Only one couple in front of us at the Upper check in. All very well, although they were not flying Upper, and had no status, and spent ten minutes asking all sorts of questions about what to expect in London. Three other check in agents were pretending to be busy, one clearly couldn't chew her gum at the same time as checking us in.
Finally we made it and we went straight through security. What a relief compared to LAS T1 where security can take an age to negotiate, plus all that walking and monorail hassle.
Airside, there were lots of twenty or thirty something Brits showing how to drink Brit style - classy, very classy. We went to the lounge which was OK but nothing special.
Our flight was called, and we were directed to a special exit directly adjacent to the gate. However there were still plenty of folks milling around and there was no obvious way to get to the priority boarding without pushing through the assembled crowd, so we returned for another fifteen minutes as did most others.
On the second attempt at boarding, I eventually managed to attract the attention of the gate agent who came over and opened the tensa barrier thingy for us, and by this time there were half a dozen other Upper pax with us.
I took my seat, and popped on the PJs. Looks like the sizes are back up to what they were, the Large are now rather too big for me so I feel a lot better!
Well, what a difference in crew to the outbound. I was repeatedly addressed by name, and the speed of service was so much better.
Food-wise it was a bit disappointing. The starter salad of scallops and a creamy lime and tarragon sauce was weird to say the least. The scallops were miniscule and very dry. The sauce was indescribeable, not horrible tasting, but you just wouldn't describe it as creamy, limey or tarragony. The 'steak' I had was just terrible, dry as a bine and over done to death. I know steak is normally quite bad on planes, but this took the biscuit. The saving grace was the blue cheese on the cheese plate and a glass of port.
I took the opportunity to try all the whites on offer (a chenin, a young chard and a Spanish Rueda) and I went for the Rueda with the starter. I also had the Spanish red that I'd had on the way out for the beef.
Despite an off duty crew member and another pax having quite a loud conversation at the bar, I dropped off pretty soon after the meal and was awoken about 90 minutes before landing as the waft and noise of breakfast started. Plus a poke in the ribs from one of my fellow travellers hardly helped!
It was then I discovered that one of the loos was out of order so there was a bit of a delay getting changed as we all waited. In addition I had noticed that the loos were being used by pax behind as well - the curtains were left half open throughout the flight. I am not sure about the use of these loos on these reduced Upper cabin flights, but there was certainly no attempt to curtail their use from the back.
I was good and had some fruit and a cappucino for breakfast. Arrived into LGW, to be greeted by a long walk to immigration where it was undergoing a lot of rennovation. The was quite a long queue there too, it took abour fifteen minutes to clear. The bags were just coming off as we arrived in the baggage area, and it did look as it priority baggage handling was in operation.
So all in all, the crew were very, very good indeed. One thing though - I asked an FA about where the shared US Air arrivals lounge was at LGW, and was told that there weren't any arrivals facilities at LGW, only at Heathrow. In the end I chose to go home first anyway for a wash and brush up intead of going straight to work. Is this lounge still available to arriving pax at LGW?
Despite this, it really was such a delight to have such a helpful and dutiful crew. I am so sure that these reduced Upper cabins in to and out of Gatwick helps: the increased level of personal service is so much closer to what you receive on BA F. The bad news is that it also shows up how the reduction in crew in Upper affects LHR services so badly.
[Edit: oh this was on three redemption tickets too, and although booked very late, you really can get LAS tickets if you want].
Cheers, H
