Off to London

Mrs. SFO777 and I are off today to England for a long Thanksgiving weekend. First to London for some theatre and then to the Cornish coast for Thanksgiving with the Poldarks. LOL. One of favourite TV shows is the BBC period series Poldark. Set on the Cornish Coast, the scenery is breathtaking. So we decided to check it out. Lots of airlines fly nonstop between LAX-LHR but none of them are top tier airlines and the two that offer First Class rank near the bottom of the First Class rankings. Tonight I've chosen the lesser of the two evils, American and their 77W service.

Despite it being a busy travel week, oddly there was very little traffic at LAX. We zipped around the Arrivals level and found numerous parking spaces on the ground floor level immediately facing the terminal.

One nice thing that American has is a separate Flagship First check-in entrance and mini-lounge. A porter took Mrs. SFO777's rollerboard and escorted inside where we were the only departing passengers at the time. We were escorted up the nearby elevator to the PreCheck security entrance, where there were only a 4-5 passengers in line. We bid adieu to our escort, who would have gone with us all the way to the lounge.

Our check-in agent had informed us that the Terminal 4 Admirals Club had just opened earlier in the day. Sadly, it was only the regular Admirals Club and not the Flagship Lounge or Flagship Dining, where will open in a month or two or who knows where. It is American after all. Despite my recommendation that we just head for the Qantas First Class Lounge and I'd come back for pics, Mrs. SFO777 suggested that we check out the Admirals Club. So here we are, down the concourse to check out the new Admirals Club.

The newly renovated entrance.

Where the freshened up the place and moved the check-in podiums to the other side of the lobby.

Upstairs Customer Service counter now with only 4 positions.

The Admirals Club now occupies the old Flagship Lounge space, which was considerably smaller than the old Admirals Club. My 1st impression was... what was the point?? After more than a year, this is the best AA could come up with. When we arrived at around 4pm, this place was packed with no comfortable seats to be found. Which is what you might expect to happen when you shrink the space. Duh.

Some random pics before Mrs. SFO777 and I high-tailed it over to the tranquility of the QF First Class Lounge.

The old TV room at the south now accessible from the other side of the lounge.

And the room closest to the tarmac, with the same old afternoon blazing sun problem.

And something called The VIP Room.

After a quick round of pics, I retrieved Mrs. SFO777 and we escaped this zoo and headed for the calm of the Qantas First Class Lounge. On our way to Qantas, we passed Gate 41, from where our flight would depart.

Our 77W.

LOL. Perhaps someday... but not today.

And then there was this Premium Economy billboard on the connector wall, to which Mrs. SFO777 inexplicably remarked "that looks pretty nice". Although she did do a quick backtrack when I told her that it was Premium Economy. LOL.