Part 2... It took an hour or so for the air conditioning in the Yotel room to get the temperature, or more truthfully the humidity down to a level where I could sleep comfortably. And I did sleep quite well to be fair. In the morning, my first job was to get online and check for my COVID test results. The test centre had been efficient and my negative result was there already, so the alternative consequences shall remain a mystery. Breakfast at Yotel, well it was pretty basic. The scrambled egg did not look much, but it was quite edible. In my tired and erratic path to the Yotel last night, I lost my favourite and for this journey only long sleeve shirt. I thought about buying one, but for the benefit of FT I thought I should check out lost and found. If I had checked, or really if I had remembered the posts here, I would have known the lost & found was next to Yotel. I would not have needed to ask the TK (baggage)check in lady who directed me to the other end of the lower floor. After some cursing, I found the place and after some discussion I noticed it nicely bagged up in a box behind the man who tried had but did not know where it was. I am pretty sure he would have got there in the end, but I felt the need to move on from that experience.

I had also collected the hard copy of my COVID test result and filled out the Rwandan PLF and uploaded my electronic copy of the certificate. That sent me a reference number to use later.

The fast track immigration was open and I used it just because I could. No queues at normal immigration, but those zig-zag barriers were there. I headed for the M&S lounge, noticing the absence of life in the business lounge. Straight in with no problems and it was maybe at a quarter capacity, so no problem getting a seat, table etc. I said in the lounge thread that I had low expectations. That is far better than the high expectations I had for the LH lounge at LHR, only to be so cruelly disappointed. It was late afternoon by the time I was in there and to my delight they were cooking this:


And this:


I know I posted these over on the lounge thread, but it is worth it again as they were really good. The only thing missing was a cold Efes to neutralise the chillis. All the pre-packaged things were there and I had some deserts which were just enough. The model racing car system was not open and neither was the children's play area, but some young children knew better.

My Kigali flight showed a delay of an hour. Then that dropped by 20 minutes. Once again I am left having to flee the lounge to get to the gate in time. I never learn. The gate was A3A and the aircraft a 737-800. It does not take a genius to know that a full 737-800 passenger load does not fit into gate A3A, even when half the seats are not blocked. So everyone squeezes in there with all seats taken, plenty standing and me sitting on the floor. We all sit there and listen the the announcements reminding everyone to wear masks and maintain social distancing. This is one of the times that you know TK's COVID safe marketing does not match the reality.

We sat at the gate until well past normal boarding time. Eventually it was time to board. Once again, there is no priority boarding. No problem, I am happy to wait to the end. Any minute saved sitting on a narrow body aircraft is worthwhile (I don't like confined spaces). I was lucky enough to have an empty seat next to me. There were two empty in J and Y looked full. Cabin luggage from what little I saw, looked sensible for a flight into Africa. It did all fit in the overhead bins. The seats in these 737's are far from the greatest business seats (putting it politely). Just about the only saving grace of the 737s is the air vent, so you can get some respite from a warm flight. It was better than the A330 out of LHR though.

After another delay we were towed out from the gate. Then towed back to the gate when the engines would not start, then towed back out and eventually headed skywards well over an hour late.

Service followed a similar pattern. No amenity kit, just this menu:


I do not usually drink on flights, but I decided to chance an Efes since I have been so cruelly denied one in the lounge. The usual frothy high altitude beer resulted.



The chicken wrap was good. A major improvement over what was served from LHR. The hummus was also good, but would have been better if some bread was served. Fortunately I had been able to grab my decent headphones from my luggage at IST. So I watched a film for an hour. It was so good I cannot remember what it was. Then I spent the rest of the flight trying to find a comfortable position to doze in. I rarely sleep on flights and no blankets or pillows were handed out.

Towards the end of the flight, second service was offered. A second box was declined by everyone. They must have made up a bit of time on the flight. However, as we approached the man up front needed to hit those TOGA switches so we could fly around Kigali for another 20 minutes. I am assuming everyone here knows TOGA=Take Off/Go Around. Captain announced something incomprehensible had blocked the runway. Incomprehensible probably was 'really fat birds'. We arrived in over 1.5 hours late.

Usually by now I would really grumpy. However, I just could not fail to be impressed with how organised the Rwandans were. Walking into the immigration area we were faced by a line of people in full PPE, armed with tablets. They asked for the reference number from the email which the Rwandan passenger locator form system had sent out. That allowed them to check all was in order and I could carry on through the terminal. A licensed car was waiting with a driver who had my name. I was taken straight to the hotel where they handed me a key card and I went straight to the quarantine floor of the hotel. After a while I had a call to go to a test room on the same floor where someone in PPE took another COVID test sample and $60. He took my PLF number again and had all my details on his screen. I could then not leave my room until a negative test email arrived. The negative result arrived mid morning and I was a free man and moved off the quarantine floor.

From my first journey since March, I have a couple of observations. Firstly, would I pay for business class on TK? 'No way' has to be the honest answer. I used a voucher to get into J. It is not worth any more than that. For my return (wherever in Africa that may be from) I will use some miles due to expire at the end of the year. Otherwise I will aim to be in an exit row seat, which is as good as the J offering. The other thing I must say, the Rwandans really are so much better organised than we are in UK/Europe. I know I should post this over in the COVID forum, but it will only end in an argument over there, so I have put it here and hope to remain below the radar as it were. From pre and post arrival testing and being thorough with procedures, they are really excellent here.

I hope to post something on my return flights (if the UK will let me back) in about a month...