Moomba

Hello again my internet friends.
Although I just finished a report it is time for me to bore you once again with some tales from the pointy end.

As you probably know I was forced to endure a RTW in business class last year and it only made it easier to do another in F for this year. I do hope that one day my addiction will be cured and I am able to spend my money on something other that airfares. In the meantime I get to indulge myself once again with a RTW in first class using an AONE ticket starting from the beautiful city of Cape Town in South Africa.

Normally I would regale you with tales of lofty dining on whichever means I chose to get me to my starting point. Alas this time my getting to CPT was a tale of woe and wasted miles rather than the luscious details of a foodie heaven it was supposed to be.

Perhaps one of the side effects of travelling a lot is a reduced immune system as I have an uncanny ability to catch a cold at the drop of a hat. It was the day I left HKG on my recent China odyssey that it first started. My usual stupid Moomba madness had me getting off the HKG flight at 05:45 in the morning and heading out again for CPT at 18:40 that evening.

The routing was LHR-ZRH-JNB-CPT in LX J, F and SA J. Much to your shock and horror you will be mortified, as I was, that I chose to sleep through the meal on LX F and waste my hard earned miles on a bed rather than a five star culinary feast that LX F can be. On top of the cold I had a case of the hiccups again that lasted the whole day and on into the flight to CPT. As there was little to write about on this flight I abandoned efforts to do a full report of my journey to CPT.

My journey this year, as usual, is part mileage run and part places I want to visit. It is quite possible that the routing will change from the current one so I won’t tell you what it is.

Also for those of you are impatient a warning that it will be a slow process as I tend to use the full year validity of the ticket to complete the journey.

The first part will be the sector from CPT-LHR and after this will be quite a long hiatus until I take the next sector.

Index to reports in this thread:
Part 1 A subdued start - CPT-LHR British Airways F
Part 2 The usual mileage run to the middle east - LHR-AUH-MCT British Airways F
A Detour to OZ MCT-AUH-SYD Etihad F
Sydney and Melbourne put on the charms
Another Detour Part 1 MEL-HKG Qantas F
Another Detour Part 2 HKG-LHR Qantas F
And now here is something we hope you'll really like - part 1... LHR-MCT-BKK Oman Air J
Exploring Bangkok and a hotel hop
And now here is something I hope you'll really like - part 2... BKK-MCT Oman Air J
Part 3 Picking up the RTW ticket again - MCT-AUH-LHR British Airways F
Part 4a Off to OZ again - The lounge at LHR - LHR-SIN
Part 4b Off to OZ again - On board & the seat LHR-SIN Qantas F
Part 4c Off to OZ again - Luncheon / Breakfast SIN-SYD-Qantas F
Part 4d QF F Lounge SIN and SIN-SYD Qantas F
Part 5 Adelaide the long way - SYD-PER-ADL Qantas J
Part 6 Back to Sydney to park the RTW - ADL-SYD Qantas J
A detour back home Part 1 - SYD-AUH-MCT Etihad F & J
A detour back home Part 2 - SYD-AUH-MCT Etihad F & J
The final Oman Air sector - MCT-LHR Oman Air J
Some positioning flights BA J LCY-AMS-LCY-LHR-NRT
Tokyo, Fuji & Hakone
Back to London BA F NRT-LHR
Another positioning flight BA J LCY-AMS-LHR-JNB-CPT
Cape Town & Table Mountain
Back to London Again BA F CPT-LHR
Back to Sydney to pick up the RTW AY J LHR-HEL-SIN BA J SIN-SYD
Part 7 Finally the RTW continues QF F SYD-HKG
Part 8 A bit of CX pampering CX F HKG-SFO AA F SFO-DFW
Part 9 North to Alaska AA F DFW-ANC
There is no place like Nome DO Part 1 ANC-FAI Denali Star Alaska Railroad
There is no place like Nome DO Part 2 Fairbanks AS Y FAI-ANC-OTZ-OME
There is no place like Nome DO Part 3 A bank robbery and more in Nome AK
There is no place like Nome DO Part 4 AS Y OME-ANC & BBQ
Part 10 Back to the London once more - AA F ANC-DFW-SFO BA J SFO-LHR; LCY-AMS-LCY
Positioning, positioning always positioning - BA J LHR-AMS-LHR BA F LHR-JFK, AA J JFK-SFO
Part 11 The final hurrah - AA F SFO-JFK BA F JFK-LHR-NBO

Now for the obligatory plug of previous reports of mine on FT.

