Altro Maxis

At bit of background first, I was off to Vegas to celabrate my 40th with my girlie(ex VS crew) and whilst we had booked our accomadation at the Signature MGM back in July I was waiting for some funds owed to me before sorting out the flights.

So come the 15th of August funds in bank we began to research all of the various flight options and to be perfectly frank with us living in Brighton and LGW some 20 mins away one stood out from the croud.

US Airways 10.10 to CLT then 18.10 to LAS getting there for around 1900. Envoy(business) for the first sector then their first product for the second all for £1800 return each.

Now with and advertised 60 inch's of legroom and near ligh flat seat for the LGW-CLT sector on their A330 and 38 inches of legroom on the second sector I thought that represented great value compared to either VS in premium (granted a direct flight) or BA in WT+. Coupled with the fact that we would clear imigration in CLT and imho a reasonable time to check into the Signiture not forgetting the Brighton to Gatwick transfer I duly hit return on the payment screen and we were sorted.

So to t-24 then, having spent the last few weeks learning the entire Envoy cabin layout and certanly not prepared to part with another $300 for the first row of totaly lie flat seats I was more than happy with what they had pre alocated. The cabin is a 2+2+2 config. I printed off the boarding passes and planned my early escape from my office for what would be an early start tomorow.

The following takes place between 7.30 am 7.pm zulu time de do de do de do or somthing sounding very similar.

LGW-CLT US733 10.10 estimated 1430 local.
Aircraft A333

Lift from in laws picking us up at 6.30 all on time accept the previous night they genuinly thought we ment 6.30 pm eek.
Dropped off at 7, now it has been a long time since I flew from the south terminal and was a suprised to see the upper ramp no longer in use, and was suitably knackerd by the time we dragged our cases up the ramps, never mind. Screens showed the check in zone ect and the flight appeared to be on time so all good.

Located the US airways desk and lined up in the Envoy class section, nice peice of scfuffy carpet to stand btw making me feel very business like!!! The checking in process was very frustrating as the conveyer belt had broken so they were piling the cases up in front of the desks and also appearing to let anyone check in in this dedicated line. Anyhoo no probs with baggadge weights and invites to the No 1 lounge or watever its called in hand we headed back outside for one las ciggie then to security.

Security was pretty quick, so off to the shops to buy Nicotine gum for me, my GF bought what seemed like the entire range of celeb style mags I attempted to sneak a loaded into the basket but one look from her and it was placed very quickley on the shelf.

The lounge, load of rubbish imho and i certanley would'nt pay for a trip there, a few brekfast cerials ect available and we waited 15 mins for a cup of coffee to be served, nice view of the runway however.

Boarding was well organised with envoy customers/prefered members first on, boarding through 2L so a genuine left turn. Firsr impresions of the Cabin were good, now I know the bisness class seats are older than the queen but you know what considering what we payed i.e less than VS premium the seats were clearly superior with an amazing amount of space. We were shown to our seats an adrressed by name, our hand luggage was placed for us in the overheads and we were offered OJ or Sparkling. These were delivered very quickly along with amenetie kits and choice of newspapers, I established that there wasnt a seat left on the plane so the crew defo had there work on!

Loading went very quickley and we pushed back 10 mins ahead of schedual and airbourne 1020 with an 8 hour flight time which would get us into Charlotte at least an hour ahead of schedual, I'll explain latter why this caused a problem lol. One particular nice touch from the US girls was a "Top of the climb drink" that you pre orderd when setling in before take off and true to their word duly deliverd.

Entertainment system was Sony passport which again was nearley as old as the Queen, never the less more than adequate being AVOD and once on didnt play up at all.

Lunch, interesting this as they took hour main course order pre take off but not our starters later to find that these would be served by hand, well silver service if you know what I mean, any way I had a very tasty schrimp seafood salad my GF the same washed down with more bubbled, then for mains I opted for a new york flat steak, corn on the cob and garlic and cheese mash, all i can say is quite supurb, my GF opted for a wild mushroom risoto which she claimed to be equaly as nice, dessert was black forrest gateux and cheese board selection washed down with port, lovely stuff.

The rest of the flight went very quicly, I annoyed my girlfriend by getting through 5 glasses on Tanquary (spelling) and tonic with a choice of lemom, lime or strawberry eek and the main problem was you get your glass bought back with what i thought was ice and the tonic with two minatures plus some more tonic, so i emptied the minitures into the glass and only after the first gulp realised there were at least to minitures already in not tonic, so by the end of the flight i was to say the least a bit squiffy. The crew were very attentitive and i dint want for anything.

SMOKE DETECTOR incedent!!! With about an hour to go I headed to the forward washroom to freshen up, I took my polo shirt off and had a bit of a warm water wash down, dried myself off and with top still off started to spray the sure for men!!!! The seasoned travelers amongst you know what happed next GULP. Bells and wistles blairing out followed by furious knocking on the door by the crew and, i repeat the FO, .... I thought with no top on I replied through closed door "Im just putting my top back" on to which was replied we need you to come out now SIR. Well I was in a real state .

The following takes place somwhere over the eastern seaboard aprox 12pm local time de do de do de do de do!!
Well I was in a real state and with fairly sizable moobs and beer gutteridge to match, I certanly wasnt about to exit the John without my top on, not that the crew were anything to the class of british crews, more akin to your Mother or even your grandmother looking at you half naked, no my problem was the FO was a morph of a young Britt Ekland and aggresive to boot, with bells still going off and the demands reaching feaver pitch I lobbed my spray on La coste polo on a slid open the door to be greated by a scene similar to a Saturday morning when your woken by Jehovas Witness's. The FO asked me to follow her to the front galley while the crew investigated what had sent the alarm off, i stood in silence in the galley like a naughty school boy awaiting the cane and believe me with the amount of gin i'd consumed I would have taken the punishment like a boy there and then. At this point I'd noticed the alarms were off and after what seemed an eternity one of the crew stuck her head through the curtain laughing and said "that will teach you to be all Foo Foo" in a rich gravely southern drawl. Laughes all round and I was returned to my now horrified girlfriend who genuinley thought i'd popped for a crafty one with you guessed it another large gin lol. Well dramas over we made our decent into charlotte and arrived at the gate 1/12 hours early and heres the best bit! Customs didnt open until 2pm so all the passenges had to wait for 1/2 an hour before deplaing, for some reason this didnt bother me as with the seat reclined I was quite happy to chill but im sure the Y pax would have been stressing.

So we were soon let off, straight to imigration, first theere, straight through no probs and with cases recovered, yes the priority tags worked had re checked bags in 10 mins. CLT is a super airport very modern and with three hours to kill dived for the lounge between conc. b & c and yes there is a god, It had a smoking room, in fact not a room, a very large lounge overlooking the apron, so I set about a packet of ciggies and did my best to sober up he he.

The CLT - LAS leg was again all on time and we were again very happy with the seat very simililar to the VS premium seat with 38 inches of pitch, flight was 3 hours 30 mins a a reasonable hot meal plus plenty of drinks were offered.

Having already cleared customs ect it was nice to grab the bags at the other end a joint the taxi line all within ten minutes. During our stay we also used US to fly a rtn leg to LA and again all flights on time.

In summary I had read alot of bad reports about US but will def. consider their services again and look forward to the new suite being rolled out on their A330 aircraft over the coming months. The return legs were again on time and on the CLT- LGW leg some of the crew were the same that took us out and we shared a laugh re the smoke detector debarcle he he.