V-Flyer

After a great couple of days at Pompeii, Sorrento and driving around the Amalfi coast it was time to head back. Dropped off hire car and then took the shuttle bus back to the terminal. Check in was empty and bags dropped off – proper card boarding cards in hand. Fast track security was very quick and then we wandered through the few shops (usual airport set-up having to go through the main duty free) towards the lounge. Had one last limoncello, followed by a short time in the lounge. There was a sales promotion in there of local wines – we tried the couple of sparkling wines which actually were pretty good but you had to buy a case. Prices not too bad and the delivery to the UK was only €8!

Boarding called and we headed off to the gate, which involved a bus to the plane as it wasn’t next to the terminal (there are no airbridge gates but some gates enable you to just walk across to the plane). We were on fairly quickly to a slight larger club cabin – four row but about half full. There was someone who seemed familiar – by the end of the flight (and with the help of Google on the phone in the UK after arrival), we realised it was a 1980s pop star.

After take off, hot towels were done and this was then followed by the usual drinks service with the nuts – they are still specially selected for “Club World”, even though they have been giving them out on Club Europe for at least a year! Dinner then followed – really nice chicken tikka masala – decent portion and very tasty! A very good inflight meal in my opinion. The flight passed fairly unremarkably with some more champagne (of course) whilst watching a movie on the iPad.

We arrived at a rather wet and dark LGW North Terminal. Similar to the outbound, we were at a terminal gate but had to use steps rather than an airbridge. What followed after arrival could not have been written better as a comedy. For about the first 10 minutes after arrival, the plane kept on getting banged and rocking – eventually the pilot came on to explain that the two ground crew (not BA) were trying to align the steps but that they kept on missing the door slightly! This continued, and if you looked out the left side, occasionally you could seem one of them slip over or them taking the steps away and then having a run-up towards the plane and misaligning them again. Finally there was a knock on the door, although they asked the Captain if he was happy with the “gap”. Door shut and pilot came on again to explain that the gap was “very large” and too unsafe. Finally, a supervisor arrived and managed to align the steps first go! What a comedy – would have been more funny if we weren’t wanting to get a train home on a Sunday evening!

Impression
- Naples ground staff / facilities – good
- Flight / Inflight crew – attentive and good throughout, nice meal indeed
- LGW ground crew – need remedial training at step positioning!

There's not much worse than arriving into LGW on a dark wet night to the hapless ground staff, although the hapless baggage staff can be worse than that. You'd think that an aeroplane turning up is an unusual event sometimes!

Sounds like something from "Come Fly With Me"
As for the eighties pop star- do we guess or will you tell? Martin Fry of ABC?

Reminds of arriving at Gatwick a few years ago and the door from the finger to the terminal being locked. It was 1 am and we had been delayed several hours. We then spent the best part of an hour in the finger. The crew were useless and dissapeared. The person on the end of the emergency phone likewise. It was comical

Thank you for posting your TR. A very enjoyable read, I'm still laughing over the attempts to align the steps.

Another great TR, thanks for posting

It looks like we are going to have to guess the 80's pop star - Tony Hadley

Thank you for the TR.