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June 25, 2006

London, Reloaded: Day One

Another day as a Planner, and another marathon session of airports, concourses, and locking your traytable and putting your seat in the fully-upright position. Yep, I'm back in the UK, and will be here through Thursday, the 29th.

Truth be told, getting here this time was far, far easier than last April. And I credit this entirely on my decision to fly business class.

Now, I'm not much of a big spender when it comes to airlines. Although I'm reasonably tall, I can handle cramped quarters for flights of four hours or so, and am therefore fine saving money by going coach. The tradeoff, it seems, is sleep: I can't crash in coach, which means that I can have a hard time adjusting to local time zones when making extended trips.

I've flown first class before (on an Alaskan flight from LA to Seattle), and it was nice but not spectacular. But with my need to be awake and alert when I hit the ground in London (I'm attending a conference, and we know how thrilling those can be), I decided to throw 30,000 frequent-flyer miles at United, go business class from O'Hare to Heathrow, and see what all the fuss was about.

Hoo, boy: I may not be able to go back. I'd previously equated "business class" with "more legroom", but man, was that an understatement. A few notes on the perks:

• First, they give you a reclining chair to sit in. I don't mean "reclining" in the sense of "tip your chair back a few inches" - I mean "reclining" in the sense that you're sitting in a frickin' Barcalounger. The footrest (footrest!) kicks forward. The back of the seat goes back 60 degrees. This is a seat one can sleep in.
• (Yes, I slept in it. Thank God.)
• You get constant attention from the airline staff. I'm somewhat used to the bored/disinterested flight attendant in coach that will, if prompted (and you're nice to them), bring you another Diet Pepsi. Here, they're practically feeding your fluids intravenously.
• Booze is free. I didn't partake (and was given an odd look - everyone else in the section was gettin' loaded), but the wine selection was impressive.
• Meals are excellent. It's still "airline food" but it's good airline food. I got couscous, potatoes, salad. Terrific stuff, brought in courses. They also do some tasty hot (as in heated) mixed nuts.
• Hot towels. You're given "refreshing" hot towels after takeoff and before landing. (They work, too!)
• Power. The seats have power plugs (!) for your laptop. I didn't have an adapter, but a few folks around me did. It's a cool thing to not have to worry about running out of juice midway over the Atlantic.
• Seats are also equipped with a "Relax and Refresh" kit. This contains earplugs, an eye-cover, socks, toothpaste, toothbrush, hand lotion and Kleenex.
• (Eye covers and earplugs help - a lot - when you're trying to sleep in your Barcalounger.)
• Upon arrival, you're given a "Fast Track" card that lets you cruise through immigration - basically, access to a special line at Heathrow. This didn't seem like a huge benefit at first, but after we'd landed and I saw the vast sea of people waiting in the regular lines, I was very, very grateful for the perk.

I may have to talk with 'ol Jeff about (ahem) changing our travel policy (ahem)...

Thanks to the in-flight nap, I was able to stay awake upon arrival in London. I took the Piccadilly line out of the airport, transferred, and made it to my hotel in good time. I was early enough that my room wasn't ready, so I dropped my bags and decided to cruise around town. Specifically, I wanted to hit the London Transport Museum and ride all the lines on the Tube. Turns out my timing couldn't have been worse for either - the Transport museum is closed for refurbishment, and large sections of the Tube system were closed for major engineering work. But I made do.

From my starting point (Edgware Road), here's what I did (you might want a map of the system - opens in a new window):

• Bakerloo to Baker Street.
• Metropolitan to Wembley Park.
• Jubilee to Green Park.
• Piccadilly to King's Cross.
• Northern to Bank.
• District to Whitechapel.
• East London to Canada Water.
• Jubilee to Canary Wharf.
• DLR to Greenwich, and back to Canary Wharf.
• Jubilee to Stratford.
• Central to Oxford Circus.
• Victoria to Victoria.
• Circle to Edgware Road.

(Sadly, the entire Hammersmith & City and Waterloo & City lines were closed for construction, and the original segment of the system - Metropolitan between Baker Street and King's Cross - was also shut down. Ah, well.)

The entire trip - with photos, lunches, sightseeing - took about 5 hours. And I have to say that it was an incredibly fun, interesting and cool way to spend an afternoon. I got to see all manner of different stations, from the original, cut-and-cover tunnels of the Metropolitan and District lines, to the new, sleek, state-of-the-art stuff of the Jubilee Line Extension (the mall at Canary Wharf, for instance, is modern and clean). The rail cars, too, change as they get newer: the original tracks use, effectively, electrified heavy rail; the newer lines use rounder, smaller and faster cars. In all, Transit Geek Heaven.

It's so cool to be back.

Posted by Gavin Shearer at June 25, 2006 10:30 AM. Posted to Transit | Travel.

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