Routing for LON/DEN/OMA/{EWR/BOS}/LON

[zkat]

I will be travelling to the US on business for a week in July. I have
single-day meetings in Denver, Omaha, New Jersey and Boston. The only
meeting already agreed is in Boston on the Thursday.

I wondered if people on this forum had any advice as to routing for
this trip - pros and cons? I suppose one option is fly out west and
work my way back east, but would that be more expensive (into Denver,
out of EWR/BOS)? I'll be flying from LHR ideally.

To spice up the question, it would be a bonus to get a day in San
Francisco at either the beginning or the end of the trip. Any takers?

Asides:
How feasible will it be to collect BA miles for all of these sectors? I
would settle for KLM-AF Flying Blue as a second option, but don't
really want to have a US airline FF card.

Is there any chance of getting veggie meals on internal US flights (my
last experience was a service rep shouting at me, "You asked for
VEGETABLE meal?!".

[Roland Perry]

Post by zkat
Is there any chance of getting veggie meals on internal US flights (my
last experience was a service rep shouting at me, "You asked for
VEGETABLE meal?!".

Not much chance of getting any meal on many internal flights these days.

[Iceman]

Post by zkat
I will be travelling to the US on business for a week in July. I have
single-day meetings in Denver, Omaha, New Jersey and Boston. The only
meeting already agreed is in Boston on the Thursday.
I wondered if people on this forum had any advice as to routing for
this trip - pros and cons? I suppose one option is fly out west and
work my way back east, but would that be more expensive (into Denver,
out of EWR/BOS)? I'll be flying from LHR ideally.
To spice up the question, it would be a bonus to get a day in San
Francisco at either the beginning or the end of the trip. Any takers?

Look into "Visit USA" or "Visit North America" airpasses. Those are
almost always the cheapest way to visit multiple US cities, and you can
only buy them from outside of North America. Here's a few:

http://www2.usairways.com/awa/content/specials/traveldiscountprograms/vusa.aspx

http://www.klm.com/travel/gb_en/special_offers/packages/index.htm

http://www.staralliance.com/star_alliance/star/content/airpass_north_america.html

Most of the airpasses require you to use specific carriers for your
trans-Atlantic flight also, so don't book that until you know which
airpass you are using and what it requires.

Post by zkat
Is there any chance of getting veggie meals on internal US flights (my
last experience was a service rep shouting at me, "You asked for
VEGETABLE meal?!".

Yes, but book them in advance, preferably along with your ticket if
possible.

[sechumlib]

Post by zkat
Is there any chance of getting veggie meals on internal US flights (my
last experience was a service rep shouting at me, "You asked for
VEGETABLE meal?!".

You'll be lucky to get ANY meal.

[Hunt]

Post by zkat
I will be travelling to the US on business for a week in July. I have
single-day meetings in Denver, Omaha, New Jersey and Boston. The only
meeting already agreed is in Boston on the Thursday.
I wondered if people on this forum had any advice as to routing for
this trip - pros and cons? I suppose one option is fly out west and
work my way back east, but would that be more expensive (into Denver,
out of EWR/BOS)? I'll be flying from LHR ideally.
To spice up the question, it would be a bonus to get a day in San
Francisco at either the beginning or the end of the trip. Any takers?
How feasible will it be to collect BA miles for all of these sectors? I
would settle for KLM-AF Flying Blue as a second option, but don't
really want to have a US airline FF card.
Is there any chance of getting veggie meals on internal US flights (my
last experience was a service rep shouting at me, "You asked for
VEGETABLE meal?!".

UAL has a nice flight from LHR to SFO. It goes near the N Pole and is a good
flight. UAL also offers meal choices and I believe that vegetarian is an
option. Not being of that mind-set, I've never asked for one, so I cannot
comment.

From SFO, there are a ton of UAL (and many others) to DEN. It's a UAL hub, so
connections from DEN should be fairly easy.

