LOS ANGELES to LONDON HEATHROW (LAX-LHR) on NZ 777-200ER
This is my first time on this flight since it switched from 747-400 to 777-200ER, but as I know already there is little difference other than cabin size / ambience.
The flight was supposed to be totally full, but about 1/3 of business class passengers did not turn up so we had plenty of room to stretch out. While waiting for departure I rearrange my carry-ons so that I can fit one inside the other (taking my coat and liquids bag out first).
I settle in with a couple of pre-departure drinks. About half the cabin are flying through from Auckland and the other half joined at Los Angeles. The flight attendants do a good job of checking if passengers are familiar with the seat and IFE and taking those new to it through how to operate them both.
We push back on time and taxi past the 767-300 I arrived on. In a new change for NZ, the airshow is now switched on immediately after the safety video is played. There has been a tweak to the software and some satellite imagery of the airport is included, so we can see the plane taxiing down the runway and then taking off, flying out to the Pacific and looping back over the airport. It looks pretty neat. So far only LAX and LHR airports had this imagery, for the rest of the flight was back to the normal airshow (which is still very good compared to other airlines' flight maps and information). I guess this makes some sense. At the airports the scale and speed of movement is such that any one can tell from the satellite imagery where they are. Once in the middle of the flight, is a satellite image showing Podunk blur past in a flash miles beneath us going to add anything?
The other change in the IFE is that the arrival videos are now optional. Yay, NZ has been listening to the complaints. This means we get an extra 30 minutes to watch movies. The old system was very annoying, for if wake up at breakfast on an overnight flight (as almost all the longhauls are) then there was insufficient time to see a movie before the system got overridden for a video you may not have wanted to see. The IFE is still switched off earlier than some other airlines (eg Singapore Airlines plays until very nearly touchdown).
Tired from the previous nights lack of sleep I sleep through the first portion of the flight and awake over Greenland. I love seeing the ice cap, glaciers, mountains, icebergs and sea ice. So, not having a window seat (and in any case window seats are not that comfortable for viewing out of thanks to the herringbone layout), I spent quite a while at the exit door window, supping some drinks, chatting and watching the frozen world pass by.
Once we are passed Greenland I go back to my seat for some more sleep, and awake over the Scottish Highlands.
We do okay out of the Heathrow arrival lottery, only a few loops around and thus arrive basically on time. As well as the terminal transfer and security hassles, the overcrowded Heathrow skies are an annoying factor for me in planning transits. Some days you get lucky and straight in, which means arriving a long time before due time, other days you can spend longer circling southern England than you took flying from the continental Europe (even as far as Spain) and arrive a long time after due time.
As seems to be the usual case for Air NZ we have a long taxi around the terminals, and a slow taxi for our gate is not yet clear of the previous aircraft. As usual, in my experience, we get the end gate of the furthest pier on T3. This means a long walk to the bus transfer for Flight Connection Centre (FCC), but that is not a bad thing after such long flights.
I decide I have more than enough time to use FCC and do want to avoid checking bags, so no immigration for me this time. I did notice that NZ did not hand out any immigration fast track vouchers. I am not sure if this practice has been stopped in general, or just by Air NZ? If it is an NZ move then this is a pretty mean cost-cutting move unwelcome by premium passengers, many of whom will have just spent more than a day aboard Air NZ and having paid handsomely to do so.
I arrive at the bus stop with perfect timing. Straight onboard the bus and the doors close behind me. Arriving at pre-FCC checks I am quickly through while the agents deal to (I was going to say with, but deal to is probably more accurate
) rogue passengers who dare to take 2 carry-ons, or haven't prepared their liquids. Inside the FCC itself it is a slow process, for of all the screening stations just 3 are manned and one of these is only available to BA premium passengers. Grrrr. Here shoes and belt both have to come off.