31st July 2009
Club World. Seat 63B.
Id had the most amazing week in Seattle; lots of time to relax, dinner with a wonderful friend, continuous abuse of my liver in the evenings and the strange experience of the freak weather that was inflicted on Seattle and its residents. A jaw dropping, record breaking 104 degrees was recorded during my stay, and the heat, while stifling, really made Seattle feel much more like a holiday resort than the grey city that I normally think of. I was sad to go home, but very much looking forward to seeing Richard. I think my liver was quite looking forward to the rest.
I left my hotel at 4.30pm and headed to SEA-TAC in a Yellow cab, taking about 25 minutes. There was a bit of a queue at check-in but I was called over to the First counter after about 5 minutes. Id checked in online in order to secure one of the nice exit row seats upstairs in Club so check-in was a simple affair of collecting my boarding pass and dropping off my bags. I headed off to departures and the queue for passport control/security was immense. It took around 20 minutes to go through the snaking queue and no fast track was available. I finally got through, and boarded the little train to the satellite area (S gate) where the BA flight departs from. Once at S gate the BA lounge is to the right of the escalators, just infront of gate S10. I climbed the several flights of stairs and noted the dual lounges for First and Club. The BA Club lounge is not much bigger than our living room and was densely populated with only a few free seats. The lounge has a number of PCs to use, free Wi-Fi and curiously a small bar manned out of a hatch. I guess with the number of Boeing and Microsoft employees on the Seattle fun bus they dont trust the passengers with help yourself.
I found a vacant spot in the croweded lounge, dumped my things and requested a JD & Diet Coke from the hatch. The gentleman serving was absolutely lovely but he had a dodgy eye that looked over to one side and when he said yes maam I looked to the direction his eye did as I thought he was talking to someone else. It took a good few minutes for the penny to drop and to realise he was talking to me.
I grabbed a few snacks from the counter, not a lot on offer, a selection of sandwiches (four in total, and rather yummy fillings such as sesame chicken), bags of crisps and nuts and the usual chiller of soft drinks. I surfed the web for about 50 minutes and then we had an announcement to advise us that we could now either pre-board, or wait in the lounge another 20 minutes and board after WT. Given the small lounge I opted for the former and pretty much walked out of the lounge, back down the stairs and straight up to the counter for First/Club/BAEC Exec. I was onboard in a moment and directed upstairs to my seat, 63B in the bubble. I stowed my things and got ready for the flight home.
[img]http://www.v-flyer.com/photos/3933.jpg[/img]
Interesting to note that on both my inbound and outbound flights the door to the flight deck has been wide open before take-off with the Captain on this flight engaging with passengers. I still get strangely excited when I get a glimpse of all the controls up front.
The crew started distributing amenity kits and menus. Todays choices were as follows:
Starters
Ginger-flavoured poached salmon with edamame salad and creamy sweet chilli dressing
Grilled asparagus with truffle oil, shaved reggiano parmesan and cucumber salad
Fresh seasonal salad with vinaigrette
Main Courses
Seared fillet of beef with ratatouille and duchesse potatoes
Chicken tikka masala with basmati rice and korma vegetables
Pan seared sea bass with tomato olive oil, lemon pepper risotto and broccolini
Sweet pepper and smoked mozzarella ravioli with spinach cream sauce and parmesan
Chilled main course salad of smoked duck breast with four cabbage slaw
Dessert
Wildflower honey cheesecake with almonds
Herb brie and Kilchurn estate aged cheddar with rhubarb ginger preserve and oatcakes
A selection of fruit
Wines
White
A-Z Oregon Pinot Gris 2007
Sancerre 2007, Domaine de la Chezatte
Terra do Gargalo 2007 Monterrei
Red
Artesa Napa/Sonoma Meritage 2005
Chateau Forcas-Dumont 2004
The Captain advised that our flight time would be 8 hours 45 minutes and that we were likely to be around 10 minutes behind schedule on arrival into London. While we were waiting for take off the crew came around to take orders for food.
We had two crew serving in the bubble today, the lady serving me just didnt seem to have that flair or passion that many other flight crew I have met have displayed. She asked for my order by simply saying what do you want to eat without looking at me or engaging with me. I said that Id like the Asparagus to start and she just snapped back with a Ill see if we have any left. I thought she could have perhaps phrased it a little better. I chose the Tikka curry for main and without looking at me she again said whats your second choice, I dont know if well have any left. I stated a second choice, and that I didnt eat red meat but she didnt make any indication of trying to get me my meal choice or apologising for letting me down. I felt that if I were her Id have tried my best to minimise the customers disappointment rather than give the impression that running out of meal choices was a common affair and something the crew couldnt really care less about.
