This is a Trip Report from the Economy cabin
Ground Staff
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This was the longest I've ever stayed in Vegas because at about day #4, the place starts to get a little draining - I only go to have fun, drink & gamble a lot and after 4 days of that I'm usually skint, dead beat and ready to go home. This time, after losing pretty much every last bean, and having to take full advantage of the comp dollars & comp points earned on my players club card, it was definitely time to leave.
Onionz & I did online check-in on the Sunday evening - communicating by hotel phone as to what seats we were selecting. My original assignment was something like 56K, but when I got to the seat map, I found it'd been changed to 22A. This is the Economy 'sub-cabin', 3 rows of it just behind the 2 rows of PE on the lower deck and just in front of the doors. We decided that this was actually a pretty good spot to be in as this section would be amongst the first off the plane - saw that 22B was free and Onionz moved into that one.
We'd originally planned to go via the hotel shuttle, but decided that for only a few dollars more out of our dwindling funds, we'd go to the airport by taxi. And so it came to pass that after our last big buffet in the morning, we checked out via the TV and headed to the taxi rank at around 1140hrs. Taxi was swift and got us to the airport in around 20 minutes. After having a smoke outside & finishing the last of a bottle of water each, we headed into the terminal where we surrendered lighters as part of the initial security check. The UC check-in line had no-one in it at all, and we were eventually hailed to the PE desk, ahead of other people that had been waiting in the PE line for longer than we'd been there [:D]
Check-in agent was efficient, but not overly-pleasant - we tried for mileage upgrades on the offchance that being at the airport, 'all bets would be off' - no such luck - the bland reply came back that 'N class is not upgradeable sir'. Oh well, worth asking the question, and we were fairly happy with our seats anyway. Received the standard invite to the First Class lounge, and we were on our way upstairs after asking if a certain Station Manager was working (he wasn't [:(]).
No real queuing at security, and we were through the shoe carnival in no time. Onionz then turned into a bit of a girl and wanted to shop some in the duty free, whereas I just wanted to get into the lounge and drink [:D] A compromise was reached after he'd spent some money, and we were headed into the lounge fairly soon.
The First Class lounge at Gate 3 isn't bad at all - yes, it's no clubhouse, but the seats are comfortable, the ambience is nice & relaxing, they serve complimentary alcohol, and have a fairly good range of snacks (biscuits, crisps, fruit, etc...). We parked in the smoking area in front of the plasma screen, and did some channel hopping before settling on watching Star Trek TNG. The only downside is that it's a bit of a walk from the smoking area up to the bar, but I guess that counted as exercise....
While we were sat in there, we saw G-VROS (English Rose) appear on stand at Gate 3 (arriving an hour early) and knew that the return IFE would be Nova - no unexpected bonus there then.
At around 1530hrs we were called to board, and priority boarding was handled in a very civilised manner, using the left hand side of the boarding lane. Onto the plane, and into our seats - standard Y seat, though my seat seemed to get stuck at the fullest extent of the recline and needed a good tug to bring it back upright. Again, no introduction from the FSM. Unfortunately on this leg, we didn't have a row of 3 to ourselves [:(].
The captain came on to advise that one of the luggage containers was having a job clearing security and we'd have a short delay. Luckily, the air conditioning packs were operative, as the 'short delay' turned out to be an hour and a quarter [:(]
Anyway, we were up, up & away at around 1720hrs local - the climbout lasted a while, but I guess that was because of the bumpy air over the mountains. Drink service came round soon after the seatbelt light was extinguished - again, no refill offered. For the meal, I had chicken & pasta (and had to ask the guy in front to put his seat up while the meal service was going on [ii]), while Onionz had a beef & potato offering. Again, no wine refill offered, though I'm not sure if the tea/coffee round had a refill offered either. I have to say that the film selection was pretty dire too [:(]
After that, the lights went out (we must've been on the same light switch as UC & the PE cabin), and we were pretty much left alone for the rest of the flight (can certainly see the truth in what other folks have said about night-flight service!). I think I managed about 2 hours sleep in total on the flight - the seat wasn't that comfortable, although it was nice not to have anyone behind tutting & moaning about reclining [:D] During my awake time, I counted the grand total of 1 OJ/Water round - which is pretty surprising given the focus on health & the current liquid restrictions. Now, I know what you'll say - 'Go to the galley' - well, I would have, but on a night flight with 2 people asleep & blocking the row, there's not much chance of that (much easier to do on a day flight). I'm also pretty reluctant to use the call bell as if everyone did that, the crew would be running around like blue-arsed flies. Am sure I saw on a service sheet in the galley that water/OJ runs should be done every 1/2hr - was I imagining that? [:?]
Breakfast was served around 2.25hrs before landing - very early - standard OJ cup + egg/cheese croissant + 5 bits of fruit in a dish + muffin - ok, but the croissant wasn't really nice (Onionz gave me his, only managed to eat 1/2 of it, which just goes to show how manky it was!). The tea/coffee round here took absolutely ages to be done, which was a bit annoying considering the texture of the food required some liquid accompaniment [n] Can't remember if a refill of tea/coffee was offered - I think it was.....
We took a nice long route around the South coast to come into LGW, and were landed at around 1040hrs (45 mins late). As predicted, our row was pretty much first off the plane, and Onionz & I had a brisk walk to immigration. We were met by a massive queue (queueing back out of the immigration hall, and down the corridor) which really made the heart sink - but on closer examination, this queue was for non-EU folks! Muwuhahahahahahaha - the EU desks were completely empty - brilliant! [:D]
Needless to say, we were straight through immigration, and off to the baggage belts. We were there ages before a belt was allocated, but I still predicted the right one that the bags would come off at [:)] Priority baggage handling was a bit strange again, PE coming off before UC (our bags were tagged as UC), but we figured that the PE/UC bags would be loaded in the same bin. Regardless, it seemed that priority handling worked ok for my bag, but not Onionz' - his took a good 1/2hr to come through, despite being tagged UC and being checked at the same time as mine [ii]
After that wait, we headed through to arrivals and decided to have a go at the new access to the US Airways arrivals lounge. Mini-report here, the only addition I'd make to it is that the lady on reception was a bit unsure whether FC Au had access - she thought it was UC only. We arrived there at about 1125hrs, the lounge was closing at 1200hrs, and she wasn't really prepared to argue for that amount of time. So the confusion worked to our advantage with Onionz (FC Ag) getting access as well [:D]
Left the arrivals lounge just before midday, after topping up with OJ/coffee & nicotine, whereupon Onionz & I went our separate ways - me to Courtlands to pick up my car, and Onionz to play about with the train system. I do have to say that if I drove to LGW again, I'd use Courtlands without hesitation (remembering, of course, the 20 minute bus interval!) - they're efficient and very reasonably priced [y]
Overall, average flight, nothing inspiring - off to SFO in Y on Wednesday, so looking forward to making comparisons in service levels.
Cheers
Michael
