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#921060 by redengines4me
11 May 2016, 13:21
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First trip report post from me. Been lurking for a while so thought I had better post one. Here goes ...

The taxi arrived at 6.30 with a very amenable and chatty driver.
Into the south terminal very quickly with a short wait at upper class check in.
Quickly through security and into the clubhouse. First stop was to book a shave for me and a hot stone treatment for my wife. Then ordered breakfast and afterwards retired to a comfortable seat.
Flight originally due from the pier but subsequently changed to the satellite (but more of that later).

Clubhouse busy but still plenty of choices for seats. Noise level quite low, no noisy LAS groups in evidence.

Approached by staff member pushing Amex Black with offer of 49k miles but declined due to annual membership fee of GBP 140.
Screen in club house showed gate 34 as did the screens in the main terminal. Walked down to satellite gate 34 to find that wrong information and that it was now gate 21. Almost the longest walk possible between gates in South terminal.
Made it to gate and went straight through to a queue on the air bridge. Got bottle of water before we boarded then got to our seats on G-VROS. Greeted by SCC but FSM not in evidence.

Settled down with the regulation glass of Gardet, doors closed pretty much on time and pushed back at 11.34 and left the ground at about 11.55. Easterly take off and turned left heading across Southern England. Advised by captain that we would be leaving UK over Cornwall and next land we would see would be KSC.

Service was excellent, 2 crew looking after our cabin. Cocktail menu changed much to wife's disgust as no Mojito now but I found the Gentleman Jack cocktail very palatable.
Menu was as others had posted, had soup fillet beef followed by the passion fruit and coconut slice. Unlike other posters I found the beef very tender. Although I got my food choices, they had run out of puddings when they got to my wife, so she just had the cheese and biscuits.

Two of the A seats including my wife's had video problems so iPads were rapidly despatched.

Crew worked hard during the Flight and service was good. One crew member was from Middlesborough and arranged for score of the Middlesborough / Brighton match to be relayed. Crew member pleased with result unlike us Sussex passengers.

FSM checked the two A seats to check what the enternainment system problem was. This was the only time I saw the FSM in the upper cabin.

Afternoon tea served efficiently sandwiches and cakes tasty.

Apart from personal touches such as FSM not coming round and passengers collecting water before boarding , the service did not seem to have suffered other than the reduced crew numbers meant the crews had to work a lot harder. Although certain items were served from the trolley, I did not think it detracted from the service to the seat.

Landed on the westerly runway (a first for us) and had a delay whilst a Southwestern took off before we could cross the next runway. Slow journey to the pier due to other traffic waiting to take off.

Once there the air bridge was connected fairly quickly and we were off in reasonable time. In the immigration hall we were about 5 rows back in the queue snake and eventually got to the point where an agent directed us to the auto machines. Went through the procedure and got printed slips with a big cross on each. We were then directed to a secondary queue and fairly quickly directed to an agent who went through the whole procedure again so the machine seemed a whole waste of time. It seems that about 50% of people who were directed to the machines went through this. The others had a quicker journey with the agent who, I think, just took the slip and stamped the passport.
As we were last in the USA last May I can only think that it was because we renewed our passports last October. Who knows?

By this time cases were on the belt, we collected them, straight through customs and up the escalator not bothering to leave the luggage behind. As I had two cases and a carry on, a staff member followed me up making sure that I traversed the escalator safely.

Monorail to the terminal and down to the Alamo desk where, having done on line check in, directed to the appropriate line to choose the car. Loaded up and off to the exit booth where paperwork was slowly transacted by a friendly Alamo employee.

Drove out, missed the South exit sign and headed toward Orlando. Did a U turn at the first available stop light, back into the airport and eventually got on to the south exit.

Then off on the 417 to our villa and unpack ready for the next 3 weeks which include the Invictus games opening ceremony (fantastic) , the archery finals (a long evening but UK winning almost everything going) then a short side trip to St Augustine for a couple of days then parks and relaxing.
#921062 by marshy11
11 May 2016, 13:43
Thank you for posting. Sounds like you had a good flight and service hasn't suffered from staff cuts.

3 weeks in the sun is something I could certainly do with right now. Enjoy.
#921073 by tomthumb
11 May 2016, 15:49
Many thanks for the TR
#921088 by G-VSKY 97
11 May 2016, 19:48
Pleased u enjoyed the trip, absolutely gutted about the game too, I was up at 4am LA time following on Twitter! typing this now by the pool in Vegas, I fly home Friday so will miss the Sheffield game too.
#921093 by MoJoJo
11 May 2016, 21:19
virginboy747 wrote:The FSM no longer works in the J cabin on the 744 they now have to work in the economy galley and premium cabin due to reduced crew numbers


Which is a great shame for J >-(
#921120 by buns
12 May 2016, 10:10
Thanks for a super inaugural TR.

Glad you had such a good flight, I flew the day before which was far from being memorable - the giving out of water bottles as you enter the jetway is an important point as you no longer get a bottle on board in UC.

Thanks once again

buns

(better start writing :blush: )
#921131 by TimCrawley
12 May 2016, 12:02
A cracking debut TR, thanks for posting.

The lack of noisy LAS passengers in the CH is partly my fault, will try to be there behaving slightly badly next time :-)
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