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The First Class Travel Blog

DEN Admirals Club

DEN Admirals Club

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July 2014

Now that we are in Denver, Mrs. SFO and I don’t see our two California sons (San Francisco and LA) and our four grandkids.  While grandkids are great, especially in small doses, we’ve thrown caution to the wind and decided to have all four here this week. I’ve been traveling with our SFO grandkids for years, usually shuttling them to Honolulu to spend time with my DIL’s family.  Now that we’re in Denver, I pick up the SFO grandkids, bring them to Denver and then take them back home.  Although this year, my oldest son ask “would you mind dropping them off in Hawaii instead of San Francisco?”  Why not, I’m always up for a mileage running, or so I thought.  And this year, the LA crew is coming at the same time.   OMG, all four of them for 5 days…. two 6 year old girls and two 3 year old boys.  What were we thinking?

So here we go, starting with an SFO pickup.  Unfortunately, DEN-SFO is a bad route for an AA Executive Platinum.  United, Frontier and Southwest are the only nonstop options.  Ugh.  I picked Frontier for my DEN-SFO because they are perfectly fine if you get pay a little extra for Stretch Seating, with a 36-37”pitch, and the price was right.  ;)

With a 7:39A departure and no PreCheck on Frontier, I left the house at around 5:40A.   Car seats installed I headed for convenient valet parking. 

I used my CLEAR to skip the lines but got the regular invasive security nonsense, complete with Nude-o-scope.  It has been so long since I didn’t have PreCheck, that I was like a kettle today, including forgetting to take off my shoes. LOL.  Off to the train and over to the Concourse A…

And up to Level 4 and the AA Admirals Club.    Not many people here this morning, perfect for a fresh batch of AC pics.

September 2012

Mrs. SFO and I are off to Italy today, joining our SoCal travel buddies for four days in Taormina/Sicily and three days in Siena/Tuscany. While we love our new home, the one thing I miss about SFO is... SFO. Sure weather can cause havoc at times, but the international nonstop options are outstanding, and one learns to schedule around the weather.

While Catania in general is one tough place to get to conveniently and in comfort, its even tougher from DEN. With LH not releasing F seats until T-14 and no other non United non-stop options to Europe, I decided to give BA another chance. The last time we tried BA was 2+ years ago during the strike. That didn't work out very well. But with a Chase 2-4-1 certificate expiring early next year and two more just added to our accounts, BA it is. The good news is BA has daily nonstop DEN-LHR service. The bad news is no First Class cabin. Mrs. SFO, who once upon a time opined that she would rather fly non-stop Economy than connect in First, has seen the light and without hesitation decided "connect in First". With plenty of BA options back in March, I went for ORD as it was cheap 120,000 miles roundtrip for both. That plus $2,100 in BA/UK taxes and fees of course.
 
-AA DEN check-in and Admirals Club Denver
-AA 3765 (American Eagle) DEN-ORD
-American Airlines Flagship Lounge at ORD
-BA Terraces Lounge and First Dining at ORD
-BA First Class Lounge at ORD
-British Airways First Class Chicago to London
-BA Terraces Arrivals Lounge including Concorde Breakfast Room
-BA First Class Lounge at LGW
-Priority Lounge at LGW
-British Airways Business Class London LGW to Catania
-San Domenico Palace Hotel (Taormina, Sicily)
-Taormina and Sicily
-Sala Lounge at CTA
-Alitalia Economy Catania to Florence
-Castiglione del Bosco (Montalcino, Tuscany)
-Exploring Tuscany
-Sala Lounge at FLR
-Air France CityJet Economy Florence to London City LCY
-Le Meridien Picadilly London
-Brasserie Zédel and Ghost: The Musical
-British Airways Concorde Room at LHR
-British Airwarys First Class London to Chicago
-American First Class Chicago to Denver
 
AA DEN check-in and Admirals Club Denver

Mrs. SFO has turned into a wonderful traveler... from multiple bag checker a few years ago to carry-ons on most trips (except today), and amazingly on time. No longer do I have to lie about our departure time. When I say 10:45, she is ready at 10:30. Our new DEN driver Joe dropped us off at DEN at 11:15A.

There was no line at the Priority ticket counter as we stopped to check one bag all the way to LHR. CLEAR is great way to bypass the ID checker when PreCheck is not available. Although DEN needs to learn from the T-3 CLEAR team at SFO, that cuts the line and gets you to the front of the conveyor line!! Arrived at the AC at about T-60. The new DEN AC is conveniently located (once you get the lay of the land) on level 4, a quick elevator ride from the exit at the rear of the gate bound trains. Pleasant AAngel welcomed us in and confirmed that we were #1 and #2 on the upgrade standby list. Unfortunately, all but 3 F seats on the CR7 had been sold for 6 months. Our flight today was now showing only F1 after someone used miles or an SWU earlier this morning. The DEN AC is new, spacious, attractive and with a great staff of AAngels.

