LHR-BOS-ORD-SAN-LHR on BA and AA: Snow, Lobsters and Aircraft Carriers

[yflyer]

Continuing with my TR (Part I here)…

There was a snow storm brewing over the weekend of 23-24 January 2016, and it didn't look good…



The weatherman (Weatherwoman?) was predicting a huge amount of snow to be dumped over the East Coast of the USA. Washington had shut down the subway system over the weekend, and New York was bracing itself for a major snow storm as well.

Airlines had pre-emptively cancelled flights into and out of New York over the weekend. We were talking about thousands of flights cancelled, 10,000 by some counts…and these included SQ25/26 over the weekend, and BA flights to New York as well.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel...rday/79220674/

Fortunately I was flying from London to Boston…just clear of the area worst affected by the snow storms…and according to BA, all flights to Boston were expected to proceed as scheduled. My fingers were crossed…

I was booked on BA239, a 777 service from LHR to BOS. This was a 7.10pm departure.

Heathrow T5 was not busy when I checked in. On this Friday evening, the self service check-in area was quite deserted. I headed across to the far end of the terminal where the business class and Oneworld FF check-in counters were. No queues there either.



As a Oneworld Sapphire member I was eligible for Fast Track security and got through security fairly quickly, although that day the queues in the regular lines were fairly short as well. I found this quite surprising as Friday evenings in most other airports were quite busy. Maybe at 5pm on a Friday evening, this was a lull between peak periods.

[yflyer]

I headed to the BA Galleries Lounge South in T5.



This is a very large lounge, with the F Lounge and the Concorde Room at one level, with the Business Class Lounge one level above.



You enter into the Dining area upon entry…



…with lounging and seating areas tucked further inside.

[yflyer]

The seating areas are fairly pleasant, with posters and memorabilia from an earlier era of aviation displayed on the walls.









Workstations and entertainment area (With headphones)…



Well stocked bar and drinks counter…









Red and white wines…

[yflyer]

I have always wondered why they put the potato chips next to the wine…



I found the buffet spread quite impressive…

A choice of two soups…



Starters and salads…





…and a decent selection of very substantial mains, replenished regularly.

[yflyer]

After spending some time in the lounge (And after dinner at Gordon Ramsey’s Plane Food, covered in the previous part of this TR), I headed to the gate to board my flight, BA239 to Boston.



This was operated by a 3-class 772, with refurbished interior: Fully flat Club World J seats, and the new PEY and Y products.

The J cabin was arranged 2-4-2 with the standard BA forwards/backwards layout.



Forward-facing J seats by the aisle…



The middle pair of J seats faces the rear…



Premium Economy was the latest PEY product, laid out 2-4-2…



And finally the Economy cabin, with their newest Y seat, a very comfortable seat, laid out 3-3-3.



These seats also had the latest widescreen AVOD IFE screens.



A/C Power in Y



Slim IFE boxes under the seats. These did not cause much of an obstruction, but were not the most aesthetic IFE boxes to look at.





Recline was fine. As on my other BA flights, the window shades were all down, and were not required to be raised for take-off or landing.

[yflyer]

Overall, the Y product on this 772 was essentially identical to the newest BA 77W’s (Which are used on BA15/16 route, LHR-SIN-SYD vv) and also identical to the BA A380 Y. A very consistent (And top notch) Y product across these BA aircraft types.

Well, almost completely consistent.



I was seated in the second last row of Y, in a window-side bank of 3 seats, just ahead of the last row, which was a pair of 2 seats.

For some inexplicable reason, the armrests in my row could not be raised! The seats ahead of me had movable armrests, like any other 777 Y seat, but just the seats in my row (Row 38 on the 3-class 772) were firmly fixed in place. Weird. My plans to convert the seats into a 3-seat Y-flat bed looked to be thwarted. But in any case, another passenger took the window seat, leaving an empty middle seat, so the fact that the armrests remained down did not cause too me too much angst on that flight.

No amenity kits were handed out in Y, although there was a toothbrush packed together with the headphones.

[yflyer]

We pushed back and took off on time. Flight time today was just under 7 hours.



A full dinner was served on this flight.



There was a choice of chicken or pasta (No further details provided unless you asked…). I chose the pasta.

