I had tried to check-in online but had failed earlier so had to make a quick trip to the ticket counter to first pick up a copy of my ticket. Check-in was smooth although I actually had to ask for a CH invite. Dropped bags of an darted into the CH for a quick refreshment and a chance to check emails - using the JFK CH wireless access for the first time.
Before I knew it they were calling the flight and I was still in the middle of emails so I knew I would be late. Grabbed some Ben and Jerry's to eat on the way and headed for security spoon in hand. Security was everything (and less) that you would expect at JFK T4 for the earlier VS flights - one of the reasons I normally fly on the 10. By the time I was through the last calls were being made for the flight. Headed for the gate and arrived just as they were actually making a personal call for me and having passed through they closed the gate door behind me - whoops.
Having said that they were nowhere near departing and in fact were still refueling. Having already flown on the refurbished WOW and HOT, I now found myself completing the hat-trick by taking my seat in 37A on FAB. First time in a window seat for a while and this one was right in the back of the new PE section. Despite my general preference towards aisle seats the seat itself was to prove quite a good one and was a lot quieter than my previous experience near the galley.
Unfortunately I have been without a watch for a couple of weeks so can't be sure of exact timings but it seemed a good half an hour before we pushed back and endured an incredibly long (even by JFK standards) taxi. During this period the v:port developed a mind of it's own and decided to broadcast a 10 minute segment of the film '28 weeks later' to the entire aircraft. For anyone who has seen the film it is the segment in Regent's Park where a helicopter flies towards an advancing pack of zombies - it was greeted with some audible gasps from some passengers. They did shut the system off and 10 minutes later apologised - once airborne they rebooted the entire system which resulted in considerable delay. It must have been around 21:30 before we finally took-off.
Service was reasonably slow. I normally watch a film over the meal but the meal was slow arrived and v:port arrived even slower. I watched 'Transformers' which was an interesting new offering but could have done with being at least half an hour less. For the second flight in a row I was forced to listen to the entire film through my right ear only as there seems to be a recurring bug with the headphones - on my previous flight I had tried three seats and three pairs of headphones and 1 ear was the best I could get.
I managed to grab a couple of hours of snooze and wake up in time for my breakfast bar - yippee. Then the only benefit of the window seat - being able to watch the landing. We landed at LHR at around 8:15am - just a little behind schedule. Headed through immigration and for the first time, virtually in living memory, my bag arrived in the baggage hall before I did.
Through customs and headed up to the Revivals lounge for a bite to eat and to try their showers for the first time - I normally wait till I get home.
So overall a pleasant trip although the rushed start was perhaps not the best way to begin it.
FM
