I left work half an hour early courtesy of a shorter lunch break and caught the tube to Paddington where I purchased my cheaper HEX tickets thanks to my Network Rail Card. For 2.40 GBP more than a normal one-way ticket I get a return ticket.
I was alarmed to see a peak time 17:25 service being run with a short train and it was packed to the gills. Of course there were the usual plonkers who had their bags on seats and didn’t offer to move them until people requested they do so. Some people had to stand all the way to Heathrow, which is a disgrace for a service that charges like a wounded bull.
Once at T5 I went up to a very empty looking departures area and made my way down to the far end. I had intended to get my BP printed at the Club desks but only bag drop desks were open up there so kept walking to the First check in area. I know I have said it before but will say it again; it amuses me that the F check-in is in Zone J at T5.
This too was quite empty and I walked up to a free agent. She checked me in and asked if I would like special services to escort me through to the lounge. I declined; I really am not VIP material BA.
Security was a doddle with no queue and no manual bag checks, swabs or wandings required. Off to the famous white door to the right that leads directly into BA’s Concorde Room the lounge that only BA First passengers can use.
Well unless you are the lucky recipient of a Concorde Room card that entitles you open doors in the lounge when flying on BA in any class. One needs to collect a warehouse load of tier points in order to secure one of those shiny white cards.
Oh dear is this going to be another rambling Moomba report with diversions, not of the airline variety, dotted throughout the report?
Once inside the lounge my BP was swiped and I walked on out the other side in order to grab a shower. There was one free and I was able to wash off the days work and feel refreshed for my flight to JNB.
I then proceeded back into the lounge and asked to be seated in the restaurant area to grab some food. The wait staff gave me a wine list and menu and asked if I would like some water to start. He came back with some bubbly water and asked what I would like to order. Mushroom soup and the Sea Bass please with a glass of the South African Sauvignon Blanc.
He came back with the wine and also offered some bread. The bread was a little tough around the edges seemed like it had been exposed to the air too long. Five minutes later the soup arrived. It was hot which was a good start, my last visit to this lounge resulted in luke warm meals. The soup was very thick and gluggy and didn’t really have a lot of taste.
Mushroom Soup
My sea bass was up next and was lovely and crispy skinned and beautifully cooked with lots of flavour and it was hot! Yes BA can actually deliver a decent meal in the Concorde Room, occasionally.
Sea Bass
After the meal I headed out onto the terrace area and sat down to check emails etc. Around 5 minutes after arriving there a member of staff asked if I would like a drink. I requested some champagne to get the ball rolling. I chatted with a friend for a while on the phone and 25 minutes later when I left the lounge I still hadn’t got my champagne. So mixed bag review of the CR for this flight.
My flight was boarding from the B gates, which meant a train journey under the apron to get to the infield terminal. When I reached my gate they had just started a boarding announcement and requested elites, F & J use the fast track whilst the tail end rows could board from the other area. Everyone queued up at the fast track so I walked down the other empty queue along with a few other people. Of course the people who jumped the queue in front of me then proceeded to faff about looking for their passports. I eventually made it down to the plane where only door two had a ramp attached.
Flight BA0033 LHR-JNB Seat 2K (First)
Aircraft: 777-200
Departure time: 20:00
The crew member at the door escorted me to my seat and walked on past it whilst I nicked into it. She said ‘Ah you know better than I do where you are going’.
The F purser came out of the galley and greeted me by name. Nice touch, with only 3 in F I suppose it wasn’t too difficult a task to know who we all were.
He asked if I would like a drink and of course I ordered champagne.
As no one else had boarded in F I took the opportunity to take a couple of pictures included the large empty space behind my seat. This particular 777 variety has only 12 seats in F and a flight crew rest where 3K & 4K would be but it left a huge space behind 2K.
Legroom 2K
Rear of the F cabin
Where 3K would be
The purser came by and said are you 007, a spy? Why are you taking photos of the aircraft? I said because I know some geeks that would like to see this big space behind my seat. He laughed and said it was a useless waste of space. He said eventually these birds would be refitted with 14 seats in F and the crew area moved upstairs like it is on other 777. He did say it was good for me as when the flight crew are down there they rope off the aisle and there would be no traffic by my seat.
I sat back down to drink my bubbly and another crew member dropped by with PJs, slipper and an amenity kit.
A menu was then delivered to my seat. I was taking notes as I sat down and the purser came back with a refill my glass and I asked if they still served multiple champagnes in F as the menu only listed the one. He said they had some rose and he would open it if I wanted. He said but this is much better and retails for 150 GBP. He said I hope you wrote down how nice the champagne was.
Bubbly before take off
They had only loaded one of the starter that I asked for and it had already been snapped up by 1A. I had no trouble with the rest of my order. It has been explained to us on the BA forum that when F is lightly loaded that you are more likely to miss out on your first choice as there are fewer meals loaded than when full and they have over capacity of meals.
The captain announced that everyone was on board and that we were just waiting for the bags to finish loading. He announced a flight time of 10 hours 57 minutes and we would be pushing back on schedule. During his announcement a hot towel was delivered and another of the crew offered to fill my glass again. I declined and sat back waiting for take off.
We pushed back at 20:02 and took off at 20:19. Unfortunately 2K on this configuration has a badly misaligned widow so it is difficult to see out of the aircraft.