CO34 Houston George Bush Intercontinental, Texas - London Heathrow Terminal 4
Continental Airlines, Boeing 777-200ER
4834 Miles flown, 4834 Miles earned
Now you're probably wondering why the hell I chose to sit at the back of the plane? Two very good reasons. Firstly, it is a 2 seater seat in the A/B H/K sections, and a quick inspection of the seat map showed this part of the plane was going to be practically empty. Which suited me nicely. And two seaters make very nice curling up places on a long flight.
A perfect pair
Empty during load
I greeted the crew to the sound of grunts. Uh oh. I then made my way promptly down the back of the plane and got settled, hoping my plane for a empty back of the plane would work out - and lo and behold -it did.
Pushback was slightly late, and the Lord Jeff appeared once again to introduce his combined airline - the plane I was on was a “combined” airline plane (In other words, the paint shop got some new stickers out).
Watch his safety videos. I swear he doesn't blink.....
We taxied out, and took off into the rain and storms into the skies.
After we had settled into a cruise, the first of four drink services begun, with drinks and pretzels.
First service
Cruise
Sunset
This was followed by the second service - a choice of pasta or chicken. Once again, I risked the chicken.
Tray meal
The chicken
Again, not a bad meal - the salad was fresh, the roll was of the sort I could knock someone out with and the chicken, rice and beans seemed not to have been over done.
As the journey settled, we tracked over North America, with the sun setting, and then the bright lights of the cities showing up, including those of Washington DC.
DC
Now it’s at this point you’ll notice a dearth of pictures. As a member of the crew said that picture taking wasn’t allowed on Continental Airlines.
You what?
Rather than antagonise anything anymore or refer the said crew member to their own magazine of what electronics were allowed, I turned off the camera - save for the laughable breakfast shot that will come up in a bit.
The flight then settled down and I used the two seats as a curling sleep zone. Until an announcement for medical staff to come forward. There was the sounds of biohazard kits and ugly ill sounding sounds. So much so I think the pilot “put his foot down”, with a 6:50 arrival now becoming a 6am arrival.
As the cabin settled down again for a bit, the crew were going back and forth, making sure the poor person was stable, and seeing if they could help.
About an hour and fifteen before landing, it was time for a quick breakfast service. And it was more laughable than normal
Oh dear
The croissant.. plastic. The fruit. Well it’s almost impossible to screw up fruit I suppose. Two drinks runs were carried out. At least the coffee that was provided was brown and warm.
It still amazes me that the breakfast service seems to defeat most carriers - be it UA, CO, BA, or in fact BMI. How hard is it to get a couple of decent pastries or a muffin, orange juice and some fruit, keep it fresh and not stale for the 7 hours flight?
Very hard I suspect.
The cabin was cleared down and the crew secured. The plane itself flew south of London, turned, made a river approach, and finally landed at Heathrow, where we taxied non stop to our stand at T4 where the ambulance and police were waiting.
T4 disembarkation was very slow due to the paramedics on site, as well as her Majesties constabulary blocking rows 29 onwards. Once they cleared the right hand side of the plane, everyone was allowed to disembark.
I overheard the crew chatting “today we earned our pay”. Almost kiddies. Almost.
Eventually people were let off the plane, where I thanked the purser and decided to head homeward.
Overall: Whilst the crew were capable, and did the job they needed to do (especially when medical assistance was needed), they had the air of “being there for your safety” and “we really have to work a London flight” about them. To be blunt:
Disappointing. The fact they don’t know their own SOP’s when it comes to photography too is of concern. How can I put it nicely - this crew felt more like a United crew on a bad day than any Continental Crew I’ve had in the past.
I reached the UK border, and saw the IRIS gates had gone, and had how been swapped over to a Biometric Gate. For fun, I tried it out - and whilst slower than the IRIS system, I was let into the country without a problem. A quick trip downstairs, and I was back into the United Kingdom.
At this point, I was pretty tired, so I made a a quick hop over to T1, and I offloaded myself from the LHR-DUB flight as 1) I couldn't face a 12 hour wait for the next flight and 2) I sort of forgot to book an onwards segment back to Birmingham
. The offload was handled without any question, and I was thanked for making the effort to offload myself.
Now it was a choice of the tube or the Heathrow Connect. And I decided to spoil myself and catch the Heathrow Connect to Paddington - forgetting it was Monday morning rush hour.
Oops. It got loaded very quickly, and didn't help that the Great Western Main Line was running at a snails pace. However, the journey was about 10 minutes extra than normal. The useful thing catching the Heathrow Connect is that it’s right next door to the Bakerloo line entrance, which is useful as that links me up to my next hop - Marylebone station.
As it was peak, it was only a minute for a tube, and I was at Marleybone 5 minutes later. A quick walk upstairs, and their was an express heading to Birmingham in another 5 minutes.
Chiltern Railways London Marylebone - Birmingham Moor Street
Class 168. Held return portion used.
What can said about this service that I haven't talked about before? Oh yes, with the opening of the "new" platforms at Moor Street, Chiltern are using it as a terminating service these days.
However, the service is clean, reasonably quick, and low on people as everyone is heading into the city as opposed to heading into it. Additionally it's a fast service through the Chilterns which makes it a very pleasurable journey - with the service only packing slightly at Solihull as it's one of the first OAP pass trains of the morning.
Another interesting fact is going northbound, there is no such thing as a "peak" ticket on this route - a little money saver especially when Virgin Trains from London Euston will ask you to open your wallet and scream when you see how much a peak return is!
As usual, the Chiltern service was on time, and dropped me at Moor Street where I wandered onto the bus and headed for the big red front door - the end of another mileage run.
Home again