All morning, Mrs. SFO insisted that we decline the upgrade so we could sit together. After the fourth or fifth try, I convinced her to take the F seat so at least we both won't be cramped in 6CD. We arrived at the gate at T-30 and the one that wanted to decline the upgrade, has now become very possessive. When do I get my new Boarding Pass? What are they going to serve for lunch? How about I send it back to you? Since the Upgrade List was not scrolling on the monitor, I waited at the podium while GA was checking with the crew as to when to start boarding. When our GA returned, she agreed I was a wise husband by giving my upgrade to Mrs. SFO. She also blocked her just vacated window seat. "Oh now I get it" says Mrs. SFO, "you get two seats to yourself"

AA 3765 (American Eagle) DEN-ORD and psycho FA

We boarded together as GA called F and EXPs, etc... Once on board, Mrs. SFO looks at her 1C and sees the teenie seats in Y and uttered those words I love to hear, "OK, you were right." See you in Chicago. Although considering the megaphone voice of the psycho FA in First, I'm not sure who had the better deal today. Even with my Bose NCH, I could still hear her back in row 6. "Let's get the hell outta here" was apparently her favorite line, screamed at the top of her lungs both in DEN and ORD, where it was accompanied by her dancing and running up the jetway as we all were waiting for our gate check bags. Today's F options were the chicken salad or 3 mini cold cut sandwich. Mrs. SFO declined both figuring she'd eat in Chicago.

My EXP coach lunch. I'll eat in Chicago as well.

Up Next: AA Flagship Lounge at ORD.

December 2013

For the past few years, we've been spending New Years traveling with our good SoCal friends. Last year was Sevilla, the year before Salzburg. This year we decided on South America and Buenos Aires. Despite warnings of heat and humidity and the reality of mostly crappy flight options to South America, we decided to roll the dice. Oops... believe it or not, this is an improvement over last night's forecast.

And memo to self: no matter how hot it gets, stick to the pools.
Pirhana attack in Argentina leaves at least 70 injured

And then there are our flights. No 5* or even 4* airlines on this trip, although I had flirted with and booked KE's LAX-GRU 77W. But leaving a day early and spending 8 hours in transit just didn't seem like it was worth the effort. That plus I waited until it was too late to safely send passports off for a Brazilian visa. What sealed the deal was we are now on the same DFW-EZE flight as our SoCal friends who are connecting from LAX.

• American Airlines Admirals Club at DEN
• American Airlines First Class DEN-DFW
• American Express Centurion Lounge at DFW
• American Airlines First Class DFW-EZE
• Alvear Palace Hotel Buenos Aires
• Buenos Aires
• Aerolineas Argentinas Premium Economy AEP-MDZ
• Park Hyatt Mendoza
• Mendoza and Wine Country
• LAN Chile Economy MDZ-SCL
• Santiago de Chile
• San Cristobal Hotel Santiago
• Delta Business Elite SCL-ATL
• Delta SkyClub at ATL
• Delta Business Elite ATL-DEN

Easy drive to DIA this morning and we were at check-in at T-90, where the agent told told us that the flight was running about a half hour late. That's AA speak for at least an hour. "Thanks for getting us here so early" was the first of many witty comments from the Princess today.

One look at the 50 pax deep line at the South Pre-Check line, we headed to North Pre-Check where it was much better with only a few kettles in the line. A quick train ride to the first stop, Concourse A where the Princess came up with another good one, "Are we going to another club or the crappy one?" Sorry dear, we are going to "the crappy one" aka The Admirals Club, which IMO is better than the only other option here, the United Club, east or west.

More mostly recycles pics of the DEN Admirals Club.

And today's arrivals and departures, now with a more realistic but still optimistic 65 minute delay.

With the delay and no "lunch" on our DEN-DFW, we or rather I decided to have something at the Admirals Club and took a chance on the Cuban Pork Panini. Either I was really hungry or this was one very tasty panini. Mrs. SFO took one bite, exclaimed "wow" and proceeded to share my panini.

At T-20, we headed out to Gate A51 where boarding was just beginning.

AA 109
DEN-DFW
MD-80
11:55A-2:55P (sked)
1:20P-3:50P (actual and ETA)
December 28, 2013
Seats 5AB
Refreshments

Not much warmth to this crew today. No PDB and self-serve hang your coat.
Drinks and the furthest from the truth "Gourmet" Snack Mix.

First time in ages I've been on the AB side. I'll miss the Mad Dogs when they are retired.

Coming up: Our first look at the DFW Centurion Lounge

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