Now, for whatever reason, most of the time when I fly I tend to find myself in the same vicinity as strange people. This flight probably tops the bill for weirdness.
The action centres around a couple who looked to be in their late 50’s who had occupied the bassinet position in the middle of the cabin. They were the type of people that make noise and nuisance for everyone else, but in an incredibly eccentric, naïve and subtle way.
The captain came over the PA to announce the flight time (8 hours and 10 minutes) and encourage us to watch the safety video that would be shown shortly. He made me laugh because he was incredibly posh in an old school way. He said that he was sure that a lot of us were frequent flyers, but that we should watch the video anyway, to “refresh the old grey matter”.
After I’d settled into my seat and started reading the newspaper given to me by the crew I noticed that the couple near me had started to have a disagreement. I’m not sure what it was about but the wife had started crying. It was the kind of disagreement where there’s no shouting, just lots of emotive but calm statements such as ‘I don’t understand why you are being like this?’. The husband was more occupied with seeing if he could charge his Mac by going into the Club World cabin and plugging it into the nearest power socket. Of course, this didn’t work (the power was off). He then retreated and got a big Marks and Spencer bag down from the overhead bin which turned out to be their lunch/breakfast/brunch. She had stopped crying and during the safety briefing she managed to put away two lots of home made sandwiches (cheese and pickle I think) and he scoffed down four luxury yoghurts (the ones that you buy in individual pots, Taste the Difference or Tesco Finest etc), mostly lemon flavour. I can only assume that they were meant to share the sandwiches and yoghurts, but this didn’t happen. Very odd indeed.
Safety video completed and we had a short taxi to the active runway (South) and took off smoothly. The seat belt sign went off after about 10 minutes and the crew made preparations for the bar service.
At this point, the man next to me got his laptop back out from the overhead bin and set it up on his lap, not unusual. However, he also produced a Vickes nasal inhaler which he proceeded to stick up his nose and leave there for the best part of 45 minutes. Every 5 minutes he gave it a bit of a prod and re-adjustment. Disgusting! If I had to clear my nose like that I’d go into the toilet to do it and I certainly wouldn’t leave it up there for 45 minutes, it’d probably cook the inside of my nose. These really were the weirdest people that I’ve ever flown with and frankly, they were really starting to annoy me.
The strange man, the Mac and the inhaler
The crew came along with the drinks service at about 45 minutes after take off. I decided that I needed a drink at this point so opted for a vodka and lemonade. The little side table next to me very useful.
My vodka and lemonade
Leg room – watching X-Men Origins – Wolverine
Whilst waiting for dinner and took a look at the IFE. Despite refitting the system when the new Club World seats were installed, the system isn’t a match even for the economy offerings on Qantas, Emirates and Singapore Airlines. However, there was a reasonable selection of films and TV programmes and it is on-demand so it can be paused if nature calls right in the middle of an action scene. One thing missing on the programme listings was Family Guy. I can really while away the hours on a flight by watching this but sadly, BA don’t offer this programme on their flights.
Dinner arrived at an hour and a half after take off. The choices were, chicken or vegetable curry. No menus were handed out so it wasn’t possible to tell what the full offering was.
Chicken Tikka Masala – BA style
The curry was actually pretty good and reasonably spicy. The chick pea starter was also good but I left the rice based pudding as it wasn’t to my liking. I was a little surprised that no western food was offered. However, thinking about it further and given the passenger mix (mostly Indian) I suppose that BA has been forced to only offer Indian food on this route due to the competition from Jet and Air India.
The food was pretty good but the presentation and service was no match for Qantas. This was definitely a Y+ product as opposed to Qantas’ J-.
As lunch was cleared I watched the rest of the film and then went for a wander.
The plane was reasonably full in economy and about 65% full in premium.
Premium Economy cabin
Economy, from the rear of the aircraft
Economy cabin
After a quick stop off at the loo I returned to my seat to try and settle down and get some sleep. While 28J is a great seat in terms of personal space, being right next to door 3R means that it suffers from a great deal of wind noise and cold drafts. The poor, thin, statically charged blanket provided did little to keep me warm and I struggled to manage anything other than a light dose.
About 1 hour to landing a second meal was offered and gratefully received on my part. It consisted of a vegetarian wrap/pie thing (it’s hard to describe) called a ‘hot pocket’. This was accompanied by juice, a muffin and yoghurt. All were pretty tasty and I finished the whole lot off.
The captain came over the PA at around 40 minutes to landing and we started our descent. This seemed to take forever and we landed at about 00.50 local time, 5 minutes behind schedule. Taxiing to the gate took a further 25 minutes with delays due to current construction work on the taxi ways meaning we had to take the ‘long way round’.
Disembarkation was reasonably quick, with the strange man near me stealing a selection of magazines from Club on the way out.
Upon entering the air bridge I was a little apprehensive about what would happen next. I’d heard rumours about difficult immigration, hoards of people and confusing signs. Actually, while Mumbai airport is in need of a re-furb, none of my concerns came true. Immigration was slightly long winded as forms had to be completed prior to landing which were checked at least twice. There was also a man checking passports for the appropriate stamps before entering the baggage hall. I’d expected this to be madness, but not so. It was busy, yes, and the belts were small and people crowded round, but I’ve seen this at Heathrow too. Bags seemed to come out slowly but eventually mine turned up. I made my way out into the arrivals area which is a big square outside of the terminal. It was about 2 am at this point. I soon found my driver and he took my bag as I followed him to the S Class Mercedes that would take me to the JW Marriott hotel in Juhu. The driver was very friendly and as soon as I got in he produced cold towels and chilled bottles of water from the cool box in the boot. Five star service for me!
As we were leaving the car park I got a call from my boss who was on the Jet flight that was supposed to have arrived an hour before me. Turns out they were delayed and he was still waiting for his bags to come out.
Our drive to the hotel only took about 20 minutes and I was soon at the gates of the hotel. The JW Marriott is considered to be one of the very top hotels in Mumbai and can be likened to staying at the Savoy in London from a locals point of view.
There was a stringent security check with sniffer dogs and armed security guards before we were allowed to drive into the hotel grounds. This surprised me a little, perhaps I hadn’t done enough home work on what to expect in Mumbai.
After a quick check in, I was in my room for 2.30am. I was expected to be at work for 10am the next morning so went straight to bed.
Verdict
A reasonable flight in premium economy by BA. The food was good, service was acceptable and the seat was comfortable. The downside was the location near the door which made it difficult to sleep.
The BA premium economy product, while not tired in itself has been eclipsed by similar products from other carriers and needs upgrading in order to compete. As a standalone product when compared to economy it does do what it says on the tin and offers more space and comfort. Everything else including the food and the service remains the same, which is disappointing in this day and age.
As a side note, I’m sure that I won’t forget this flight, purely due to the very strange and eccentric couple sitting near to me!
To follow
- My time in Mumbai
- The return leg including the BA Galleries lounge