American Airlines and British Airways

Despite the cabin crew strike, British Airways quickly booked us on a flight from Milan to JFK; then from JFK to BWI on American Airlines, on the same day we expected to leave. Pretty nifty, since we had paid for our seats with our BA miles.

I wasn't able to book online because all I had was a booking reference from BA. And, perhaps I could have if I had remembered by AA ID and password; but since it has been many years since I used it I didn't remember. We didn't even have an e-ticket; however when we got to the desk at check-in, and I told them BA had booked us, they found us right away. We are sitting in the middle of the plane - however in Row 11 - so it is not quite as awful as being in the tail of the plane - and at least we are sitting next to one anothe and aren't quite packed in like sardines. We have to get our bags at JFK to clear customs, but we already have our boarding passes for connecting AA flight home; so once clearing customs we can use the fast bag drop. Onward flight has us both in window seats, Jim in row 2 and me behind in row 3. Again, at least we are in forward section of plane. Bad deal: it is American Eagle. Prop plane no doubt. It is against my religion to fly on prop planes. First and last time we did this was on the way home from Jamaica; I swore never again to arrive in JFK and fly American home. If you are reading this on the blog, you know we made it home and the propellers didn't stop working. Prefer jets, thank you.

We are in the middle of our flight and have already decided we do not like the long haul up front. It is just great leaving city in Europe early in the morning, flying into Heathrow, doing a bit a shopping, getting an English bite to eat and checking bags through to BWI. This is a real pain. Bags have to be picked up at JFK for customs/immigration/security, have to drop them off, find our gate, do all this stuff while dead tired and still get on another flight. So we won't intentionally ever do this again. Also, even though this is same plane (767) it is configured differently, there is more leg room - seats are tiny bit wider. Good you think? Nope. Seats do not recline as much as on BA 767, nor do they have fancy headrest where you can tilt the sides down and rest your head. There is no TV in front of me (on the back of the seat in front of me) , nor can I choose movies, TV shows, music videos that I would like to watch. I am stuck with whatever they want to show which happens to be dumb stuff. We both have our own ear buds, but if we didn't, they want to sell them to you. BA offers head sets for free. We do have a blanket & pillow, the meal was free, yucky and not enough. BA has better food. BA gives you free alcoholic beverages and also wine. One would have to pay and we didn't. I am bored silly. Like to have my gin & tonic, wine , watch movies and take a nap. Watched 3 episodes of Harry Potter on way home last time. I've played solitaire on my iPod, wrote this info for blog. Read all the magazines.

We shall see how the rest of this plays out. So far we are not crazy about flying into USA and tranferring. Always like to transfer in Europe - which is what makes BA ideal. Due to this snafu with the strike, I am not able to pick up my plum pudding from Harrods for Christmas dinner OR my Glenmorangie Scotch from duty free. Major disappointment!!

Landed in JFK, actually got through everything rather quickly, and walked back out to the gate to board the American Eagle flight home. Lo and behold! Jet engines!!! Not only that, my window seat (and Jim's behind me) is a single seat, across from the galley and about 15 ft from the pilot --

Really great, boarded at 3:10, pulled away from the gate 10 minutes early - actual flight time 38 minutes - actual time to get out of JFK - don't ask. At 4:10 we were still waiting to get up to our runway, a few minutes afterwards pilot announces that we are to go back to gate for get more fuel. Were we going to BWI on fumes???? Due to thunderstorms, we are being rerouted and needed more fuel. So, we were supposed to land at 5:30pm and we are now just at cruising level. No way to let Beth know, who will we waiting for us at 5:30pm, paying the high hourly parking rate. So, sort of count on AA not always having a full tank.

Thanks to Beth, our land pilot, we are home safe and sound.