Not going to go through the usual bits and pieces (security this, boarding that, hot towels and so on), but I will mention a few specific things.
I’d first like to say that it was great to be flying on 747’s again, I’ve really missed them since all my flights a few years ago on Virgin metal.
Most of my recent long haul flights have been on B777’s, and whilst I like those planes, there is nothing to beat the Jumbo in my opinion, a feeling shared by many, I know.
Extraordinary as well, to realise that BA seem to fill 3 747’s each day to and from BOS – the flight I was on was rammed full…
BA203 LHR-BOS
So, my first time in the Concorde room. I was quite impressed, but it is just another lounge really, I’d rather spend time at home than in any lounge I have ever been in. That said, it was a pleasant couple of hours with a good meal (but not stunning) and great service.
The flight itself was unremarkable, everything as you’d expect – terrific food and great service, very comfortable all round. The crew were attentive, extremely polite and quite a good laugh actually.
Now then, arrival into Boston…
Well, the captain announced that we would be slightly delayed in landing due to weather, so we commenced to loiter around over the general Boston area, sometimes circling, sometimes weaving between thunder storms that looked – err, pretty violent.
However, the delay wasn’t significant, and we made a smooth landing and taxi-ed in to the stand.
Obviously, being in the nose, I was off pretty quick, no real queues at immigration and was waiting at the baggage claim about 10 minutes after leaving my seat.
And, I waited….
And, I waited…
Then….
I waited some more…
Ah, “the BA flight 203 from Heathrow will be on number 5”
And, I waited…
“The baggage from flight from Porte au Prince will be on number 5”/.
And, I waited…
So did, by now, hundreds of other people, soon joined by those who had just flown in from Port au Prince and other destinations.
Then…
We all waited.
In turns out, that some of the thunder storms we had played dodge with had arrived with vengeance and shut down the entire airport for a prolonged period, including unhloading of luggage and all ramp operations.
I waited there for 1 hour and 45 minutes, at which point, all the bags from 3 different flights started to tumble on to the carrasell – well, you can imagine the chaos!
Anyway, bags duely collected and I left the airport some 2.5 hours after landing (oh yes, the queue to leave the baggage hall was also extensive by this point) and lots of people were getting quite irritable by this point.
And thus began my week in Boston.
I was staying at the Sheraton on Dalton Street which I found to be perfectly comfortable, best bit was that it was within 5 minutes walk of most of the Berklee buildings.
I had a fantastic week and really through myself into the “berklee experience” and sampled many a Boston eatery and bar.
Didn’t really get beyond a half mile radius of the hotel, so didn’t see much else around Boston although I enjoyed what I did see a great deal
Funny though, Dalton Street and Boylston Street areas were really nice, but by the time I had got a as far as Massachutes Ave, I detected quite a change in atmosphere
I think it was the Thursday, when the hotel was invaded by aliens!
I walked into the lobby to discover that the hotel had seemingly been taken over by strange young people, all of whom talked very quicly with little regard to the fact that others may be talking at the same time. These strange beings also appeared to entirely depend on multiple electronic gadgets that, on closer inspection, were not in fact implants or otherwise irrevocably attached to body parts as I first thought, but closely resembled earthbound technologies made by Apple and the like.
There was an unusual proportion of acme as well as spectacles present – perhaps this was normal on their planet?
What was going on? Who are these strange alien beings?
I was keen to check that I hadn’t stumbled into some sort of parallel universe, or that the Mr Ben costume shop had been real after all, so I checked with one of the doormen I had got to know a little.
Phew – that’s alright then – it was a Pokermon convention…..well, obvious wasn’t it?
I agree, not obvious at all. In fact, I had no idea such things - err, happened.
Thus re-assured that all was normal (as far as I was concerned, anyway), and I got on with the rest of my evening – but I have to tell you folks, it was a truly surreal experience.
Let’s do the return journey.
BA202 to LHR
Again, the flight was just what I’d expect and there is nothing about the service etc that I would make a point of reporting on. It was entirely professional and of a high standard throughout.
However, one interesting event did take place.
Oh yes, let me also say that I had a very pleasant meal in the Boston first lounge, the service in there was exemplary and the food excellent.
So, just as we were all getting settled in, the guy in 2B (I was in 2A), called over one of the cabin crew.
“My passport has fallen down into the seat” – he said.
It seems, he had put down his passport on the arm of the seat, and it had slid off and fallen into the workings of the seat.
Cue much nashing of teeth, tentative groping around under cushions etc.
“Sir, we are going to need to call an engineer”.
The CC explained that they are strictly prohibited from trying to recover any articles that have disappeared beyond a certain point in the seat, there are too many electronics and mechanisms in there; risk of shock, damage and so on.
And so, an “enginheer” arrives.
He takes a couple of panels off, pokes a torch inside, then puts the panels back on.
“Sorry, you’ll have to wait for Heathrow, I can’t go any further here, I’m not qualified on these seats”, he announces.
More conversation, question and answer, and the “engineer” departs.
This was becoming something of a spectacle by now, next thing is the cabin services director (or whatever he’s called, the boos of all the CC, anyway) arrives exuding calm, command and swarveness.
“Sir, I’m afraid we have a problem. You see, we can’t recover your passport here, and we may need to ask you to leave the plane, but I’m checking with home base”.
You see, the issue they had was this. Ostensibly, the guy had no passport in order to enter Britain as the seat was hungry and had eaten it.
To dismantle and re-assemble/test one of those seats apparently takes around 4 hours, but the plane was needed for it’s next sector in less time than that.
What a quandary….
What happened in the end, was that the guy flew to London, but would have to wait at the top of the jet bridgfe whilst they tried to recover his passport. If they were unable to do so without causing a significant delay to the next flight, everyone would be happy.
However, if the plane was forced to depart again to maintain the schedule, and the errant passport had not been recovered yet, he would have to fly back to Boston (he was a US citizen).
Don’t actually know what happened in the end, I wasn’t going to offer to wait with him to find out, but it was an interesting episode and was very well handled by the crew I felt
To be fair to the guy who’s passport had made the escape bid, he took it all very calmly and with a degree of resignation that implied a certain familiarity with such disasters.
And, dear readers, there you have it.
A great trip to Boston, a couple of great flights in First with superb service etc, a few interesting incidents scattered throughout.
Thanks for reading…
PS – it did occur to me at the time that “passport-gate” was worthy of a certain well-known frequentress of travel forums with the initials HL! In fact, I wonder whether this wasn’t a distant relation!
Concorde RIP - the most amazing machine to grace our skies
