This past week, I was in the UK for my annual visit to see Liverpool FC play at Anfield. I managed to get a ticket through my local supporters club in Atlanta for the Premier League match vs Brighton. I also reached out to some local friends in Liverpool and they managed to sort out a ticket for me to the Champions League match against German champions Bayer Leverkusen three days later.
Based on the match dates, I booked a flight from JFK to Heathrow with a return to Atlanta six days later. At the time, this was a much better deal that flying directly from Atlanta on the outbound flight. I booked a Delta flight to position to JFK for 8k SkyMiles. This way I could check out some lounges at JFK on the way. Note that when I booked, there were no great options to use points and miles across the Atlantic for my specific dates.
The flights were booked through Amex Travel for a total of about 319,000 points. I used Amex Membership Rewards points while holding a Business Platinum card in order to get 35% of the points rebated, so the net cost was about 207,000 points. While 100k+ each way to Europe in business class isn’t a great deal, this booking served two purposes. First, I had an excess of Amex Membership Rewards points and the 35% rebate deal is a decent way to cash out some points. Second, booking this way counted as a paid ticket so I could try to extend my temporary BA Gold status for another year or more under the terms of a promotion.
I realized it probably made more sense to stay in London for most of the trip as I have been to Liverpool many times recently, but it’s been over 10 years since I spent any significant time in London. I mentioned this to my wife and asked if she wanted to join me in London. When she said she could come for the weekend, I found her nonstop business class flights on British Airways between Atlanta and London to arrive on a Friday (the same day as me from JFK) and fly home on Monday. These were also booked using the Amex Business Platinum 35% rebate benefit.
On the day we arrived, I waited for my wife at the BA Arrivals Lounge and we took an Uber into Central London to the Great Scotland Yard Hotel. We visited Borough Market and I also went to the Imperial War Museum. That night, after a nap, we ate at a great Michelin-starred restaurant near Covent Garden. On Saturday, I took the train up and back to Liverpool for the Brighton match and my wife spent the day going to Portobello Road Market and seeing Les Misérables (again). On Sunday, we visited Spitalfields Market and Greenwich. That night we went to see ABBA Voyage, the computer-enhanced live ABBA concert in East London.
On Monday morning, my wife went to an antique market in Covent Garden before heading to the airport around noon. That afternoon, I visited a cousin and a friend in the northern suburbs before seeing Dr. Strangelove on stage in London, starring Steve Coogan in all the roles Peter Sellers made famous in the movie. Pre-theater, I finally got to visit a nearby branch of Dishoom, considered one of the best Indian restaurants in London.
On Tuesday, I took the train up to Liverpool for the Champions League match and spent the night at the Aloft. Wednesday morning it was back to London on the train and then the tube over to Heathrow, where I had upgraded myself to BA First for the flight back using 22k Avios. I was able to visit some first-class lounges before a great flight home. I’ll split this report up into several parts over the next couple of weeks and update the links below as they go live.
1 – JFK Centurion Lounge Review
4 – BA 787-10 Club Suites JFK-LHR Review
5 – BA Arrivals Lounge Heathrow T5 Review
6 – Great Scotland Yard Hotel London Review
7 – Frog by Adam Handling Restaurant Review
8 – Museums, Shows and Markets in London
10 – Intercity Train Travel in the UK
11 – Cathay Pacific First & Business Lounge T3 LHR Review
12 – BA First Lounge T3 LHR Review
13 – BA 777-200 First Class LHR-ATL Review
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Empty Nester Miles 