On to my third trip report having started to do them earlier this year. This one is a bit different for two reasons. Firstly, I was not travelling on my own this time as I went with a friend and we were part of a larger group. Secondly, this was a trip to go and climb a mountain, which is not something I have ever done outside the UK before. My usual report style is to focus only on the travel bit itself and not too much on the destination, but in this case I have written a bit more in the report on what happened when I was out there.

If you want to read some of my travelling background then there is some information in this TR:

TR–Far East inc. Beijing, HK, KL, Singapore & Hanoi (BA J, CX Y, KA Y&J, MH Y, MI Y)

Also this is another TR I did earlier this year.

TR - Toronto over Easter LBA-LHR-YYZ-LHR-LBA (BA J inc. an OpUp)

Planning
One of my past times is hiking/mountaineering. I must admit that I don’t do it much, usually a few times a year either going to the Lake District or up to the Highlands in Scotland. In previous years I have done hill walking all year round, including winter, and done a few challenges including the Yorkshire Three Peaks and the UK Three Peaks. Apart from the challenges, in most other cases I have headed out alone rather than walking with someone else.

My friend Ian also shares a similar passion for heading out in to the hills. He lives quite close to me in Leeds so we often meet up in a nearby pub for a drink on a Sunday night. We had talked about doing something a bit more challenging together before, but not really decided on anything specific. The two companies organising treks abroad which looked interesting were Exodus and Adventure Peaks, and we had looked at the Toubkal summit trip on both websites as the price seemed fairly reasonable and the challenge tough be doable.

So fast forward to August 2012 when I got sent a voucher from BA for £100 off a Club Europe flight to be booked by the end of that month. All of a sudden I began thinking of where I might like to go and whether I needed to look at tier point earning for 2013, and Marrakech came up on the list as the flights are relatively cheap for earning 160 tier points. All of a sudden a few things started to come together and the Toubkal trip for 2013 looked like a good idea, partly to do the challenge and partly to ensure I got some tier points.

Ian and I decided to go ahead and book with Exodus, and to go for the first trip of the season which would be heading out on 28 April 2013. I booked the land only option with Exodus and booked the flight myself, whilst Ian booked the flights through Exodus. At that stage I didn’t tell him that I was booked in to business class though – I ended up confessing much closer to our departure date though.

Again, fast forward to March this year and Ian and I decided we needed to start doing some training. I knew I should be able to do the walk, but the altitude effect would be a bit of an unknown to me. We headed off for a weekend in the Lake District to do some last minute training. Also I had by then purchased a few new bits of kit I needed, and a sleeping bag since I have never camped before.

Costs
British Airways, LGW-RAK-LGW - £303.86 (inc. £100 voucher for a CE return flight)

Exodus - Mt Toubkal Climb (land only) - £399
(included hotel in Marrakech, airport transfers, and all meals apart from dinner on first and last nights in Marrakech)

Pre-flight
Both Ian and I had friends down near Gatwick airport so we decided to drive down the day before to catch up with them. Ian had arranged with his friend that we could stay at his house on Saturday night, which would leave us with a short drive to LGW on Sunday.

We set off just after 10am on the Saturday and had a trouble free drive down to Haywards Heath which took around 3h 45 mins. I was driving and had printed some maps for Ian to use for navigation just for the last bit of the journey although it turned out his navigation skills weren’t quite up to it and we did get a little lost.


Packing the week before heading off.

We had arranged to meet up with our friends at The Sergison Arms pub which I can highly recommend. We had a very late lunch and the food and service was really good. It was helped by the 20% off food voucher I had downloaded from the pub website as well.

We had a relaxing evening afterwards back at Ian’s friend’s house – or at least I did. I had managed to get Ian’s PNR so kept teasing him that I had gone in to his booking and arranged some kind of special assistance and asking him whether he would want a wheelchair.

I also did OLCI in the evening. The CE looked to have 6 seats occupied at that time although obviously some passengers might not yet have checked-in.

LGW & BA Terraces Lounge
As the flight was not until 14:50 we had a fairly relaxed morning and eventually headed off around 11:30. I had booked parking in the long stay north terminal car park so we parked up and lugged all our bags to the nearby bus stop for the shuttle bus. Once in the terminal we headed to Zone A to one of the Club Europe/Club World check-in desks. I had taken full advantage of my extra luggage allowance and checked-in two large hold-alls, whilst Ian checked-in one bag. Ian was travelling in Y and isn’t a member of BAEC so had no status.

The BA check-in assistant suggested that his system was not showing that I could guest Ian through premium security, but said he would give him a sticker anyway. I understood that as a silver I could guest someone at check-in, through security, in to the lounge, and in to fast track boarding? Anyway, there was no point arguing as he had given us both a sticker.

We got through premium security pretty quickly in less than 5 minutes. There were a few others before us but the queue was moving fairly quickly. Neither of us was that bothered about shopping so we headed off to the lounge.

Once inside we ended up sitting at the far end towards the computers as it was a bit quieter there. Generally through the lounge was fairly empty and fairly quiet. The staff were also very good and plentiful which made catching one to order champagne very easy – contrast that with the GC lounges in T5A at LHR where at busy times you almost have to lay in wait at the door to the kitchen to catch one.


Champagne acquired, along with some sandwiches and cheese. What more could you want?

