We traded in a bunch of Ultimate Rewards points + cash to get Business Class seats from JAX to MIA (Miami), where we'll spend a night in a hotel in the terminal , then the next day to LHR (London Heathrow) to DUB (Dublin).
Not the most direct route but it was available on the rewards list. So let's start with the start - getting there.
Tuesday 7/17/18.
We took the rental car we picked up yesterday to our nice JAX airport. Then bag check, wait, and board the little AA jet to MIA. Nice flight. MIA, though, is huge and busy. The AA wing is a mile in length, a half-mile each way from the connection with the rest of the terminal. We had to take the Skytrain to get to luggage pickup. Then we walked back a goodly distance to reach Miami International Airport Hotel.
It's inside the terminal on Level 2 and has rooms on 3 thru 6. A restaurant and conference center is on Level 7. We're on Level 5. The room is basic but nice and clean and surprisingly quiet - at least it is when the kiddies in the next room are not playing and screeching.
Then we walked a while around the concourses, where D bought some earbuds, and returned to the room. I found I had left the mouse at home, so I went down for a mouse.
While walking I came across a cute poster of the airport and its activities. Very busy thing, not too far from the truth. Link here.
I tried to check in on-line for tomorrow's flight with BA which forwarded me to the AA (co-share, actual plane) page for action. The AA page checked us in but won't send the boarding passes for some reason. We'll resolve it in the morning.
Now it's just going to be taking it easy and getting a good rest.
The kiddies in the next room finally calmed down in the late evening, so we rested well.
We loafed over the in-room coffee. Then down to the AA kiosk to get boarding pass to LHR (Heathrow-London) (successfully), still no idea why they wouldn't e-mail them to me. Kiosk showed the connection to BA for the flight to DUB, but wouldn't print that pass. Agent says BA will have to do it. But the kiosk gave us baggage tags as well, so that's a plus.
We had a non-spectacular but life-sustaining breakfast in Air Margaritaville using a voucher from the hotel. Then we returned to the room to be comfortable.
Later, we checked out of the hotel and checked in with AA. The two agents then were able to give us boarding passes for the connecting flight (on BA). Then up to the lounge. At the gate, a shower came along, delaying boarding for some 15 minutes but we got underway about on time. The flight was pleasant enough, good food & wine, and a nap in the flat seats.
Thursday 7/19/18
We landed at Heathrow more or less on time. We parked out in a pasture and were bused to Terminal 3. We caught the inter-terminal jitney to Terminal 5. As we entered the security area we saw the board that announced flight cancellations. Sure as hell, our flight was on the list with five others.
The reason for the cancellation was given as "failure of a supplier IT system", which interestingly enough mostly affected short-haul flights. The local news is announcing "chaos at Heathrow". We're going to have to stop doing connections and stopovers in London.
We stood in a very long line behind many others at the re-scheduling desk. Fortunately, one person was working the back end of the queue and he was proficient. He found the scheduling system had re-scheduled us for tomorrow morning early. So he had a person get us vouchers for the hotel and meals. He gave us directions to the bus to the hotel and away we went, hesitantly.
We found our way to Hoppa International (bus line) and finally the correct Hoppa. He stopped in Slough at a Holiday Inn Express and then our place - Marriott Windsor. A bunch of us went to the counter to be told the rooms are being cleaned as quickly as possible and as each is cleaned it will be assigned to the next person on the list they began. We managed to be on the top of the list.
We went to the lounge. D had a wine, I took a local ale, both quite good. The barman chatted with us and told us some 60 British Pounds we had are old and can only be traded for new ones at a bank. He told us of one bank not far away.
I used my British-SIM iPhone to call the Clontarf Castle in Dublin to tell them the situation. We'll have to pay, of course, for not being there, but they'll hold the room so we can check in when we arrive in the morning.
The person running the room allocation line came in to tell us our room was ready, so we checked in and proceeded to room 0419, a quite nice ground floor two-double-bed room.
After taking the pills we hadn't taken overnight, D went to bed. I slept a little on the plane so I'm typing these notes, then I will rest as well.
We're in the Marriott Windsor, a few miles from Windsor Castle and Eton.
The dining room opens at 1830 (20 minutes) and we'll partake. Then we'll just loaf here in the room and sleep if possible. We have to board the airport bus at 0420 to get the flight, BA0832 departing at 0650.
We had dinner, a decent buffet setup, followed by a glass in the bar while trying to decipher British TV news as shown on SkyTV. The British are in several big flaps, including Brexit. A feature on transgendered people came on as we left.
The weather's been very nice today - warm (near 80f) and dry. Tomorrow's cloudy and a little cooler.
So now we're back in the room and have only to sleep if possible and get ready for a very early morning wake-up.
Friday 7/20/18
PhotoLink
We stayed awake all night because our timing is so out of whack we don't know what time zone we're in. At 0420 we caught the bus back to Heathrow T5. There we worked with staff to get new boarding passes and to find our bags. It took a while for staff to find the records but we were issued new boarding passes and assured our bags were on the same flight.
We went to the lounge and got breakfasty items. We left at boarding time to our flight. The flight was very casual, up & down, but into rain at Dublin. The bags appeared as advertised.
We napped into the early afternoon then walked to the water some five blocks away through a neighborhood of very nice townhomes. Along the water is the Battle of Clontarf Heritage Trail, so we walked a bit of that. Saw a couple of the ferries to Holyhead, Wales, entering port in the channel beyond the point in front of us. We came back a different set of streets and found a County Kerry tour bus parked out front. We came in via a different entry through an area where they do outside events and explored our way to room 212.
After some little stuff like setting up battery chargers we went to the bar for a glass. Nice pub-style room with an events room behind it being set up for something this evening.
We threw on some nice-casual clothing and went to dinner in "Fahrenheit", a nice dining room on our floor. At 1830 we were early - the room was filling as we left. D had a veal terrine followed by lamb with shiraz and I had a Manhattan followed by a great halibut dish and Viognier. Nice desserts and coffee and a small chat with people from Toronto who were seated next to us.
D settled in after this but I came back down to see what was happening in the bar. An Irish lady asked about Trump so I tried to synopsize the struggle between two sides. She said she couldn't get over the magnitude of the US compared with Eire. Then up to bed.
This is a good hotel to which we'll return if able.