Well, having flown US a number of times recently domestic and international, here are my experiences on them transatlantic from Charlotte to London.

I flew US transatlantic before from PHL on their 767s (errrrr, avoid them! Unless you're a fan of retro styling...), and have flown to the States on the US A330s, but have never flown TO Europe from CLT with them. So here goes.

CLT is a pleasant airport, but hardly an international hub like Philly, the other big east coast airport for US. The downside is that there isn't much shopping to be done, but at least the airport is smaller and there are less people crowding the place. The gates are also all within easy reach and are easily walkable, even though there are good automatic walkways which take you to various gate areas in terminal D (the terminal which hosts transatlantic flights).

Boarding was a mess. US usually does a 'zone' check-in, but in fact everyone crowded the desk and the US people were too disorganized to tell people to stay back and board in zones. Result: slower and more stressful boarding, as everyone crowded around the desk and jostled for position.

Luckily, I was one of the first on the plane. The A330-300s are some of my favorite planes. I managed to get a window seat towards the front, which is great in terms of noise - try sitting at the back, hearing all that jet blast for 8 hours! The seats were fine, but it was obvious that the interior needed a hoovering...there was a lot of dust/crumbles on the floor where I was, and a salt and pepper sachet on the floor from the previous flight. The toilets, however, were very clean.

I have said that I like A330s, and I enjoy flying them on NW and other carriers, but I have to say that on US, the A330s have ludicrously little leg room. One of the downsides about flying US transatlantic is the lack of leg space - and the IFE boxes below the seats mean that you really cannot stretch your legs. On an overnight flight, this means a very cramped, very uncomfortable time, especially if you are trying to sleep.

The pilot's communications were great - US pilots always have that 'charm' about them. The FAs on this flight really surprised me too - they were very pleasant and smiley, which is a real change from the usual US Aiways IceWoman ('ask me for a glass of water and I'll throw you off the plane') look. So that made the flight more pleasant.

The flight itself was uneventful - take off on time, although there seems to be a complicated traffic pattern to cruising altitude around CLT. There certainly seemed to be a lot of planes around, and we actually took off nearly parallel with another plane, which was cool.

IFE is usual US AVOD - good, but the movies could be changed more frequently - they were basically the same as my last transat 3 weeks before.

The 'sleeping' part of the flight was unpleasant - I think I managed to sleep for about 3 hours. Then, 1.25 hours before touchdown, the FAs turned all the lights on and announced the breakfast service, which is kinda small (a buttermilk roll, a cup of coffee). Being winter, when they woke us up it was still dark outside - but after a few minutes the sky started lightening and we were treated to a wonderful sunrise as you can only see from the air.

Arrival in LGW was about 40mins early, which was great. Baggage service was really quick too - altogether, passport control took 5 minutes, and we waited maybe 3 minutes for baggage. We were out of the airport less than 40 minutes after touchdown.

Altogether, a pleasant flight for the price....but MORE LEGROOM NEEDED!