The tray…



And with covers off…



Tasty salad with prawn as a starter…



Penne pasta is not particularly exciting, but I found the dish quite tasty. Pasta and tomato-based sauce seems to be one of those dishes that work well at high altitude: the natural umami taste of the cheese and tomato-based sauce working wonders. Comfort food. Nothing fancy, but satisfying enough. This was Y, after all. No need to be over ambitious. (I think SQ is sometimes guilty of this, with delicious sounding descriptions in their printed Y menus, which only sometimes meet expectations when you unwrap the foil covering the casserole.)



This was a surprisingly smooth flight all the way across the Atlantic, and over Newfoundland and Labrador.



An hour or so before landing, a snack was served…



Cabin ambience before the pilot announced descent into Boston Logan International Airport…



We landed at BOS just before 10pm on a very clear, still night. It was hard to believe that just a few hundred kilometers south of where we were, a major snow storm was about to hit…

[yflyer]

I caught a taxi from the airport for the short drive into downtown Boston, where I checked into the Marriott Long Wharf, a hotel set right on the waterfront (The Hotel is marked (1) on the map below.)



The Marriott Long Wharf hotel, a long, low-rise structure in red brick, with the Custom House Tower in the background of the photo.



Coincidentally, the 17-storey Custom House Tower, which is a historic Boston Landmark first opened in 1915, now houses the Marriott Custom House Hotel.

Here is another view of the Custom House Tower…



A view of the waterfront from the hotel. The distinctive control tower of Boston Logan airport is visible in the distance.



The Marriott Long Wharf is a modern and very elegant hotel, with spacious public areas…







…and large, comfortable rooms.



Bathroom…





Well-equipped gym.



Heated indoor swimming pool.

[yflyer]

The hotel is walking distance from Quincy Market…



…which has a large food court with many eating options available.

[yflyer]

On Saturday evening, the day after I landed, I headed out to Boston Symphony Hall to attend a concert by the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO), one of the world's leading orchestras.

It had started to snow that afternoon…I stepped out of the hotel lobby onto the street and braved wind and snow to get to the metro station just across the street.



I connected across three different metro lines to emerge out of the station right next to Symphony Hall, where the snow fall was starting to increase in intensity. Already some vehicles were having trouble in the snow.



Inside this historic concert hall, it was warm and comfortable…



The concert itself, featuring Dvorak’s Cello Concerto and soloist Johannes Moser, was a full house…packed with locals, and quite a number of visitors to Boston as well.



The snow had continued to fall during the concert, and by the end of the evening, as concertgoers streamed out of the Hall, the streets were piled high with snow.





I trudged through the fresh snow back to the subway station for the ride home…



As the wind had died down…I took the subway only part of the way, deciding to walk the rest of the way to the Marriott, in order to take in the snowscape...

[yflyer]

This was the view out of my hotel room window the next morning, a sunny, beautiful day, with fresh snow covering much of the city.



Although it was -5 degrees Celsius outside, I decided it was too beautiful not to head outdoors for a run – appropriately dressed up, of course.

I layered on three layers of clothing, two T-shirts and a North Face hoodie, along with track pants and thermal underwear. That ought to do it – I hoped. This was my first ever run outside wearing anything other than regular SG-style PT kit.

I headed outside…





My God! While my torso and legs were well insulated, the dry, sub-zero wind stung my face and turned my lips and cheeks numb within seconds. The cold air seemed to sting my lungs with each freezing breath…the first few minutes out were a real shock to the system!



But as I warmed up as I ran, it became more bearable, and within a few minutes, the cold and numbness were forgotten, and I could focus on the stunning scenery around me.



The folks in Boston know all about snow and cold weather, and the roads had been swept clear of snow overnight. Pavements and parks were another matter, though, everything was still covered in white.



I ran part of my route following the Boston Freedom Trail: This was a route meant for tourists and amateur historians, which took visitors past many of the significant historical sites in Boston, including Paul Revere’s house, and various monuments.



Apart from maps showing you the route, the actual route on the ground was marked by a red brick trail in the pavement…



…which was great except that there were sections totally obscured by the snow, and it took a little backtracking and sleuthing to get back onto the trail, after losing it for minutes at a time in the snow…





On the trail were the USS Constitution, a frigate first launched in 1797 and nicknamed “Old Ironsides” after naval battles in the war of 1812, and finally retired from active service in 1881.



It is now a museum ship, and amazingly, still sails on special occasions, such as in 2012 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of one of its major naval battles, and again in 2014, when it sailed into Boston Harbor.

