Background
After getting the flyertalk bug a few years ago, my family and I have enjoyed numerous holidays flying in Club and First to the West Coast USA using BA redemptions.
However I really struggled to find any availability for this years holiday, now our Son is 3 years old and needs his own seat. So for the first time I paid cash for Club World, which before flying Club on a redemption I would have never considered.
-
Club Europe
-
This was my first flight in the CE Cabin.
It was any early start with a departure time of 08:50.
It wasn’t the best start as we had stayed at the Crowne Plaza local to the Airport, and awoke to find there was no hot water, so the cold showers were at least refreshing.
We had booked a taxi for the short journey to the airport which was only 15Euro, in hindsight we should have just taken the free hopper bus which was sitting outside while we loaded taxi.
We arrived at the terminal about 06:45 to find the BA check-in very quiet.
We checked in all our bags through to including the car seat which we then had to take to oversized luggage. The agent also asked us to confirm we were flying under ‘ESTA’s which we were, this obviously wasn’t recorded as we had to perform a 2nd visa check upon arrival at .
Security at was very busy, but luckily the fast track line was efficient and with our all items (buggies etc) we were in the lounge within 10mins.
The lounge at is basic but comfortable, and more importantly its quiet compared to the rest of the terminal which seemed very busy for the early morning flights.
The lounge was rather busy, mainly with the earlier BA departure, but after that flight left it was deserted. Breakfast options were rather limited with only ceral, fruit a few pastries available.
Here a few pics.
From the windows you can’t see the runways themselves but you can watch the planes arrive on their final approach.
There was a kids playroom, which was more like a cupboard with a few left over toys.
We left for the gate before it was called. Even though it wasn’t that far we found T1 to be full of small stair cases which with buggy isn’t ideal. There are elevators next to each stairway but it takes time.
Boarding was promptly called at the gate. I can’t comment if priority boarding was applied as we boarded with pre-boarding due to having a small child.
The buggy was taken from us at the gate and were told it would be ready for collection at the Jetty upon our arrival at . You will see later it wasn’t quite like that.
We settled into our seats and waited for boarding to complete. It was a busy flight as Ireland were playing England in the Rugby at Twickenham later in the day. I couldn’t see how busy the main cabin was. CE was configured for 6 rows and only 3 seats were free.
My pet hate from Mr 1C
Take-off was on time and the crew quickly started the breakfasts.
Apologies for the very poor photo's!
Band 1 CE Breakfast.
I was pleasantly surprised with the quality and I really enjoyed the meal after an early start to the day. In particular the sausage was excellent.
The guy behind me asked for a comments form so he could record he felt the breakfast was excellent.
This was the Childs meal not a great choice for breakfast
I was later told it would appear the wrong special meals were loaded, and this should be for childs brunch meal. We were offered an adults meal as an alternative, but Ben was happy with what he had.
The service was performed quickly without feeling rushed and we were soon on an approach into . This is when the problems started!
We arrived 15mins early and were told our stand was still being used by another aircraft and it would be 10mins before they pushed back.
10mins came and went with no movement. At this point we were told how due to the immigration arrangements with flights from Ireland they are treated as domestic and there are only 4 gates which accept domestic flights directly to the T5A. Our gate was still blocked by another aircraft which was now declaring a technical fault.
We waited another 30mins before they finally gave up and parked on a remote stand and waited to be bussed to the gate. It was frustrating but the crew kept us up to date and apologised throughout the delay
Finally we deplaned to the waiting buses, and found our buggy waiting at the bottom of the aircraft stairs which we collected as we boarded the bus.
After a short drive to the our originally assigned gate we were directed to stairs up the jetty. We selected to use the lift as we now had the buggy. However when we exited the lift we found we couldn’t exit the lobby because the door was locked, we couldn’t go back down the lift as it was operating in a single direction so we were effectively stuck! We had to shout to other passengers we could see through the door to get some help. Finally a staff member arrived who simply responded that ‘it should be open’ before finally releasing us.
At this point I was expecting to have to make a decision whether to proceed through flight connections as directed, which can result in joining long queues through North Security, or follow signs to Baggage Reclaim (no need for immigration as is treated as Domestic) to Landside then through the normally quieter South security back to airside.
However the night before SWMBO declared she had left her purse in our car, which was parked local to and I was to be dispatched to retrieve it.
So we all proceeded landside where I jumped in a taxi to collect the purse, and SWMBO and Ben proceeded though South Security to await me in the South Galleries Lounge.
SWMBO was turned around from Security for a visa check which was quickly performed when she confirmed we were flying under a ESTA. Although I’m unsure why it was required when it had already been confirmed at.
Although T5 appeared very busy when I returned I passed through very quickly.
At 11:30 I was still on the M25 in a taxi returning to T5 and by 11:45 I was in the Lounge enjoying a beer. The time included my visa check and even a quick visit to the Omega watch pop-up stand on-route!
I did enjoy a bit of luck with Fast Track Security, as when my bags cleared the x-ray the belt failed and fast track was reduced to a single lane.
South Galleries was very busy, but I have only visited the lounge on a few occasions previous so I don’t have a feel if this was normal business. Most of my previous flights being in F (redemptions for leisure) with access, or Y (work) with no lounge access
SWMBO had found some good seats overlooking South Security, where you also have some good views of both main runways. We witnessed the fire engines being called out to an Etihad A380 landing. I’m not sure what the problem was, they appeared to stop on the runway briefly following landing before being escorted by the fire engines to the gate.
