first flight out in the morning and was back at work by 10. 1k achieved.

My son's flight from DCA to DFW left a little late tonight due to weather. He had the late flight to CLL. He rushed thru DFW to get to the gate for his CLL flight. He called me from the gate 5 minutes before the scheduled departure time and said the plane had already left. Turns out AA booted him off the CLL flight two hours earlier and re-booked him for the next day because they didn't think he would make it. He gets to sleep at DFW tonight. I picked his luggage up at CLL tonight. F American Airlines.

Clients on their honeymoon in Punta Cana. United delayed 4-5 times, finally crew timed out. Flight was rescheduled for 8AM. Clients went down at 5AM for shuffle only to find out flight moved again. Right now it's at 2:15 today.

The upside - they put them at Secrets Cap Cana, which is a fantastic adult so it resort. They just don't get much time there.

What's the most miles you guys/gals have picked up in a year from just flying and the various bonus miles attached with the increased tier statuses/ticket purchases? My brother's United 1k and when I flew back home to see dad with him, when we're at the gate the gate agent congratulated him for topping a million miles. I'm at 8,791 ROFL.

A List Plus through 2024 already.