SURPRISE! The day of our home close was pushed back a day because everyone had forgotten the new Federal Holiday! So now we’re flying to the UK on the same day we’re closing – no pressure!
We stayed over in a hotel for our last two nights in the house so we could finish moving everything into storage and clean the house. We were already running behind our schedule so the extra day turned out to be much needed.
Unlike moving to a new house, where movers pack you stuff up and clear the house ready for the new owners, we were having to sell, give away, trash or store everything we had accumulated over 30+ years.
In the end, we managed to get everything done on time (sort of). The new owners were very understanding.
It still felt like a mad rush to make one last run to our storage unit, meet the new owners, check out of the hotel, get our cars put into storage and get to the airport by 4.30pm. But we made it!
Once at the airport, we had the advantage of first class checkin at BA as I still have Executive Platinum status on American Airlines. Thankfully, this also gave us a larger baggage allowance as we had most certainly overpacked! (An unfortunate consequence of trying to decide what to put in storage and what to take – too much went into the take pile and by the time we realized it was too late to change – the lesson here is to pack for the trip early! Another challenge was packing for four months of British summer and autumn, while knowing we’d be coming back to a chilly MA in mid October).
While checking in with BA for our red-eye flight, we were given the wonderful news that our seats were upgraded to business class (club world on BA). This hardly ever happens to me on BA flights so it was a very welcome upgrade! Other benefits of status on American/OneWorld is we have access to the BA lounge at Logan Terminal E, which is very nice. We had the benefit of having a full meal in the lounge before getting on the plane. And that meant I would be able to sleep for the entire flight (I was asleep before the plane took off).
We flew over on an Airbus A380 which is a fantastic plane. Very smooth and quiet, landing safely in London Heathrow terminal 5 to begin day one of our adventure.
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