Here in Jersey it was ‘Flaming June’ … hot and sunny. But we needed to get away.
(1) We wanted to get some trips in to take advantage of the BA Holidays Double Tier Points offer before it expired, and thus ensure we renewed BAEC Gold status.
(2) We really wanted to get away from the noise of Builders, renovating our house, and the house next door, and a major construction project on the other side!
Where to go and what to do? Largely based on price, we decided to return to the Sandals Royal Plantation in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. for the 5th time. Not our favourite destination for a few minor reasons, but at least is was ‘cheap” … BA Club Europe/Club World flights and a decent Suite for £6.5k for a week in September. All-inclusive of course, and at least the RP is fairly small and Adults Only so it isn’t Party Central with noise into the small hours!
Sandals is inevitably rather US-focussed, and almost impossible to contact from UK as I tried to link our BA hotel confirmation (a jumble of letters and numbers) to my Sandals Select membership account. It took 3 attempts via their on-line messaging system to finally get a useful response that didn’t require me to make an expensive International call to their US 1-800-SANDALS number! It’s apparently their International Desk at +08000 22 30 30.
With that finally resolved, and our Butler requests for mini-Bar contents etc, the rest of the Admin was fairly easy. No Covid testing or certificates needed for Jamaica, just an on-line Immigration and Customs form to complete at
https://enterjamaica.com and we think we’re ready to go!
Monday 5 Sep 22.
Taxi at 0600 to catch the only JER-LGW flight of the day at 0740 (the other 5 go to LHR) . A painless airport process, with our solitary suitcase checked through to KIN and Security quick and easy. The Lounge was surprisingly empty after the 0705 to LHR had departed!
5 Sep 22, BA1361, A319, JER-LGW, 0740-0840, CE seats 1D/F
Eventually called to Gate 10 for boarding, where surprisingly we in Group 1/CE were immediately invited to board. Nice, and plenty of overhead locker space too! The usual blah blah blah … airborne on time for a quick en-route Breakfast. On this occasion a crusty roll with either Egg & Cheese or Bacon, along with the Fruit bowl of mainly Melon and a Nutrigrain bar. Not very ‘executive’, IMO.
Safely to LGW, where we were abandoned at Gate 31 for the bus transfer to Domestic Arrivals and the long walk! hey-ho, we can survive, and by 0900 we were kerb-side for a cigarette or two before entering Security [no Connections airside here] and heading for the BA Lounge to await the next leg. I tried for a proper hot breakfast, but all the ingredients on the buffet were tepid/cold by now. Oh, well, have a comfy seat with a view and wait.
5 Sep 22, BA2263, B777, LGW-KIN, 1245-1630, CW seats 4A/B
Oh, great, we have a delay. 1245 becomes 1445, and later 1600. Memories of our 2016 LGW-KIN [
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip...r-lgw-kin.html} , where we ended up staying at LGW overnight. However, mercifully at 1441 we finally have a call for Gate 15, to which we proceed and arrive at 1500. No priority in evidence, just a slow queue for the 2 Agents , after which we grab a couple of seats at the boarding end of the ‘holding pen’ [we know this territory] and … wait. At 1510 a ‘Gate Coordinator’ walks past talking on her phone … “No Cleaners, and Caterers only just arrived …” Things are going well for G-YMMA, B777-200ER and our holiday!
1548 - we have some Cabin Crew. Who then turn round and go and get coffee! Announcement that “the Cleaners have just started, another 30 minutes”. Finally, at
1630, boarding commences in an unclear manner - was it Groups 1-3? Whichever, we’re right by the door to the airbridge and … whoosh, we’re there! Settling in to our preferred seats for this ac configuration, we sip our cold PDB and listen to all the announcements about settle in quickly, keep the floor area clear, yada-yada, and at 1705 something about 2 missing passengers! Mercifully, at 1715, the doors are closed and we push back at 1728 and finally get airborne at
1748. That’s FIVE hours late - is there some EC261/2004 compensation to be had here? Like €600 each? Claim submitted … we shall see!
On the positive side, the CSD [In-Flight Lead?] or Senior Cabin Crew Member [SCCM], was excellent. We were greeted in the BAEC Gold manner and generally fussed over very nicely! Not sure if we were the only BAEC Golds around, but it felt like it - the KIN route is heavy on Friends and Family, and we are a bit out of the holiday season. Oh, and we are issued with paper Landing Cards to complete, so the on-line form-filling didn’t seem to achieve anything!
Lunch/Dinner time!
I’ve rather gone off Lamb Shanks for some reason, so I asked the charming young CC for the “Traditional chicken tikka masala” {is that a British tradition?). “Sorry, they’ve all gone.” “Excuse me, we’re BAEC Gold!” Fortunately the SCCM resolved that - the CC had apparently been drafted in from Eeekonomy to help in CW and was unfamiliar with the rules about who gets their first choice.
My Chicken ...
Her Lamb
OK, it was a BA meal. The Chicken Tikka was severely uninspiring, but the OH said the Lamb was “OK”. And the IFE was not exactly inspiring either, so I did what I usually do on l/h … went horizontal and slept for a few hours. It had been a long day already!
Eventually, after 4,688 miles and c. 9 hours of tedium, we arrived at KIN, aka Norman Manley International Airport (it was Palisadoes Airport when I lived in Kingston many decades ago!). The time, by my watch and indeed my body-clock on UK time, is now 0245. Yeuch! Due to our carefully selected seats, we are the first off and on to the long walk to the Border. There the process was mercifully quick, passports and landing card duly stamped and a quick visit to Duty Free had us at Reclaim 0305, with our case being the first one on the belt (YAY!) at 0310. Customs collected the stamped landing card, and at 0315 we were at the Sandals Reception Desk in the Arrivals concourse (down the passageway to the left just before you exit the building). Time to adjust my watch to local time, which is apparently 2115: my body is still unconvinced! And at 2130 we and 2 other passengers are in the minibus on our way to the Resort.