Cheers MCS! Here is the not quite as exciting return...
Having spent all of Tuesday in the waterfront area of Cape Town I decided to head to the airport earlier than usual, and took a 4pm shuttle for an 8pm flight. The traffic was fine at this time of day, and we arrived at the airport well over three hours before departure. Despite this the queue for check in was rather large, but the Club desks, and single First desk were both quiet. I enquired about changing to a later shuttle at the First desk, and was redirected back to the ticket desk.
Explaining that I was concerned that my 1h45m connection in LHR was potentially not long enough for me to transfer, get a shower, and breakfast, all without giving myself a heart attack, the friendly chap on the desk did some tapping. The fact that I had OLCI’d the night before was a bit of a problem, but he was able to offload and rebook me without too much hassle.
I was redirected over to the First desk, and checked in uneventfully for both flights, securing 2K on the flight to London. I was directed to the lounge on the 2nd floor, pointing upstairs, and I enquired if it was landside. Yes was the response, so I set about trying to find it in the small space between the escalator and security. It clearly wasn’t there, so I passed through security and up another escalator, and sure enough there was the Terraces lounge!
I was pleasantly surprised with how big it was considering BA has just one flight a day in this terminal, and had a shower in one of two available units. There was still some time before departure, so I grabbed a couple of sandwiches, and, avoiding the South African fizz, grabbed another glass of Shiraz.
Everyone was giving me very funny looks in the lounge, I get this a bit sometimes because as a fresh faced 20 year old in jeans and a t-shirt some people obviously feel I am bringing down the tone or suchlike, but seriously, the vast majority of people were giving me funny looks!
I couldn’t noticeably work out anything else unusual about me at that time, so just shrugged it off and sat back with my glass of wine. Alas, a fly had beaten me to it and was drunkenly swimming around to its death. Lovely.
Before too long boarding was being called outside the lounge, and a few people wandered off. I followed a few minutes later, and as I walked out the lounge staff announced boarding to the rest of the lounge.
The gate had no noticeable fast track line, just one very very long snaking main line. After a couple of seconds I noticed a BA staff member standing by the tensa barrier and I went up to her and asked if I really had to wait in this long line whilst flashing my First boarding pass. She informed me that I did not, and let me through to the gate.
The boarding pass reader took a shine to my BP, and swallowed it whole. After some wrestling with the machine my mangled BP was returned to me, and I joined the much faster moving queue on board our 747.
I was greeted by name, and escorted through the small Club cabin into the First cabin, and introduced to seat 2A. I was asked straight away if I wanted a drink, and again requested the champagne. I adjusted my seat to the comfy position, and was soon back in that fantastic situation, a glass of champagne and a BA First Class seat. Wonderful!
Once more I changed into my PJs, but this time before we departed. There were meant to be five of us in First tonight, however two couples were upgraded onboard into the vacant middle seats. Soon enough we were airborne after boarding quicker than expected, and the Captain thanked us all for allowing a speedy departure.
The menus were handed out as we got underway, and my champagne glass was topped up on several occasions while I perused our options:
Starters
Balsamic roasted salmon served with a Creole salad and chilli dressing
Roasted pepper with tomato, anchovy and garlic
Green pea and avocado soup
Fresh salad leaves with your choice of balsamic vinaigrette or ranch dressing
Main
Grilled fillet steak with sumo chips, broccoli, roasted vegetables and green peppercorn sauce
Breast of chicken with garlic and cream cheese on pesto rice, spinach timbale and roast pepper sauce
Seafood au Gratin served with roast vegetables, courgette and herb butter
Warm lamb kofta served on fresh tabouleh with lemon and mint and flat bread
Dessert
Warm chocolate coffee fondant
Blackberry ripple cheese cake
Cheese Plate
A selection of cheese
A basket of fresh fruit
Snacks
Fresh pasta with your choice of tomato and olive or blue cheese sauce
Bacon roll served with tomato ketchup
Duchy of Cornwall biscuits
A basket containing a selection of sweet and savoury treats is available between meals
I was slightly under whelmed with the options available compared with the ex London flight, and was even more so when I requested the Salmon to start and the Lamb to follow, and was told that both were unavailable!
I double checked that orders were taken from the front, and expressed my surprise that being in 2K I was unable to get either of my choices! The purser was very apologetic, and when I asked about what exactly constituted “Seafood au Gratin” went off to find out.
At this stage the CSD came round, a very pleasant chap from Newcastle, who shook my hand, and asked if everything was OK. I told him about being unable to secure my meal choices, and he was even more apologetic than the purser, telling me the situation was not good enough. I joked that I was just going to have to make do with something else, and we agreed that I was unlikely to be disappointed.
The explanation of the Seafood was certainly to my satisfaction, Squid and Lobster spread over a puff pastry base. I joked that had it been labelled as such on the menu, everyone would have gone for “the lobster” rather than what looked to be the most appealing in “the Lamb”!
I decided on something different to start and went for the pepper, with the offer of soup to accompany it declined. I kept going with the champagne, but was not offered a top up, or a switch to wine to accompany my main course. However this did not disappoint as the Seafood au Gratin was very good indeed!
