On the Road Again!

 It was our fourth wedding anniversary and we decided to get up very early and drive all the way to Stansted Airport to fly to Dublin. It seemed a good idea at the time. It was quite a cold day but I don't suppose you travel to Dublin in October you don't expect balmy sunny weather. Once in the city centre from the airport we went to see the Book of Kells in Trinity College and then took the bus out to Guinness. You can see loads from the buses and you didn't necessarily need a tour bus. Once we had got back into the centre, we had a late lunch in a pub and then back to get the airport bus.

Eventually. The weather forecast was for heavy rain and then thunder and lightning. As boarding time approached we didn't get to move very far. The plane was here and so were the crew and passengers.  Once on the plane we were told that due to the weather the area was shutdown for refuelling and flight. It was just about midnight when we eventually took off. Estimated flight time 7h 40m. It would mean cutting it fine for the transfer in Dublin to the London flight  We landed with about 35 minutes in hand but sat in the taxi way before getting a gate until 1345. And our 1340 connection had left. Stranding over a hundred passengers in Dublin. We were lucky to get a new flight at 1430. We saw quite a few others from the MIA flight.  It took off 20 minutes late and we touched down just before 1600 at Heathrow. Our bags managed to come with us though and that might be a miracle. DriveFly were really good and the car was there  We were back in Hythe around 1800. A stop in ...

Hotel very good. Meet and Greet parking good. Problem was we went into T2 following meet and greet signs instead of "pickup" to level 4. Once we exited and re-entered. All fine. Check-in done by nice lady at Aer Lingus. Self weigh and despatch cases. Easy. Now it's coffee time as we wait for a gate for the hop to Dublin.

Again. Flight from Dublin to Miami now 45 earlier than scheduled. Although still later than when booked.  Hope no more surprises.

Another email from Aer Lingus confirming our flights.  As they didn't say that anything had changed I had a quick look against the previous email to see and there's nothing changed. The re-timing of the Dublin to Miami flight in December might actually be a benefit as the US Immigration is done in Dublin and a bit longer might aid getting through there and maybe be a boon in Miami.  There are scare stories about Miami and the massive queues of foreigners trying to get in, whether with ESTA or Visa. On the car-hire front I cancelled the National booking and have a new one with Dollar at a lower rate for an "intermediate" car.  The example is a Nissan Sentra. I don't tend to look at Nissan at home or away and so have little idea what one looks like.  I Googled it and this is a  Sentra .

So. The question of how to use the 36 RCI points I have banked was coming down to two periods of time. From UK to the US it is really not good value to spend 9 hours plus flying for one week away. So it needs to be when there are two weeks or more to fit into. Easter and Summer holidays. Surprisingly July/August was best for the timeshare exchanges in the more westerly states; Arizona etc. But from reading Roger Naylor's articles for Arizona magazines it's monsoon time. After last year in Florida following the hurricanes, no thanks!!!  But airfares to Phoenix or Last Vegas are for the rich only. So my attention was shifted to Easter. Schools break up on April 5th and return the day after Easter Monday. And since our management dictated our holidays could only be in school holidays I booked that fortnight off ages ago. Now the problem was looking for flights. We went into the Thomas Cook agency in Hythe. Got some ideas. Then used Skyscanner.  London Heathrow to Miami, on April...