I flew from the UK to Texas for a piece of steak. And also to rack up a few air miles and try out the Singapore Airlines Airbus A350 in economy class! EARLY ACCESS, MERCH AND MORE - SUPPORT ME ON PATREON! / inflightvideo
The personal touch at the end when the airline manager recognized you, asked if you got your steak, confirmed your gold status, and welcomed you home! Priceless IMHO!
I couldn't agree more with you Tim, & it's great to see you have picked up on this important point. I run my own travel agency & it's great to see a customer being acknowledged for the revenue given to a carrier. Sadly, we don't have any SQ to the US flights from London (I only wish we had). SQ is so way superior to Star Alliance carrier UA.
Touches like that are what makes a company. She could have not done that and not bothered to meet him at the gate but she did as she promised the day before. Fantastic.
“Then I popped over to Kentucky for an authentic chicken lunch at a little local place called Kentucky Fried Chicken.” Lol. Just a little teasing Noel. You could do worse than Longhorn for steak although if you flew to Atlanta, they have a Longhorn right in the airport.
As a Houstonian, it hurts my heart to know you were literally across the street from a Saltgrass Steakhouse and went to a steakhouse owned by the same company that owns The Olive Garden instead.
HAHA!!! I just posted the same thing!!! I'm in Arlington and less than a mile from Saltgrass! They are WAY better! It's 6:30am and now *i* want lunch from saltgrass!!!
ME "I only really watch youtube now" FRIEND " oh really what do you watch" ME " erm .... I watched a guy get on a plane to buy a steak in Texas then flew back home again"
@@kirkmacalister2615 to be fair to Noel he also managed to get some premium miles status by taking the flight and also make a video for RU-vid so it was worth it for him.
Noel, I am a semiretired 74 year old who used to travel a lot. Circumstances have changed. Now I travel with you. Much thanks. I live just south of Nashville. Come and check out the incredible music scene here. Rick Rimmer
i do admire your patience, Noel, doing a fifteen and a half hour round trip to Houston, just for a steak dinner, air miles, and a status upgrade, i could`nt have done it, but at least it was as authentic as it gets, and the personal touch of the airline manager recognising you on your return, and asking how the trip went was fab! keep up the great work, i love your videos :)
Love this guy! Reminds me of my carefree days. Driving to work as a casual worker on Thursday afternoon, l need a holiday. Sunday morning 2 and a half days later, flies to Greece from Melbourne Australia.
The original UK IT Crowd is a classic, haven't seen the new one yet. US one was bad, very bad. I just finished my steak, cooked over oak and mesquite on my backyard pit. With the wood I used it might of been cheaper to fly to Houston from DFW for a steak. BTW try their smoked sirloin if it is still on the menu.
Exactly, I'm surprised he didn't get more grief from US Immigration. Thought you had to give a US address to get your ESTA waiver. What could he put on form - Houston International Apt?
I was living in Nebraska and literally in less than 24 hours drove to Winnipeg MB in Canada. I got through Canadian immigration fairly unscathed but oh boy when I returned to the USA. I was in Canada for about 5 hours, and through US Customs I was searched, my car was searched, torn apart (literally taking off panels in my vehicle), detained and was presumed "guilty until proven innocent." I knew what they were doing and what they were looking for. My explanation that I wanted to see Winnipeg seemed like it was not enough but they had to live with it because it was the truth. I love it when my country treats its own citizens like criminals and *illegal* aliens get a free ride to anywhere they want to settle in the USA.
I hope you take blood thinners to avoid DVT from all that sitting! Next time, announce where you're going. I would have offered to give you a tour while you were here in Houston!
I flew Singapore ORD-AMS in 2002 on a 777, and it is still far and away the best flight I've had. Staff was nice, seats were about as comfy as you are going to get going economy, IFE was individual screens which were slow and plodding, but were great for the time, and food was good, too.
Flies to Texas to get a steak. Proceeds to go to a chain steakhouse. If I'm flying all the way to Texas, I'm going to spend some time and go to a yeehaw Texas restaurant steakhouse. But I guess they are not as convenient to the airport.
Absolutely epic. I loved that the station manager at MAN recognised you and checked on the *G status. Such a nice touch. Thank you for sharing Noel, greetings from EDI
Really enjoyed this quirky video as I call it , I took an amtrack train many years ago from El Paso to Houston . Houston is a great city . Superb video cheers 👍
I have fallen in love with your videos! I'm gonna fly for the first time in my 20 years of live tomorrow! and your videos have me absolutely pumped! keep up the great work!
The smoke you saw over Louisiana was most likely from farmers burning their sugar cane fields. They harvest late in the year, starting around October, then burn the fields before replanting in spring.
