UK - Houston

[13Alpha]

I have a business trip coming up to Houston, TX. I'd be leaving from Edinburgh, flying back to London.

The most direct options seem to be:

1. Edinburgh - Gatwick - Houston - Gatwick with BA
2. Edinburgh - Newark - Houston - Gatwick with Continental.

I've done 1. several times before. But given recent events viz-a-vis BA and the UK regions (and also the price differential :eek: ) I'm willing to give CO (or anyone else) a shot.

So... would be interested in anyone's experience of CO's business class to the US, and also transferring in Newark.

thanks
13Alpha

[5711N0205W]

You could always try Edinburgh - Amsterdam - Houston, from slightly further north than you that is our preferred routing (although with ABZ as first point), avoiding London airports is always a good policy in my book! :)

[Pax Vobiscum]

It's been a while, but I don't think you'll find CO's business class to be as good as BA Club.

The biggest issue with transferring at EWR is that you'll need to clear immigration/customs there, which can be time-consuming if you land at a popular time of day (though nothing like as bad as JFK can get). I've never flown direct to IAH, but I imagine there's much less international traffic, hence less immigration queues.

[obgraham]

I've never flown direct to IAH, but I imagine there's much less international traffic, hence less immigration queues.
Oh there's plenty of international traffic at IAH, probably more than at EWR. It just mostly comes from a more southerly direction.
IAH has a new immigration hall that CO goes to. It is very efficient, with what seems like 40 booths, all manned at the busy times. Haven't been more than 15 minutes there on 4 occasions lately. It's the only immigration facility I've seen built after the "new reality" and seems to address all the problems very well.

[perkin]

Why not try EDI-AMS-HOU with KLM, using the KLM chartered Privatair business class only service from AMS to HOU? :)

[DizzyIzzy]

In addition to the two daily direct flights from LGW-IAH, Continental does Paris CDG-IAH, and to EWR, Amsterdam to IAH, and to EWR, Glasgow - EWR, Manchester-EWR, Birmingham - EWR, Bristol -EWR (I know, stretching it a bit!) and Business First is an excellent product.

[13Alpha]

Thanks for the replies.
I did have a look at going via AMS but the connections from EDI didn't line up too well.

Having looked at the flight times I think BA works out best again for this trip. Wonder how much longer the company will continue to pay the BA premium though... :hmm:

13Alpha

[WHBM]

Going CO through Newark is probably the most effective as

1. You are always going in the right direction ! Nothing worse than leaving Scotland in the morning to London or Amsterdam, transferring, finally getting away, then finding that many hours later you are passing overhead Scotland !

2. CO have many nonstop flights from Newark to Houston. If you misconnect for any of the large range of reasons that cause this (and the Edinburgh flight arrives quite early in the day) they will just stick you on the next flight. They have many hundreds of misconnect pax each day there and are fully geared up for it. Conversely if you misconnected at Gatwick or Amsterdam you could be in for a 24 hour wait.

3. Although there is the customs/immigration procedure at Newark, you are just doing it there instead of at Houston. Arrive at IAH on a domestic flight and you're straight out.

[afterdark]

Delta via Atlanta ?

[13Alpha]

afterdark - i thought about DELTA via Atlanta but not sure they do business class on that route ?

WHBM - agree with all your points but in the end I opted for BA as it meant a later departure - more time to :zzz: on Sunday morning.

Which turned out to be a wise move as the CO departure from EDI to EWR ended up being delayed 4 hours due to bad weather.

And then BA upgraded me LGW to IAH as Business was full. ;)

13Alpha

[obgraham]

So how was immigration at IAH, Alpha?

[13Alpha]

Immigration at IAH was smooth this time. Previously I've arrived mid afternoon at the same time as most of the other European flights and there's been quite a lengthy queue.

But this time I arrived at 1830 and the hall was pretty much empty (although getting off the plane first helps :) ). Even the fingerprint man seemed happy.

13Alpha