Wed 16th Feb
Today we were preparing for our first trip to the USA in almost 2 years, we flew back from our last trip on 28th Feb 2020!First step was our lateral flow tests, we had booked the supervised option with QURED (cost was £25 per person when we booked). Rob had his appointment at 9 and mine was 10 mins later. Rob’s appointment started a few mins late so we overlapped which was a bit awkward but otherwise the process was simple. We both had to show the tests to the camera while being observed doing the swabs etc. Then after 15 mins we had to upload a photo and about 20 mins later we had our certificates.
Next step was to upload all of our documents to the Verifly app. I think the order was attestation, vaccine proof and then negative test certificates. We had to wait for a test certificates to be checked but we had our green ticks by lunchtime so we were all ready for online check in
We finished work at about 4 (we are currently working from home) so we finished packing (we had started the day before) and then loaded up the car. We had to drop off a birthday card on the way and were finally ‘on the way’ just after 5pm.
We were taking our Skoda Citigo (full electric) so took the journey a little slower than normal to conserve battery. We stopped at Starbucks near Fleet (not the Motorway services) to charge.
We both had cheese toasties and a drink while we topped up the car for the rest of the drive (we were only about 20 miles away from the airport at this stage but wanted to ensure we had enough charge to get back here on the way home).
We arrived at the Hilton Garden Inn at around 8pm and checked in quickly, it was quite windy today (but not as bad as we saw it was over the weekend). We had booked our room using points and so the only charge was for parking overnight which was £12.
Thu 17th Feb
This morning we had breakfast at the hotel (which was free as part of our gold membership) before packing up our things and driving to the long stay car park (only going for 4 nights but we wanted a car park which meant we could keep our keys and this seemed to be one of the only options).
We found a parking space near a light so that we could easily find it on our return and headed to the nearest bus stop. We had a short wait which was good as it was quite chilly.
We arrived at the terminal and headed for the AA desks (we had booked via BA but selected an AA flight for the better times and also free seat selection on booking) where we showed our Verifly app and got shown to a very short queue. There was a much longer queue for people who hadn’t used the app – which given it is free seemed very odd, but maybe there are some people that can’t use it for some reason?
After our bags had been taken and we had been checked in we headed straight to security as we weren’t sure how busy it would be. It didn’t take us very long and we were soon through to the departure lounge. We popped into boots to pick up a few items and then settled down to wait for our gate. We did notice that lots of people weren’t wearing masks despite them being ‘required’ at this stage at Heathrow.
Soon enough our gate was announced so we started the walk to get there, we also picked up a couple of snacks on the way to the gate
AA boarded in groups, we were in economy so the last group but the flight appeared quiet and so we were on very quickly.
We were moved to different seats when we boarded – they were giving each party 3 or 4 seats between them and were keeping the back rows free – I assume for the crew to rest in later on the flight.
The flight attendants were very tight on mask compliance, frequently reminding people to wear their masks correctly.
This was the day before one of the big storms so the Captain told us he was expecting a slightly bumpy ride. We had the seatbelt sign slightly extended after takeoff and our meal service was also slightly later.
We had a choice of chicken or pasta and also received pretzels and drink at the same time.
Later there was ice cream and a little while later a choice of crisps or chocolate. I am sure there were a couple of offers of soft drinks too.
Finally, we had folded pizza for a snack before landing which was actually pretty good.
Immigration was relatively quick, they are still using the machines at Philadelphia. We got a cross (we assume because we said we had food); the officer asked lots of questions which was unusual and even wanted to see our return ticket (luckily our app was sufficient).
Once through immigration our luggage was just arriving so a definite improvement over our normal trips to Orlando. We then took the bus to the car rental place - this was slow, there were 3 staff and one was tied up the whole time with an awkward customer. Once we got to our agent we were sorted quickly and off on our short trip to Wilmington.
We hit a little bit of traffic on I95 but nothing awful and we found ourselves arriving at Jen and Tom’s. We got settled and decided on pizza for dinner, it was quite warm so we decided to walk to collect it – we thought the exercise would help wake us up.
Back at the house we had our food and spent some time catching up. I think we watched some HGTV in an attempt to stay awake – which I think we managed past 9pm which was a good effort!
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