Zach1213

Don't worry, these **** are getting really good at what they do. It's way too easy for even the best of us to get fooled. I think you should call them back, tell them you'd like to upgrade a (fake) reservation to first class ($$$) and take up as much time of theirs as you can. At least, that's what I do...but maybe I have too much time on my hand and am too spiteful and petty 🙂

I am never a supporter of flying out day of departure, but the only reason I would ever even consider in is a nonstop. Flying between two of the largest metro areas in the US via (checks notes)...Kentucky...is an interesting choice.

They may try, yes. No guarantees. There need to be flights to the next stop...and there needs to be seats on those flights, during a holiday week.

Yes, absolutely. My wife and I travel internationally using AAdvantage miles several times each year, including at least 1x yearly on Qantas. Never happened to us.

I guess it depends (a) which locks they are, and (b) if that kind of thing interests you. I'm an engineer and the technology behind locks, though simple, fascinates me. I wouldn't miss our on the chance to be on a large ship going through a set of locks. Others may not give a single darn, and that's just fine.

I'm not sure that's totally necessary with JetBlue. If OP can without having to pay for Internet onboard or in a foreign country, sure, it doesn't hurt. But I think they could just do online check in from their phone while they're waiting to get off at Port Everglades and be just fine.

Even during Covid, I never found one-way fares cheaper than RT on international flights. Plenty of times during Covid I had to pay ridiculous one-way fares...well, my clients did 🙂

Yes, your bags will go through. You will likely need to re-clear security in Lisbon, but that's it. There will also likely be a passport check just to (once again) make sure you have proper documentation to head to London, but not a full immigration check. (Also, just a note, you DO need to get your luggage in the US if you are coming off of an international flights (at least one from a non-pre clearance airport) so that you can clear customs.) If you are delayed, yes, TAP will put you on the next available flight. That may or may not be the very next flight. Two hours is generally fine in Lisbon (even with wheelchair), so I would just stick to that schedule.

Third vote for "do it yourself". Ahem. Anyways, yeah...definitely look at the cost of a one-way YVR-ORD flight, and weight that against the time and expense of spending a day in Vancouver. Not just time, not just money, but the combination of the two and how much it means to you to (a) get home on the same day you leave, and (b) not have to deal with a short redeye (which are usually awful).

I echo the sentiment of getting to Europe and having more options in the unlikely chance something major delays your travel. Lisbon/Munich/Frankfurt/Paris/Amsterdam/Zurich (and even London) would allow you to have many options for plane, train, and even bus if you really, really needed it.

I would agree that anything around Paddington may be easiest and best. There are approximately 1,539,106 hotels within even a short walking distance of Paddington, though many are those fairly mediocre "side street" hotels you find throughout London. The Hilton may very well be the best option there.

Hilton Garden Inn is solid. I still prefer the Sofitel, even though I am a Hilton loyalist (and even though a lot of Sofitel rooms don't have exterior views, which drives me nuts), but when I do stay at the Hilton Garden Inn it's a nice stay. I still would vote on staying in the city. I am no stranger to very early LHR flights and, unless I am purely on a layover (i.e. 12 hours or less, such as from a daytime ORD-LHR flight connecting to the next morning's Europe bank of flights), I'll go to the city and put up with the pain of an early trip back to Heathrow so that I can enjoy my day/night more. Obviously to each their own but I personally feel like the pain of going back and forth for sightseeing is worse than one early train/bus/car back to Heathrow in the morning.

I have only taken a car once because my client insisted on it, on a weekday morning. It was probably about that time, and I don't remember exactly how many minutes it took, but I left remembering I would just prefer to take the train on future trips (especially if paying out of pocket)...and have. Rail transit in Netherlands is just so darn easy. One option is to look at Google Maps around 7:30am Amsterdam time on a Wednesday and get an idea of travel time between your origin and destination. You can also click on the transit option too and compare right then and there.

