I thought I would put together a quick report about a recent trip to Cameroon with work. It's not a country that I have read a lot about here on FT.
Work wanted me to go to meetings in Cameroon. I was slightly apprehensive but figured that the company would have in place whatever measures necessary to keep us safe while we were there. As it would turn out, I felt completely safe at all times. I got all my necessary jabs and applied for my visa (which came through only 3 days before I left). I was all set to go!
I had a taxi booked for 4.15am on the morning of departure so I went to bed early the night before. However, I didn't sleep much because I was worried that I was going to sleep in. Anyway, I struggled out of bed at 3.30am and woke myself up on the shower before throwing on some clothes, downing some coffee and going into the taxi. I arrived at the airport just after 4.30am and joined the Sky Priority queue to check my case in. The girl checked my visa was in my passport and gave me my boarding passes. As is usually the case in Aberdeen, priority security was fast enough so I was on my way to the Swissport lounge before long.
The lounge was quite busy given that there were flights to Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Paris leaving at the same time. I managed to find a seat and grabbed a bacon roll and some juice. I'm not sure why the BA lounge can't do bacon rolls when the lounge next door can....?! Food selection was fine - bacon rolls, cereals, cereal bars and fruit.
We boarded from Gate 1 which is then split into several different doors where all the international flights depart from.
AF1473, ABZ-CDG, F-HBHX, E170 (operated by Hop!)
The chef de cabine offered some cold towels for all business class passengers before we took off. Business class on the E170 has same seat pitch as the rest of the plane and there is no spare seat next to you - just the same 2-2 configuration as economy.
Lot of cloud cover over the UK this morning.
The purser disappeared down the back for a while (presumably to help the other crew member handing out the breakfast (i.e. single tiny croissant) for the economy passengers. He returned and got his trolley out and handed breakfast out. I was impressed that there was a menu on the tray too. The breakfast was tasty and just what I needed on a flight of this length. Coffee was very good.
Some more coffee and juice before landing in Paris.
The flight has a block time of two hours but you're normally in Paris just after 90 mins flying time. We used the entire 2 hours today because of very strong headwinds. This was handled well by the crew. Connecting gate information was given while we were descending. The next issue was that we landed on the runway which was further away from our parking spot and we taxied for over 15 mins before coming to a stop. The passengers with tight connections were requested to stand up first and everyone was asked to let them off (which everyone did). We got off and were put onto a bus and taken to the main terminal. Our flight to DLA was leaving from the K gates so we went through connections and got spewed out at the security check. Luckily we had Acces No 1 lane wasn't too busy and we got through in 10 mins or so.
The lounge was easy enough to find - just off the left and down a flight of stairs. It's a massive lounge - split into two sides. I went off to the left and then upstairs to the upper level which is generally quieter than ground level. It also gives some nice views of the stands outside.
Breakfast items were available and I decided to see what there was on offer.
Yes, the gym is going out of the window this week.
Boarding started about 40 mins before departure. I headed down about 30 mins to departure and was straight through passport / boarding pass check with no issues.