V-Flyer

Just been on a trip to Miami in X class to visit the Winter Music Conference and thought i would post a few details that might help anyone who comes across the same difficulties that i did. Main gripes seem to be with Miami airport itself, including the return sector which i completed today, (hopefully including that under the O/B sector wont upset those too precious on here!) hence time to kill typing up the report in the fun vacuum that is a Heathrow hotel before an onward flight. Here goes....

Check in was as usual pretty stress free, being Ag on FC i have found the bonus of PE check-in pretty much pointless as the desks at T3 always seem to be pretty queueless whenever i'm there. Everything went fine. I was aware of the flight being full and once onboard that was confirmed.

I tend to always sit in 42K in Econ as i am a bit of a window geek and this is just rear of the wing enabling you to get a good ground view. Only drawback with this seat can be that the trolley service starts from the rear of the Econ cabin and from PE back, therefore this seat being pretty much central can result in meal choices being limited. I have only had this once though. I like this seat as the crew store bulkhead is immediately opposite and it gives you a little extra privacy. Also this tends to be the side opposite from where the sun will be glaring in which even with full brightness on the V:Port screen can cause probs and reduces the chances of me getting migraine probs. Pax travelling with me did have an issue, 3.5mm mini jack broken off in the seat arm audio socket [:(!] Not a problem for two sound engineers! Made aware to cabin crew and as the flight was full, he looked like it could have caused him a problem. We asked if he had a safety pin, he offered us his badge and spent the next 5mins picking the bits out of the socket. Running repairs on the aircraft succesful, the cabin crew member was well impressed and we received two free beers each as reward (Sweet!)

Food & Drink were pretty good. I always find O/B sectors from LHR are good and return sectors can be a bit ropey!

Had a few probs with V:Port on the way out, crashed on me twice (black screen of death), but had to either ask for it to be rebooted or it just seemed to detect i had a problem whether prompted by crew or not and reboot itself.

So then we taxied all the way to the end of the runway only to have to return to a remote stand as the cargo/ baggage had been loaded incorrectly which could have effected the trim of the Airbus as it was full. May have been a genuine excuse, either way caused us an hour delay onboard pre take off! :-(

Flight good, then the subsequent arrival in MIA. OMG, what has happened to The States???, gone are the days of everything being so much more organised than Blighty. There were no signs between nationals and visitors at immigration and after about 100 people randomly through, some female security person starts shouting at the PAX like they had done something wrong and trying to reroute everyone in the queue. Luckily i was one of the first 'post split' and yelling instruction so off i went straight to the heavy handed customs official. He asked me completely pointless questions in a (looking at me like i was a criminal) kind of way that only American officials seeming to be thorough but not actually achieving anything could do. I was grilled on the 8 UAE stamps i have in my 9YO passport from my DXB trips. Could not help thinking that if my passport was new, then none of this would have occurred, anyway... Now the fun begins.
The BA 744 now turns up and immediately there are a load of people at immigration. I follow a handwritten sign that says baggage control then the baggage control signs pretty much dissappear and they change into passport control or customs again. All very confusing. We now come to another security check comprising of one official who is routing some people from other gates through another customs area and trying to divert us (post check) through a barrier down to baggage reclaim. (All incredibly confusing, especially as he was 200% full of his own self importance and was checking each PAX individually so much that the queue building of 600 PAX was backing up to the travelator. People were now coming to the end of the travelator, unable to get off and piling up!!!!! I could see this about to happen and tried to tell them an accident was about to happen. He was having none of it. Suddenly another official appears to alert him of the chaos and he starts arguing with him that everyone must be checked!!!! I slipped through and left the chaos. So baggage hall here we are.... VS005 on all the screens saying belt 2 and after 10mins of staring at 100's of bags a repeated announcement over a bad PA that the VS005 belt was now belt 1 and a handler was removing them all and piling them up on the floor. Nobody could really hear it and they simply refused to change the screens yet make these inaudible announcements. Then we have 600 PAX from the two LHR flights plus a few domestics and you can image Welcome to Miami, Have a Nice Day was not the exact start.