I needed a beer after the rush to retrieve the purse.
From this view point it was rather interesting to monitor the crowds passing through South Security. It certainly goes in waves within a few minutes it would go from nearly empty with less than 5 people waiting for each scanner, to long snaking lines then back to empty again.
Ben was a little restress so we went to explore the rest of the lounge and find the playroom.
The Playroom was rather sparse, but a major improvement on the facilities at .
There were only very few toys but there was a Xbox and PlayStation available which would be suitable for older kids, as a well as TV playing CBeebies.
I did like the wallpaper though!
As we arrived just before midday the staff were swapping over the food selection from Breakfast to Lunch. It was quite funny to see the ‘vultures’ circle as each new dish was brought out!
The presentation of the food was very poor, but the food itself was excellent.
I tried the Chilli, Chicken Curry and Vegetable Curry and all were very tasty.
There was limited selection for kids, but Ben enjoyed the Penne Pasta, demolitions 2 bowls of the stuff.
- Club World
We left the lounge when ‘Go to Gate’ was displayed on the screen.
By the time we reached our T5C Gate, boarding was well underway but the Priority Boarding lane was free and being well policed.
We asked if the crew if could store our buggy in the Cabin, which it was and they highlighted which cupboard they had stored it. They were concerned that depending on what door was used upon arrival at , they would be too busy to retrieve it, and we may have to retrieve it ourselves.
We settled into our seat. This was a 3 class 777-200. There were 48 seats in Club split across 2 cabins.
We were in the front larger cabin using the seats that had been pre-assigned to us 7 days before departure. We were assigned 3 of the middle 4 seats which worked very well with a child. As the middle 2 seats provides a nice private enclosed space without disturbing other passengers.
We enjoyed some champagne while boarding was completed.
The crew all appeared quite young, but were enthusiastic and professional, throughout the flight they were very proactive to our needs. It was only from writing this trip report I’ve taken the time to look back to the experience and appreciate how this crew made the flight enjoyable. It’s the little things that can’t be recorded in a manual or checklist, like interactions with the passengers and anticipate their needs.
Push back was delayed as landing and take-off runways were being swapped. This is very common at around 3pm after which it was a long taxi and wait before we finally took off an hour late.
It’s been a while since I’ve experienced the Club service so the following are just observations opposed to complaints.
Drinks were served within 45mins with the starter trays served within the hour. I did find the meal service to be quite a drawn out affair, with long waits between the arrival of the tray, to the arrival of the main course and finally the desert.
Menu
I was able to order both my 1st choice Starter and Main Course.
Sorry no picture of the Tiger Prawn Starter
Beef Main Course
A little bit tough, most probably because it was over cooked. However it was tasty and I did still enjoy it.
I just selected the ice cream for desert. This stuff was amazing.
The kids meal was the usual chicken goujons , mash potatoes and broccoli. Served with some fruit and chocolate. After eating so much pasta in the lounge he was already full and only picked at the fruit.
After the meal was finally cleared away I sat back and enjoyed some films. The IFE was not the best, with only a small screen and limited number of films and TV shows. I watched ‘Run all night’ with Liam Neeson which was Crime Drama in the usual mindless violence Liam Neeson genre.
This was followed by a few episodes of Family Guy and Blackadder.
After which I tried to get some sleep for a few hours although I only managed 90mins. By this time Ben was well asleep and slept for a good 5hrs.
He would have slept longer, but awoke with a small nose bleed. I was sitting next to him and felt slightly trapped in the middle seats as I was unable to quickly grab Ben and take him to the toilet. However a member of the crew was passing at the time and quickly passed a box of tissues to help clean up.
They also repeatedly returned to us to check if Ben was ok, and if we needed anything further.
After this little incident the 2nd meal service was started.
By this time I wasn’t that hungry and passed.
My partner passed on the starter but had the Vegetable tagine and was very complimentary about it.
Ben also received a 2nd meal of pasta with some more fruit and yogurt. As he had just awaken he only ate the fruit and only a few mouthfuls of the pasta.
With everyone around me eating, my appetite suddenly returned so I finished off the pasta from the kids meal. It was very good but the tastes were rather strong for a kids meal.
So overall the food was very enjoyable. If the steak hadn’t been so tough it would have been excellent.
With the 2nd meal service complete, the cabin was prepared for landing and after a very short approach we landed at .
Only 1 door was used to disembark, opposed to the 2 used for boarding at .
It was interesting to note that while we waiting for the jetty, the crew member who had stored our buggy had already retrieved it and brought it through the cabin to us, so we wouldn’t have to go against the flow of passengers to retrieve it ourselves.
We disembarked and said our thank you to the crew.
After a short walk we were in a very small immigration hall at with only 4 manned desks for both US and Non-US citzens. This was compounded when the Global Entry desk failed, resulting in passengers with Global Entry receipts have to join the regular line.
Although it’s a reasonable size airport I don’t believe it has many international flights, hence the small immigration hall.
We were towards the front in the line and quickly though immigration, but we had a 20-30min for luggage by which time most of the passengers had cleared immigration.
Finally we were on our way to start our holiday in a very warm San Diego.
So in conclusion a very enjoyable trip across the pond.
More to follow including our return on the A380 from .