My First RTW on OneWorld in F 2006
Passion or Addiction OneWorld RTW in F 2008
Definitely Addicted OneWorld RTW in F 2009
Moomba's Addiction Continues RTW One World in J 2010
A trip across the pond on a 318

And for those that enjoy non-flight specific reports:
Land of the Cherry Blossom Japan by Rail April 2007 (a most underrated travel destination)
Alaska Land & Sea June 2008 (stunning part of the world)
China in Summer 2011

Moomba

After a night at the Westin Cape Town I needed to check out at 16:00 from the hotel in CPT and rather than head out to the airport at that time for a 20:05 flight I sat in the lobby and read my book; and coughed.







Just after 17:00 I grabbed a cab out to the airport that was about 40 minutes out of town. On the way we passed some of the shanty towns and the new complexes the government are trying to get the shanty dwellers to move into.

At the airport I located the BA check in desks and approached and was called over to a J desk agent as the F desk was occupied. She was able to check me in quickly enough although she did want to see my old passport with the indefinite leave to remain (in the UK) stamp in it.
She asked if I knew where the lounge was and when I said no she gave me directions.

I proceeded down to the security checkpoint where there was only a couple of minute wait before being processed without any bells and whistles. Next was immigration where I was able to walk straight up to a free agent. A stamp later I was on my way to the gate area.

The BA galleries lounge was just to left after arriving in the area but I went for a wander to see what else was on offer first. Not much is the answer to that. There is a bar, some food places, a newsagent and some duty free stores. The most interesting store was one full of African art and craft items for sale.

The duty free store didn’t seem that cheap and the gin I was looking to buy was cheaper on board the flight. This didn’t stop the BA crew all descending en masse when they arrived. It was quite funny to see all these BA crew making a beeline for the duty free store before boarding the flight.

I made my way back to the lounge and was invited inside. The lounge is the old galleries style and the food and beverage offerings were limited and of dubious quality. I grabbed a cheap scotch and dry and sat down to surf for a while. The lounge soon became very full and noisy and quite unpleasant. I exited for the peace of the main departure area instead.

There was an announcement made for passengers with children and others who needed assistance to approach the gate for boarding. I noticed the crowd from the lounge all piled out at this time and queued up on the right. It was not until I noticed this line moving that I realised boarding had commenced.
I joined the long queue of people and made my way slowly toward the gate. An agent was checking passports against BPs and stamped mine as I got to him.
I eventually made it to the front and had my BP scanned and walked on down the ramp.

Flight BA0058 CPT-LHR Seat 2A
Aircraft: 747-400
Departure time: 20:05

At the door I was acknowledged by name and escorted to my old F seat.

PJs and amenity kit were quickly handed out. I was offered a drink before take off and of course asked for a glass of champagne.

I had sat my rain jacket on the ledge next to the seat and on returning with the champagne the crew member said ‘can you make a little room for me?’.
I moved my jacket and he placed the glass of champagne down but never came back to collect my coat.

An announcement was made by the CSD that they would be spraying the cabin with insecticide before departure. I heard this take place but it seems BA don’t think F passengers carry any bugs on them as they started at the galley area and walked back down the plane.

I was offered a refill of the champagne and noticed it was not the one listed on the menu.



We pushed back at 20:09 and the safety video was played. The F purser then collected my glass before we took off.
We took off at 20:25 and were in the air quite quickly in the dusk over Cape Town.

The menu and wine list were handed out and I was asked what I would like to drink. I said do you have any of the champagne listed on the menu. The answer was yes it is nicely chilled the other was just pre-take off champagne.

A hot towel was handed out and my glass of champagne was delivered along with a dish of warm nuts. When the bubbly was delivered the crewmember said this is a brand new one for us and is quite nice. I didn’t have the heart to say yes I know I had a few glasses on Thursday night.

The F purser came around to take my dinner order. I have neglected to mention that the cabin had another bucket load of op-ups. On my calculation it was around 7 of the 14 were op-ups. I did notice, to the credit of the F purser that he took the meal orders of all those who had assigned seats when I checked in prior to taking orders of the upgraders.