The return leg rings a bell. I once drove 200 miles just for a curry, when I got there all the restaurants were closed (1am), on my way back ran out of fuel! 😁
Another great video Noel, the steak looked great! I'm doing a round the world trip starting on the 23rd to get enough status points to stay Qantas Gold. I hope I catch up with you at one airport or another and say Hi. You were right Maurice Moss looks different with that makeup, I hope it was still funny.
Awesome. My respect to you, done the odd daytrip to HK from Singapore for noodles, and thought that was mad at the time. Not flown SQ for years - not much has changed by the looks of things (which is a good thing).
Did a similar trip to Chicago from Manchester on American Airlines in 2014. Keep doing these clips Noel they are giving everyone a bit of relief and food for thought of future trips! My trip lasted 2 days and confused the immigration staff.
Congrats on the * Gold - I’m more a Oneworld person myself although I do have * Gold as well and some of the lounges are very nice 👍 ps have you thought about getting US Global Entry? They sometimes do interviews at the US Embassy in London (where I got mine) - saves all those immigration queues!
The smoke plumes in winter could have been caused by the smelting of scrap iron at steel plants or like type plants. I have seen this on the Ohio Turnpike driving by one. The amount of cloud-plume combo was huge, just from one large plant.
The Singapore airlines flights looked nice (especially business class) and the 4-hour delay shows what can happen with even the best made plans, but few people fly across the pond for a steak, so it made for an entertaining video. For those comparing domestic U.S. carriers, I made a video about my experience with Frontier Airlines. Not quite as comfortable, but informative. I will subscribe.
I used to do crazy stuff like this in the 1980s when I used to get totally free airline tickets from Air Canada as my father worked for them. Used to just get the tube to Heathrow and write out my ticket (yes had written then) go to Toronto, do a bit of shopping for the day and get the night flight back 😀
The IT Crowd segment made me laugh so hard I almost choked on my diet Coke. LOL. Love your videos! Have you ever thought about organizing a subscriber group flight around the world?
I really like that you flew economy. I used to watch travel vlog videos from a gentleman who only flew first/resident/business class. Occasionally he’d show shots of the sad passengers in economy. After a while, his videos just depressed me. I’ll never have that life. I like that you mix it up and love when your wife joins you.
I've got a flight from Rome to Dubai and onwards to Melbourne today. Returning home after a 7-week-long European trip. I'm a really nervous flyer (absolutely hate it, scares the life out of me), but you're videos give me a sense of comfort before flying. Keep up the good work
As much fun as it must be to be able to go to Texas for a steak lunch. I dont think I could handle two long flights like that back to back. So fair play. Great video. Loved the check in girls, confused and probably a bit jealous that you go to Texas for Lunch :D.
YES finally someone who reviewed SIA's long haul A350 config. There are 3 different configs with different seats with short and medium haul having a sleeker seat design (simillar to thier A380s) while the long haul configurations have a less sleek design but are more comfortable. I flew the long config A350 from Singapore to Manchester (SQ52 there and SQ301 back) I was lucky to be able to fly 9V-SMF the 10,000 airbus ever made. Been looking for ages to find someone who reviewed the long haul seats of SIA's A380
FYI for those wondering SQ52 and 51 are freedom routes SQ52 heads from Singapore to Houston stopping over in Houston or Texas then back with callsign SQ51
I used to joke around about how I would fly from California to New York to try White Castle for the first time. But seeing this video gave me hope. Lol.
Reminds me of something I did in the 90s to retain status on Northwest (maybe Republic back then). Last flight Saturday night Toronto to Detroit, stayed at the hotel in the terminal building that had a security gate entrance right in the lobby, and first flight back Sunday morning. Another time I never left the terminal was another Saturday evening, Toronto to Cleveland on USAir to drop off a package for same day Sunday courier delivery and flew back an hour later.
You should have your taste buds painfully removed, because clearly you're not using them. Longhorn is trash and there's a 100X better option for a steak in every single town Longhorn exists in, Texas or not.
I lived in Houston for two years. There are great places for steak, of course one will cost you $50 for just the steak. I frequented a place called "Taste of Texas," Mastros,, Killens,, and a small joint with 9 tables ran by two guys, one from Argentina, the other from Japan. We became buddies, and went golfing and experimented recipes in their modern kitchen. Sadly, The Old San Fransisco Steakhouse closed. I agree, Longhorn's is not bad, but not to fly all the way over from Manchester, England.
Come to Tucson Az via Phoenix and I'll take you for a glider flight, you can go to Pima Air and Space Museum, and I'll take you to a real Az family steak house one in Phx the other in Tucson.