V-Flyer

First off, apologies for putting in this TR late – although if I were to compare my timing with mdvipond’s this TR isn’t late at all. Blame the delay on work. Has anyone had one of those weeks that follow a relaxing holiday where by the 3rd day, the vacation seems like a distant memory? Well, that’s what happened to me.

So back to the actual TR. I normally do not get to the airport early for any flight and generally arrive at the airport a minimum of 2 hours before flight time, but this day was different as I fully intended to watch the Champions League matches playing that evening. That being the case, I headed out to the airport at about 5:00PM and was at DTCI a little after 6. Check in as usual was breeze, but that is when the fun stopped. Ended up spending almost 15 minutes in the security queue (too many people that were just taking the time to sort out liquids, laptops and tablets, belts, shoes, etc) but by the time it started moving, I think that there were about 20 of us waiting and when we started out I was about 5th in line.

So that was over, and after a quick stop at the VAT refund desk, it was up to the CH for me. Welcomed in with a smile and “I’m sure you know where everything is”. Once in the CH I dropped off my cabin luggage with the nice chap and made a beeline for the TV area. Chose a lovely spot to set up camp for the evening and staked my claim by artfully arranging a few belongings here and there, ordered a Redhead. I popped over to the spa and booked a maintenance mani for 9 PM and went back to my camp to order supper which was tapas (if I recall correctly, I had the pork belly, shepherd’s pie and sweet potato fries – all were wonderful).

Soon enough it was footie time and I had the pleasure of watching both the Chelsea and Arsenal matches simultaneously. At half time, I popped into DF to buy something called a Devil’s Cut for my husband. He also asked for Glenmorangie, Glenfiddich and some other Glen but considering the fact that I had 2 bottles of Mount Gay Rum in my suitcase, I decided not too venture too far off my Duty Free allowance. Annoyingly, on my way to the queue, I was waylaid and coerced into buying a Salvatore Ferragamo eau de parfum (this is why I avoid Duty Free). I paid for my purchase and went back for the second half of the footie.

When it was time, I went for my mani but was asked to come back 15 minutes later as they were running late. Not a problem for me as that meant that I could go back to the TV. Got my mani finished just as the first call went out, but as a true V-Flyer, I waited for the last and final call before leaving the CH.

I had a meeting scheduled for the following morning, so it was my full intention to sleep through the flight, so I popped a sleeping tablet and made the long journey to Gate 22 where the priority lane was full and economy lane was empty, so I walked past the people in the priority lane and went to the economy line and was through in 10A in seconds. I accepted the offer for OJ and changed into a sleep suit with every intention to be in bed as soon as the seatbelt light was turned off.

I wasn’t watching the time, but boarding was over fairly quickly and pushed off only a few minutes later than we were supposed to. Taxied and sat on the tarmac in the rain for a bit before we eventually took off. And true to my intention, I converted the seat as soon as the seatbelt light was turned off after the usual struggle to get the duvet and bedsheet[?] out. I then decided to watch a filmand made the silly mistake of forgetting that I was in a 346 so attempted to navigate Vera by touchscreen. I soon remembered where I was and scrolled through the choices and settled on “The Heat”. Seeing as sleep was not forthcoming, I decided to have some dessert and cheese and settled down to wait for sleep.

Now this is where it all went pear shaped and why CC got only 2 stars. I was asked if I wanted any duty free and I mentioned that I had some 2 sets of pre-orders and could they be brought to me. The reply was, “I’m a bit busy right now, but if you remind me later, I will sort it out”. I did remind him later and I went to sleep afterwards. Now what usually happens when I’m asleep and I have duty free to be delivered it is placed in the little cubby hole under the ottoman. So I woke up about 3 hours later expecting to see my stuff but I didn’t so I went up to the CC and gave him my receipts and after a lot of faffing about which quite literally p****d me off, he came back with only 1 out of 2. I asked where’s the second one and he says, “Oh, I thought it was the 2 items in the bag” and I say, “NO, I gave you two receipts for 2 different products”. So he faffs off again and shortly before descent, I get a visit from some other member of crew apologizing and informing me that it doesn’t seem that the order was loaded and I should contact retail therapy for a refund.

I did contact retail therapy (who were fantastic by the way) and they said, the item was loaded on the flight but returned to the warehouse. I got my refund the same day but was a bit miffed as this was something I had promised my uncle I would get for him.

Anyhow, back to the flight, we landed on time and cleared immigration pretty quickly and went into the newly refurbished luggage area and I thought oh joy it’s been done up, maybe I’ll get out of the airport even quicker, boy was I wrong, it took an hour and a half for my luggage to come out. That was painful. Eventually got my bags, went home, showered and went straight to work.

Thanks for reading. Hope that didn’t drag on too much.

Thanks for posting tinuks , glad you got home ok ,
I remember trying to use a blackberry after an iPhone and couldn't work out why it wasn't working ! Nice move slipping down the the y line aswell !
Hope your uncle wasn't too annoyed at not receiving his pressie
All the best
Blacky

Tinuks

Thanks for the TR on a route that is not often commented upon

Glad to see that for once you made full use of the Clubhouse - I did not realise you were such a footie fan

Shame about the CC

Thanks once again

buns

@Blacky I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one that these things happen to.

@buns I can now appreciate why people spend so s long in the CH. While in there, time seemed to fly by very quickly. I was in there for like 4 hours but I could have sworn I'd only been there for 2.

Tinuks wrote:... it took an hour and a half for my luggage to come out. That was painful.

Ouch

Thanks for the interesting TR and how annoying about your duty free.

Wow, shocker with the CC response and the missing duty free

Glad to see that you haven't let it sour the VS experience and also good to hear a nice amount of time was spent in the CH

Cheers for the TR Tinuks

Thank you for the TR.

Great TR! I was hoping you were going to say the luggage 'system' has finally improved at Murtala Mohammed!

I sympathise! The amount of times I have seen some poor smuck's rouge underwear traveling along the belt.... only to realise is mine (blush) is uncountable!

Maybe there's a temporal displacement wormhole underneath the airport?

mikeijay wrote:Maybe there's a temporal displacement wormhole underneath the airport?

If it was a wormhole that would have been perfect. I think that they still offload the bags from the aircraft manually and drag them across the tarmac on some sort of trolley and it takes longer now because there's a longer distance to travel.

....A Trolley? Judging from the scuffed up state of my suitcases on arrival I think the bag handlers play 'luggage football' all the way to the Terminal hehe