ORD | Jason Around the World

Johannesburg, South Africa to Washington, DC, the very very long way

Airports, Belgium, Flights, Germany, South Africa, South Africa Milage Run 2013 2 Responses »

Apr 232013

I’m going to be a bit briefer on this entry than the trip down, mostly because many of the flights were relatively similar…just in reverse. That said, there were quite a few differences so I’ll go into a bit more detail about them.

Check-in at Johannesburg was a piece of cake despite the fully loaded A380, and we had our boarding passes within 10 minutes of getting off the Gautrain. Past the ticketing counters, on the way to security, we saw this interesting gem:

I’m going to guess that enough people flying out of JNB have weapons to check that not only do they need a special place for it, but they need a giant sign to let you know where to do it. I guess this makes you feel a little safer? Maybe?

No wait for security, but the wait for immigration was close to 20 minutes. With A380s of Lufthansa and Air France departing, as well as a couple long-haul South African and BA flights it was no big surprise, and can’t really complain about it too much. We did a bit of duty free shopping, and maybe a couple things worth mentioning: if you want Africa-themed souvenirs, you can find just about anything you want at JNB. There are several shops selling just about every sort of mask, statue, necklace, and trinket you could imagine. If you want to buy South African wine…not so much. There’s one shop, with a small selection, and they do NOT package or ship. Sort of disappointing, but saved me a good deal of money I guess.

Shopping done, it was time to spend a bit of time in the South African business lounge. Plentiful drinks served by bartenders, a bit of pre-packaged food that was so unappetizing I didn’t touch any of it, and internet that was about as fast as Oscar Pistorius…no wait, too soon. It was slow. Almost unusable slow. So slow I used data roaming on my iPhone slow. Oh, and if you want to plug in your device….you best forget it. I think the whole lounge had about 10-15 outlets all of which were in use. Womp womp.

Boarding for the A380 was total chaos due to it being a completely full flight.

Lufthansa flight 573
Johannesburg, South Africa (JNB) to Frankfurt, Germany (FRA)
Depart 19:05, Arrive 5:45 next day, Flight Time 10:40
Airbus A380, Registration D-AIMC, Manufactured 2010, Seat 27K

This flight was nearly identical to the way down there. I’m not going to post too much, because honestly…not much is different. Pre-departure juice, water, or champagne (one glass, and one glass only), quick and efficient meal service from a very friendly crew, and I managed to sleep a solid 8 hours on the way to Frankfurt. I can’t ask for too much more. The menu:

I had the chicken thai coconut stew, and it was pretty tasty, but a pretty small portion. I did get a second helping of cheese after the desert course (hey, I’m a growing boy) and with a few glasses of wine got an incredibly solid sleep as mentioned above.

When we deplaned in Frankfurt, there were German immigration officers just outside the jetbridge checking passports. I’m not certain how this works, but I guess they want to catch people who ditched their passports in flight (hoping for asylum?) coming off the plane before they mix in with other flights so they can at least tell where they came from? Anyone know more about why they do this? I flashed mine, and we were off. Quick re-do of security, and we were in the A/Schengen-gates senator lounge where a nice shower awaited:

Showered and happy, grabbed a lite breakfast including lots of coffee, and some of the brightest and most festive easter eggs I’d ever seen. But come on Lufthansa, you’re a couple days late…easter was a couple days ago!

Washington DC to Johannesburg, South Africa…the long way!

Airports, Flights, Germany, South Africa, South Africa Milage Run 2013 8 Responses »

Apr 182013

A couple months ago, people were posting about a fare from DC to Johannesburg, mentioning that while it was a great fare in business class, it wasn’t really cheap enough to be considered a “milage run.” Well, I like to be comfortable, and with business fares earning 1.5 times the elite miles it was a no brainer for me. I tend to think if I can buy a business fare for less than 10 cents per elite mile I’m doing well, and with the limited time off I have it made this a no-brainer. The kicker was that my friend Dewon was already headed back to South Africa to renew a visa, and I could fly the outbound with him. A few days after booking, my friend Phil wanted to join me for the crazy milage run from DC, and we had the makings of an adventure!

Of course, since this was largely for the miles I devised the most insane routing I could to maximize the miles, and it went off without a hitch! All told, it would be around 33,000 elite miles earned, at the cost of only one day of leave…can’t complain too much! Soon, the day of the trip was here and it was time to go. I’m going to break this into three parts…. (1) the trip to South Africa aka this post, (2) our 1.5 days in South Africa, and (3) the trip back from South Africa. Warning, this part of the post will be extremely picture heavy!

Got to National Airport, check-in was fairly efficient, TSA was a non-event due to TSA Pre-Check, and soon we were in the United Club. I love the historic club at National Airport, not to mention the awesome bartender who makes the most amazing spicy bloody mary…perfect start to a big adventure!

United (operated by Shuttle America) flight 3523
Washington DC, National (DCA) to Chicago O’Hare (ORD)
Depart 10:35, Arrive 11:44, Flight Time 2:09
Embraer E-170, Registration N638RW, Manufactured 2004, Seat 2F

Not too much to say about this flight…it was a pretty generic express flight. One more drink, some “gourmet snack mix,” some crossword puzzles, and soon we were in Chicago.

Whenever I have time, it’s become an O’Hare ritual for me to swing by Chilis for some Tex Mex Eggrolls and a Platinum Presidente Margarita…couldn’t resist this time either. We had plenty of time, and the other option was to sit in a crowded United Club, so the choice was obvious!

