BA0049
24th July 2009
Seat 63B (Club)
Warning very long [:)]
My flight to Seattle was at 15:15pm, so I had a leisurely morning packing before Richard dropped me at the airport for around 12pm. Leisurely to me means a good hour of tea and toast while checking the internet and then hurriedly shoving things into a case and forgetting important items. My Mother used to religiously write lists. Lists for everything, lists for shopping, lists of things to do, lists for packing ... she would write a list of lists if she thought it would help her be organised. I never followed in this train of thought and usually forget something and generally appear reasonably disorganised. If Id have written a list I wouldnt have forgotten to take Floyd with me today, but then, he has been to Seattle before and he ought not get spoiled.
I was flying off to our company conference in Seattle which promised to be an exciting mix of lectures and discussions from our company peers drowned in a haze of Alaskan Amber beer and well mixed Margaritas (well, certainly for me!).
Richard dropped me off at Terminal 5 just before midday. It didnt appear too busy, and as I was travelling in Club I headed down to the far end, zone H onwards, and checked in at the desk with a polite but not particularly engaging member of staff. BA have a 23kg per bag limit, as per the new VS allowances and Id managed to weigh in at 23.9. Epic result, as I didnt want to take a second bag as I couldnt really manage another. It is worth noting that unless you are flying in one of the premium classes or hold a Silver or Gold BAEC card, you cant use the bag drop until 3 hours before your flight, so dont turn up too early to T5 if you need to drop a bag and dont fall into one of those categories. The lady at check-in advised me that Economy was full, WT+ almost full and Club and First with average load. BA usually have two flights a day to Seattle but had recently cut the frequency to one a day on some days.
After having such a sterling set of flights to and from Singapore over Christmas I was very much anticipating these flights, hoping for a similarly good experience.
I went through security which wasnt particularly quick, about 15 minutes end to end (and this was Fast Track!) but not too bad. Just as I had passed through security I realised that I had left my mobile phone in Richards car. The staff would not let me leave to go back to the check-in area so I thought I would call him to tell him, but not having a phone, and not having carried 10p for the phone in many many years I wasnt sure how I would accomplish that, so I headed to the South lounge figuring Id sort it there.
I asked the lounge dragon (who was anything but!) if there was a telephone I could use in the BA lounge. She said that there was one in the Concorde room but not in Galleries that she was aware of, so she promptly whipped out her mobile and insisted I use her phone. After initially refusing as I assumed it to be a personal mobile I finally gave in to her pleas and called Richard. Fortunately we have a large number of employees travelling out over the weekend for our conference so I was able to suggest that Richard give my mobile to my colleague who would be flying out tomorrow. Crisis averted, and huge thanks to the lounge dragon for being so sweet.
After dealing with that little calamity I entered the lounge, grabbed a handful of todays papers (The Times, the Independent and the Daily Mail!) and settled down into the Bistro area of Galleries.
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I set up camp and then helped myself to the buffet, starting off with soup and a glass of Pinot Grigio. It was rather nice but after guzzling what was left of the bottle it didnt get replenished so I switched to a Sav and followed that up with a little antipasti. Champagne is available but not left out, so you have to ask for it.
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The lounge was quite busy but didnt feel bursting. Fortunately there are two (technically three) Galleries lounges (two in the main terminal and one in the B terminal) plus the Concorde room and the First lounge, so the lounges should (hopefully!) not ever appear full.
We had a series of amusing announcements over the hour or two that I was in the lounge. First for a gentleman who has left a grey chequered jacket in the mens toilets then a gentleman who has left a Rolex watch in the gents to a gentleman who has left a shirt and tie in the shower room. I can just imagine some chap having a mid-life crisis who has decided to strip himself of all his worldly belongings. About ten minutes passed and then we had the comical announcement of can i have the attention of all men in the lounge, can you please look at your wrists, if you have mislaid a watch please can you contact reception. This was met with fits and giggles from most of the passengers dotted around the lounge.
I caught up with a bit of email in the Lounge and spoke to Richard online. BA has free wifi for lounge guests, which is wonderful. Richard had reminded me of the Elemis spa so I headed down the floor below (the lounge is over several floors with Elemis Spa being downstairs with First and the Concorde room, Club lounge (Galleries) being upstairs). They had walk up appointments which was fantastic. I also noted on the screens in the lounge that my flight was departing from the satellite terminal (B) and as this was about 2pm with my flight being just after 3pm the Elemis spa said I could either have the treatment with them in the South lounge or over in Satellite B. I chose the latter, thinking that I could just relax once I got there and the staff at Elemis said theyd call ahead and book me in while I walked across.
