First off, it’s onto the Heathrow Express to Terminal 5
Check in was pretty fast, with my bag dropped and boarding pass issued in no time. I headed straight to the Galleries lounge in the B gates, as it’s normally far quieter than the lounges at A gates.
Departures - a few delays today
Some lounge snacks
No window seat for this flight. Nice to be on the new Club Suites again
Today’s routing
From the looks of things, today’s was a pretty full flight. Club was busy at any rate, with no empty seats. The Club Suite is a great product, loads of storage options, and good privacy. The door is a great new feature. Sure you’re not in a private room, and people can look over, but when you’re reclined, it makes your space really private. The footwell is a little small, especially compared to the old Club World seats, but otherwise it’s thumbs up from me.
After take off I went with a glass of champagne, together with the Socca nuts. These are tasty, but not very premium.
After a few top ups, lunch was served. I went with the delicious roast butternut squash with sweetcorn as a starter, and the beef for a main. Both very good.
After lunch, the lights were dimmed. I watched a few films, had a few more drinks, had a snooze….standard stuff on a long daytime sector.
About 90 minutes before arriving into SAN the lights started to come up, and the crew roamed the cabin asking those that were awake if they wanted anything before landing. I went with the ploughman’s, which was a nice, light offering. There was a hot main course on offer too, but I declined.
Just shy of 11 hours after leaving London, we touched down in an uncharacteristically wet California evening.
SAN has an unconventional layout with baggage reclaim being before immigration. This is great news if you’ve got hand baggage only, not so much if you’re collecting bags. From getting off the plane, my bag came out 25 minutes later, thankfully still ahead of most other bags. I then joined the immigration line, which grew very fast behind me. There were about 6 desks open, but 4 of them seemed dedicated to the much shorter and faster moving USA nationals line. It took me 30 minutes to be stamped into the country. I’d estimate the guys at the back of the line would have probably had another hour’s wait. An arriving Alaska flight from Mexico didn’t help queue times.
International Arrivals
I caught the shuttle bus over to the car rental centre, and before too long I was on my way north. Time for my little road trip!