JapesUK

An early prelude to the trip as it�s a silly o�clock start tomorrow morning. This week takes me to Morocco on a British Airways holiday. I�ll be staying at the Iberostar Palmaraie on a fully inclusive basis and this will be the first time that I�ve ever experienced an all inclusive hotel.

Marrakesh is a destination that I have visited multiple times in the past. In previous trips I�ve enjoyed most of the normal Marrakesh tourist activities. I�ve been to Essaouria, driven dune buggies, ridden camels, visited the Souk and the food night market, and had the pleasure of visiting the stinky leather pits, to name just a few.

So why am I going back to Marrakesh? Because the price per tier point was right! In one of those weird sale glitches of British Airways holidays pricing, the entire trip is costing only a few pounds more than the hotel only would have been. This is effectively the worlds laziest tier point run, 480 tier points came in at almost exactly �2 a tier point, all in. There are also a few more tier points tucked within.

If you have read any of my earlier trip reports you�ll know that I do nothing very badly. Lounging by the pool or on the beach for days on end is my idea of hell, so I�m almost certain to quickly get itchy feet, we�ll see. I have already added a couple of diversions, on the 13th I�ll be flying high on a morning baloon flights, and on the 15th I�m flying to Casablanca and back to replace the TP shortfall I have after the issues at the end of my last trip. I�d have preferred this sub-trip to have been earlier in the week but this was by far the most economical day. It does mean that I get to fly on a new (to me) airline on my birthday

Time to drag out the suitcase and get packing, Uber arrives before 4am tomorrow morning.

SKT-DK

I have dragged my sleep-deprived self until midnight now, and stumbled upon this - will be following for sure! Sounds like a nice trip!

I have another PER trip next week - will try not to get into altercations with the Border Force and their made up rules. Otherwise maybe eightblack needs to extract me from a jail somewhere in Western Australia

garyfinny

I for one am looking forward to this!

Due to health reasons I can't eat (or drink) as much as I would like so it is a pleasure to see someone that knows how to do it.

JapesUK

Good morning from the NCL aspire lounge! The day has started with another brutal 3am alarm call and stumbling around like a zombie until the coffee was ready. Coffee in hand I had ten minutes before the taxi arrived and made the fatal error of reading the new foodie trip report from DFW_CK and am now exceedingly hungry!

Uber was spot on time and nice empty roads to the airport



Dropping my bag for the first time in a very long time and surprised to see this sign



Bag dropped and up to a quite busy security



Luckily fast path was clear and straight through security with no secondary despite
having even more tech than usual. Security are clearly getting much better at discerning the scanner images, there was a good pause before my bag cleared, but clear it did.

Departures is quiet right now but having seen the checkin area, it’s not going to stay that way for long



And so to the lounge and the standard start of the day. Breakfast has caught my eye, I may well indulge for a change

JapesUK

I almost forgot, Mks6 made mention on the Friday thread that they would be passing through the airport this morning for the 6 am flight so hopefully will have the opportunity to meet a little later

JapesUK

It definitely has the makings of one of *those* days. Getting up to head to the facilities I managed to nudge the table not so gently and the fizz went flying Glass smashed, Prosecco everywhere!

After a cleanup in aisle two I deposited the smashed remnants with the lovely lounge lady (and ordered a replacement, of course) and it was time for a small bite to eat.



With about forty minutes to go I wandered off to the gate (sorry Mks6 if you were looking for me) and grabbed a quick snap from the tunnel before walking back to the gate



Back to the gate and the only other person there was a crew member heading to LHR in preparation for their trip to Atlanta. The gate opened a minute later and here we are, perched on 1B as people stream on board

JapesUK

BA1321
NCL-LHR
G-MIDS

G-MIDS this morning, a 23 year old A320 that actually looks in pretty good condition in the cabin, although the galley is definitely showing its age.




Bulkhead pull down tray tables on this one.



IFL has already been over for a chat and I’m told 1A is free so I may scoot over to that for landing in the hope of some clear skies over London.

With twenty minutes still to go the vast majority of the passengers are already on board. The one remaining question pre-departure, will we get the almost inevitable ATC slot restrictions delay?

