V-Flyer

This is arguably my best flight ever with any airline in 20 years (even beats my SAS CPH-EWR flight a few years back).

I won't go through the minutiae of the check-in because that was already taken care of for me before I even got to the desk. I arrived early, sped through check-in, and even security and passport control were no problem either. For Johannesburg this was world-class!

After that we (me, my escort and my guest) parked ourselves in the News Caf_, had something small to eat while awaiting the boarding time, some time before which my escort said goodbye and made his way back land-side. My guest stayed a little longer, accompanied me to gate 25 (how coincidental), before she said goodbye, and I ended up on the bus out into the darkness.

Tinker Belle waited for us there, and after a brief time waiting, the doors finally opened and everyone streamed up the stairs. I was originally booked into 29C with a technician from Pratt & Whitney in 29A, but when the ground-crew popped in to hand over the paperwork, I realised that I could move. Excellent!

After the long trundle down what felt like two thirds of the runway, we turned around and raced off north on 03L (like there's any other runway to use here). Made a nice slow ascent, watching the millions of lights stretch off into the distance. Evening drinks were served, after which I got the usual laptop power and got to work.

The dinner menu was correct this time round, and I opted for the Cape Malay curry because it sounded fabulous. The F/A also opted for it in the end based on my recommendation and loved it. Glad to hear that. The post-dinner drinks also arrived soon after, followed by a refill and then a relaxing hour or so with the movie of one of South Africa's best comedians (Pieter-Dirk Uys if you must know).

Eventually switched everything off, wrapped up and conked out until at 5am the ladies brought out the breakfast. After that, some morning refreshing, and then the wait of the landing into the cold and dreary Heathrow. Parked up at Gate 26 again (surprise!), one slot over from a lovely Gulf Air jet decked out in a Formula 1 motif, and then made our way to passport control (funnily enough, we got through passport control quicker than the 'Priority Queue' folks - oh how we chuckled), and then the baggage hall.

Again, an awesome flight, and probably the best yet. Now I know how Upper Class feels every day. ;-)

P.S. To the admins: I learned from one F/A that Mustang Sally flew to JNB on 20/7 and returned to LHR on 21/7. You can update the schedule with that. :-)

Sounds like a fab flight. Thanks for the TR.

Thanks for the matched pair and welcome to V-Flyer!

Great TR's glad that you had good flights all round. [y]

Dominic