Skyteam Lounge - Heathrow (Continued):
Massage Chairs:
Oxygen Bar:
VIP Area:
Flight:
We made our way to Gate 2 about 15 minutes prior to the scheduled boarding time, but boarding had already begun when we arrived. Note it was quite a far walk from the Skyteam Lounge (about 10-12 minutes). There were 2 steps to the boarding process – a gentleman was checking passports for each person and then a Continental rep checked boarding passes. Note there is a separate line for BusinessFirst at the passport check, so it was quite quick and we were on board within 2 minutes of arriving at the gate.
By some small miracle, I was hoping our plane would get swapped out and we would get to experience the new Business First flat-bed seats, but no luck. The cabin crew on this flight was extremely pleasant and I knew we were in for a nice flight home. This smaller 757 BusinessFirst cabin had 14 out of the 16 seats occupied on today’s flight. Our main flight attendant, as well as the person preparing the food in the galley, were extremely pleasant throughout the whole flight and I made sure to submit a compliment on continental.com. After some champagne before take-off, we taxied for some time, which allowed me to get nice pics of some 747s preparing for departure. Once in the air, meal service began and the food was better than usual in BusinessFirst or perhaps due to friendly service, which is always a hit or miss to Continental. We had appetizers, entrée, cheese course, and dessert. For my entrée, I ordered the Chef’s selection – beef cooked medium, and the attendant was genuinely caring and hoping that it was cooked to my liking and even offered to heat it longer if I wanted. It was cooked nicely and I asked her how they usually do this as I was on a BF flight to Milan and the very rude attendant said they couldn’t (or wouldn’t) heat the meat to my liking. She said some attendants are not as good or it may have been a different plane setup where they did not have the same convection oven capability. Personally, I think it was the former. In any case, my wife and I enjoyed all courses but were overwhelmed and extremely full by the end of it. We reclined back and watched movies and shows, although the individual touch screen TVs were quite temperamental and you really have to push hard to make your selections. Before we knew it, we were about an hour from landing. We were served our arrival meal, although I think they started service a bit late, as the 2 attendants were scrambling to prepare and serve all the passengers. Shortly thereafter, we landed and taxied to our gate C121 and our quick trip was almost over. As we taxied into the gate, we got a nice view looking into the full glass windows of the larger CO President’s Club in Terminal C. After deplaning, there was an extremely long line at immigration as many flights must have arrived at this time. It was right there that I wished I had applied for the Global Entry program before departure! And now back to the grind of slogging through EWR. I didn’t take too many pics as I think we are all aware of the offerings, but here are a few shots nonetheless. Thanks for reading.
BusinessFirst Cabin:
Beef Entree:
Halibut Entree:
Dessert:
Some shots before takeoff and in the air:
