2005 Summer trip, PDX-GLA

My wife and I are planning a WorldCon trip in 2005 from Portland OR, USA to
Glasgow, Scotland. Many questions come to mind:

1. Are transcontinental fares better if we start from Seattle than
Portland?

2. How do we get there with only one connection?

3. Which carriers and aircraft have the most comfortable seats for sleeping
in Economy and Business?

4. Do any of those have 120VAC 1A or 12VDC 8A power connections for a CPAP
machine?


Thank you all, kindly, for your assistance.



--
Nobody but a fool goes into a federal counterrorism operation without duct tape - Richard Preston, THE COBRA EVENT.

"Please invert everything left of the @ to reply" wrote:

My wife and I are planning a WorldCon trip in 2005 from Portland OR, USA to
Glasgow, Scotland. Many questions come to mind:

1. Are transcontinental fares better if we start from Seattle than
Portland?

2. How do we get there with only one connection?

3. Which carriers and aircraft have the most comfortable seats for sleeping
in Economy and Business?

4. Do any of those have 120VAC 1A or 12VDC 8A power connections for a CPAP
machine?

Thank you all, kindly, for your assistance.


--
Nobody but a fool goes into a federal counterrorism operation without duct tape - Richard Preston, THE COBRA EVENT.

Anything could happen schedule-wise over the next 18 months, but a few thoughts - try getting a transatlantic flight
into Glasgow. The current scheduled with CO from EWR; AA from ORD or AC from YYZ. AC and AA are currently summer only.
It should be relatively easy to get a flight from SEA or PDX to one of these airports.

Avoid LHR or AMS if you can. By the time you travel the new terminal at YYZ should be open.

Another thought, but it does depend on the time of year you intend to travel - Air Transat provide a seasonal weekly
service from YVR and YYC to GLA. Horizon would get you to YVR.

It is four years since I flew from GLA to PDX using AC and Horizon. Booked changes at YYZ and YVR (AC changed this to
LHR - ugh! - and YVR). Return was via YVR, train, YYC and YYZ.

Enjoy your visit to Glasgow.

Stewart

"Please invert everything left of the @ to reply"
wrote in message
...
My wife and I are planning a WorldCon trip in 2005 from Portland OR,
USA to
Glasgow, Scotland. Many questions come to mind:

1. Are transcontinental fares better if we start from Seattle than
Portland?

Probably. And if you want only one connection it is your only option.

2. How do we get there with only one connection?

either SEA-LHR-GLA on BA or SEA-AMS-GLA on KLM/NW. (You could, at least
in theory, use budget airlines from London Luton or Stansted or
Amsterdam to GLA but these are on "point to point" airlines (just like
WN in the USA)

3. Which carriers and aircraft have the most comfortable seats for
sleeping
in Economy and Business?

In Economy, probably AA but no direct flights. In Business Class,
probably BA. Your return flights would, of course, be in daylight hours.

4. Do any of those have 120VAC 1A or 12VDC 8A power connections for a
CPAP
machine?

If I knew what a CPAP machine was I could possibly offer an opinion.
But, afaik, no Airline will provide 120V AC power at seats.

Thank you all, kindly, for your assistance.

JohnT

In article , "Please invert
everything left of the @ to reply" wrote:

My wife and I are planning a WorldCon trip in 2005 from Portland OR, USA to
Glasgow, Scotland. Many questions come to mind:

Ah, another SF fan!

1. Are transcontinental fares better if we start from Seattle than
Portland?

You mean transatlantic, right?

2. How do we get there with only one connection?

Recognize that looking now for flights nearly two years away may mean that
you get your hopes up for flights that won't exist at the time you
actually travel.

Because you can't price this far out, I checked for 17-29 March just for a
guesstimate.

That said, I'm seeing airfares of $1783 from PDX (Portland OR) - GLA
(Glasgow), more if you fly only on CO, with a minimum travel time of 15:30
(not too far out of bounds from the west coast). That would be a
one-connection flight on CO btw.

