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Showing posts from August, 2016

Trip Report: British Airways First Class London Heathrow to New York Kennedy LHR-JFK

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This trip was JFK – LHR in business and then LHR – JFK in First. This itinerary cost us  65,000 Avios + $1150 per person, round trip . I used our last Travel Together certificate to halve the number of miles from 130,000. ( How I did it ) I'm glad BA  hasn't retired  their 747s just yet. I love the overnight flight in the 747's upstairs Business Class where it's calm and private. For me, it's only really worth it to fly First on a daytime flight when you can actually enjoy the nicer service. I took this leg in First back in 2014 and my full trip report is over here . The 747 cabin, the Concorde Room lounge, and overall experience haven't changed much since then, so I'll just make a few notes...  The Good The staff in First are still friendly, personable, and go out of their way to help you when you have a special request.  The espresso machine was working. ( I say this because I've noticed that onboard espresso machines are often &quo

Islay, Scotland whisky tour and travel tips

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Beautiful waterfront views from Ardbeg If you're reading this then you're probably a fan of the smoky whisky that this Scottish island is famous for. We'd wanted to go for years and eventually got around to it after attending a wedding in the English countryside ( how we did it ). Don't be fooled by all of the blue sky in our pictures - we went in August and everyone we met felt the need to tell us that they never get this many sunny days, even in the heart of summer. So definitely bring a waterproof jacket and shoes you won't mind getting a bit muddy . If you're going to come all this way, you're going to want to sink your foot into a wet and squishy peat bog at some point, right? First of all, it's pronounced "eye-luh" , not "iss lay" or "eye lay". There's a great series on YouTube about how to pronounce whisky names. I say this because we learned we'd been mispronouncing lots of them for years. Oops. .