BA081 LHR - ACC 15 Sep 07 Club World
Posted: 21 Sep 2007, 21:32Arriving at T4 it was the usual chaos, luckily there were only 4 people waiting for the Club World desks. Check in was smooth and friendly, the agent even told me use the lounge at gate 10 as we would be using a gate at that end of the diparture lounge.
Fast track security was OK, the usual shoes off and laptop out of case but fairly swift.
Entering the diparture lounge with a quick stop in Duty free for the essentials for a few days in Africa i went to the lounge. There was some little hitler at the 1st desk asking if i was travelling club or first, directed me upstairs to the club lounge. The person at the reception desk couldn't have been nicer, very friendly and although didn't actually tell me where anything was in the lounge was still helpful. Found a seat to dump my stuff and then took a look around.
The lounge was very full, very few seats left, found somewhere at the side by the window. Everything was self service, there was a well stocked bar area, tea and coffee station with packeted cake slices and biscuits. there was a counter for food but this was being emptied from the breakfast offering at this point. I decided on a drink to start and was totally shocked to find that there was no champagne!!!! my God what are they thinking. Settled for a glass of very good Chablis and sat down with the papers.
The food counter was stocked with the lunch offerings which were soup, ham, Cheese and salad. This although simple was fine but nowhere near the clubhouse offerings. Time went fast and it was soon time to board the aircraft.
Arrived at the gate just as boarding started, no priority boarding so stuck with the scrum but it moved quickly, greeted on board by name and personally shown to my seat. On first inspection the seats look a bit like the UCS but in rows, settled in and offered very small glass of Champagne (at Last). at this point i realised that this is nowhere as good as the UCS, the seat is much narrower and i later found out that as a bed it is not very long, i am 6' and found the bed very short for me. It is also far more claustraphobic which made sleeping difficult. No offer of a refil of the drink and we were off.
Seat belt sign off quickly, the 2 crew assigned to club were round quickly with drinks and the Molton Brown Kit, this time more Champagne but in a much bigger glass!! the 2 male crew were great, totally over the top but worked very well together and confusingly had the same name. Lunch served, i had the Smoked salmon and the fish Pie. I was very dissapointed that the meals were served from the trolley with the crew taking the plastic lids off the dishes as they put them down. WIth only 24 people in Club and 2 crew they could have brought the trays straight from the Galley. There was a salad with the starter that came with a really cute bottle of dressing on the side. The salmon was very good as was the salad, nothing outstanding but just good food. ths Fish pie was stunning, a really good dish and about the best food i have ever eaten on a flight. Every time the crew came with another course they also topped up drinks.
I decided on the Cheese rather than dessert and this was served with a huge measure of Port, ('oops, my hand slipped', as the setward said). The port was re-filled whilst i wasn't looking. Coffee was served in a decent sized mug and we settled in for a few hours peace, the IFE was the old 18 channel system so nothing worth watching so my book won the day.
The snack meal was advertised as Crayfish sandwiches and Cheese and pickle Sandwiches, Fruit Cake and Tea or Coffee. this again came around on the trolley but i was totally disgusted to see that the sandwiches were pre-packed and just given to me that way. there was no attempt to serve this with any style at all. The food was Ok but the whole thing was spoilt but the way it was delivered.
Landing came eventually and the usual long taxi to the terminal (there is only 1 taxi way at Accra so it always takes ages to get to the stand). I was first off the flight and into immipration only to find that BA were giving out a landing card that Ghana had stopped using 3 months ago so had to fill in another before i could get in to Ghana. Baggage was already on the belt by the time i reached the baggage hall and straight out into the heat of Africa and 5 days of very hard work.
[:?]
Stuart