Polishing Silver – A Tier Point run with Ryanair, American Airlines and British Airways
It’s that time. Time for an epic trip report. And we’re going to explore some of the more premium travel aspects in this one as Kevin Goes West. With more than a few stops on the way.
Welcome to a long-form trip report.
In this Tier Point-laden adventure
- All I ask is for one decent airfare. Just ONE. Anyone?
- Off to Birmingham Airport
- FR669 Birmingham to Dublin Airport with Ryanair
- Welcome to Dublin, Premier Inn – Dublin Airport
- Early Morning Dublin Airport and US Preclearance
- 51st and Green Lounge, Dublin Airport
- AA723 Dublin to Philadelphia – Business Class
- A Rocky Interlude – Exploring Philadelphia
- Return to PHL and Philadelphia American Airlines Admirals Club
- AA2663 Philadelphia to San Francisco – US Domestic First
- A new terminal and The Crowne Plaza, Burlingame
- The Intercontinental San Francisco
- Asian Eats around San Francisco
- A challenge unto myself: Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge
- Ferrying around the bay
- Celebrations in China Town
- Back to SFO, American Airlines Admirals Club
- AA164 San Francisco to New York JFK – Transcontinental Business Class
- A snow-laden pit stop at JFK and the British Airways Greenwich Lounge
- AA104 New York JFK to London Heathrow – Business Class
- Transiting across Heathrow Terminals
- BA836 London Heathrow to Dublin Airport – Club Europe
- A Two Hour Dublin Turnaround
- BA4469 Dublin to London City Airport – Club Europe
- To the trains
- Points in the bag
Editors Introduction
After a few weeks of teasing, it’s time for me to kick this trip report off (and if you’ve managed to make it past the contents list – it’s going to be a long one. Whereas the Snapshots, I focus on what’s in front of me, the trip reports allow me to dig into subjects, go on tangents and do a bit of destination travel too.
Because that’s fun and enjoyable. Or what used to be called in the past “A Mileage Run with Benefits”.
There were some personal challenges too – more of which I’ll go into as the trip report expands.
Onto the usual bit. Whilst I am using Grammarly a lot more than I should (dyslexia is a pig and gets me most days of the week), my usual detractors who moan about my spelling and grammar can read this press release I wrote a few years ago about this inconstancy and how I deal with it.
And yes, I do go on a bit. More than usual it seems…
All I ask for is just ONE decent airfare. Anyone? Anyone…
If you heard the sound of crickets too, you’ll know what it means. It’s been the lack of reasonable airfares over the past year, as excess capacity seems to be something that isn’t happening for airlines now – with them preferring to sell that space with either tighter fare conditions or higher prices.
Or both.
However, British Airways Silver status waits for no one. After the omnishambles that was a day out to Switzerland, I needed to refocus my energies on high-yielding long-haul flights. Those have been hard to find, with Qatar Airways being less than generous with the fares, and American Airlines offering interesting options to the US West Coast now and again.
Black Friday came around last year, and to be honest – I was resigned to looking at BA Bronze, along with the Adobe Lightroom subscription I got at a reasonable price.
I then ran one of my usual US West Coast searches – with Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle on the watch list out of my low-fare hotspot – San Francisco.
And then it happened – one of the West Coast fares to San Francisco had dropped from £1990 (which I was close to pulling the trigger on), down to £1440.
That’s a £550 saving without even trying.
I ummed for a minute or so and then spent the next 30 minutes routing the fare. You see, there were some simple routes.
There were also… complex routes.
The simplest route would be one stop at Heathrow, transferring to an A380 for a direct to San Francisco. That’s great in convenience terms, but awful for Tier points, yielding a mere 320 Tier points.
Thankfully, having a break on the East Coast of the USA opens further opportunities, allowing for 140+140 Tier Points flights – providing you can deal with the connection hassle. Thus, routing via somewhere like Philadelphia or New York JFK can be a good option for those who seek to yield tier points. Midwest destinations – such as Chicago tend not to be a good choice, as you’ll need to meet the minimal mileage requirements for the higher band of tier points
Thus, Dublin – Philadelphia, Philadelphia to San Francisco would net 280 Tier points on the outbound.
On the inbound, I was in the mood for something fun. Because life is boring enough as it is.
I had the option of routing through every hub I could have wanted – but again – I decided to maximise my Tier Point earning potential, by routing the ticket through the east coast. Philadelphia wasn’t an option due to the increasing cost, but I could route via New York JFK, London Heathrow to Dublin for the same price – that’s wonderful. It would also yield 320 Tier Points.
For those keeping count, that’s 600 Tier Points there – enough for BA Silver (without meeting the segment requirement).
Now comes the part of positioning to Dublin and Back. For this, I needed positioning flights. I decided to position to Dublin the night before (remembering the Irish for a hotel is “Open your wallet please and scream”). Thankfully, Ryanair came to the rescue for £37.99.
Alas, because of the way the booking system works you need to book different tickets if you need different service levels.
And I’ll admit, I forgot to book the return ticket By then a single on Ryanair had jumped to €133 back to Birmingham, then jumped to €300 (and then selling out).
This is however where a stash of Avios comes into play, with a single flight to get me to London for £25+ 8500 Avios. That’s a deal I’ll take day after day. I decided to route via London City Airport – as it would provide a better luggage experience. It also means an easier run into Central London and up to Euston for the cheap train home, rather than dealing with Heathrow twice in one day.
In terms of hotels, I’ve touched on the Dublin night out. That means discount hotels where possible. Whilst the Travelodge Swords was coming in at €100 or so, the Premier Inn started appearing in my results, coming in at €79 for a night. That would do, as it also has a shuttle service to the airport – even if it’s chargeable.
As for San Francisco, I recently paid up to be an IHG Ambassador again. That gives me IHG Platinum too – again useful things to have.
And as an IHG Ambassador, you have an eVoucher for a 2-4-1 night at an Intercontinental. Now, that’s a little more than convenient, with Ambassador reducing the cost of a good hotel in San Francisco by half.
Sadly, the pricing on the IHG Mark Hopkins (on top of the Nob Hill) was a lot higher than I wanted to pay, coming in at over $300 a night. The “new” Intercontinental (hey, it’s new to me – the last time I visited it was in 2008) was at a much tolerable rate nearer $200 a night than my credit card would like.
The question of course – is which days to pull the trigger for? I could pull it Friday/Saturday/Sunday or Saturday/Sunday/Monday. Given I would be arriving in San Francisco late in the evening (pretty much midnight), I wouldn’t be enjoying the Intercontinental to the best it can offer. Therefore, I went for the Saturday/Sunday/Monday option.
That means I need one extra night. Given that I just needed a crashpad, the cheapest IHG hotel would suffice. I selected the old standby of the Crowne Plaza in Burlingame. It was also £88 on an advance purchase rate – easy on the wallet.
So, that’s everything for this trip. In theory, it seemed all ok, and that I would work out how to get home when I got home.
What chaos can I create on this trip?
Next:
Off to a mall with jetbridges. Or Birmingham Airport.
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