This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
Anyway we dropped the car off at long term parking at around 7.30 and got to T3 for about 7.45, perfect for breakfast at the CH. Check in however was not all it normally is. There was only 1 UC desk open and this contained a passenger with issues. I don't know what they were but we were waiting for about 10 minutes before a young chap came over and told us it wouldn't be much longer. After a further 5 minutes he came back and told us we could check in upstairs, so we popped in the lift and were greeted by another happy face who took care of the paperwork and bags.
Right breakfast, we got to a fairly quiet CH and sat down for a full works which was just what the Dr ordered. Shortly after finishing Mrs M was called for her haircut so I settled down on one of the couches by the window and enjoyed a cup of coffee supplemented by a sausage roll with brown sauce.
Haircut done we went and did some shopping. upon our return we heard an announcement advising that the flight would be delayed due to to a technical fault so we ordered some drinks and sat back for some further relaxation but no more sausages.
Eventually we were called to the gate and once on board made ourselves comfortable. Drinks were served and within a short time the doors were closed and we were off. From memory we left about an hour late so not too bad.
This was our first time on a 340-300 and I wasn't looking forward to no V-port but in reality there wasn't really much difference to the 600. Food wise I had the pie which was pretty good. There was also an ample supply of cheese biscuit snacks and kettle crisps of which Mrs M and I had plenty later on at the bar. Perhaps this was an advantage to a 300, less UC passengers eating the snacks.
I watched Mall Cop which was OK (although it was quite funny when we saw real mall cops at various shopping venues during our trip and thought of the films antics) and Valkyrie which was actually better than I was expecting.
The service throughout the flight was brilliant. All the crew worked really hard to keep us happy and we could not have asked for more. After a smooth landing we arrived at IAD, I think about 30 minutes later than scheduled and once at the terminal we made our way to the mobile lounge.
What an experience this is and in my view a bit pointless. After loading up we made sure we were close to the entrance doors (thanks for the advice V-Flyers - you know who you are) and made the short drive to the main terminal. The doors opened and we entered a very packed immigration hall. This has to be the longest wait we've had entering the US bar our last trip to MIA a couple of years ago. At least it was organised and the queue moved at a reasonable pace. By the time we got to the front however the queue behind us had more than doubled so I was quite thankful we didn't arrive any later.
Because of the delay in immigration our bags were already off the carousel so we picked them up and headed to customs. Here we found another huge queue but fortunately as we had gone around the other side of the carousel we found ourselves in a much shorter one. It still took around 10 minutes to get through, unheard of at other US airports in our experience.
And that was it, we picked up our car and were in our hotel room in DC about an hour later.
Return TR will be up shortly.
Miopyk[8D][:D]
