New York; Thursday, 15 December, 2022

I’d worked out of an airport hotel in the morning, as it would otherwise have been a very tight connection to get over to the airport from home in time, so I was able to have a leisurely wander over to Terminal 5, despite the delays on the Piccadilly Line, check-in and head on through to the lounge.

I’d got an exceptional deal on a flight in First, mostly by taking a risk back at the height of the Omicron wave in early January that by December everything would be back to normal (especially as at that time UK citizens were still barred from entering the US due to Covid restrictions) and this time it had paid off (similar deals for New York at Christmas 2020 and San Francisco in Summer 2021 having to be cancelled and refunded).

So it meant that I was able to spend a good few hours relaxing in the lap of luxury in the Concorde room before it was time to walk over to the B satellite to pick up my flight.

Boarding started promptly and I was guided to 1A, my suite at the very front of the plane for the journey over, and almost immediately presented with a glass of bubbly.

The previous two BA flights to New York today had been cancelled which meant that this flight was completely full with bumped passengers, but they weren’t an issues – everyone was seated and ready to go about 10 minutes before our scheduled departure time. The combined cargo for three flights turned out to be a bigger issue as that took a long time to get loaded into the hold, meaning we were 75 minutes late before pushing back. Though, with a constant flow of bubbly and some snacks I wasn’t that bothered!

The flight over the Atlantic was smooth, with the service absolutely perfect from the great cabin crew, and in the end we were only about 45 minutes late arriving on stand. I was a bit worried at this point that they may be further delays as British Airways had only moved into Terminal 8 from their old home of Terminal 7 at JFK a couple of weeks earlier and there had been stories floating around about issues from the move, but we were soon hooked up to a jet bridge and walking into the terminal where we were presented with a totally deserted immigration hall.

Just 5 minutes after stepping off the plane I was already through immigration and waiting in the baggage hall – and with a surprisingly friendly and cheerful border guard, not something that’s normally associated with JFK immigration.

20 minutes after that I had my luggage and was soon in a transfer over to my hotel in Manhattan, which took the best part of another hour to pick its way through the traffic on a very wet night in The Big Apple.

By the time I made it up to my room it was already gone 10pm US time, 3am in the UK so I just left my bag where it was in the room and went straight to bed.