AA 86 ORD-LHR (Chicago/O'Hare->London/Heathrow)
DEP ORD 18:05 13 DEC 2011
ARR LHR 07:55 14 DEC 2011
Flight Duration: 7:50
Aircraft: B777-200
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| Courtesy of www.flightaware.com |
Hello readers! This trip report would be the first of series of 8 trip reports for my trip back to my motherland of Korea from Chicago. You read it right! I took a four-flight segment each way to Korea just to save some money. All Asian airlines bound for (or connecting to) Korea would cost me about 1500-1600USD. But when I happened to check out Finnair site, they were offering Chicago to Hong Kong at much lower price at under 900USD for the roundtrip. I purchased the flight right away, about a month before the itinerary itself. In order for me to make it to Korea, however, I still needed to spend extra 300USD for my roundtrip ticket between Hong Kong and Seoul/Incheon. I decided to go with Korean Air, since they were offering an A380 service between the two cities at the time. I scheduled myself a A380 Korean Air flight after arriving into Hong Kong via Finnair.
This trip would mark my first time for many things. I will list them all here.
1. First time traveling into Europe
2. First time on American Airlines B777-200
3. First time on British Airways
4. First time on Finnair
5. First time ever crossing Atlantic Ocean
6. First time ever on an A380.
I could go on and on, but these were the main highlights of the trip. The itinerary was as follows:
(Click each flight segments for trip reports)
Outbound
Inbound
(*Originally, I was scheduled for AA 87 that was scheduled to depart at 9:55AM from London/Heathrow, but the AY 831 from Helsinki/Vantaa got delayed for about 2 hours, causing me to miss this flight and re-booked into the next Chicago/O'Hare-bound flight, AA 47)
The left B767-300 was bound for Paris.
It was a cold Chicago morning afternoon. I got to Chicago/O'Hare Airport Terminal 3 at around noon, about five hours earlier than the scheduled boarding time for my London/Heathrow bound flight. During my time, I saw Japan Airlines and Iberian Airlines departing from nearby gate K12.
My boarding pass for tonight's flight... I was pretty much stoked!
Dinner would be provided for tonight's 8-hour flight to London.
I departed from this gate (K16) almost exactly a year ago for my flight bound for Miami. (Trip Report Here)
The seat layout for economy class for the AA B777-200 was 2-5-2.
Each seats had TV system on them. But it was one of the oldest systems out there.
Tonight's flight route map to London/Heathrow.
For the main dish for dinner, it was pasta.
The pasta had marinara sauce, olives, and cheese on it. It was meatless.
Arriving into British airspace.
Flight route from Chicago.
London suburbs was starting to be visible.
And the plane started holding pattern for the approach into London/Heathrow.
Sorry for the quality of the picture. The plane shook a bit during the approach.
Making circles around London city limits.
London downtown below.
I could spot some of the famous landmarks, such as the parliament and the Shard.
And the plane touched-down at local time 7:40AM.
Walkway to customs and immigration.
Outside Terminal 3.
It was a cold, crisp London morning.
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