This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
We took the hotel shuttle to the terminal, complete with 5 pieces of checked luggage, carry on bag, laptop and my handbag. A very nice Skycap loaded up his trolley - even he had trouble with all we had - and led us to check-in. There was quite a scrum there and they seemed to be checking in all classes at the desks. Not to be deterred, the nice Skycap tagged our bags himself, pushed us to the front and after weighing the bags, took them to the TSA point, while we attempted to engage with the check-in agent - but she wasn't in a communicative mood it seemed and other than asking us what she had to, didn't even wish us a good flight!
Having generously tipped the Skycap, we went up the escalator to join the enormous queue for security - no priority here then! The queue moved so slowly I think we could have almost walked home - we must have taken nearly an hour. However, eventually we were through and found our way to the Air New Zealand Lounge.
A glass of champagne each we settled down for a read. It was very quiet at that point and while in no way the Clubhouse, made a pleasant haven from the melee downstairs. We later nibbled a few peanuts and a bit of cheese and it got very busy with not many empty seats.
We left when they called the flight and made our way to the chaos at the gate. Although there was a sign for UC, no-one seemed to be enforcing it and so it was full of Economy passengers, so we just nipped through the line and pushed our way to the front. Once on board we gratefully accepted the champagne and the PJ's, got changed and waited for off. I seem to remember we were a few minutes late pushing back but there was no taxiing at all, we just seemed to push back, turn right, the engines roared and we were off.
Dinner was served very quickly and the IFE was switched on straight away. I had Mushroom Soup which was very nice, followed by the Banana and Chocolate cheesecake - really, really delicious I thought. I fast forwarded to the last 20 minutes of Slumdog Millionaire that I had missed on the way out. After that I converted the bed and slept for about 5 hours, waking just as we started to get ready for landing.
The crew while perfectly efficient and pleasant, weren't as chatty - maybe because of it being a night flight - but they just didn't seem to be as friendly.
On landing we took the scenic route to the gate, taking a while to deplane and get to immigration. Bags were off pretty quickly and we were soon out and looking for a cab to take us back to the Skyline. Interestingly, a black cab coped perfectly well with all the bags - and there was one more than on the way out - and it only cost us 7.80!!!! We got the car and were back home in Wiltshire in just over an hour.
Another holiday over - now 45 days until the next [y]
Gill
