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