I live in Middlesbrough, in the UK. My wonderful fianc_e Megan lives in Athens, in the USA. As Virgin inexplicably(*) neglect to serve the popular(*) and lucrative(*) MME-AHN route, I have been reduced to finding alternate solutions wherever and whenever I can. The most frequent route has been MAN - ATL, served directly by Delta, for MAN is a straight shot down a train line at this end and ATL is sixty miles away by road at the other end.
We have been together for approaching two and a half years and have met up on something like fifteen occasions during that time. When I first got to know her, she was at graduate school in Boston, MA, so I tended to enjoy flying LHR-BOS with VS whenever I could. However, I tended to fly on VS metal but using CO codeshare fares, because they were often cheaper. As CO also give you credit for DL flights, it has made sense for me to do whatever earning I could over the years on a Continental OnePass account. Accordingly, I have managed to attain OnePass Silver, which is possibly slightly unusual considering (a) I fly for leisure only, (b) I fly in cut-price cattle-class only, (c) I pay for all my own flights and (d) I'm Murray Mint. (Totally Boracic Lint.)
So all this leads up to another trip on the DL bus to go and see Meg. The train to the airport was fine, as usual; having just worked the night shift before catching an 0555 train, I managed to flake out and accumulate some Frequent Flyer Forty Winks. If I collapsed onto the seat next to me and slavered or snored then I do apologise, particularly if it was your seat. All the same, the journey to the airport was remarkably easy and almost all the moving walkways worked on the skyway to Terminal 2.
Having Continental Silver means that I was eligible to use the BusinessElite check-in line rather than the Economy check-in line. I took a photo to illustrate the difference in length of the two queues.
After taking that photo, I had a security guard come up to me and tell me off. Apparently taking photos of check-in desks is considered naughty these days. Well, now I have, you don't need to - so don't do it, folks. *wags finger*
Check-in was quick, painless and politely handled, though it typically takes around 20-30 minutes to go through an Economy class check-in queue like that one. After check-in, I expanded my horizons by making my first ever trip to an airport lounge. Now I'm going to shiftily look both ways before admitting this, but the BMI forum with FlyerTalk pointed out that, at the time, Egg credit cards were running a promotion which gave you 75% of the cost of a www.loungepass.com lounge pass back if you were to buy a pass on your Egg card. In my case, this cut the price of a visit from 17.00 to 4.25, which takes it within my rather meagre splurging limit and so I deemed it worth a try in order to find out what I had been missing. You can find out what you've been missing too - LoungePass give access to the Serviceair Globeground Lounge, at the other end of the corridor from the Escape Lounge which Virgin passengers use.
Based on the descriptions I've read, you're probably not missing much, but what there was kept my interest for a while. The lounge complex consists of a square of four rooms for visitors surrounding a central kitchen/office for the staff. The entranceway has a desk where staff check your right to entry, a rack of newspapers and two Internet terminals at 10p/minute. Charging strikes me as slightly cheeky, but as the only other Internet terminal in Manchester Airport is at the far end of terminal one, more or less underneath terminal three - which works out as being a good 600 yards away at the very least - it's a little easier to forgive. I checked and there was neither formal nor, cough, 'informal' wireless Internet access available. (Nobody at the lounge seemed to mind me using their electricity for my laptop, though.) There were also some (again, non-free) devices which recharged your mobile 'phone battery at speed, which I had not encountered before.
There was a room with large plate glass windows for walls that looked like it once permitted smoking, though I suspect it no longer does. The largest room had many tables and chairs, with a large flat widescreen TV at one end and glass-fronted refrigerators stocked with food and drinks down one wall. The final room had a breakfast bar serving cold breakfast snacks, though it was clearly a few plates of cheese, ham and antipasti short of a self-respecting Continental breakfast, even at ten o'clock. Another central bar had further refrigerators of hard and soft drinks with some bottles of liquor sat atop. Not being a drinker, I'm afraid I didn't stop to take names.
So I nibbled on muesli, muffins, a banana and biscuits, filling up on orange juice and whiling the time away, trying not to be too distracted by a very noisy mobile phone conversation from someone who was obviously very important. It was all moderately comfortable, but I had had enough after an hour. I did perform a tiny act of subterfuge by neatly arraying five V-Flyer business cards upon a stray plinth. These days, the Egg discount for using LoungePass is now only 50%; as I'm not going to recoup the cost in booze, I doubt a trip to the lounge would be worth 8.50 to me next time. Perhaps one of these days I might get to find out what a real airport lounge is like, though.
