With no traffic at 5:30am, the cabbie made it to the airport in 15 minutes-ish.
Someday I will walk towards the right for the F check in.
US check in had a separate area and it was done fairly quickly. I just had to provide hotel info as I would be staying over in ORD for one night. After that formality, bags were quickly tagged and sent off into the void and BP provided. The agent was kind enough to provide directions to the Al Mourjan
Garden lounge as it was closer to the boarding gate.
The other side of the check in hall.
Poor bear still has not been freed from its prison.
On the train heading to the C concourse.
Quick walk through in the Garden before heading to the lounge. Absolutely stunning.




After walking through the garden thinking about life, my existence and my place in this lonely universe, I headed to the lounge for breakfast. Followed the signs and then took the elevator up one level. As I got out of the elevator, a friendly agent gave me a small tour and indicated different areas of the lounge. I headed to the sit down area for breakfast first.

The LV lounge that charges an extra fee for entrance.



Eggs Benny

Self Service stations


After breakfast, I headed back to the front and walked over to the other side of the lounge where the quiet area was located.
Lovely view overlooking the garden.

The quiet area - so nice sitting here. Very open and airy.

Decided to leave early and check out the gate area and good thing I did leave as there was a line up for secondary security which was a bit of a mess. I made it through with no issues and waited in the holding pen. After 10 minutes, boarding was called with J passengers invited to board first.

Still havent hit the A350 on my QR bingo card.

Flew on the 777 with the all white Oneworld livery and could not get a good picture - so sad.


Welcome to 1K. The cabin crew member working my side of the plane came by to introduce herself and asked for my choice of PDB. Shortly after, the purser came by and introduced herself and gave flight details. Service overall on this flight was SUPERB and the crew were amazing.


OJ PDB

Menus








Pushback was on time and we made our way to the runway. It was a bit of the wait for our turn due to the heavy volume of birds but we were eventually on our way.
Geez, another new concourse.

Two Finnair birds.

Some more waiting …

Oh look, another Finnair - is QR leasing these birds from Finnair?

Oh yay, our turn finally.

Peace out DOH.

As the plane was climbing, one of the trolleys came loose from its station and a tray full of nuts and ramekins came crashing down onto the floor (made a very loud bang). Felt bad for the person who didn't lock it up properly and took some time to clean it up after.

The aftermath …

An hour after take off, the first meal service began.
Setting the table. As a famous person once said, “Show time!” Keep forgetting his name though …

Bubbly to start.

Amuse bouche on deck

Cheers to all you wonderful FT people.

Soup of the day - I think it was cream of mushroom (can't remember now) and it was yummy.

Qatari spiced barramundi machboos - insert perfection emoji here.

Warm poached pear in syrup - meh.

After the meal service, I went to change into PJs while the crew working my side turned the seat into a bed.

For the second meal service, I first went with the greek yoghurt and then the Bircher Muesli


Arrival into ORD was fairly smooth and uneventful - unless you count the heavy slam when the tires hit the tarmac.

Long taxi to T5


Stayed one night at the Sheraton Suites ORD as my flight back home was next day at 9am. Nothing much to write about other than the flight was on time and
there was no meal service since the caterer at YYZ was on strike and we only got chips and water.

AY flew (well, until January 15, they still) to DOH not only from Helsinki, but also from Copenhagen and Stockholm.
Good to know !