This is a disgustingly self indulgent exercise but, please, humour me.I've been considering my "one way" flight to the US, many many months from now.
Manchester (my airport of choice) will stop doing direct flights to Las Vegas (my airport of Foof) at the end of April. BMI have decided that their flights (which rarely have an empty seat on them) are not profitable enough.
This leaves me with a slight conundrum: How do I get to Las Vegas on that fantastic final flight?
I'll be carrying my visa plus other assorted documents (I hear an A3 sized x-ray of my chest may be part of the package) to hand to the lucky people at immigration. So, as I'll have to fly via somewhere, which airport do I choose to enter "The land of the free"?
I've been warned against Los Angeles, Miami and Philadelphia*, so I was considering New York (as it used to be the tradition to arrive there a century ago). The only thing concerning me was the connection time. The US is notorious for immigration delays for Visa Waiver folk so what would happen to a proper immigrant? Would a three-hour stopover be enough?
So I decided that I might want to travel to a UK airport that flies directly to Las Vegas. I found that Virgin Atlantic flies from London Gatwick every day. Yay!
Knowing my interview date well in advance could work to my advantage. As I'd be travelling a week or two after my interview, booking a train ticket early enough and I could get to Gatwick for £10. A hotel would cost me £50. Depending on the time of year I could get a good deal on the actual ticket too.
Of course, this is all far far in the future, but it's nice to think about it.
*Note - These are probably very lovely POE (Ports Of Entry) but bad experiences from friends and acquaintances have given then a nightmarish quality in my imagination. Sorry guys.
