This is a Trip Report from the Premium Economy cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
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Cabin Crew
Did OLCI for 19D with no problems, and set off to Heathrow by train and RailAir coach from Woking. They changed the schedule at the beginning of the year, and instead of going round T1/2/3 twice, they just drop off and pick up at the central bus station - a longer walk, but saves 20 minutes!
As we approached T1/2/3 on the perimiter road, traffic was almost stationary at 7:00pm. I was in plenty of time for the 9:55pm departure, so stayed relaxed as we crawled along.... it turned out a car had broken down and blocked a lane near the T1/T2 split, and it must have been there for a while. No sign of police or security - don't they have CCTV and patrols? It took 25 minutes to get past it.
The queue for fast bag drop was quite long, so I went to the PE line, which was much shorter, but several family groups were checking in huge amounts. UC was empty, and one of the checkin staff was trying to get the attention of the guy at the front of the PE line to do him, but he ignored her, so she gave up and went away.
Checkin was fine, the agent confirmed PE and UC were nowhere near full, so no opups. But he was in a good mood, he was happy I had followed all the rules with small hand baggage, and we had a jolly chat. So much so that he gave me a fasttrack sticker, to help me in return!
Which was just as well, as the standard line was quite long, over 100 yards I would guess, but it was moving. 2 friendly girls were combing the line, checking for outsize baggage and reminding people about the liquids rule.
Fasttrack was about 10 yards outside the entrance, but moving slowly. No-one was checking this line...
When I got to the desk and had the boarding pass checked, I pointed out to the guy that his sign was displaying the 'old' hand baggage sizes - it took him some time to understand what I was saying, and he was then very embarrased, especially as one of the 'adjusted' racks was 6 feet away, but being ignored by everyone. he was just checking BP's...
It took 40 minutes to get through fasttrack with 2 machines in use, that kept stopping for some reason. The standard line was taking over an hour.
A huge plasma screen showed a young lady being shephered through security by 4 smiling staff, showing her putting her mobile in her pocket, and her laptop out of it's bag. Shame it didn't show shoes and belts coming off as well...
So security continues to be an incompetent operation.
Sorry about the rant!
Anyway to the flight:
Boarded early, and PE was less that half full. UC was fairly busy in front, but empty in the rear cabin. Economy rear cabin was almost full, but the front cabin was less that half full - strange way of loading it?
No-one at all in row 18, so I switched to 18A for the window, and the wing root starts just under it, so you get a reasonable view looking forward. Very clear night across Europe. Fast flight - 7h35m, as against a schedule of 8h45m.
Take off was about 45 minutes late, due to late closing of the doors (even though no passengers came on late), and then a slow taxi and queue to take off.
Champers came round on boarding - no refills. After take off it took about 15 minutes after the announcement before the IFE finally started.
It must have been almost an hour before drinks came round - no refill offered. Food was a choice of 'vegetarian', roast chicken, or Chicken Tikka. I had the roast chicken, which came with some kind of pasta in a creamy sauce - less than average. Wine came down the F aisle, but not down the C aisle - I had to buzz three times, before someone came, and then it was another 5 minutes before they came back with a bottle of red and white. So I had finished eating by then. The other aisle got a refill, but we didn't...
It then took ages for the trays to be cleared, and then nothing was seen of the staff until breakfast. Other passengers commented on this....
I dozed for about 3 hours in total, and enjoyed the clear views on the way across to Delhi.
Breakfast was served late, with around an hour to go, so tea/coffee was rushed, but they did get a refill in. Staff were still clearing the cabin with less than 15 minutes to go, which meant there were some arguments at the toilets, as people couldn't get there before the seat belt lights went on, due to the trolleys blocking the aisles.
We landed 35 minutes early, and I was quickly off, so thought passport checks quickly. Changed some money, and my bag was already out, but my taxi hadn't arrived by then. When he did turn up I was pleased I wasn't driving - the traffic here is a lot worse than Istanbul, which I would have though was impossible.
So overall, a poor service on the flight - lots of staff who didn't seem to do anything. No drinks runs...
I hope it's better on my return in 2 weeks. And better still on my St Lucia flight in 4 weeks.
Sorry it's long one!