[yflyer]

Also on the trail were the Bunker Hill monument…





And other landmarks…



…including a statue of Paul Revere…



…and Paul Revere’s house…



…a historical site that is easy to miss if you are not looking out for it, as it is a simple dark wood building set along a busy street…





And what about this historical-looking building, with Roman columns and a shining Gold dome?



hmmm…a close look at the signage revealed that this was just the Traffic Tunnel Administration Building, built in 1931…so maybe not so historical, then…

My route that morning, an 8km route that began and ended at the Boston Marriott Long Wharf hotel.

[yflyer]

Now that I had worked up an appetite after my morning run, I popped next door to the Legal Sea Foods restaurant, right next to the Marriott, for lunch.



The Legal brand name is quite a big name in F&B in Boston. HUGE AL had recommended Legal Crossing, which I would head to later during my stay.



I began with oysters, which I asked the staff to choose based on what was available today…



What arrived at my table were half a dozen oysters, 2 each of Merry, Wellfleet and Sandy Neck oysters…



Next I ordered a jumbo crab cake as my main course…



This was good, but not great…the crab cakes at Luke’s Oyster Bar and Chop House in Singapore were more refined, and tastier, for example.

US-sized food portions being what they are, I seldom eat a full meal in the USA, meaning starter, main and dessert, in one go…these days when I check out a restaurant, I often make two visits, first for a starter and a small main, say for lunch…and then I head there again for another meal, e.g. dinner, for a main and a dessert…

A couple at another table shared a lobster for lunch…it looked so good that I decided there and then to head back to Legal for dinner that evening to sample the lobster.

I walked in the door of the same restaurant that evening, sat at my table for one, and ordered a medium sized steamed lobster. I had a choice of two side dishes: I picked coleslaw and a portion of jasmine rice.



To accompany the lobster, I began with a tasting flight of white wines…



A great idea for a meal…I find it hard to resist wine flights whenever a restaurant offers them.



In fact, Legal offers bourbon, tequila and sherry flights as well, which I was sorely tempted to, but did not, try on this occasion…



The lobster arrived at my table on a gigantic plate…a very impressive looking specimen indeed.



The lobster tasted spectacular…boiled to a perfect texture, soft yet juicy and bouncy and amazingly sweet.



A delicious lobster dish!

[yflyer]

And as suggested by HUGE AL I also checked out Legal Crossing (LX), a restaurant also within the Legal family, but a completely different concept.

This was a modern, urban, restaurant, with a creative menu…



…and, as HUGE AL pointed out, a very interesting list of cocktails…



I ordered a Caribbean Rum Old Fashioned…mmmm...my kind of drink!



…and a Pastrami-wrapped Monkfish for my main…



A tasty dish, although I didn’t think the pastrami was that inspired as a pairing for the monkfish.

So I had three meals at two different Legal restaurants. Verdict? I enjoyed my meals. Service at all my meals was top notch. Certainly the food tasted good, and the meals were very good value for money too.

But Legal has so many different restaurants and branches in Boston. I could not help thinking that the whole enterprise was stretched across so many different concepts that the restaurants felt very “corporate” and “by-the-book”, even formulaic, rather than the inspiration of any one individual.

All that said, the lobster I ate was spectacularly good and I would eat at Legal Sea Foods again just to have another simply steamed, tender, sweet lobster.

[yflyer]

The Marriott Boston Long Wharf has a Lounge on the concierge level. As a Marriott Gold member, I was entitled to use the lounge.

There were a couple of practices at the lounge which I had not encountered before, though. The lounge is actually closed on Saturday, only reopening on Sunday at 4pm. In-lieu of the lounge for the Saturday night stay, I was given a token number of Marriott Rewards points instead.

I checked out the lounge on Sunday evening. This was a smallish, but fairly comfortable lounge, with very friendly and attentive staff.





There were hot snacks (Fried chicken on the evening I was there), and a cheese platter.





The array of wines and liquor looked quite attractive, until I noticed the price list…this was an honor bar. No complimentary wines or liquor in this lounge. You would have to sign and pay for your drinks. Only soft drinks were free. Hmmm, this was quite different from the JW Marriott Tokyo or Beijing where I had stayed recently, where an exceedingly generous supply of liquor was available on a complimentary basis.



Things were better on Monday morning, when I headed to the lounge for breakfast. In the morning, the lounge was much brighter, with clear blue skies visible out the window, and sunlight streaming in. You also had great views of Boston Logan airport through the panoramic windows.







The BOS control tower was visible in the distance…



There was a decent (complimentary) breakfast spread…