As I wasn’t able to obtain reasonable Club World seats direct from MCO to LGW, I eventually plumped for US Airways to Phillidelphia then BA back to LHR from there – got a good price as well as it was booked during the recent sale.
It all seemed to be going to plan. Flight on time and priority boarding.
We boarded along with a few others travelling in First and took our seats in 1D and 1F. (In the US Airways domestic First cabin on the A320, the config is 2 and 2).
Initial impressions were good. The seat is quite similar to those in Hawaiian First, and pretty similar to those found in VS and BA premium economy products – without a foot rest. The seat is nice and wide, very comfortable with good recline, and the arm rests are really wide – all in all, very satisfactory!
This flight was scheduled (scheduled I say again!), to be around 2 hours 20, and therefore we were offered a light snack and plen tiful drinks. (US have set food offerings on domestic first depending on length of flight plus time of day etc).
The flight attendant looking after us was politeness itself, and drinks refills were more plentiful than my thirst (for once!).
Take off and cruise were a complete non-event in terms of standout moments.
And so it was, that we began our descent to PHL, bang on time.
The first hint of trouble was when the capt came over for the usual “hope you’ve enjoyed….temperature is…” and finished with “it is snowing very heavily right now, so there may be a short delay in landing, I’ll get back to you”.
Descent seemed to be proceeding as normal, but then…”folks, we have been asked to hold for a period whilst the second runway is cleared of snow, they’ve got over a foot of it down there.”
And, the circling began!
I want to say at this point, that the communication by the captain as well as the flight attendants was excellent. At all times, they let us know what was going on, what information they had and kept us in the loop in terms of wait times for the next announcement.
Also, during our extended hold, the flight attendants continued to serve drinks and make sure everyone was comfortable.
There we were then, circling pending runway clearance.
“Hi again folks, we are going to need to hold for a little longer as the weather has deteriorated and we cannot land right now as we are below legal minimums” – what he means here is that visibility had dropped to such a level, the cloud ceiling was so low, that airline regulations would not permit him to land!
More holding….
More circling…
Then…
“Ok. The weather has opened up a little and we are going to try a landing” (yes, he did say try!!!).
“This will be a fully automated landing, so I’m goonaa hafto ask y’all to power down any electronic devices”.
First I’ve ever heard that – but still.
The flight attendant then backed up this message saying “…but you don’t need to do this yet, I’ll be sure and let you know when”.
Another 30 minutes hold, and we started our approach – and as promised, were reminded to turn off all electronic devices – not airplane mode, not standby – OFF!
The approach actually was very smooth, only thing was, there was a total white out. I would estimate that visibility only returned at about 100 feet – and I could swear it was lower, seemed like a matter of seconds before we touched down.
On touch down, engines went into full power reverse (presumably because the runway surface was contaminated – you could feel the antiskid juddering).
Plane came to an easy speed just fine and we taxi-ed off to the gate.
Yes, big round of applause from the back of the plane after landing – why do people do that? It’s not as if the flight crew can hear them – or is it an expression of relief….
True, it was an auto-land and the white out certainly made things interesting. But most landings are automated these days, and certainly automated until below 50 feet….oh well.
Tell you what though, there was tons of snow on the gjround, easily a foot but hard to judge, and still snowing very, very hard.
So, we touched down about 50 minutes behind schedule – but no panic, we had plenty of time to make our connection with BA and as it turned out, that flight was slightly delayed as well (and got worse – see the next TR folks!).
All in all, I liked US Airways, the domestic First product is just fine, this crew were excellent and the snow delays are no-one’s fault.
Would happily use them again.
Hope you enjoyed reading…
Concorde RIP - the most amazing machine to grace our skies