Going on BA out of SEA, I'm seeing flights from $698 with travel times of
14 hours. Significantly better on both time and money.

For grins, it's about $632 on BA flying out of SFO (San Francisco), but
you may not want to go over the pointy mountains in between.

3. Which carriers and aircraft have the most comfortable seats for sleeping
in Economy and Business?

After 14 hours, they all suck. Actually, the flight is 9:30, there's a
3:10 layover (to clear customs, in part), then short flight to Glasgow.

4. Do any of those have 120VAC 1A or 12VDC 8A power connections for a CPAP
machine?

No. There is power, but that's not generally one of the permitted uses.

The only real way of handling really long trips like that with a CPAP a

1) Fly a domestic carrier, AND;
2) Stopover enroute in both directions.

You couldn't make the stop with an international carrier due to cabotage
laws. It'd be more expensive to "break the fare" with two roundtrips.

By the way, you might want to ask more about this on alt.support.sleep-disorder.

--
_Deirdre http://deirdre.net
"Dogs may have kept us company on the hunt, but it was the cats who
insisted we invent houses and discover fire." -- Khiem Tran

In article , Stu's Bits
wrote:

Avoid LHR or AMS if you can. By the time you travel the new terminal at
YYZ should be open.

Yes, but then the traveler would have to clear customs *twice.* That
doesn't sound very efficient.

--
_Deirdre http://deirdre.net
"Dogs may have kept us company on the hunt, but it was the cats who
insisted we invent houses and discover fire." -- Khiem Tran

In article , "JohnT"
wrote:

4. Do any of those have 120VAC 1A or 12VDC 8A power connections
for a CPAP machine?

If I knew what a CPAP machine was I could possibly offer an opinion.
But, afaik, no Airline will provide 120V AC power at seats.

Used for treatment of sleep apnea by blowing air into one's nose and/or
mouth. Prevents snoring too, which is helpful to all. It does however
require power. Most can handle AC or DC power with the appropriate
adapter.

--
_Deirdre http://deirdre.net
"Dogs may have kept us company on the hunt, but it was the cats who
insisted we invent houses and discover fire." -- Khiem Tran

Please invert everything left of the @ to reply
wrote:

My wife and I are planning a WorldCon trip in 2005 from Portland OR, USA to
Glasgow, Scotland. Many questions come to mind:

You're going WHEN?!?

Planning trips ahead of time can be fun, sure, but at this stage you
should really only be thinking about the 'what'. It is far too early to
start thinking about the 'how'. _Everything_ will change between now and
then--flight schedules, fares, equipment...everything.

Get all the guidebooks you want and read up on Scotland; think about
places you want to see, side-trips you want to take, etc. But wait until
maybe six or eight months before your trip to start checking timetables.
And even then, realise that you'll have to be somewhat flexible right up
to the last minute. There is little more frustrating than having a
carefully-crafted itinerary involving a flight from A to B on a major
carrier that has been doing the route on a daily basis 'forever'
suddenly blown out of the water when, a few weeks before your departure,
the service is changed from 'daily' to 'x4' -- and you're travelling on
a Thursday!!

cheers,

Henry

On Sun, 28 Sep 2003 15:33:35 -0700, (Deirdre Saoirse
Moen) wrote:

In article , Stu's Bits
wrote:

Avoid LHR or AMS if you can. By the time you travel the new terminal at
YYZ should be open.

Yes, but then the traveler would have to clear customs *twice.* That
doesn't sound very efficient.

Especially given the perils of dealing with Air Canad'oh (of which a filk
is in progress).


--
Nobody but a fool goes into a federal counterrorism operation without duct tape - Richard Preston, THE COBRA EVENT.