By customs, I assume you mean immigration which is generally the longer process. But keep in mind that you don't need to go through immigration unless you're connecting through to a UK flight. If you are connecting through to, say, Paris or Athens or Cape Town for that matter, you will not clear UK immigration (but will need to re-clear security, which can be lengthy during the rush and without any kind of priority status).

I frequent Heathrow at least monthly, if not more, and have a very love-hate relationship with it. Most of my travel is now located within T3 and T5, and I actually enjoy going between the terminals because of the views of the planes from the airside buses. The sheer number of destinations around the world that can be reached from LHR is just fantastic, and transit to/from the city has so many options for various budgets and timeframes. But, of course, it can be busy, it can be crazy, it can be frustrating, and all of the other things that come with many global hubs.

There's always a risk that the arrival can be delayed, and that's why I always travel with insurance. But that being said, I would probably consider a 10am flight. The airport is just so damn close. If you can switch to Delta without any fees, an extra hour wouldn't hurt, but I don't think it's necessary. Again, always a risk, and consider travel insurance.

It's possible to take public transit pretty much anywhere in Hong Kong...probably the best system in the world, at least least right up there with Tokyo. Google Maps provides a really great snapshot of public transport in Hong Kong (and most other cities), so you can type in your origin and destination, and even your day and time, and they'll plot the path.

I was put up at the Marina Bay Sands once. It's nice, very nice...but if you're paying for it out of pocket, there are other hotels in Singapore, even that area of Singapore, that are almost as nice for quite a bit less.

In addition to my (amended) response earlier about routes, an even more interesting one is how flights are routed between Asia and Northern Europe. For example, Finnair and JAL's routes between Tokyo and Helsinki. In the before times, when Russia was an option, both routes were just simply routed over Russia like you mentioned. Now, the HEL-Tokyo flights route south over Central Asia like most airlines are doing. BUT, because of Helsinki's location so far north, it's actually more efficient to fly Tokyo-HEL by going east, skirting the fine line between Russia and Alaska (often barely touching the area around Nome, AK), and up over the north pole towards Helsinki. Really quite interesting, and a recent route can be seen at https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/ay62#305287a4.

EWR-SIN and JFK-SIN are both done on A350-900s

SQ has both a JFK-SIN nonstop (A350) and a JFK-FRA-SIN direct (B777). And yes passengers can fly JFK-FRA or FRA-SIN and don't have to do the whole route. These routes are usually east in both directions because of winds. For example, right now, the JFK-SIN nonstop is over the Bay of Bengal having flown out of JFK over Ireland, UK, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, and India. SIN-JFK nonstop that's currently in the air, also going east, is over northern Alberta having flown out of SIN over the South China Sea and skirted the east coast of Japan on its way to Alaska and northern Canada.

Technically JFK-SIN is the longest than EWR-SIN by three miles. Singapore Airlines does them both; #3 and #4 on the list are both done by Qantas, and #5 by Air New Zealand. A list is at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longest_flights.

Google Maps is showing the road as being closed, and the quickest driving route is going north out of Bologna to Ferrara, and then turning east and then back south to Ravenna, so that will increase drive time between distance and diverted traffic.

Sticking to OneWorld, you can minimize stops by doing CLT-LHR-SIN (AA/BA) on the way out, with Tokyo (HND or NRT) to Charlotte via ORD, DFW, or JFK on the way back. That would make for a fairly easy trip, relatively, in my mind. The partnership with Qatar is handy, but does add an extra step (i.e. CLT-JFK-DOH-SIN or CLT-LHR-DOH-SIN) which, in my opinion, isn't worth it.

Personally, I don't find a whole lot of difference. It's a long ways no matter what, and having done both many times, I feel like one good night of sleep gets me in tune with the local time whether I've gotten there through Hong Kong or through, say, London or Dubai. Depending on any airline/alliance loyalties you may have, it may be worth looking at Delta for your neck of the woods. Not sure which airport you would use as origin and destination on your end, but you could do ATL-CDG/AMS-SIN on the way out, and HND-ATL on the way back.