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#939679 by deep_south
19 Nov 2017, 13:01
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The return flight of our one week break; we had a good time at Sandals South Coast; weather hot with not many showers around. Left the resort at 4:00pm for the 8:20pm flight in a busy shuttle (in contrast to our arrival) and again took over 2 hours to the airport - the Mobay rush hour was in full operation!

Check in was swift and painless - no queues at all. Into a pretty empty departure lounge; only a delayed Miami flight and a Tui flight to Warsaw so the place was starting to close down. We grabbed a burger at Wendy's (no better than "OK") and settled down to wait - and wait. They initially announced a 25 minute delay "due to the late arrival of the incoming aircraft" but I knew that was wrong - it arrived on time, so I wondered what was going on... sure enough 45 minutes late they said they had "minor technical" issue that they were working on.

After an hour or so the pilot came out and announced they had a problem with an engine sensor that was being worked on, and he hung around to answer any questions. I was concerned about the crew running out of hours, but he explained they had 3 pilots on this long flight so the deadline was much later than usual.

They eventually announced it was all sorted and we boarded, which didn't take too long as the flight (747) was less than half full in contrast to the way out. We departed just over 3 hours late.

We had booked the Extra legroom seats in Economy and fortunately had no one in A (we had B&C) so had quite a good flight. A few people were able to grab the middle 4 in economy for a flat bed!

Food was OK, service was fine. Flight was smooth all the way. I slept for about 3 hours with was an unexpected bonus.

They made up time on the way so landed 2.5 hours late (boo - no compensation!). Immigration was quick and the luggage came out in about 20 minutes, split between 2 belts at LGW. How do you manage if you are on your own? Then the taxi picked us up and got us home safely.

This was an "experiment" to see if Y was bearable for us, but since we had an empty seat next to us it didn't really prove anything. We will try it again in January when we have a Y trip to Sandals in the Bahamas on BA and then decide for future holidays.
#939699 by hiljil
20 Nov 2017, 08:14
I well remember being at an airport & being told the incoming flight was delayed when I had seen it land on time and could see it at the gate. I wish airlines would be truthful! I know they like to “filter” the expected delay to avoid passenger “rage” but sometimes, if you know how long the delay will be , you can do something constructive with the time.

Good that you had a pleasant flight home even if it didn’t quite test economy out for you.
Thank you for posting.

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