I posted a while back about my Hilton Aspire FN award "fail" in that I had to use it for a low redemption value as the expiration date snuck up on us (used it in Brighton for a night during an early March London trip). Well, due to unforeseen travel during April, and DD24 PHD student too busy to play golf with her parents (where does she get her priorities?), we were in danger of a second poor redemption, but I just tacked on a pre-night to a
Disneyland trip at the Waldorf Astoria BH on Monday. I went to USC years ago, but I haven’t stayed in BH in years so really looking forward to it—especially the rooftop bar. Have dinner reservations at Il Pastaio so hopefully some good people watching
Like WDW Groupie, we had some travel woes on our most recent trip to London. I’m not sure what is going on with the travel industry, but travel is very difficult right now. I traveled extensively during the pandemic, and it was nothing to now. We had issues at every step. We flew BA SFO to LHR Club out and First back. We were delayed in SFO on 2/29, and the flight after ours was cancelled. Coming back on 3/12 we woke up to texts/emails that our BA First class flight from LHR to SFO was cancelled, and we’d been rerouted on AA through Dallas—first to Dallas then “business” (i.e. US business) from Dallas to SFO. Uh … no. Fortunately, we’d woken up very early for our flight as we wanted to maximize our time in the Concorde Lounge, which I love. I was on the gold line right when it opened at 6 am, and 90 minutes later I was hopeful we had a solution, although the gold line guy couldn’t ticket it on the phone. I found (via google flights) BA LHR to LAX in First (preserving the experience we’d been looking forward to—IMO AA first is sub-par), and then UA from LAX to SFO in business. Fortunately, we got the email that it was ticketed on the way to the airport. It was the UA ticket causing problems as they are not a partner. The solution I found actually got us in an hour before the AA re-routing they’d proposed, but—and here’s the good news—our flight arrived more than 6 hours after we were originally due to arrive and since the cancellation had been due to “operational reasons,” we were entitled to compensation under EU/UK261. I filed last week and $1300 was credited in our bank account today. I really wish the US had a similar compensation scheme—it keeps the airlines honest. Flyer talk was really helpful for this—the BA thread will post reasons for the cancelled flights, and there is a wiki on how to file, etc. I could have also filed for the “downgrade” from LAX to SFO, but I decided to just let that one go as it would have been minimal.
Even with the acceptable re-route that I found though there were issues along the way. Delayed flights (a bag car tapped the BA LHR to LAX plane during loading requiring a long check), slow luggage at LAX that made our connection stressful, delayed luggage at SFO at 11 pm, traffic on the Bay Bridge due to road work, etc. So we had a lot of luxury sandwiched between tons of stress and nothing seemed to go smoothly. Not sure what is going on, but I hope they figure it out soon. From Flyertalk and similar boards, we are not alone. [Aside: my brother who was in London with his family at the same time also had travel woes, although not bad enough to qualify for EU compensation].
The small conspiracy theory part of me wonders if we were given the less than stellar re-route option due to the fact that we are American and most Americans don’t know about EU261. Flyertalk made me wonder as another gold (UK based) F passenger was given a much better option. Who knows, but it was really helpful to know our “rights” when something like this happens—and to have access to the Gold line.
So my longwinded post is to give head’s up to anyone flying European carriers or American carriers from the EU/UK to familiarize yourself with the EU compensation scheme—the BA board on Flyertalk is amazing and incredibly thorough. Tons and tons of info.
I don't think any parts of central London will be super quiet, but double-glazing on room windows makes a huge difference. I've also stayed at the Conrad St. James (street-facing room) and didn't have any issues with noise. The reason that I didn't stay there again is that I wanted to be on more tube lines (the Conrad is on the circle line and not really walking distance to any good restaurants). I would consider staying at the Conrad again, but I prefer the Mayfair area. It would come down to price and location. Probably my favorite hotel in London is the Beaumont, but it is pricey and not as close to tube stations as I would like.
I am so with you on location based on tube lines. The circle is not my favorite so that would actually weigh heavily against the Conrad for me. We used to stay in Mayfair near the Green Park tube station (which is the great), but now we stay in Mayfair near Bond/Marble Arch, which I prefer as we also get the Elizabeth Line at Bond street, which is my new favorite line. Bond has Central/Jubilee/Elizabeth. We have stopped using the Heathrow Express as the Elizabeth line is almost as quick and much much cheaper. Elizabeth Line also has AC and the trains are new and very clean.