Seeing the World

Business class travel out of the UK is usually very expensive.  Typical quotes I was getting for flights to Vegas were around £7,000 for two.  We ended up paying half this amount by starting in Dublin instead of Manchester or London.

Now that’s still quite expensive when an economy fare comes out at c£500 return, but I’m at a stage where long economy flights hurt me.  And I can afford to seek out bargain fares in my immense spare time.  The key issue with these fares is making sure you get to/from the weird and wonderful location that marks the start of the journey.

Dublin to Heathrow to Vegas doesn’t allow you to start in London first.  Just because you’re on exactly the same plane a Londoner will pay twice as much for you still need to start in Dublin.

Outbound we flew Ryanair to Dublin and booked a hotel room.  Around £100 each.  The overnight stay an insurance because if we miss our flight expensive change fees kick in.  Get there early, a day early, is my motto.

Coming home I took a different approach.  Two hours between the AA flight from the USA landing in Dublin and our planned flight home on Ryanair.  This is tight.  If anything goes wrong the Ryanair fare is lost.  But I didn’t fancy a six hour wait until my final flight, so I risked the early booking.

Land from the USA at 8.30am.  Bag reclaim, passport control, change terminal, bag drop, security and fly at 10.35am.  No problem.

Until your flight out of Chicago leaves 75 minutes late.  And spends 15 minutes circling Dublin before landing.  And then another 20 minutes taxiing for a gate.  And the baggage reclaim wasn’t exactly swift.

We were done for even before Ryanair refused our bags.  A further 20 minute security queue and a ridiculously long walk to the gate would have defeated us too.

We refused Ryanair’s offer to charge us 2 X €100 missed flight fee if they rebooked us on the next flight and €142 for the next flight itself.  A bit of online ability saving us €200 or a walk to the Aer Lingus desk.

I’m out of pocket for taking a calculated risk.  It didn’t pay off.  But €142 is still a lot cheaper than paying full price UK business class fares.  Being tired and bored for hours in Dublin needs to be factored in though.  At least we had a lounge pass!

Tired and Grumpy on a Night Flight to Dublin

Our second flight takes us from Chicago to Dublin. A 787 operated by American Airlines. Excitement of the highest nature brought on by news of Oldham Athletic winning a game of football a few hours earlier. With only ten men!

An excellent business class seat that, had the welcome champagne been served in a glass rather than plastic container, would have had me thinking it could outshine BA First Class.

Then I realised our seats faced backwards. Not in itself a problem, but until the curtains close we’ll have to stare at the economy proletariat. Says the man who’s lined up a Ryanair flight back to Manchester.

I ponder the menu. I ponder why I’ve just eaten a coffee cup full of M&Ms in the Flagship lounge and feel slightly icky. I slurp the champagne while staring at the cocktail of pain relief pills in front of me. And judge the two hour time zone difference between Vegas and Chicago. I’ll wait, eat, dope myself up and then sleep.

Melon, beef and four seasons mousse for tea. Or ice cream? Decisions! We’re still on the runway as an Asian looking chap is amicably removed from the flight by cabin crew. Reasons unclear. Hopefully he’ll return or we’ll be delayed by his hold luggage having to be removed.

Lights dim. Seat belt signs are lit. But still a few minutes to take off. Time drags. Departure time passes. The IFE system says we’re 650 feet above the ground travelling at 58MPH. Height above sea level and speed of the earth rotating perhaps? No idea!

Getting worried now about our Ryanair flight tomorrow. Might be tight!

Technical issue. Will definitely be tight. I might be splashing out on an Aer Fungus one way trip to Manchester!

Finally we take off. Well over an hour late. I mess about with my seat, trying to find a comfortable angle. During the delay I’ve realised that it’s standard position is damned uncomfortable. A negative. Even with adjusted angles I’m finding the padding thin and my damaged bones / tumour intruded pelvis are uncomfortable whatever position I take.

I realise that my pillow is under my seat and have to reset everything to recover it. My fault I suppose, but aligned with the delay I blame the airline.

The power sockets please me. Two brilliantly placed USB options that I utilise and two full socket options that I leave. Not the same for the headphones. Excellent Bose set that I struggle to plug in somewhere under my armpit, out of sight on my right hand side. My good first impressions of this plane are wearing off!

Worse was to come. The in flight entertainment system had the most complex user control I’ve ever seen. Frustration turned to anger which turned to give up and play Beauty and the Beast because I’ve lost the will to find out how to play anything else. A movie that highlights Stockholm syndrome!

The ordered food came and went. Not the best. I decided to use the supplied eye mask, but struggled to sleep due to low level pain, difficulty finding the best angle for sleep and a monster of a man in the seat behind me tossing and turning. I’ve never known a business class seat get battered by another passenger before!

Eventually my right leg succumbed to numbness driven by the cancer and my efforts at self massage failed. I moved the seat to a more upright position to assist the blood flow. I think this number of hours in economy would be beyond me now. I’m lucky I’ve been able to afford business class flying, albeit taking my unusual routings to save money to achieve it.

Breakfast arrives. For me anyway. Rachel has to hound her inattentive flight attendant to get hers. Fruit. Yoghurt and granola. A Devon scone with butter and jam. Proper tea.

For some reason they collect the posh headphones 45 minutes before we land. I assume they get a fair few pinched and like to count them in before passengers disembark. (Edit: they later announced they were missing two lol)

A series of announcements come about boarding cards on landing. Not needed while we’re still in the EU. Something unintelligible about Italian connections and paperwork needed. Not my problem.