I completed the return sector today. I believe this route has had an operational aircraft change while i was there to a 744 (it was rammed full!!!!) however i am a little miffed that as i travelled with another PAX who booked seperately and changed their seat online to sit together, the aircraft changed messed up all the seating for everyone and from what i could gather all groups were split up. Why not just cancel all seat reservations and reallocate them at check-in. I was the 1st person to check in for the flight (Definate Ag bonus there as about 40 PAX were already queuing in Econ) and yet we still could not get 2 seats together.

At Miami i was looking to get lounge access with Priority club. If you are not already aware (PC Cardholders) you can simply text any 3 digit airport code to PC on your mobile and you will get a text back with that airports lounge details. It suggested Concourse E, where VS was originally flying from, but possibly with the aircraft change it has now moved to F. Once through security and airside it seemed impossible to navigate from concourse to concourse so i assumed there would be zero lounge access, then like an oasis.... Club America appeared at the end of Concourse F. Sorted. The duty free after security here is pretty poor. Warning if you are saving purchases till u are airside.

Flight back on the 744 was quite smooth on the whole for an Eastbound Atlantic crossing. Then i tried to get the hotel shuttle bus to the Crowne Plaza at Heathrow. OMG, that is a complete farce for even a fairy savvy and regular traveller. Why is that within 10mins of being at Heathrow i am in a bad mood and hate everything about the UK again? It really is the worlds biggest building site to have it's own airport! Simply put, no mention of shuttle bus on hotel website, therefore that was an avoidable call to the hotel who spoke to me in a tone like (you should be aware of the bus) Then i get to the central bus station (mammoth walk from terminal 3 as i'm sure u are all aware) to try and buy a ticket on the automated National Express machine and it does not have the HotelHoppa available. I have to ask the info desk guy who says walk to terminal 2 and get on a stops 12 or 13. I happen to see a small sign that says HotelHoppa stops 11 and 13. So which is it??? I walk to term 2 and the stop i come to first is stop 13 which is for taxis only, stop 12 is the Hotel Hoppa and stop 11 does not even exist!!!!!! MY GOD!!!!!! No wonder there were loads of US tourists with no idea where they were going. I then go to buy a return at the automated machine which says push the BLACK button for a return journey. The buttons were green red and white. Does anyone actually care how dreadful this experience is???????????? I finally get on, only to then be transported right back to the outside of terminal 3 where i was in the first place. Genius, absolute genius. I simple cannot stand why we tolorate this?
Anyway, hopefully someone has benefitted from my report if you are to do this journey too.

Enjoy!

Scott :-)

Thanks for the TR which seems to buck the recent trend of V-Flyers speak of light loads[y]

Your experience on arrival at MIA demonstrates the problems of an old airport trying to cope with new restrictions and no doubt the late arrival of the VS flight just added further fuel to the melee[n]

I know when I last went through Immigration there, the place was just not designed for dealing with large numbers of people - but as you have amply pointed out, Heathrow is equally unattractive

buns

quote:Originally posted by buns
Your experience on arrival at MIA demonstrates the problems of an old airport trying to cope with new restrictions and no doubt the late arrival of the VS flight just added further fuel to the melee[n]

I know when I last went through Immigration there, the place was just not designed for dealing with large numbers of people - but as you have amply pointed out, Heathrow is equally unattractive


Buns - you are way to easy on MIA, point is its been like this for years, a decade or more maybe. The TSA are the worst in the US, shouting unreasonably all the while, immigration is chaos, the airport shabby and ill served to deal with its custom. There seems to be no will in the local airport management to do anything, even tensa barriers to manage traffic flow in immigration would help.

VS should move to FLL.

I hate MIA and we are flying into it in 10 days [n] I just hope it isn't quite as hideous as it usually is!

Thanks for the TR! sorry to hear about your poor experience.

Thanks for the TR, MIA sounds like a shambles! Why do USA immigration officers speak to people like they are slow.....[V]

quote:Originally posted by buns
Heathrow is equally unattractive


Perhaps that's why President Obama chose the oft derided Stansted...?

[:D]

Paul

Very interesting TR. Thankyou... I'm heading off to Miami in a few weeks, so will heed warnings just in case