So where to go? As my parents had always wanted to go to Egypt, that was easy enough although the only free time that we would all have would be either Easter or late August/early September. Looking at the average temperatures we decided on Easter as it would be relatively mild in the mid-20s.
Anyway, to the flight. Checked-in online the day before and decided to stick with the allotted seats 12 A/B/C. The online process offered by BMI is extremely easy to use with no information to input yourself and the option to add frequent flyer details and to change seat selection. Once you get to the final confirmation page, you are given the opportunity to print out your boarding pass there and then or to e-mail a copy to save for later. I printed them out, however, I also emailed a copy to myself and it never arrived not sure if this was an isolated occurrence.
The flight was scheduled for 9:15am and we arrived at Purple Parking around 6:15 and were at Terminal 1 by 6:40. There was an enormous bundle of people queuing for the BA desks but no one at the BMI fast bag drop and everything was taken care off in under 5 minutes. Going through security, we ended up having to take off our shoes apparently on any given day, some of the channels will require all passengers to remove shoes while others will not. Having said that, the queue moved quickly and it wasnt too much of a wait. Also, no one from immigration was checking passports post security, unlike last summer when we flew to Dubai.
Gate 17 was displayed at 8:25 which is a short walk from the main shopping/holding (depending which way you look at it) area and boarding commenced soon after. Got to our seats and there was no seatback TV! I had looked it up on the BMI website and had got into my mind that there would be at least some form of entertainment. Having looked it up again, it does say you'll also enjoy a range of inflight entertainment in business and on most routes in economy. It was a bit of a shock as I cannot remember the last medium/long haul flight that Ive taken that did not have any entertainment onboard. Introductions and welcomes from the flight deck and cabin crew were done and we pushed back at 9:20, although we then sat on the tarmac for a while and the captain announced that we would not be departing until 10 at the earliest. He then turned the engine off and let everyone use their PDAs, mobiles, etc whilst we were waiting. Luckily, we eventually managed to take off at 9:50 and a drinks round was started soon after. Lunch was served an hour and a half into the flight and consisted:
Main
Chicken korma with rice
Macaroni cheese
Roast beef with potatoes, Yorkshire pudding and vegetables
Bread roll
Lemon cheesecake
Crackers with cheese
Tea/coffee
They had already run out of apple juice at this point was seemed rather quick so settled for water instead with the roast beef which was perfectly fine. I quite enjoyed the lemon cheesecake, although the lady sitting in front very loudly proclaimed, its absolutely disgusting. The crew then came round with what were lukewarm towels at best so not too refreshing.
The rest of the flight passed rather slowly and we landed at 4:10pm local time, 10 minutes late. No jet bridges at Terminal 1 in Cairo so we were all bussed to the terminal in buses that had air conditioning that wasnt turned on maybe Cairo Airport is trying to do its bit for the environment. Once in the terminal we were met by the Virgin Holidays rep (employed by Traveline) who already had visas available for 10 which isnt quite the $15 official charge but never mind. We were held up at immigration as the cabin crew hadnt handed out landing cards so everyone had to fill them in whilst in the queue slowing things down. Baggage was out in about 10 minutes and we made our way to the transfer coach and off to the hotel.
All in all a decent flight with a friendly and professional cabin crew let down by the lack of entertainment (I guess in this day and age of iPods and so on, its less of an issue for airlines) and the missing landing cards, although that was only a minor inconvenience.
Jonathan
