This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
Airbus A340-600
G-VRED Scarlet Lady (only two months old!).
Scheduled departure 15.00
Push back at 18.07 rotate at 18.30, 3.5 hours late.
Seats 8a & 9a port side.
Steve M-L, Captain, plus two FOs, Stephen and I am sorry but did not get the name of the third pilot? (Thanks Steve for a great flight sorry your standby was ruined by having to turn out for this one. Hope you get back in on Christmas Eve to spend Christmas with the family.) Hi to Mrs Steve who looks in here regularly.
Our FSM was Craig. Looking after us in the UC Cabin were; Jennie, Natasha and Natalie, I failed to notice who was our CSS sorry. IFBT was Nisha who was a very pleasant lady who even came back to double check if we needed treatment well I know I do. [;)]
This was a super crew, they were so attentive and professional, one of the best crews I have ever flown with thank you for a wonderful flight you were all great. I made a point of complimenting Craig on his team and I have my nomination for Heroes 2007.
Also Hi to Paul, CSS in Y whom I had a chat with in the aft galley and his staff down the back of the bus yes I did my usual walk about, I find it keeps me in touch with reality and reminds me how fortunate I am to be travelling in UC.
Nothing else extra ordinary about the flight, Birkin watched The Devil Wears Prada, well what can I say? I watched Pirates 2, played a couple of hours music on the ipod, drank, had some food, drank, did a walk about, drank, sat at the bar, oh and did I mention, drank [;)] Slept a bit.
Had a long chat with another pax at the bar, Michael, he was travelling with his girlfriend, she was in coach, they were due to connect with Air New Zealand to Auckland and then a further onward hop to the south of the North Island. (His GF was doing the ANZ leg in First with him in coach before all you girls start calling him a MCP [;)]) Anyhow he missed both the ANZ flights (the later one was still on the gate at T2 but had closed) so VS had booked him an hotel Michael had already checked the flights for today, 22nd, both were full so I hope they manage to get away. Good luck Michael if you read this, enjoy NZ and your extended stay in Oz, watch out for the Great Whites!
The food was interesting, we both went for the Devon Crab Cakes for starters, this was brave of us because we had the Crab cakes in the CH earlier (not described as Devon Crab Cakes) these were almost devoid of Crab and not very good at all, the ones on the flight were much better but still not as good as many I have had but perfectly acceptable for airline food, IMHO.
For the mains Birkin elected to have the Traditional Roast Turkey and Bacon Wrapped Sausages served with parsley roasted potatoes, chestnut stuffing, braised red cabbage, roasted carrots and parsnips, Brussels Sprouts and redcurrant gravy. I was sceptical of the caterers ability to produce this satisfactorily so opted for the Traditional beef hotpot with roasted winter vegetables This was a mistake, whilst mine was ok (OK, Okay?) Birkin had made the correct choice, they did the turkey dish really well, I have had worse in earth bound restaurants!
Birkin went for the Rhubarb trifle which was average, the Rhubarb bit was alright but the other ingredients left a lot to be desired; I passed on the dessert and went for the Cheeseboard and a glass of Grahams Port. The Capricorn Goats cheese was particularly good, once it had warmed up a little.
We washed it all down with ample quantities of Berrys Australian Shiraz 2005. Berry Bros are the featured Wines and the Shiraz was fine, not too heavy.
LAX
On the ground at 21.35 hours.
Scheduled arrival time 18.50
So we arrived 2hours 45 minutes late which meant we had made up 3/4 of an hour. I had joked with Steve about how much fuel he would be burning trying to make up for lost time.
They put us a remote gate a very long way from terminal. It had an air bridge but then we walked down a long concrete ramp to board coaches ugh! Just what we all needed after the delays.
Immigration was not busy, only our flight, had laugh with the Immigration Officer, that was a first I think we must have met the only US Immigration Officer who had not had his sense of humour surgically removed. Mind you this was helped by Birkin having a fit of the giggles because she had just noticed I had my shoes on the wrong feet! The officer joined in the joke and actually told us about a female colleague who was complaining during a ten hour shift that her feet were killing her only to realise she had her boots on the wrong feet. Now in my defence before you all say p*ssed again, it was dark on the plane, my feet had swollen and when I took them off I was sitting on the seat whereas when I put them on again I was sitting on the ottoman. Yeah, well thats my excuse anyway [;)]
Just to conclude, we got a Hertz Courtesy Coach straight away, and our hire car, a Silver Lincoln was ready in the Gold Service line. With Gold comp u/g to Hertz NeverLost so we were soon on our way to the hotel. 27 hours after we arose were went to bed zzzzzzzzz
