OK, it's not actually my birthday during this trip. My birthday is today :) But, I do love treating myself to some quality travel time, so I will start this this report for my journey starting next week.
It is time for my regular trip to see and assist family, but I am also doing a few work meetings. As a new KLM Platinum for Life member, I am 'free' of my obligations to AF/KLM to demonstrate my loyalty, so we'll have some interesting new things to try out: Virgin Atlantic, British Airways and other fine Anglo-Saxon treats and experiences.
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This month, I flew from here to Tokyo for work on Delta and thoroughly enjoyed the Delta One lounge at LAX. I am not even really that much of a lounge person - having rehabilitated entirely from the busy Crown Lounges and Air France lounges after 10 years of flying through AMS / CDG and opting for a restaurant meal in the airport instead, the Delta One lounge was a fantastic refresher on how lounges can be... great?
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On my way back, I opted for JAL instead of Delta One (the Delta One experience was subpar to put it lightly) and loved the JAL First lounge at Tokyo-Haneda. Another great lounge experience?
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(I think I very rapidly became loyal to JAL just by virtue of having excellent, fresh ground pour over coffees to order at the lounge! And thats not even mentioning the aged Japanese whiskeys on offer)
With the news of Virgin's great Clubhouse lounge concept coming to LA and the LAX Delta One lounge, LHR's First wing and Oneworld Emerald eligible lounges, I think there'll be some exploration of the seemingly greener pastures of lounges that are dotting the route ahead.
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From my home base in Santa Cruz, I will be flying:
SJC - LAX (Delta, First) with plenty of time in LAX to Lounge Safari about all the Skyteam lounges, including the sparkling new Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse and Delta One lounge, as I am connecting to a late night
LAX-LHR (Virgin Atlantic, Upper Class 787) on my very first London trip, for a few days, then on to
LHR-AMS (British Airways, Club Europe) my first BA trip - as a Oneworld Emerald hoping to pack in a few lounges in T3, then after a few days in the homeland, on to
AMS-BEG-SKP (Air Serbia, Economy) low expectations on my way to Skopje, a proper luxury travel detox following in
SKP-EIN (WizzAir, Economy) on a Europe ULCC (shocker!), for a few more days home followed by
AMS-LAX (KLM, World Business Class on 777-200ER) a test to see if KLM was as okay-ish as I remember it after my last JetBlue love story and finally
LAX-SJC (Delta, First) back home.
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I will have a good 4+ hours in LAX to traipse around and gallivant about the lounges on offer there and hope to make a fun time out of it. The delightful thing, seemingly, is that a late night departure will let me work, dine and drink and then crash into a (hopefully?) comfortable Upper Class seat on Virgin followed by my very first Full British breakfast experience.
I will update you all in a week :)
PS. In June, this gets a bit weirder with an RTW from San Jose, to Amsterdam and London and then on to Tokyo in JAL first only to return to SF by way of New York. What?! More to come...
It is time for my regular trip to see and assist family, but I am also doing a few work meetings. As a new KLM Platinum for Life member, I am 'free' of my obligations to AF/KLM to demonstrate my loyalty, so we'll have some interesting new things to try out: Virgin Atlantic, British Airways and other fine Anglo-Saxon treats and experiences.
This month, I flew from here to Tokyo for work on Delta and thoroughly enjoyed the Delta One lounge at LAX. I am not even really that much of a lounge person - having rehabilitated entirely from the busy Crown Lounges and Air France lounges after 10 years of flying through AMS / CDG and opting for a restaurant meal in the airport instead, the Delta One lounge was a fantastic refresher on how lounges can be... great?
On my way back, I opted for JAL instead of Delta One (the Delta One experience was subpar to put it lightly) and loved the JAL First lounge at Tokyo-Haneda. Another great lounge experience?
(I think I very rapidly became loyal to JAL just by virtue of having excellent, fresh ground pour over coffees to order at the lounge! And thats not even mentioning the aged Japanese whiskeys on offer)
With the news of Virgin's great Clubhouse lounge concept coming to LA and the LAX Delta One lounge, LHR's First wing and Oneworld Emerald eligible lounges, I think there'll be some exploration of the seemingly greener pastures of lounges that are dotting the route ahead.
From my home base in Santa Cruz, I will be flying:
SJC - LAX (Delta, First) with plenty of time in LAX to Lounge Safari about all the Skyteam lounges, including the sparkling new Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse and Delta One lounge, as I am connecting to a late night
LAX-LHR (Virgin Atlantic, Upper Class 787) on my very first London trip, for a few days, then on to
LHR-AMS (British Airways, Club Europe) my first BA trip - as a Oneworld Emerald hoping to pack in a few lounges in T3, then after a few days in the homeland, on to
AMS-BEG-SKP (Air Serbia, Economy) low expectations on my way to Skopje, a proper luxury travel detox following in
SKP-EIN (WizzAir, Economy) on a Europe ULCC (shocker!), for a few more days home followed by
AMS-LAX (KLM, World Business Class on 777-200ER) a test to see if KLM was as okay-ish as I remember it after my last JetBlue love story and finally
LAX-SJC (Delta, First) back home.
-----
I will have a good 4+ hours in LAX to traipse around and gallivant about the lounges on offer there and hope to make a fun time out of it. The delightful thing, seemingly, is that a late night departure will let me work, dine and drink and then crash into a (hopefully?) comfortable Upper Class seat on Virgin followed by my very first Full British breakfast experience.
I will update you all in a week :)
PS. In June, this gets a bit weirder with an RTW from San Jose, to Amsterdam and London and then on to Tokyo in JAL first only to return to SF by way of New York. What?! More to come...