We stayed the night before at Hilton T5, our favourite hotel at the airport. We got the bus over to T5 and dropped off our baggage. You have to have a printed boarding card for this flight, as the mark it to indicate that you have had your visa checked. Headed through to the lounge, stopping to be served by the rudest WHSmith employee ever – totally not interested in engaging with me as the customer. This was breakfast time, and although there was the usual bacon rolls, the Clubhouse wins hands down in terms of choice.
Our plane was leaving from a bus gate near T5C, which meant a nice bus ride around past all the B747 and other wide-bodies. I think on our bus the majority of people were Russian – and that probably was the same for the whole of the flight. There is something different about walking up steps to a wide-body aircraft, rather than down an airbridge. We were in row 1 of Club – it is still the now very old “new club world” with the fabric blinds between the seats. Club was about a third full, but World Traveller and World Traveller plus were pretty much full. We had the champagne as offered – well it would be rude not too!
Once in the air, the drinks round started and I had my usual Kir Royale to start with. This is a 3.5-4 hour flight which hasn’t been flown with a long-haul config for that long, so they have made a few changes to the meal service. They had dropped the salad you normally get between courses and your tray comes with desert and cheese on it, along with your starter. They had been having numerous complaints about things being too slow in terms of serving the desert and cheese separately.
The menu was:
Starters
- Severn and Wye smoked salmon tartare with Oscietra caviar and pickled cucumber and radish salad
- Grilled summer vegetables with marinated bocconcini and basil dressing
Main
- Fillet of Aberdeen Angus beef with shallot and red wine jus, colcannon potato and baby carrot Vichy
- Moscow-style sautéed corn-fed chicken in dill, caper, mushroom and onion cream sauce with mixed peppers and steamed rice
- Thai green vegetable curry with baked tofu and jasmine rice
- Poached prawn salad with roasted fennel, dill and aubergine
Afters
- Chocolate and strawberry Mogador
- Butler’s secret cheddar and Melusine goat’s cheese
I had the salmon/caviar and then the Moscow style chicken (well we were off to Russia!) – both were really good quality, decent size portions and very tasty. There was a very nice Pemberley Sauvignon Blanc and The Gentleman Cabernet Sauvignon to accompany my lunch.
The good thing about the B767 is that you know you will get on demand entertainment, and the flight duration meant you could get one film watch and some comedy/other stuff. Flight passed very quickly, and although initially the service during dinner was a bit slow on our side of the cabin, it then picked up and they were regularly coming through offering drinks. One thing we noticed is that the Russian’s in the cabin were very big spenders when it came to the on board High Life shop, and all in cash as well. There is no club kitchen on this route put out – not surprisingly really, given the duration of the flight.
As we came in to land, we went around Moscow, which meant we could see the seven Stalin Towers around the city. We taxied up to the terminal, and parked up next to a BMI plane operating as a BA flight. Once off the plane, there was a mad rush towards a very disorganised immigration area. Luckily after a while they started telling people to go round to where the Russian citizens immigration was. This was fortunate, as it probably saved us a further hour wait (all in all it probably took us around an hour to get through). Nothing was said during my encounter with the immigration official.
All in all a great flight – good food choices and excellent value for money! For interest, a world traveller plus flight is around £600 and gets you 180 points - pretty good for topping up and keeping silver (although you do need to pay for your visa which is around £100, but it is a fascinating city to go and visit).
Russia is a country where Mrs P and I will have to get to soon 
