Instead of flying stand-by, I canceled the Houston run and decided to see if I should head to the B terminals for the regional jet for Lubbock. I had about 3 hours to kill so I went to Walmart to buy some gloves since London will be cold and rainy was well. I went to the park and fly to save some money instead of parking at the terminal and I had about 2 hours to spare.
After heading to the gate after security, I get a text that my flight was canceled. I thought about catching the flight that was boarding at the other side of the terminal and I decided to cancel the trip and get a refund. So I went back to the park and fly and cut my losses. At least they did not charge me for my 40 minutes at the park and fly.
Went home to finish up packing and relax. Called American for a refund on my canceled Lubbock flight which could take up 2 billing cycles. Since I missed 2 mileage runs for 4K Elite Qualifying Miles, I had to make it up before the end of the year to get Executive Platinum status (which would made all the other traveling in vain). I for a refund back to my card and proceeded to search for another mileage run when I get back. I searched for flights to SEA, MIA, LAX, LAS, BOS, ORD and LGA that were cheap. I need about 2200 miles to qualify for Executive Platinum so at least 1100 miles each way. SEA, BOS and LGA were too expensive. ORD was too short of a flight and MIA, LAS, LAX arrived too late in the day since I had to work the next day of the mileage run. I found a cheap flight that was reasonable on short notice to FLL. Left at 2:30PM and got back at 9:15PM that night and I would have 6 extra miles to spare for the 100K goal. I found a coupon online and knocked the ticket down a few bucks.
Called Bank of America to let them know I was using Barclay's in England for cash withdraws and to get the approval on that. I also called Capital One for them to note that my credit card would be for use in England for 2 weeks. The agent made sure to let me know that they did not charge a conversion fee for foreign transactions on credit card use.
Grabbed some much needed items at CVS and Container Store. Took advantage of the 25% off an entree offer at Pei Wei for bringing a canned good item. I got rid of some refried beans that we had for about a year now (still good still). Ate my lunch, showered, and left for the airport.
The traffic was not bad and we had about 150 minutes to spare when we got there. Since I had 2 checked bags and 2 carry-ons, my mom helped me take my luggage in. We somehow ended up on the self-serve machines. I had trouble using the machines with my new passport. The good thing was that the security was really short. They took the box of electronics from my carry on and did a rescan of it by itself and did physical inspections of it. After that 10 minutes of fun, I proceeded to the gate. It was located right next to the Admiral's club so I went in. The agent checked my boarding pass and Platinum Card for entrance. She handed me a drink chit for use. The lounge was 2 floors up via elevator. They had a bar, smoking room, kid's room, conference room and 2 waiting rooms. I used the computer for most of the time and grabbed a diet coke & bottle water from the bar. I had to exchange the drink chit for the bottle water. I knew that the water would come in handy later in the trip. The lounge was relaxing and pretty quiet for the most part.
[Next to the entrance to the AA Terminal D lounge]
[My diet coke/lime and bottle of water]
[My boarding pass for the flight and Admiral's Club]
I left the lounge about 30 minutes before departure so that I could board. The boarding was late, not sure why and no announcement was made so I made a beeline to the gate when other people started boarding since I was in business as well. When I got to my seat, the guy sitting next to me already took all the space in the overhead bin so I luckily found an empty one near me to stuff my bag into it. The guy next to me was traveling to India and was pretty friendly since he introduced himself first. He had over 600K miles in his account and cannot really use it since he has 2 small children. We chatted through dinner and did not really much talk after that.
The seats were great (compared to coach) since they reclined. We had personal flight entertainment systems. Nothing really interested me except 'shorts' the kids movie. It was ok, I watched reruns of The Office and part of I Love You, Man. Dinner was not really eventful. I finished my warm mixed nuts snack and ate 2 pieces of the cheese snack, it was not impressive. I tried Jack and Diet Coke... had to ask for an extra can of diet Coke since the drink was a bit strong for me. We had shrimp and smoked salmon for appetizer. I ate the shrimp and bits of the salmon. I got the chicken entree for main course (with asparagus, tomatoes, and pumpkin cranberry rissole), my second choice after the beef. The salad was nothing great or to brag about. The ice cream sundae was great... chocolate and butterscotch syrup, nuts and whipped cream.
We each had our own in flight entertainment wit Bose headphones. They headphones did a good job of filtering out sounds. I tried to sleep and did an ok job of it until the plane started to shake over the Atlantic and we encountered some type of rain/turbulence. The cabin was dimmed about 2.5 hours into the flight and I used the shades from the amenity kit. I got woken up for breakfast which I choose the omelet, beef, and potatoes with the seasonal fruit platter.
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