I went off to use the computers for a bit for some surfing on FT, and then went off to get some food. The food selection seemed to be decent for that time of day. There were various sandwiches, cheese, fruit, and a salad bar. Also, later on some cake appeared which I couldn’t resist. Wifi was good as well. We basically sat and grazed for around 1 ½ hours in the lounge. I don’t think Ian had been in a lounge before and he seemed to enjoy it. We ended up having two glasses of champagne each, and we were offered more but decided to stop at that point.


View from where we were sat.

There has been a lot of discussion on the BAEC forum recently about the change in lounge catering, and there were notices scattered around on the tables giving details of this.


Notice in the lounge regarding the changes to catering supplier.

This was my second time in the terraces lounge at LGW, and both times I have enjoyed it.

Gate information came up on the display at 40 minutes before departure so we gathered out stuff and headed off to gate 54.

British Airways BA2666
LGW(N)-RAK
G-DOCF, B737-400
Club Europe, seat 3F
28 April 2013 - 14:50d, 18:30a (scheduled)
Duration - 3h 40m (scheduled)

Gate 54 is a relatively short walk from the lounge, so in hindsight we could have had another 10 minutes or so lounge time. Our boarding passes and passports were checked and we went in to the gate holding area to await boarding. Priority boarding was called first and I headed off, with Ian deciding to wait until his row was called rather than boarding with me.


View of the plane from the gate area.

I settled in to my seat fairly quickly. The CE cabin had the typical set up on a 737 with the D, E, and F seats being full seats and the middle E not booked. On the other side the seats are convertible with the arm rests moved in to where seat B is, and seats A and C are sold. Boarding was complete and the door closed at 14:50. There was no one in 3D so I ended up with 3D-F to myself. On a quick headcount there were 14 people in the CE cabin.

Take-off was from 26L, and the climb out was a little bumpy. About 15 minutes in to the flight the hot towels were passed out, and also landing cards for Morocco were handed out. Next was the drinks service and I went for champagne and a glass of water. Menus were also handed out.


Right engine still present? Check.


Pommery champagne on CE flights in these small bottles.


Opted for the chicken.


Presentation was good, apart from the watery cheese & chutney. All tasted pretty good.

The chicken dish I choose was nicely presented and tasted pretty good as well. The chocolate and raspberry slice was nice, although it must be hard to get that wrong. The cheeses were good as well, although the slightly watery chutney didn’t help as you can see from the photo. I had some white wine with the meal although I can’t remember now what it was exactly. It wasn’t particularly impressive. Note the lack of a bread plate (a constant criticism on the BAEC forum) and no linen on the tray.

Tea and coffee were offered, I took the coffee which was drinkable but not great. I also got some whisky as well (Glenlivet 15). After the meal tray was cleared away I headed back through the curtain to see how Ian was doing. He seemed ok and had met a few of the other people on the trip. Including, us there turned out to be 15 people doing the trip.


Passing over the southern tip of Portugal I presume.

The flight was smooth throughout and quite quick as we ended up being around 30 minutes early. Overall I would say that the food was probably 7.5 out of 10, and the service was 8 out of 10. There were two CC serving the CE cabin, one male and one female. Generally the male CC was through in the cabin fairly frequently checking on the passengers, clearing trays away, and offering drinks. It was attentive without being overly so. So I was fairly happy with the BA CE product.

However, there is a big but here. Compared to regional J on Dragonair in the Far East which I had recently experienced (see post #4 of this trip report) both hard product and soft product were miles behind. On the KA flight I had a proper recliner seat which was in a 2+2 arrangement across the cabin, not the 3+3 as on this 737. Also, the food and service just seemed much better as well.

The plane stopped at one of the stands right in front of the terminal building and it was a short walk from the stand to the door. Passport control was pretty slow to be honest, and took a good 15 minutes to get through, by which point all the bags seemed to be already going around the baggage belt.

As Morocco has a closed currency the advice seems to be to use the currency exchange at the airport which both Ian and I did. He exchanged some sterling and I exchanged some euros to dirham at the kiosk on the right hand side just before you get to the baggage belt. You are given a receipt, and if you need to exchange some dirham back on the way out of Morocco you will need to present this receipt as well.

We gathered in the arrivals hall and were met by a local Exodus representative, and headed out for the 20 minute transfer to the hotel.

Marrakech - Sunday 28 April
The hotel that Exodus booked for the Sunday night, and the Saturday night right at the end of the trip, was the Hotel Les Trois Palmiers. I must admit I would not choose that hotel myself if I had come to Marrakech for a holiday. The location is not good, it is about a 30 minute walk to the old town (Medina) which is the main bit tourists go to. Also there were a few other niggles like wifi only in the lobby and not in the rooms, poor breakfast selection, and tap water in the rooms was not drinkable. I appreciate that Exodus are looking for value for money though so maybe it wins in that regard.

It seemed to take ages to get us all checked-in due to various form filing, but eventually we got in to our room. We also met our guide Hassan at reception.


View from our room.


The room itself.

We all went out as a group to the restaurant at the Hotel le Caspien which was about 100m up the road, and the food was pretty good. I think the cost came to around £20 each in the end. It certainly gave me a good chance to meet with some of the other people who were on the trip – apart from Ian they were all strangers to me but I would be spending a lot of time with them over the next week in very close proximity.