Its only a short journey to B, down in the lift, hop on the little train and follow the signs to the BA lounge. I grabbed an espresso whilst waiting for my treatment, which the Elemis staff had booked for me at 14:20. They do not have the manual massage on the fold-up seat in the B terminal as they do not have the chair so I had a body massage in one of the massage chairs that youd expect to see in Brookstones while a staff member massaged my scalp and neck. A lovely 15 minutes spent there, and I felt fresh as a daisy afterwards.
The lounge staff gave me a glass of water and as I headed over to the seating area and checked email once again, then the flight was called.
I made the very short trip downstairs to find it wasnt actually boarding, and it didnt start to board for another half an hour. A group of Club/First/Gold passengers started to congregate around the priority boarding signs, and one of them, a large chap (and, typically and unfortunately, American) started shouting loudly that hed been called down too early, that BA were terrible and that he was going to go back upstairs and have another Jack Daniels. As he moved I saw his luggage tags and realised that this chap worked for my company. What an embarrassment. I then saw another colleague in the queue and had a quick natter with him. Hes BA Gold, and he asked where I was sitting. Now my company have a Y travel policy, particularly for conferences but you can upgrade yourself out of your own pocket. I told my colleague that I was in the bubble and it was quite amusing how this BA Gold just stuttered at the prospect of laying down his own hard earned for the pleasure. Hed been op-upped to WT+ and confessed to not seeing the point of paying for business class. I am so glad that I have so many V-Flyer friends otherwise Id think I was mad.
We quickly boarded, and priority boarding was brilliant. BA did a good job of holding back the few Economy passengers that tried to get in the premium queues (they had two lines for F/J/Au&Ag passengers, one for everyone else) and I was onboard within minutes with a friendly purser greeting me at the top of the stairs and showing me to my seat.
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Sadly, we sat there for almost another hour. I heard the crew say there was something wrong with the air conditioning systems onboard and that was why we boarded late. It was stiflingly hot onboard and the crew distributed cold towels and glasses of chilled water for all, reassuring us that once we were airborne the temperature would cool down. I read my book (Dan Browns Digital Fortress - I am currently enthralled in the world of rotating cleartext encryption!) and tried to blank my loud American colleague from earlier, whod clearly gotten his Jack Daniels, as he appeared on the upper deck and sat himself in the coveted 62A exit row. Bastard.
As we were on the ground for a while the crew gave out the menus and amenity kits. Here is the Elemis travel kit, containing socks, shades, earplugs, toothbrush and toothpaste and little travel Elemis beauty products.
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The crew started to take dinner orders while we were on the ground. Todays menu was as follows:
Starters
Potted crab with spelt bread
Pea Jelly with Parmesan shortbread
Fresh seasonal salad with vinaigrette
Main courses
Cass Titcombes Lamb shoulder stew with peas, broad beans and herbs
Duck confit with thyme jus, green beans and cocotte potatoes
Haddock with samphire, asparagus and garlic mash potatoes
Basil creamed pearl barley with char-grilled asparagus and sun-blush tomatoes
Chilled main course salad of smoked chicken, green beans, sun-dried tomatoes and parmesan
Desserts
Stawberry and vanilla delice with pistachio crme anglaise
Vanilla ice-cream
Normandy camembert and Ambervale with savoury biscuits
Selection of fruit
Afternoon Tea
Egg and cress or tuna and cucumber sandwiches
Salad of marinated feta and chilli-roasted aubergine
Savoury Danish with spinach, mushrooms and emmental
Plain or fruit scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam
Sachertorte
I wasnt enthused by the main courses. I opted for the salad to start (though was tempted by the crab) and the Haddock for main. I did want to try the pea jelly but was convinced I wouldnt like it.
Once dinner orders had been taken we had another round of cold towels, then the welcome dual bing-bong to tell us that wed be departing, about an hour behind schedule now. We all strapped in, had a rather rough take-off and headed off in a north easterly direction, past the Faroes and toward Iceland. Flight time was 8 hours and 50 minutes, quite good for the Seattle route. Seatbelt sign went off quite quickly and the first drinks round started. I opted for a G&T as i wanted something refreshing. No lime onboard today but there was Tanqueray.
