This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
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I did OLCI Tuesday evening and printed boarding passes. I used the discount code provided as part of the current OLCI special to purchase HEX tickets at a 10% discount.
Wednesday afternoon MrStars and I took the 3:40pm HEX, and upon arrival at LHR, had the first of our long walksto the check-in area. There was only one person ahead of us at UC check-in, so we didnt wait long. As we were taking care of getting our bag checked in the lovely gentleman helping us printed new boarding passes, telling us that some of the readers at the gates dont work well with the print at home boarding passes. No big deal, except when I looked at the new boarding cards, we were in completely different seats then we had selected the night before. I asked about this and the gentleman said it was due to a change of aircraft. I asked if there were any seats across from one another and he offered seats 3D and K. I told him that I did not think D and K faced each other, but he assured me that on this aircraft they did. He even offered to show me his screen but at that moment he pulled his screen a certain way and his entire computer shut down. Oops! He truly was very friendly and nice and I felt bad that his computer had shut down; however, I still did not trust him that D and K faced each other. We waited a few moments for the agent next to him to finish with her passenger so she could get us sorted while the first agent waited for someone to come fix his computer. I made an excuse about wanting to be slightly further back in the plane, and so we got 5D and 6D.
The staircase up to security was covered by the construction and the near elevators were out of service, so again we were walkingtrying to find a way upstairs. Once upstairs fast track security worked like a breeze, and even included a bit of comic relief whereby as we walked away from the security belt area MrStars was lecturing me about putting my passport in the bin with my hand luggage, only to realize about 20 steps away from the belt, he had left his hand luggage behind altogether. No more lectures for me! We managed to avoid the shoe check circus by positioning ourselves well in the passport control lines.
We headed to the Clubhouse and were told at the desk that there was a 2+ hour delay, as a result of a change in aircraft (why they couldnt tell us this at the gate, I dont know?). In my second opportunity to act smug within 15 minutes I reminded MrStars that this was the reason I had just booked a gold run for the end of the month, which he had been hesitant about If you are going to be delayed, you might as well be in the CH! To be perfectly honest, I didnt mind the delay as I had only been in the CH one time previously, over a year ago. It was all sort of a daze as it was two nights after my wedding, one night after an overnight flight from NY, and all I really experienced was sitting at a long wooden table that wasnt even there anymore. With all of the spare time we had, there was plenty of time to explore the whole CH, which was actually pretty quiet. We had some snacks and MrStars headed off for his pre-booked massage. I had been unable to get an appointment for a time that worked for us when trying to pre-book, but headed over to see if there was anything available now that we were delayed, and was able to book a manicure.
The time passed fairly quickly, between dinner, treatments, and even a game of pool, and soon enough they were calling our flight. So we walkedand walkedand walked to our gate, which was not too close. There was no real line at the gate, but as we entered it we could see that no one had boarded yet. We went up to the front, near the jetway and within a few minutes they called priority boarding. You would have thought the entire plane was UC, PE or AU with the way everyone jumped from their seats. The agent at the jet way checked boarding passes and thus held back the scrum and enabled us to board quickly.
The entire plane was boarded surprisingly quickly, and there was barely time to change into our sleep suits before we pulled away from the gate. We later learned there were only 141 passengers onboard, which Im guessing is about half the number the aircraft could accommodate. I could not tell from boarding what craft we were on, but I looked it up on this site and apparently we were on African Queen.
The UCS was fitted with the extra plastic thing over the seat buttons, but alas, it was the Odyssey system and there werent any movies I was that interested in watching. I had been looking forward to watching a couple of movies as previously we had always had VPORT between London and NY. However, as we were so late (took off around 10 to 9pm) it was more of a night time flight. I generally try not to sleep on the westbound flight to NY, for jetlag beating purposes, but on this flight we were encouraged to sleep with sleep suits being offered to all, lights turned off right away, beds being turned down right away, etc.
The crew on this flight were excellent. I think there was a high crew to passenger ratio, due to the light load (I could see 5 empty seats in our cabin alone), but it was also the demeanour of the crew. They were very friendly and accommodating. I saw the FSM having a chat about flying with a gentleman seated across from me and I have to assume he was an AU passenger as I could hear snippets of the conversation about how frequently he flies to certain destinations. The IFBT had a chat with us and was aware that MrStars had a treatment in the CH, but didnt know about mine. I told her that I did have one as well, but the light load worked in our favour as we both had neck/shoulder massages in-flight. The IFBT as well as another member of the CC helped us out when we realized I had forgotten to pack MrStars contact lens case in our hand luggage. They brought us plastic cups and then once we put the lenses into the cups with water, they brought us cling film to cover the top.
We had eaten plenty in the CH so I didnt eat a main meal onboard, and dont remember what was on the menu. I did happily partake in the ice cream that was offered later in the flight. I spent the flight reading and dozing, and 7 hours 20 minutes later, after a relatively bumpy flight, we landed in NY. We taxied to our gate. Then, we walked, and walked, and walked. MrStars commented that we had been dropped off in Brooklyn, from the likes of it. Absolutely no line for immigration (we are fast walkers!) and the friendly guy asked us what happened You guys are late, Ive been waiting for you, what happened?! We then waited for our bag, which was the 3rd bag off, and it was through customs and out to meet my parents for the ride home.
Maybe worth a mention there was a young child in our cabin and he didnt make a peep the entire flight. There was an adult who snored loudly the entire flight. Given the choice, Id take that child over the adult on a future flight!
