The beginning of the Ladakh Ride
As a Platinum member of One World, and the American Airlines Advantage group you get s few special things. Priority boarding, free bags, and access to the airport lounges on international flights.
So, being a Platinum member I booked a ticket on British Air. It was more expensive than the other major airlines, but I was ok with that.
Later, when checking the seating or something like that, I noticed my status was not Platinum, but the lowly Gold.
The customer services person notified me that I didn’t qualify because I didn’t fly the required 50,000 miles in 2014. I only flew 49,500.
Earlier I had received a notification that the first leg of my ticket was changing its departure time from 8:40 am to 8:35 so I called them up and notified them that this didn’t work for me and demanded a full refund of my ticket.
When I say demanded I mean that I wouldn’t get off the phone until they agreed.
Anyway, I then purchased a similar ticket on Virgin for $500 less. I also asked if they would match my Gold membership status but they firmly and politely told me no. Cant hurt to ask, right?
Bags packed, ticket in hand, my lovely wife Laura dropped me off at SFO on Thursday and off I went.
I didnt get extra bags on Virgin, only the regular 2. I could pay for another for $85 though… I didn’t get early boarding, but that’s ok, I paid an extra $40 to be able to choose my own seat, and the upper deck seats put you on Group 1.
I also didn’t have access to the airport lounge, so for my ten hour layover at London’s Heathrow, I got an Underground pass and headed to the East end.
Some of Laura’s friends had told us about the Shoreditch neighborhood and a few nice cafes and restaurants a few years ago and it has become our favorite neighborhood in London, very similar to Brooklyn in a lot of ways.
My personal favorite, All Press coffee chose to do a full demolition and was closed down so I wandered around the East End and Brick Lane until I was referred to Joe’s Kid, a great little café that does a proper Fill English.
Eventually the jet lag and exhaustion kicked in and I was getting strange looks from people as I wandered around Spitalfileds like a zombie. Im ok with that.
Then it was time to head back to LHR and board the flight to Delhi, where I would have an afternoon free before my buddies started arriving.
We all had a 6:30 AM flight from Delhi to Kullu and the group was all converging on the Delhi airport that Saturday night.
Im beginning to consider the idea that riding old motorcycles on some of the worst roads in the world the first week they open after an especially rough winter….might be a little more difficult than I imagine.
Whatever. Here we go.
As a Platinum member of One World, and the American Airlines Advantage group you get s few special things. Priority boarding, free bags, and access to the airport lounges on international flights.
So, being a Platinum member I booked a ticket on British Air. It was more expensive than the other major airlines, but I was ok with that.
Later, when checking the seating or something like that, I noticed my status was not Platinum, but the lowly Gold.
The customer services person notified me that I didn’t qualify because I didn’t fly the required 50,000 miles in 2014. I only flew 49,500.
Earlier I had received a notification that the first leg of my ticket was changing its departure time from 8:40 am to 8:35 so I called them up and notified them that this didn’t work for me and demanded a full refund of my ticket.
When I say demanded I mean that I wouldn’t get off the phone until they agreed.
Anyway, I then purchased a similar ticket on Virgin for $500 less. I also asked if they would match my Gold membership status but they firmly and politely told me no. Cant hurt to ask, right?
Bags packed, ticket in hand, my lovely wife Laura dropped me off at SFO on Thursday and off I went.
I didnt get extra bags on Virgin, only the regular 2. I could pay for another for $85 though… I didn’t get early boarding, but that’s ok, I paid an extra $40 to be able to choose my own seat, and the upper deck seats put you on Group 1.
I also didn’t have access to the airport lounge, so for my ten hour layover at London’s Heathrow, I got an Underground pass and headed to the East end.
Some of Laura’s friends had told us about the Shoreditch neighborhood and a few nice cafes and restaurants a few years ago and it has become our favorite neighborhood in London, very similar to Brooklyn in a lot of ways.
My personal favorite, All Press coffee chose to do a full demolition and was closed down so I wandered around the East End and Brick Lane until I was referred to Joe’s Kid, a great little café that does a proper Fill English.
Eventually the jet lag and exhaustion kicked in and I was getting strange looks from people as I wandered around Spitalfileds like a zombie. Im ok with that.
Then it was time to head back to LHR and board the flight to Delhi, where I would have an afternoon free before my buddies started arriving.
We all had a 6:30 AM flight from Delhi to Kullu and the group was all converging on the Delhi airport that Saturday night.
Im beginning to consider the idea that riding old motorcycles on some of the worst roads in the world the first week they open after an especially rough winter….might be a little more difficult than I imagine.
Whatever. Here we go.
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