My fellow seat passenger in 63A asked what wine we had onboard today and I have to say that I was bowled over by the FAs ability to name the wines and vintages without looking and with (certainly what sounded like) the correct pronunciations for the French wines. Top marks. We were offered a second drink but I declined.
I retrieved my laptop from the overhead and noticed that the in-seat power wasnt working but a quick call to the passing FA and this was rectified very quickly. I love the seat power as it takes a standard US plug. I have a US adapter in my bag so I just need to use my normal Dell power brick with the US plug adapter and i am good to go one less cable to carry around with me.
Dinner arrived promptly. The salad starter was very nice, rocket, spinach, cos and other assorted leaves with fresh mint and fresh peas that popped as you ate them. The haddock main that I opted for was also really good, though the asparagus spears were slightly overcooked and soggy, but this is in-air dining and frankly there is very little to complain about.
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I finished off with the vanilla and strawberry dessert, which was lovely, and accompanied by a glass of the Warres Port. Mmm. Sadly I didnt have room for cheese, or any tasty bites from the club kitchen.
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The IFE had to be reset while we were dining. I wasnt watching anything but there were grumbles from those who were, so its not just VS who have issues with their IFE.
After clearing my tray I did a tour of duty down the back as I had a couple of colleagues on this flight. I took my OBriens chocolates with me and passed them on to a colleague who was travelling down the back. He was most appreciative, and mentioned that he was offered an upgrade from WT to WT+ for under 100 each way. He declined, thinking that if the flight was that full hed get op-upped. Sadly it didnt happen for him but a couple of other colleagues did get upgraded to WT+. There was not a spare seat in WT or WT+, a handful of empty seats in Club though.
I stretched my legs and came back up to my seat, noting that the loud American colleague was asleep in his seat (with a large percentage of his girth beside him, having escaped from the confines of his shirt). I settled down and looked at the list of films. Russell Crowe fans would be in hugs heaven as no less than three of his films starred in the line up. There wasnt anything I really wanted to see, but I noted Return of the King from the Lord of the Rings trilogy and settled down to watch that.
I must have fallen asleep at one point as I noticed that Id missed a section of the film so I reclined my seat into almost bed mode and watched the rest of the film. After that I thought I would try and get some rest proper and bedded down, selecting an audiobook to listen to. There were a few choices and I went for Vic Reeves autobiography, as narrated by the man himself, and it was rather funny.
I got a couple of hours sleep and was woken by the cabin lights turning on. A quick check of skymap showed us at 90 minutes from landing. The crew were coming around with afternoon tea so I had a cup of tea and a couple of scones with jam and clotted cream, which were lovely.
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I quickly filled in my I-94W, which still have the country where visa was issued box. BA played a video instructing people how to fill the form in which disrupted the IFE. This was really annoying as I know how to fill the form in, the Highlife magazine tells you how to fill the form in too, and the video didnt have the new visa issue date part in anyway.
The Captain advised us that we had our last chance to us the washroom and that wed be landing in 20 minutes so the crew set about securing the cabin and we finally touched down around 80 minutes later than scheduled, getting to the gate just after 6pm.
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It was quite a wait for the bags, about 15-20 minutes in total (though I did get off the plane quite quickly. There didnt seem to be any indicator of priority baggage either and mine came out somewhere in the middle, though there are a lot of Club seats on the High-J config of the BA 744 I guess.
I headed out of SEA-TAC, in to a waiting cab and was in my hotel around 15 minutes later.
All in all, another great BA flight. I cant find fault with anything, the crew were attentive and polite, the food was good and the seat was extremely comfortable. The cabin temperature, once we got going was also nice and cool, making sleeping much easier. The toilets stayed clean, staff were present in the cabin at all times, coming around with juice and water, despite putting bottles of water out in the cabin for us to help ourselves to. The delay was a pain but there were lots of delayed flights that day and you cant complain when you have the lounge. My colleagues on todays flight are currently delayed by 3 hours though.
I did miss the Clubhouse for the bar and the cocktails, and its great atmosphere, but the BA Galleries lounge is fine. I did miss the onboard bar though.
Overall, another cracking BA flight. Very glad I flew direct this time instead of connecting in SFO as would normally be my choice. Heres hoping that my flight home on Friday is just as good!