Another possibility to get to the West would be BA LHR-PHX non-stop. Lovely
flight. From PHX, SF and/or DEN are really easy. I do not recall the US BA
affiliates. I assume that BA has a Boston Logan LHR connection, but have not
looked. If not direct from Boston, then NYC, or back to Chicago ORD. Again, BA
lists vegetarian meals, but I have no experience.

Now, if you have a BA VISA card, you can snare BA points for all US airlines,
and basically double-dip with flights on BA.

Check out the BA LHR connections from the US East Coast. Gotta' be something
you can use.

Hunt

[Hunt]

In article <***@c74g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>,
***@europe.com says...
[SNIP]

Post by zkat
Is there any chance of getting veggie meals on internal US flights (my
last experience was a service rep shouting at me, "You asked for
VEGETABLE meal?!".

Oops, I didn't read carefully enough. With US flights, you are not likely to
have any meal below BC, and maybe not on any of the shorter ones. Maybe pack a
few dozen celery sticks, an apple and some carrots. I don't even think DEN to
Omaha is long enough to get a meal, and a choice of a meal is also for
certain, out of the question. As an example, PHX to ORD or NYC do not get
meals on most of the flights that I have taken in the last year, or two.
Airlines, like TED (UAL) do not have BC or FC and "fun meals" are ~US$5 for a
sandwich, a cookie and an apple.

My earlier reply was for the LHR-?-LHR legs.

Hunt

[Jeff Hacker]

Post by zkat
I will be travelling to the US on business for a week in July. I have
single-day meetings in Denver, Omaha, New Jersey and Boston. The only
meeting already agreed is in Boston on the Thursday.
I wondered if people on this forum had any advice as to routing for
this trip - pros and cons? I suppose one option is fly out west and
work my way back east, but would that be more expensive (into Denver,
out of EWR/BOS)? I'll be flying from LHR ideally.
To spice up the question, it would be a bonus to get a day in San
Francisco at either the beginning or the end of the trip. Any takers?
How feasible will it be to collect BA miles for all of these sectors? I
would settle for KLM-AF Flying Blue as a second option, but don't
really want to have a US airline FF card.
Is there any chance of getting veggie meals on internal US flights (my
last experience was a service rep shouting at me, "You asked for
VEGETABLE meal?!".

First of all, you can easily fly LHR-SFO-DFW-OMA-EWR-BOS using United/US
Airways (Star Alliance, not OneWorld). To get from Denver to Omaha on
American (OneWorld) and get BA miles, you'd have to detour via Chicago or
Dallas, either of which is out of the way. SkyTeam (Continental, Delta,
Northwest) can get you from Gatwick to San Francisco via Newark, Cleveland
(CO), Cincinnati (DL), Detroit, or Minneapolis (NW) but not from Heathrow.
Within the US, none of those can get you from San Francisco to Denver
nonstop, but Delta can route you via Salt Lake City; then you can fly
DEN-OMA via Minneapolis on Northwest, then to Newark and Boston on
Continental, and then back to Gatwick via Newark on Continental.

As for food, the only airlines still serving any food in economy class
domestically in the U.S. are Continental and Alaska Airlines, so don't count
on your vegetarian meal, unless you're in First Class.

[-=D@n=-]

Post by zkat
To spice up the question, it would be a bonus to get a day in San
Francisco at either the beginning or the end of the trip. Any takers?

Heh, there'll be plenty of 'takers' in San Francisco. And 'givers'.

[zkat]

Post by -=***@n=-
Heh, there'll be plenty of 'takers' in San Francisco. And 'givers'.

Yow! I'd best steer clear then!

8-D

[-=D@n=-]

Post by zkat

Post by -=***@n=-
Heh, there'll be plenty of 'takers' in San Francisco. And 'givers'.

Yow! I'd best steer clear then!
8-D

Heh, it's just what I've heard. :)

[zkat]

OK, ignore the meal question, I'll survive!

[zkat]

Insightful responses, just what I expected on this NG. Many thanks to
those who already posted; will keep a watch for any more contributions
and decide by the end of the week.