On Sun, 28 Sep 2003 15:28:22 -0700, (Deirdre Saoirse
Moen) wrote:

In article , "Please invert
everything left of the @ to reply" wrote:

My wife and I are planning a WorldCon trip in 2005 from Portland OR, USA to
Glasgow, Scotland. Many questions come to mind:

Ah, another SF fan!

1. Are transcontinental fares better if we start from Seattle than
Portland?

You mean transatlantic, right?

Yep.

In the absence of responsible folks like D.D. Harriman creating a
semi-ballistic run, have to deal with primitive 20th-Century services.g

2. How do we get there with only one connection?

Recognize that looking now for flights nearly two years away may mean that
you get your hopes up for flights that won't exist at the time you
actually travel.

Yep. Moving target, but should start acquiring good aim _now_.

Because you can't price this far out, I checked for 17-29 March just for a
guesstimate.

That said, I'm seeing airfares of $1783 from PDX (Portland OR) - GLA
(Glasgow), more if you fly only on CO, with a minimum travel time of 15:30
(not too far out of bounds from the west coast). That would be a
one-connection flight on CO btw.

Going on BA out of SEA, I'm seeing flights from $698 with travel times of
14 hours. Significantly better on both time and money.

For grins, it's about $632 on BA flying out of SFO (San Francisco), but
you may not want to go over the pointy mountains in between.

Not afraid of pointy mountains, but am concerned about SFO's
less-than-stellar on-time record.


3. Which carriers and aircraft have the most comfortable seats for sleeping
in Economy and Business?

After 14 hours, they all suck. Actually, the flight is 9:30, there's a
3:10 layover (to clear customs, in part), then short flight to Glasgow.

4. Do any of those have 120VAC 1A or 12VDC 8A power connections for a CPAP
machine?

No. There is power, but that's not generally one of the permitted uses.

The only real way of handling really long trips like that with a CPAP a

1) Fly a domestic carrier, AND;
2) Stopover enroute in both directions.

You couldn't make the stop with an international carrier due to cabotage
laws. It'd be more expensive to "break the fare" with two roundtrips.

By the way, you might want to ask more about this on alt.support.sleep-disorder.

Bully idea!



--
Nobody but a fool goes into a federal counterrorism operation without duct tape - Richard Preston, THE COBRA EVENT.

On Sun, 28 Sep 2003 22:48:22 +0100, Stu's Bits
wrote:



"Please invert everything left of the @ to reply" wrote:

My wife and I are planning a WorldCon trip in 2005 from Portland OR, USA to
Glasgow, Scotland. Many questions come to mind:

1. Are transcontinental fares better if we start from Seattle than
Portland?

2. How do we get there with only one connection?

3. Which carriers and aircraft have the most comfortable seats for sleeping
in Economy and Business?

4. Do any of those have 120VAC 1A or 12VDC 8A power connections for a CPAP
machine?

Thank you all, kindly, for your assistance.


--
Nobody but a fool goes into a federal counterrorism operation without duct tape - Richard Preston, THE COBRA EVENT.

Anything could happen schedule-wise over the next 18 months, but a few thoughts - try getting a transatlantic flight
into Glasgow. The current scheduled with CO from EWR; AA from ORD or AC from YYZ. AC and AA are currently summer only.
It should be relatively easy to get a flight from SEA or PDX to one of these airports.

Avoid LHR or AMS if you can. By the time you travel the new terminal at YYZ should be open.

Another thought, but it does depend on the time of year you intend to travel - Air Transat provide a seasonal weekly
service from YVR and YYC to GLA. Horizon would get you to YVR.

It is four years since I flew from GLA to PDX using AC and Horizon. Booked changes at YYZ and YVR (AC changed this to
LHR - ugh! - and YVR). Return was via YVR, train, YYC and YYZ.

Enjoy your visit to Glasgow.

Stewart




AA does a non-stop from ORD to Glasgow and return. Nice flight, IIRC
about 7-8 hours. I think it's seasonal summer service. From the US
west coast it's kind of a toss-up between using it and flying to LHR
and backtracking.