Buenos días everyone, I started my journey to become a SAS EuroBonus Millionaire on Sunday night. Here’s a rundown of the first 24 hours.

Flight 1: American Eagle 4781 DCA-JFK (Embraer 175)

I started my trip Sunday night with a short hop up to New York on American Eagle, booked with 4,500 Alaska Airlines miles + $19. I took Metro to the airport, and the Clear line saved me a good amount of time at security (one of the only times that’s been the case).  Before the flight, I used my Citi AAdvantage Executive Credit Card one last time to visit the Admirals Club at DCA.  My account finally got hit with the annual fee increase instituted by Citi last year, and I decided it wasn’t worth $550 a year to me, so I called to cancel while I was still in the lounge.

The flight was a few minutes early and entirely unremarkable.

Transit Fail in New York

At JFK, I tried taking the bus to get to my friend’s apartment in Far Rockaway (both because it was supposed to be faster than taking the AirTrain to the subway, and because it would save me the $8.50 AirTrain fee) but I didn’t realize that the bus I was trying to catch is not currently stopping at Terminal 8 due to construction at JFK. As a result, I found myself at the Lefferts Blvd AirTrain station instead, and ended up wasting a bunch of time and still paying the AirTrain fee to get to the subway.  Although I was prepared with an empty MetroCard, a few of the AirTrain gates have now been updated with credit card readers, so I just paid with the Chase Ink Business Preferred Credit Card in my Apple Wallet.

A Horrifying Discovery

Late Sunday night, as I was laying things out for my early morning departure, I realized that I had somehow only packed one pair of underwear and no socks (despite having a vivid memory of packing those items, and writing about them in last week’s post) – just pants, shirts, and shoes.  By the time I discovered this, it was 10pm Sunday night, so there was nothing in the area still open.  The best option would have been paying $40 each way for an Uber or Lyft to get to the nearest Target that was open until 11pm. After initially resigning myself to having to figure out clothes in London, I realized there was a Walmart that was more or less on the way to JFK that opened at 6am, so I decided to stop there in the morning on my way to the airport.

Flight 2: Virgin Atlantic 26 JFK-LHR (Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner)

Around 6am Monday morning, I hopped in a Lyft (booked with the DoorDash DashPass promotion that gives 50% off (up to $25) on 4 pre-scheduled airport rides), picked up clothes at Walmart, and then got dropped off at JFK. I chose to get dropped off at the Lefferts Blvd station instead of at my terminal because it saved me about $6.  After taking the AirTrain to Terminal 4, I used the Clear lane (which may or may not have been any faster than the regular PreCheck line) and popped into the American Express Centurion Lounge for a quick bite before boarding the flight.

My Economy Delight (extra legroom) ticket was $484, and I booked it as a Delta codeshare through Amex Travel so I could redeem Membership Rewards points with the Business Platinum 35% rebate (Delta is the selected airline on one of my cards).  After I boarded and sat down, I noticed that my headrest seemed a little… free-flowing.  It worked, but I kind of had to hold it up with my neck. Later on I discovered that’s because only half of it was attached to my seat!

The flight itself was unremarkable, though I was surprised at how bad the food was. I ordered an Asian vegetarian special meal – post-departure this meant a super over-baked roti filled with chickpeas and maybe a hint of vegetables (but no sauce to speak of), plus yogurt and a small fruit cup. Pre-arrival I got an incredibly bland entrée of rice with cauliflower and spinach, a halfway decent caprese salad, a cold bread roll, and a gluten-free brownie.

I bought a standard wifi pass to try and get some work done during this daytime flight, but the wifi was a complete disaster.  I’d get a few seconds of connectivity (just enough to send and receive messages) every 20-30 minutes, with no internet access in between. I emailed Panasonic (Virgin Atlantic’s wifi provider) and they said they’d need to wait to receive data from the plane to confirm what I said, and this morning I got a message that they verified the connection issues and refunded my payment.

Premier Inn London Heathrow Terminal 4

After landing early at London Heathrow, I sped through the e-gates at immigration, grabbed some snacks at Marks & Spencer, and headed for my hotel. We landed in Terminal 3, so I had to take the train to Terminal 4.  It’s the same train that takes you into the city, but it’s free for travel between terminals (just make sure to tap out when you exit).  Premier Inn is a no-frills hotel chain, which is exactly what I needed for this short layover. This one is connected to the terminal via a covered walkway; it’s an 8-10 minute walk from the terminal, and they’ve got motivational signage in the walkway to keep your spirits up.

I paid £47 – this was a Standard rate, which is nonrefundable but can be changed until 1pm on the day of arrival to any other date within 18 months.  I used a self-checkin kiosk to get my room key and headed upstairs.

Although I didn’t take advantage of any of the hotel’s facilities, they’re clearly designed with travelers in mind: the hotel bar is open (and serving food) surprisingly late, and breakfast (for an additional charge) starts at 5am. 

Once I got to the room, I showered, did a bit of repacking, and hit the hay – Tuesday was going to be another early morning.