The first drinks round started and I asked for a glass of the Sancerre but was told that it hadnt been loaded on the flight and they actually had double of the Terra do Gargalo 2007 Monterrei so I opted for a glass of that instead, though it was a little sweet. Just as I was having a sip the crew member came back to say that she didnt have either of my meal choices. I have to admit to being pretty disappointed. She said she would make me up a salad starter and that she could make a larger portion of the sea bass that Id chosen for my main meal which was nice but again, executed with the feeling that she didnt really care. At this stage I was feeling really disappointed. Everything Id asked for I had been told I couldnt have.
I sipped my wine and my starter soon arrived (as shown below).
[img]http://www.v-flyer.com/photos/3931.jpg[/img]
The crew member serving me had really made an effort, giving me a side salad and making up a sort of antipasti dish with cheese, olives, mushrooms, pepper and slaw. It wasnt what I wanted but I appreciated the effort. My starter was cleared away and my main arrived promptly afterwards, as pictured below:
[img]http://www.v-flyer.com/photos/3932.jpg[/img]
The sea bass was nice, but it wasnt what I really wanted and I didnt finish it all. I had no room left for cheese or dessert. While the crew were clearing away I asked if they had any more boxes of the OBriens chocolates. In what I assume was an effort to please, they gave me a huge handful so once the dinner trays were all cleared away I headed downstairs and went to visit some of my colleagues who were down the back to give them the chocolates. As i walked through the downstairs Club cabin the crew serving the port side really captured me, the pair of them working in real harmony, joking with the passengers and at one point encouraging a chap that he really must have another glass of Champagne. He refused and the crew member picked up the Warres Port bottle and said that he really ought to try it as he was having cheese, and she persuaded him to a drop. The crew seemed so caring and vibrant, a contrast to the person serving me upstairs. Its a common train of thought that service in the bubble is much better as the crew to passenger ratio is so low but on this occasion it seemed Id have fared better downstairs.
I located my colleagues down the back, all engrossed in Star Trek, and they were genuinely pleased to have their little chocolates. The cabin was completely full and they were three rows behind the bassinet position, which had a baby in, and the row directly infront had a parent with child and the child was on the floor in the aisle rolling a ball up and down. My colleagues looked exasperated and I was quickly reminded how fortunate I was to have my flat bed and peace and quiet.
I headed back up and found the cabin in darkness, ready for bed. The rest of the Club cabin downstairs was still in light and finishing their desserts. I got out my Bose ready to join in the Star Trek fest, reclined my seat to slouching mode and watched the film.
There must have been a crew shift somewhere as a chap started serving in the bubble who was quite good. As I was halfway through my film he was going through the cabin and asking if you needed anything, water perhaps?, and was generally pretty vigilant.
After the film I put my seat to fully flat bed and tried to catch some sleep. The temperature in the bubble was warmer than my previous flights but it was still much cooler than the Amazon tropics that the VS flights often feel like. I probably got an hour or two of sleep.
I was woken up by the breakfast trolley careering down the aisle, and while I desperately could have had another hours sleep the lights came on in the cabin, and no mood lighting as per VS that fade in and out slowly, it went from pitch black darkness to bright light in a second or two.
I put my bed back into chair mode and accepted a cup of tea and a fruit smoothie, then a handful of croissants and pastries which were nice and toasted. We had just over an hour till landing so after a second smoothie I started to tidy up and get ready for landing.
We arrived pretty much on time but had to wait about 10 minutes to get to a gate as there was still an aircraft parked at our intended gate. We were off quite quickly with the CSD saying goodbyes at the door. IRIS worked a treat and I was at the carousel within 10 minutes of disembarking and waited around another 10 minutes for my bags to show up.
I headed over to Arrivals to get a shower. BAs Arrivals is very similar to Virgins Revivals, though I found the showers to be a little under stocked for my liking. No conditioner in the shower, only one large towel and no cotton buds or other bits and bobs that would be useful post shower. There was no radio either, and I love listening to the radio while showing in Revivals. Still, it was nice to get clean, and once I was sorted I headed out to the brassiere area to grab something to eat and I saw Richard stood at reception waiting for me. With that, we headed home and were back in our house with a cup of tea a few hours later as there was some traffic on the M25.
Overall, this flight was a mixed bag. I felt that I had the red-eye curse, or that my original crew member had perhaps been at BA too long and didnt really care as she should. I was really disappointed. I have written in to BA customer services to see what they say.
We have our flights to Tel Aviv with BA this month, and those flights will return me to BA Silver for another year. I really hope that this flight was the exception and that Tel Aviv will be a much better experience.
I still love the BA seat and bed, and the food IS good, I was just hoping for the service as well.