My ears feel the start of descent into Dublin and, for a moment, I regret the routing. Before remembering the several thousand pound price benefit it achieved or the cramped economy conditions it avoided.

Despite a modicum of sleep I’m shattered. A narrow time gap for bag reclaim, terminal change and Ryanair check in ahead. Not to mention flight and drive home!

Farewell Vegas – Bollinger Time

Home time. A chance to enjoy a little more business class flying and say what may be my final farewell to the American South West. Next stop Chicago.

First class internal flying in the USA is just big seats. Not the beautiful lie flat things of international flying. But at least it entitles us to lounge access. If American Airlines actually had a lounge at Las Vegas!

We wandered into “The Club”. I wrongly assumed this was a rename of the Admirals Club lounge that AA have used previously. I presented my boarding pass to a blank look from the lounge attendant. “Do you have a Priority
Pass? AA don’t have a lounge in Vegas.”

In shock I fumbled around in my wallet to produce my Priority Pass and we were in. Luxury breakfast of banana, shortbread and a very sticky pastry. Alas, bacon rolls nowhere to be seen. Adequate coffee aided my waking up.

We then headed to the departure gate and boarded second, after special assistance customers. Took to our large seats. Failed to download the in flight entertainment to my iPad and accepted a cup of tea pre-flight. A little weak, not to the quality of Rachel’s brews, but welcome nonetheless.

Safety video. I’ve endured awful safety videos from Iberia and BA recently. I think AA share the naffness. Although they did actually show somebody jumping out of the plane and sliding down the slidey thing. I’ve always thought this would be a great experience if you weren’t part of a group of people scared witless.

I’m always a little perplexed by the life jacket. Never really sure where it is under my seat. Can my body even reach it these days? Not sure I’d know which way round to wear it. Tying a bow isn’t an area of expertise. I can blow a whistle as well as anybody though. But my airline escape recommendation is to get ahead of me if we’re crash landing in water.

Fifteen minutes late onto the runway. The sites of Vegas visible as we take off, including a black version of Stockport’s pyramid, and we admired the mountains and rock formations beneath as we finally got off the ground.

Lake Mead, Hoover Dam and the Colorado beneath. Beautiful. We missed the Grand Canyon but the magnificence of Utah’s deep cut waterways and red rocks replicated the earlier part of our trip, albeit from 30,000 feet above. Truly wonderful. Snow capped Rocky Mountains and then on to the Mid-West. Flat. Farmed. Dull.

The in flight “breakfast” of chicken and salad saw the salad left. Rachel’s saw the chicken left! I grinned as I heard the stewardess tell another passenger “we only have black tea on board”. The diagonal grin would have been wider had she said “English tea”!

Land in Chicago.  Visit the gents to discover a self changing loo seat.  Into the AA Flagship Lounge.  Unlimited Bollinger.  Three hours to flight.

Waking up Drugged up in Vegas – Tick

It’s unlikely that I’m the only person to have a “lie in” after a night of drugs in Las Vegas.

Much as the wild part of me would enjoy such a headline, the reality is that sensible Dave nearly always prevails.  The weird and wonderful and spaced out effects of prescription amytriptoline the cause of my late morning slumber rather than anything dubious or illegal.

Despite dropping back to one pill last night, to deal with a reduced beating of sciatic discomfort in knee and ankle,

A 10.30am wake up call was a shock.  I’m usually awake some time between six and seven despite my lack of employment.  Rachel was explaining about my Luke warm cup of tea that she’d made.  I checked my fingers to ensure I’d not done anything bonkers at the drive thru chapel.

Gradually I came round to a sunny Vegas day and pondered if pain was better than this grogginess in my system.  I quickly decided I don’t like pain, so needs must.  Before embarking on a lazy day of hot tubs and food.

Deciding What to do in Vegas

The confirmation of my tumour regrowth came the day we left the UK for this trip.  My last days in Chile had been hampered by a slower walk and the subsequent scan eventually confirmed the bad news that my treatment was no longer strong enough to benefit me long term.  A blow.

That said, I landed in USA without significant pain.  Alas, over the last few days the tumour appears to have been applying pressure that has changed that.

The problem is, I can’t guage when it’s going to hurt the most.  There’s a constant ache that I can treat with basic naproxen and paracetamol.  The real problem comes with the pulsating sciatic agony shooting down to my knee and ankle.

Forty eight hours ago this was real.  I was counting tramadol and amytriptoline to ensure I had enough to last me until I get home.  It’s tight.  These two drugs are the key to stopping the sciatic effect and helping me sleep.  Alas, they also generate zombie Dave.  A disoriented individual who struggles to know what’s going on around him.

Great for a driving holiday!  Fortunately Rachel has taken on even more of the driving and is the organised one for ensuring we are out and about in good time, with all our bags.

What I’m finding odd is that the nature of the pain changes.  My assumption, as the worst started, was that the tumour had grown and would continue to grow.  This was no doubt causing a sciatic shock in time with my heartbeat.

But after two days of immense discomfort I’m back to just soreness with pins and needles.  The former being relatively easy to treat without my knockout drugs.  Although my stomach lining might not be keen on the amount of naproxen I use.

The worst pain always comes at night.  It did before I was diagnosed too.  It’s all very familiar to how I felt last year.  But the last two nights I’ve not really suffered.  Not to the same intensity.  And nil amytriptoline and nil tramadol got me through the night without severe problems.

Today sees another long drive to Sequoia National Park.  Fingers crossed it’ll be comfortable and hopefully I can make a more useful contribution to the driving.  Maybe the afatinib is still winning small battles after all, even though it seems it has no chance of winning its war.

Alcatraz – Land of the Fly