So to boarding. I reached the gate (or, rather, the portal from which people boarded a bus to cross the airfield to the aeroplane) while people were boarding; as a Skyteam Elite member, I thought that earned me priority boarding and asked whether it would be possible, but sadly not - I had to wait my turn at the very end with the rest of Boarding Group 9. It may also not have been coincidence that I was (one of the 10%, apparently) selected for secondary search; in fact, I squealed unexpectedly as I was rubbed down. 'Was the inspector rough?' a concerned supervisor immediately asked; I responded 'No, he just tickled me. It was fantastic!' All part of the service, perhaps?
After that unexpected thrill, I was on the final bus to the 'plane and so waited for the last few to come through final checks, which injected another 15 minutes of sitting above the tarmac into the proceedings. This made one of the last on board the plane but if there are no pre-flight amenities then who particularly wants to spend more time than they have to in an economy seat? 'First on, most bored.' I would guess that the flight took off at something like 50% capacity, which was still well in excess of the number of newspapers they had available. The aeroplane was a 767-300ER, seated 2-3-2.
If I race through the rest of the trip report, it's because there's not much to say. You've all read non-VS economy class trip reports before, but that lounge might be new to you.
Once we were at initial cruising altitude, the first round of drinks began. Recently I had read about Delta's new signature cocktails. As referenced above, being firmly on the wagon, I was interested in the $2 'Passion Fruit Sparkler'. It may nominally be intended for kids, but who cares about things like that? I ordered said kiddy cocktail, an order which the attendant was clearly not expecting to receive. Some checking later as to whether it would be possible, she served me with the only one of their signature cocktails they could make, the Mango Kiss - mango vodka and cranberry-apple juice. Meekly I accepted it and paid the demanded $5 rather than causing a scene. To be fair, I did get two cups full of it for my money, but it wasn't pleasant enough to inspire me to take up vodka and I couldn't even give the second cup away to the chap in the window seat next to me.
Lunch followed, with the habitual choice being chicken or pasta. I plumped for the chicken as you can see below in the airlinemeals.net stylee:
A decent but tiny salad, a hefty bread roll, an entirely acceptable main course (leaf-flecked mash, crunchier-than-expected carrots and soft chicken) followed by an insult of cheese and an excuse for a dessert. In summary: whle hardly haute cuisine, tasty but slender.
While there was a choice of about a dozen radio stations for me to reject, our first movie began while lunch was being served. It was an entirely forgettable rom-com; I do not use the adjective 'forgettable' lightly or any less than literally. After the first movie (and a break) I believe the printed schedule had a second movie followed by TV shows, but I suspect we merely had the loop of TV shows twice, for no clear reason. This did afford a decent opportunity to catch up with further sleep for a couple of hours, which is more than I normally get on a Westbound flight.
Delta's seats are uncomfortable, but there is a trick to them; you can considerably lessen the discomfort by deliberately not jamming yourself into them as tightly as your back will go, instead allowing there to be a rough triangle formed by the seat, the seatback and your back as you touch the seat with only your shoulders. Theoretically this offers less back support, but does so in a more comfortable way.
One paperback later ('Yes Man' by Danny Wallace - a cute lightweight tale of not-very-grand adventure. Not bad but not recommended, even to those who - like me - enjoyed his earlier work in 'Join Me' or together with Dave Gorman in 'Are You Dave Gorman?') it was time for tea. Some choice would be nice, but Delta's individual pizza chunks are a definite plus point and the vegetarian suits my taste more than the Four Cheese. Look:
Touchdown was smooth and the immigration queues rather quicker than usual. In conclusion, then, another typical Delta flight, not particularly better or systematically worse than the last one I reviewed. Scores on the doors, then: very good check-in, lousy seat, decent food and drink, lousy entertainment and cabin staff that, frankly, have to be criticised for giving me an alcoholic cocktail when I asked for a non-alcoholic one. At a T-class Friday fare of GBP 370 + tax = GBP 431 for the return, if there were competition on the route, or good reason to start from London rather than Manchester, then my business would be going elsewhere.
I conclude by looking ahead. You might recall my problem; my gorgeous fianc_e and I have found a solution; she has agreed to move to the UK. Accordingly, our next meeting will be in New York, where we shall go to the British Embassy and petition for a fianc_e visa for her.
New York, then! I wonder who flies there? :-)
Edited to add pictures; thanks to moderators for posting them at the gallery. [:)]
Edited again: having another go with the photos' URLs! [:D]