I enquired as to which dessert was looking best tonight, and the purser admitted he hadn’t seen them yet, but brought me both out to take a look at and decide, offering me both if I fancied. I declined that offer, and went for the chocolate coffee fondant, and a glass of the Port.
Being a 1988 bottle, it was almost as old as I was (1987!) and was absolutely incredible. I got a top up and snuggled down into my deeply reclined seat feeling all warm and fuzzy.
During the meal I was trying to get good old channel 10 back on again, having been quite looking forward to listening to both Mika and Kaiser Chiefs albums once more. However a whole raft of audio channels were not functioning, and I raised this with the purser who in turn raised it with the CSD.
Simon came to my seat and asked what the problem was, and I told him about the non functional audio channels. He disappeared for quite some time, but came back to tell me that he’d fiddled around and that indeed several of the audio channels were indeed not working, and there was nothing he could do to remedy it. He listed the channels that weren’t working, and I said that, yes, channel 10 was the one I wanted to listen to. He looked in High Life, and said ah yes, Kaiser Chiefs, apologised profusely for letting me down again, and wandered off.
A few minutes later he was back, and said that he’d been able to take the CD off the functioning audio channel 16, and had moved the Mika/Kaiser Chiefs albums onto that channel. I tuned into 16, and sure enough, these were indeed playing. I thanked him and hoped he didn’t get too many complaints for taking wellbeing in the air off!
Soon though I was feeling tired, and went to the bathroom to get ready for bed. Again I asked the crew for my bed to be turned down, and after first thinking I was asking for the temperature to be turned down, they agreed. I returned uneventful from the bathroom, PJs unsoiled, and snuggled down into bed.
Despite still feeling far from adequate, I was able to get a few hours of sleep, and once again that annoying mood lighting was being switched on, signifying the beginning of the end for my trip.
I dozed a little longer, and soon had my breakfast order taken:
Starters
Chilled fruit juice
An energising fruit smoothie
A selection of yoghurts
A selection of cereals
Fresh Seasonal fruit plate
Bakery
A wide selection of breakfast pastries and rolls
Main
Scrambled eggs, bacon, mushrooms, sausage and tomato
Roast pepper frittata
Bacon club sandwich
Once more this seemed slightly less than what we had on the way out, but in any case I ate far too much then, and the bacon club sandwich sounded far more to my liking.
I had the fruit salad and smoothie first though, and washed it all down with a nice pot of tea.
The bakery was never offered, but before I knew it we had started our descent, and I headed to the bathroom to change back into my offending jeans and t-shirt. Simon was eating his brekkie as I came out, and I went over to him and expressed my gratitude for his efforts once again, before taking my seat for landing.
We only broke through the clouds as we were turning over London, and as ever got a picture postcard view of the capital. Sitting in 2K afforded a great view forward as well as to the side, and I could see the lights of the northerly runway from quite some way out, meaning that we were landing on the southerly. Great, no long taxi for us!
A smooth touchdown followed, and we parked up at our gate on the main pier without delay, and a good few minutes early. The bridge was immediately attached, and I sadly disembarked, shaking Simon’s hand at the door as we parted.
No long walks from the Victor pier today, and I was following the FCC signs, and onto the bus in minutes. There was one there waiting for us, and it left seconds after I got on. The drive through the tunnels was over in minutes also, and the longest part of the whole process was queuing for security. My First BP got me into the Fast Track line which seemed to be moving just as fast as the main line, and I was through and into the lounge less than half an hour from touching down.
Transiting LHR CAN be stressful, but having done it around ten times this year alone, I can honestly say its never taken me any longer than half an hour. I’m not a firm believer in karma, but mine is so blatantly stacked against me its ridiculous!
Once more the lounge “dragon” did not live up to her name. I arrived at the lounge just after seven, and after explaining that I had changed flights last night as a precaution, she agreed to put me back onto my original 0845 departure, rather than my new 1055 flight. On the phone she then tried to get me onto the still open 0740 departure, but I vigorously shook my head. After confirming the 0845 I thanked her very much for her proactiveness, but didn’t think my fellow passengers on the shuttle and indeed on the train would thank her if I didn’t have a shower. She assured me I didn’t smell that bad!
After my customary shower I grabbed a bowl of cereal and yoghurt, and watched the movements over the northern runway from the deckchairs by the window.
The shuttle was a real non event after the last flight, and I chatted to an Australian couple who had just flown Club from Sydney and were visiting relatives in Doncaster. Surprisingly half the crew from the CPT flight were also positioning back to Manchester, but they didn’t seem to notice me hidden away in 1A.
All too soon the entire trip was over, and after a record two hour transfer I was back in my box room, located on a cobbled terraced street in the student ghettos of Leeds.
What a come down!
Now I have three months of nothingness to look forward to. If anyone has any jobs going, please let me know! Otherwise this time will be spent entirely on FT, whilst not exactly a bad thing, it might become slightly monotonous after a while. There are still 70,000 AAdvantage miles in my account tempting me though...