The Menu

DINNER

STARTERS
Chilean smoked salmon and king prawn tikka rolled in coriander with cucumber raita and lemon

Sweet potato au gratin with roast red pepper sauce

Potato and leek soup

Fresh salad leaves with your choice of balsamic vinaigrette or dill yoghurt dressing

MAIN
Grilled fillet of beef served with green peppercorn sauce, potato and carrot bake, sautéed turnips and broccoli

Pan-fried kingklip fillet served with green olive puttanesca sauce, pappardelle pasta, spiced paprika chips and fresh parsley

Roast citrus breast of chicken served with potatoes, carrots and broccoli florets

Smoked breast of duck and potato salad with vegetables, cocktail tomato and chive

BISTRO SELECTION
Fresh pasta with sweet pepper cream sauce

Warm bacon roll served with tomato ketchup

A selection of biscuits

A selection of cheese and fruit

DESSERT
Chocolate brownie cake with chocolate sauce and whipped cream

Lemon and ginger pudding cake with vanilla sauce

CHEESE PLATE
A selection of cheese

A basket of fruit

Chocolates

WINE LIST
Aperitif
Kir Royale

Champagne
Laurent-Perrier Grand Siecle, Champagne, France

White
Meursault Le Limozin 2007, Vincent Girardini, Burgundy, France

Grand Vin Sec Du Chateau Doisy-Daene 2008, Bordeaux, France

Petaluma Hanlin Hill Riesling 2008, Clare Valley, Australia

Red
Chateau Labegorce-Zede 2004, Cru Bourgeois Margaux, Bordeaux, France

Newton Johnson Pinot Noir 2009, Walker Bay, South Africa

The Laughing Magpie 2007, d’Arenberg, McLaren Vale, South Australia

Dessert
The Noble Mudpie 2010, d’Arenberg, McLaren Vale, South Australia

Warre’s 1992 Colheita Tawny Port

Sprits, Digestifs and Liqueurs
Gonzalez Byass Sherries
Smirnoff Black Label Vodka
Tanqueray No. 10 Gin
Johnnie Walker Blue Label Scotch Whisky
The Glenlivet 18-year-old Single Malt Whisky
Woodford Reserve Kentucky Whiskey
Otard XO Cognac



I was still not feeling 100% and wasn’t overly hungry so I took it easy on this flight. I had the soup to start that was again quite thick but very tasty. I followed up with the chicken that was cooked well but as it was the healthy option was not overly flavourful. I declined the offer of any other food until breakfast.






The crew were great and constantly used my name and came back plenty of times with offers of wine, water and rolls.

By the time the meal was over I was ready to try and get some sleep. I asked the crew to make up the bed whilst I went the loo.
On return to my seat it was ready for me to snuggle down and there was a bottle of water at the seat.

I had a restless night and I don’t know if it was my cold or not but the cabin was not overly hot, which is rare for BA flights.

I slept for a good 5 hours before the lights came on at about 05:00 UK time.
A hot towel was given out and closely followed by the other crewmember offering OJ or smoothies from a tray.

BREAKFAST

STATERS
Chilled fruit juice
An energising fruit smoothie
A selection of yoghurts
A selection of cereals
Fresh seasonal fruit plate
A wide selection of breakfast pastries and rolls

MAIN
Traditional English breakfast of scrambled eggs, grilled bacon, pork sausages, sautéed mushrooms, seared tomatoes and potato cheese cake

Omelette with mushroom cream sauce, Lyonnaise potatoes and spinach balls filled with creamed spinach

French toast sandwich with poached pear compote, crème fraiche, maple syrup and whipped cream

Beverages
Teas – Traditional English Breakfast, Darjeeling, Early Grey, Pure Green, Pure Camomile, Pure Peppermint, Lemon and Ginger or Blackcurrant, Ginseng and Vanilla

Coffee – Freshly roasted and ground, decaffeinated, espresso or cappuccino


I ordered the fruit plate for breakfast and some tea and lemon. I would be having a second breakfast later.




Around 45 minutes out the CSD appeared and handed out landing cards and fast track slips.

The captain soon came on and announced 40 minutes to landing although warned us that we could be asked to loop around London as it was a Monday morning.
The crew started to ready the cabin for landing and sure enough we started to circle.