[Ang Gilham]

Post by zkat
I will be travelling to the US on business for a week in July. I have
single-day meetings in Denver, Omaha, New Jersey and Boston. The only
meeting already agreed is in Boston on the Thursday.
I wondered if people on this forum had any advice as to routing for
this trip - pros and cons? I suppose one option is fly out west and
work my way back east, but would that be more expensive (into Denver,
out of EWR/BOS)? I'll be flying from LHR ideally.

My husband does this sort of trip to the US every couple of months. He
normally goes from east to west, but that's partially because his
company will pay for business class coming back, so he likes to take
the longest leg in b-class. Personally, I think he's just addicted to
the champagne and the flat bed . . . there again, after 12 hours from
HKG - LHR in economy on Monday, I could get addicted to champagne and
a flat bed as well!

Post by zkat
To spice up the question, it would be a bonus to get a day in San
Francisco at either the beginning or the end of the trip. Any takers?
How feasible will it be to collect BA miles for all of these sectors? I
would settle for KLM-AF Flying Blue as a second option, but don't
really want to have a US airline FF card.

As long as you fly AA, you should get miles, although the usual
caveats about only 25% of miles if you've got a discounted ticket
apply. The only problem is that Denver is a United (ugh) hub, so you'd
probably have to do Omaha - Denver (whichever way round you decide to
do it) on United. Certainly the AA timetable I'm looking at suggests
that they fly to Omaha pretty much only from ORD and DFW.

Post by zkat
Is there any chance of getting veggie meals on internal US flights (my
last experience was a service rep shouting at me, "You asked for
VEGETABLE meal?!".

You want food on a US internal flight? You optimist!

My husband's last trip from IAD to LAX was enlivened by United
screwing up his incoming to IAD so that he didn't have time to buy any
food at IAD and then not even having any sandwich boxes to sell on the
LAX flight . . . oh, and they only put about 20 cans of beer on the
flight, so they'd sold out by the time they got past about row 10!
Although given what the food used to be like on United, starvation was
probably preferable.

Angela

[Ang Gilham]

Post by zkat
I will be travelling to the US on business for a week in July. I have
single-day meetings in Denver, Omaha, New Jersey and Boston. The only
meeting already agreed is in Boston on the Thursday.
I wondered if people on this forum had any advice as to routing for
this trip - pros and cons? I suppose one option is fly out west and
work my way back east, but would that be more expensive (into Denver,
out of EWR/BOS)? I'll be flying from LHR ideally.

My husband does this sort of trip to the US every couple of months. He
normally goes from east to west, but that's partially because his
company will pay for business class coming back, so he likes to take
the longest leg in b-class. Personally, I think he's just addicted to
the champagne and the flat bed . . . there again, after 12 hours from
HKG - LHR in economy on Monday, I could get addicted to champagne and
a flat bed as well!

Post by zkat
To spice up the question, it would be a bonus to get a day in San
Francisco at either the beginning or the end of the trip. Any takers?
How feasible will it be to collect BA miles for all of these sectors? I
would settle for KLM-AF Flying Blue as a second option, but don't
really want to have a US airline FF card.

As long as you fly AA, you should get miles, although the usual
caveats about only 25% of miles if you've got a discounted ticket
apply. The only problem is that Denver is a United (ugh) hub, so you'd
probably have to do Omaha - Denver (whichever way round you decide to
do it) on United. Certainly the AA timetable I'm looking at suggests
that they fly to Omaha pretty much only from ORD and DFW.

Post by zkat
Is there any chance of getting veggie meals on internal US flights (my
last experience was a service rep shouting at me, "You asked for
VEGETABLE meal?!".

You want food on a US internal flight? You optimist!

My husband's last trip from IAD to LAX was enlivened by United
screwing up his incoming to IAD so that he didn't have time to buy any
food at IAD and then not even having any sandwich boxes to sell on the
LAX flight . . . oh, and they only put about 20 cans of beer on the
flight, so they'd sold out by the time they got past about row 10!
Although given what the food used to be like on United, starvation was
probably preferable.

Angela