Next stop: London Heathrow

JapesUK

No surprise to anyone, a 30 minute slot delay this morning. First officer making the announcement said that this is due to staff shortage in ATC at Heathrow.

With five minutes to scheduled departure we are still waiting for a couple of passengers to board but given the slot delay it’s not going to impact us. As if by magic our last two passengers arrive, it is boarding complete at a few minutes past six, and now we wait.

Nice chatty crew this morning, should be a good flight.

Minutes later the pilot announced that the ready message had been accepted and we will be pushing back immediately! That’s a first in my experience.

There was a mass of LCC aircraft at Newcastle this morning with at least six Tui and six Jet2 planes and a couple of RyanAir, no wonder arrivals was looking busy.

We were finally off the ground ten minutes after our scheduled departure which we will easily make up in the air. Quickly after takeoff the crew were up and preparing breakfast for this fairly small business cabin, only 5 rows this morning and not all fully populated. Given the light load today they ran all the food and drink from the galley rather than use the trollies.

My choices for this morning will surprise nobody.



What was a surprise was that my Kosher meal came with two mains and no bread plate! No delicious cinnamon bun for me this morning




The crew were great this morning, Golden ticket time again once I get to the lounge.

We had a couple of good jolts around the ten minutes to landing mark but that aside it was smooth flying all the way and on the ground at a quarter past seven. Not the most photogenic flight path into London today so only the one picture.

JapesUK

And so to the lounge, and, of course….



I have four hours before it will be time to go to the gate so I think I’ll hang out here for a little bit and then I’ll go for a little prowl around the terminal. I’m particularly interested in what duty free have to offer as I know the hotel is all inclusive, but not for premium brands

Time to enjoy this trio and maybe, probably, a consolation pastry to make up for my missing cinnibun

JapesUK

Pastries, who needs pastries!

This is new in the First lounge and asking one of the staff members who was gleefully loading up her breakfast plate with waffles and strawberries, apparently new today.




The gap in the hotplate is for pancakes, clearly gone off for a new tray.

The pancakes were perfect, the bacon absolutrly spot on, and the maple syrup, whilst not premium, was good enough. Very happy with this plate of food

SKT-DK

Enjoy! Looking forward to seeing what Marrakech has to offer

JapesUK

A little stroll later and back to the First lounge with a little over 2 hours to go. The duty free promotions have changed again, and today we have Roku gin and Remy Martin cognac.





A taste of all three, the XO for comparison and benchmark (and I’m never going to refuse Remy XO) I’m well aware of how the XO tastes, its my go to cognac.

Unsurprisingly I liked them both, the Club inception had much more warmth in the mouth but not too much fire in the throat, the Club was much subtler.

Plans for a bottle of bourbon abandoned, I picked up a bottle of the club as a nice easy drinker. Red by Dufry card took �9 off the price too, always nice . Assuming they’re still going in a fortnight I shall get the inception.

Now back in the lounge and its time to kick back and drink BAs champagne until its time to go to gate.

JapesUK

A couple of hours of people watching has been highly interesting. We have had a paramedic on a bicycle actually cycle through the lounge. Whomever they were visiting was thankfully not too poorly as they left after maybe ten minutes. The paramedic was quickly followed by a couple of police and their dogs and the dogs attracted a lot of attention and fuss. Clearly the dogs were off duty.

With forty minutes to go I took the long march to gate A3 and arrived in time to see the complete pigs ear the agents were making of boarding. Lady at the tensa-maze was calling 1 and 2, automated announcement was for 0 and 1, no real checking going on, group 5 ahead of me, just a mess



And a really strange view for me today, all the way back here! Even though I booked this an age ago, row 1 was completely taken




Very sketchy door instructions, basically ‘read the pictures on the seat back’ and that was it

11F is free so I’ve scooted over to see if I can get any scenic pics on take off.

Boarding complete, safety briefing in progress, next stop Marrakesh in just over three hours time.

MikeFly

Little off topic on your trip report. You mention giving a golden ticket. I just became a BA Gold and cannot figure out how to do that. I had an excellent crew from RAK to LHR and would like to compliment her efforts.

JapesUK

Menus have just been distributed pre-departure, what’s my chance of getting a cottage pie all the way back in row 11?