This is a Trip Report from the Premium Economy cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
We walked over to the PE desk and smiled at the agent and with a cheery good morning placed our passports on the desk in front of her. Not a word of acknowledgement or even a look up from her desk to say hello. Her hand just came up onto the desk and took the passports.[n]
Where are you travelling to? Came her question in a low boring voice, again without even looking up at us. Washington I said. Again no response from the agent. [n]
Do you have your tickets? She said. No they are electronic. I said. You need a return ticket to show the Americans to take part in the Visa waiver scheme she said. Not quite true I said.[V] This isnt the right person to try an op-up with, me thinks.
Anyway she issued our boarding cards and just put them up onto the desk with our passports, took the bags and muttered nothing more. Seeing the I-94s on her desk I asked if I could take a couple to complete before we went (which she should have offered) she muttered help yourself. As they were on her side of the desk I asked her to pass them to me as I didnt want to reach over onto her desk. With a tut she placed them up onto the desk and turned away. No cheery have a nice trip or directions to departures, or boarding will be about such and such a time.
As we walked off I was aware of the supervisor heading towards the PE desk we had just left, she leant across and spoke with the agent, you know the feeling when someones getting a rollicking and you can always guess what was said by the reactions ![y]
Up to security which was a nightmare, massive queues [V] (oh how you miss the private security channel) we waited almost an hour to get through, BAA staff were trying to get anyone not travelling within an hour to leave and come back later. No way I thought we only have just under 2 hours to take off.
Eventually we got through and into the departure lounge, quick bit of shopping in Dixons bagged myself a bargain, all the TomTom accessories were reduced so managed to get a case and travel power adaptor set for 15 instead of 50 right bargain![y]
Flight was called and off to gate 22. Once at the gate priority boarding was in operation and so straight through into the lounge. At this point we were selected for secondary security checking. I am not against extra security but it always makes me wonder if they feel a need for secondary screening at the gate, then they obviously dont feel the security procedures at central search are adequate.
Anyway the security agent using the 3 words of English she knew asked us to remove our shoes and asked to look in our bags. She opened one of the 5 compartments on my rucksack and quickly peered in and didnt bother any further, the same with Mrs Chumbas bag. She then beckoned a male colleague over who using the language of gesturing with arms (he didnt even speak the 3 words of English) I ended up in a cross position. He ran his arms over my arms and down my back, but didnt bother with the many places of concealment available on the lower half of the body. We were then gestured to put our shoes back on (not even looked at) and off we went into the lounge. As I said I am all for extra security but if you are going to do it then at least do it properly, anyone watching that search would be thinking what a waste of time or more importantly anyone undertaking reconnaissance would have thought how easy it would be to smuggle something on the plane.
Boarding was called and the agent opened the door and walked off to allow a free for all to board the plane. As you went through the door the air bridge to the L1 door had a rope across and so everyone stopped and waited, I could see however that the L1 air bridge wasnt even connected to the plane, so we walked to the L2 door and to the plane, first at the door and no crew to welcome us, I peered in and shouted hello and saw several of them sat at the bar eating their packed lunches. Surprised faces on the crew suggested they hadnt been quite ready for boarding!
An apologetic crew member quickly grabbed the PA and told the crew that pax were about to board, which caused a fluster of jackets being out on, hair being tidied, drinks and food being thrown away, eventually a few minutes later we were welcomed on board, with a nice smile and shown to our seats. (Obviously some communication error between crew and ground staff, but was actually not a problem and quite funny to watch [:D]
Settled into our seats (19H & K) and found no window at this position, the window was slightly forward but this wasnt an issue as it actually gave you somewhere to rest your head later on. Quick round of drinks, and boarding was completed quickly. I had checked the loads the day previously and saw that UC was wide open, PE had 24 seats available and Y was again wide open, so not much chance of an Op-up but should be quite an empty PE cabin. Wrong! By the time boarding was completed the PE cabin was full, so either 24 seats were sold overnight or there were some good upgrade prices being handed out at the ticket desk.
Even though doors were closed 10 minutes before takeoff we were told that there would be a slight delay as there was an air traffic restriction so about a 10 minute wait. This actually manifested itself into a 20 minute wait, but not the crews fault, they had been ready to go on time but ATC had held us back. Eventually we took off and were told that even with the late take off we should get into IAD about 30 minutes early.
PE crew were round offering drinks, and towels, there were 2 in the PE cabin and they did just the amount needed to provide the service required, nothing outstanding, but meals and drinks served on time, nothing extra which would have made the flight memorable, just the minimum needed to provide the service. The meal however I have to say was probably the best I have even had on a VS flight even better than our last UC meal. It was chicken in a pepper sauce with garlic mash potato. Im quite fickle when it comes to food especially on a plane but this was absolutely gorgeous. (Would have taken seconds if offered)
We would have watched the IFE but a problem with it necessitated it being restarted which meant by the time it was ready we were eating ,after that I had a sleep, so never even used it. Mrs Chumba played a few games on it (well it keeps her quiet), and before you knew it we were coming in to land 30 minutes early. Landed without too much going around in circles and quickly at the gate.
Then I saw what I had heard so much about, the mobile lounges. However after seeing the advice from fellow v-flyers, we got off the plane quickly but hung around to get onto the lounge last[|:)]. We arrived at the terminal and there were only about 20-30 pax in the hall, great I thought.
However the airport staff were directing pax into lines and we were put into a line that had every problem it could have in front of you, the African woman travelling alone with the wrong paperwork, off for secondary screening, and we go into a different line. Then the single male from the Middle East, again ping off for secondary screening and we go into another line. Eventually after being waiting for 45 minutes a border agent had spotted we kept getting moved and waved us over to his desk, in front of his queue. He was very pleasant and apologised for the wait. We went through the procedure and when I put my thumb print onto the scanner, his facial expression changed, oh no I thought what now.
Anyway it turned out that the machine was happy with my identity and didnt need any further prints or details. Ive never seen that happen he said. Mrs Chumba however had to do the whole lot [:p]
With a thanks for your patience and welcome to DC he waved us off, and pointed us towards where our baggage would be. By the time we got there all the bags were off and had been taken off the carousel, ours were with the other 10 that were left to be collected. Almost all the pax had got through and collected their bags and were gone. So much for priority boarding etc.
Anyway into a cab and off to DC to party for the weekend.(which we did).