We only stood our ground for around 10 minutes before flying in over Kew to land at 06:55. We got the gate quite quickly but had to sit there for at least 5 minutes before the guidance system was turned on.

Eventually we were able to pull up to the gate at terminal B.
I thanked the crew on exiting through door 1L shock horror.

The train just left as I arrived down at the platform but another was along 2 minutes later. Up at immigrations it was complete chaos, as it always seems to be at T5 in the mornings.

I weaved my way through the crowd and was pleased to see 1 of the 2 IRIS gates working. There was a queue of about 6 people when I joined it. Someone in the gate was kicked out and tried to get one of the officers to help. They decided it was out of paper and anyone who needed a receipt would need to go to the normal queues. The fast track was alongside the IRIS queue and was horrendously long and not fast at all as they only bothered to have 1 agent working the queue.
My turn at the IRIS machine was soon up and I was in and out within 30 seconds.

I had no luggage so was able to make my way straight up to the arrivals lounge. At the lounge my BP was scanned and I asked if I needed an invite to get into there and pointed to the CR Room within the lounge. She said no I didn’t and ushered me inside the lounge. I walked into the CR breakfast room and was immediately asked for my invite card. The waiter was fine about and took my BP and went and got the agent to fill in the card after seating me and giving me a menu.

I was determined to go with something other than the usual this time so I asked for toast and the full English for change along with the grapefruit juice.
The meal was delivered soon after and I enjoyed a quiet breakfast in the room until a Mother and son team arrived just as I was finishing.







I wasn’t planning on going to work so rather than grabbing a slurpy shower I decided to head out home via the HEX and tube and to try and get some more kip to shake my cold.

There you have it the first instalment of another adventure in F with Moomba. A pretty tame start to my journey in most part due to my ill health.

Hopefully things will get better from here.

Unfortunately this will be it for quite a while now as I am not planning on taking sector 2 until December.


Until then, happy contrails to you all.

Some More Photos Here

Nanook

Great report so far. Sleeping through the meal in LX F...how sad. I have one suggestion for you: probiotics. Keeps me from getting colds.

vecta

Subscribed. As always, looking forward to the rest of your adventure.

Grande Annee

Great report Moomba........can't wait for the next sector!

Palmer

Hello!

Palmer

TravelinWilly

Great report - looking forward to the rest!

Quick question: Does BA use "FIRST" baggage tags for checked luggage, or is it just a priority tag that's used for all premium/status pax? And do the tags actually work (meaning do the first/priority bags come out first)?

Moomba

Thanks everyone for your comments

I have done 3 BA F sectors in the last few weeks. On the Ex LHR they put a generic priority tag, on the ex HKG they put the First tag only and the last (this one) was hand baggage only.

From what I understand the tags having nothing to do with whether the bags are priority handled. It is all recorded in the baggage system and bags are automatically handled based on priority.

At LHR this seemed to work fine but in PEK it was useless.

Jenbel

Did you not have the nice sticky?!

HIDDY

Just noticed this through your sig Moomba.

Shame about you not feeling too great and unable to enjoy your flights to the full. Mind you...if a five hour sleep to you on a plane is seen as a struggle it would be absolute bliss for me.

I must say those CCR poached eggs look super in the picture. ^

Moomba

Thanks HIDDY.

I am looking forward to this next 12 months of travel as this year seems to have been all work and no play so far. Well except for my China jaunt in Sept.

I love poached eggs and the two I had in the CR Breakfast Room were great.

avm2806

Moomba - the prospect of having you back in the skies soon is delightful. I absolutely love your TR's and wish you healthy and safe travels in December - enjoy the new BA bubbly!

Seat 2A

Few things are as entertaining here at FlyerTalk as one of moomba's tales from the pointy end. No simple collection of pictures, these are well chronicled tales of the good life on the other side of the curtain. As one who definitely shares your addiction, I say bore on! ^^

tsastor

What a terrible crime. But I'm not going to throw the first stone as I've been guilty of this myself. (Except it was J and on a different airline. )

Moomba

Thanks guys. I will be back towards the end of December with the next sector and a few odd ball routings mixed in.

It was a tough choice but I simply needed to sleep to help get rid of the cold. Hopefully I will get the opportunity to fly LX F again sometime soon.