This is a Trip Report from the Premium Economy cabin
Ground Staff
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My journey started the day before, on Halloween when I was driven by electric car* to EMA, took an Aer Lingus minibus from EMA to DUB around lunchtime and stayed the night in the Hilton Airport hotel. I caught the Rugby final and a few beers before getting a few hours sleep. The shuttle bus is quick and I soon found myself at the airport wandering aimlessly wishing I'd got an extra 30 minutes in bed!
I'd checked in for my 7am DUB-LGW flight the day before and managed to select the furthest forward window seat I could on their A320 - seat 10A. This turned out to be an exit row seat, with no seat in front so I was quite happy with the room available. Taking off out of DUB, the fields were covered in fog which went quite well with Halloween the night before. During the flight the captain announced that there may be delays at Gatwick due to the fog, but in the end we landed bang on time. I made my way back through security and headed up to F&B for breakfast.
Not too long later and I was heading for my gate and on arrival was pleased to be able to jump the queue for the extra bit of security waving my PE boarding pass on my phone. (Apple Wallet/Passbook really works rather well as I would come to find out over the next few days!) No sitting around at the gate - straight onto the plane where I made my way upstairs to my seat.
The entire flight was really without issue, but the crew were not notable for being as friendly as I might have expected. They did their job, but little more. I'd forgotten about the snack wall that is advertised for PE passengers and wouldn't have known about the basket of treats in the galley had another passenger not mentioned it. The food (chicken curry) had none of the "creamy" sauce mentioned in the menu, but was ok otherwise.
My seat companion and I got along well and in fact we established that not only do we live just a few miles apart, but we work even closer with him running a car audio shop not far from one of my offices. Small world and we would unintentionally meet again in Vegas (wait for the return report!).
On arrival into LAS, I talked one of the staff into letting me skip the queue and used one of the new kiosks which they weren't actively using for some reason, although there was a TSA agent at a desk waiting to take in the slip which the kiosk produced. Walked past the baggage carousel with a smug look on my face (travelling hand luggage only) and said hello to the CBP officer sat next to the exit. She asked about my baggage, which left an inquisitive look on her face until I explained I was here for a week and was staying with family who had assured me I could use the washing machine. Continue out of the airport, just catching the shuttle bus to the car rental centre before it left.
Through the FlyerTalk forums, I had learnt to join the Hertz gold club and to undertake a phantom rental in my home city before arrival, which meant I walked straight upstairs to find my name on the board, a 2015 Ford Explorer parked in my space and I was soon on my way to a local Millers Alehouse (my cousin's husband is the manager) where I would meet up with my family for a beer. I reckon it was around 30 minutes from wheels down to beer in hand - happy days!
Overall, a positive first ex-DUB experience. I really didn't deal with many people since I had checked in online, had my boarding pass on my phone and had hand luggage only. Those I did deal with were pleasant and swift.
Leon
*The electric car going a tiny way to balancing out the extra emissions of taking 3 flights instead of 1 - just to save some money
