The connections are:
BA: Houston-London-Rome
UA: Houston-Newark-Rome.
Yeah, if I get stuck, I’d prefer London to Newark.
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We flew Air Canada on the way over and Lufthansa on the way back, and I was really surprised by how much nicer Air Canada was.
Some of the United options are operated by Lufthansa. I’m going back and forth on whether or not I want to use United points. It gets complicated though. Probably going to just pay for these flights and save points for something else. BA is not-insignificantly less expensive than United/Lufthansa/Air Canada when paying all out of pocket.
Well, I just pulled the trigger:
British Airways it is.
Houston-London-Rome
Venice-London-Houston
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May you be blessed with less heat than this year.
Well, we’re going early May, so I’m hoping it won’t be quite as hot as it is now.
I have almost a million miles on United which is unfortunate because I would rather fly Turkmenistan Airlines or Air Koryo. Which is to say I think you made the right call. Although, and I have no idea whether they’re still doing this post-pandemic or what, I do recall that there was some quirk where they wouldn’t assign business class seats prior to the flight and families always got split up. That will be a net positive in some cases, surely, but you and Mrs Hawk may for some reason want to be within shouting distance of one another.
A few years ago we went to London in June.
It was in the low 90s.
I felt totally ripped off.
The Brits loved it of course. Pasty arms and legs exposed. Ruddy complexions even ruddier.
The first time I went to Alaska, it was hotter in Anchorage than in Austin. I felt cheated.
London when the sun came out was always fun. Oh the evenings spent outside a pub, enjoying and pint and watching the Essex girls totter by on their way to the station dressed in outfits that we are skimpy and translucent as possible while still qualifying as “clothes”.
The flip side is that, after the third or fourth day, people start getting grumpy because no one has AC at home and so no one is able to sleep. By the fifth day, fights on un-air conditioned public transport become de rigueur.
You fly enough to know this, but I always prefer the over-the-water leg first.
With Mrs. Hawk I’m never out of shouting distance. Other than that, it’s not a big deal if we’re together or not. I mean, we’d prefer to be reasonably close, but we typically don’t sit side by side anyway as we both want an aisle seat. We’re typically across the aisle from each other.
We have discussed Essex girls previously. I don’t know Essex from Sussex from Wessex from…Nossex? But I want to meet some Essex girls now.
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The Only Way is Essex
I’ve often heard Essex described as the New Jersey of England.
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So how is Jersey described?
Very much this. A few weeks ago I had to fly Houston to Boston, Boston to London, London to Houston. That is the exact wrong way to make that trip. That short overnight flight from Boston to London made for two uncomfortable days.
I prefer that too, but I also prefer my point of entry into the US to be my final destination. Can’t do both on this trip with these choices.
We did Houston-Montreal-Barcelona and that made for a bad, bad split.
The long leg first, over water or not, is usually best. But I’d still take flying into Houston as port of entry in the return. Sometimes legs are about the same and it doesn’t really matter (I’m looking at you Houston-Moscow-Singapore). It’s just a long fucking trip.