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West Africa 2012 and first flights

Airports, Flights, West Africa 2012 2 Responses »

Oct 242012

Recently, I was asked to head to Dakar, Senegal for the better part of two months for work. Due to prior commitments, I arranged to do it in two blocks, with two weeks off in between. I won’t bore you with the flights in between (standard DCA-YOW runs on Air Canada) but thought I’d fill in some of the details on Dakar, Senegal including the hotels, restaurants, a few sights, and the flights to get there. I’ll go be going back again shortly, and taking pretty much the same route.

There’s actually a non-stop flight on South African between DC and Dakar, which is a bit odd to most people. Even stranger, is that all but the highest business fares are often sold out months in advance, requiring a full J fare if you want to take it. Forget D/I/Z/etc. Just couldn’t justify that, plus, I actually wanted to rack up some extra miles, so settled on this route. I was going to fly United to Brussels, then Brussels Airlines to Dakar, but wanted to go out of Washington National if possible. United doesn’t allow this – transatlantic fares almost always require nonstops out of Dulles, however, Lufthansa is cool with it. However, they only codeshare on the Newark to Brussels flight, thus I ended up going Washington National (DCA) to Chicago (ORD) to Newark (EWR) to Brussels (BRU) on United, connecting to Dakar on Brussels Airlines. The flight back would be much simpler – nonstop on South African. I’ll explain why I chose this below in the detailed flight sections.

Later, I’ll make a couple posts about hotels, sights, and restaurants, before I head back for the next trip where I’m hoping to hop around to a couple more countries in the region on weekends if possible. Fair warning, this post will be very very full of flight geekery.

Got to the airport about 90 minutes before the first flight to check bags, and encountered the typical surly DCA United agents. I don’t know why, but the United staff here (with the exception of those working the lounge) are always surly. Dulles can be marginally better, but every time at DCA I have a pretty negative experience. Once again denied pre-check by TSA (which I understand doesn’t work with international itineraries anyways) and had a little time to kill in the “United Club” aka former Presidents Club. The agent was very chatty, sharing every thought she had on the merger, how staff were integrating, and basically how senior management wasn’t thinking. Basic stuff like shuffling flight attendants between DCA and IAD in taxis to fill gaps causing long delays, etc. It was an interesting chat, and time to board soon!

United Airlines Flight 833
Washington, DC National (DCA) to Chicago (ORD)
Depart 10:23, Arrive 11:20, Flight Time 1:57
Airbus A319, Registration N822UA, Manufactured 1999, Seat 1E

Nothing exciting to say about this flight. Snack mix, diet coke, and on-time landing. The fun started in Chicago, with the United International First lounge. Always good to get filled up on shrimp cocktail and champagne before continuing on. Pretty standard day, and didn’t have too far to walk to the flight to Newark.

United Airlines Flight 1720
Chicago (ORD) to Newark (EWR)
Depart 13:00, Arrive 16:17, Flight Time 2:17
Boeing 737-800, Registration N77530, Manufactured 2011, Seat 3F

Small snack on this flight, and started off right with a margarita on-board, definitely one of the things from the Continental side of the house that I’m really glad came over to the new United. Small lunch which is no longer memorable, but was some sort of a deli plate with a few decent things on it. I wasn’t hungry after the shrimp so just picked at it, and soon we landed. Boring domestic flights, I know…let’s move onto the prime attraction. Some slightly less common international segments.

United Airlines Flight 960
Newark (EWR) to Brussels, Belgium (BRU)
Depart 18:12, Arrive 7:45 next day , Flight Time 8:33
Boeing 777-200, Registration N775UA, Manufactured 1996, Seat 1A

Lounge…ug. Really, you make international first passengers use the dump that is the “United Club” at Newark. Completely packed with the cattle, it’s hard to get a drink or find somewhere to plug in your computer. Boarding was at least relatively efficient, and the former Continental gate crew at least seem to know there are three classes finally. Then, we boarded, and things got a bit exciting. Earlier in the day, there were only 3 of us in first, with five empty seats. Of course, all eight ended up being taken. The crew (ex-United) seemed to know the party of five (all together) who boarded (surprising since they were boarding in EWR, but who knows), and they rather loudly complained that there were six of them, but one “got stuck in the back because SOMEONE took their seat at the last minute.” Honey, that would be me….on a full business fare upgraded with a global upgrade. If you want your company to stay in business, please don’t complain when full revenue passengers “stick” #6 in your party in business. Very unprofessional. The purser must have seen me make a bit of a pained face, as she actually came over and apologized, and was wonderful the whole flight.

Standard new 777 united first suites, with the standard broken buttons on a couple of the storage compartments. Nothing a makeshift lever wouldn’t take care of. People always seem to ask the latest of the meals, so I’ll post with a few pics here. Started of course with the mixed warm nuts. Nothing special, but way too many almonds for my liking.

To Begin: Warm Appetizer – Vegetable and mushroom-filled pastry and beef empanada with Amazon sauce.

I’ll admit, I have no idea what “Amazon sauce” is supposed to be, and even after eating it I wasn’t sure. Tasty enough, but certainly not what I’d expect in international first. You’ll also notice some coconut-breaded chicken thing. Guess the veggie and shroom pastry was a tease as well. At least there was wine!

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