We managed to push back a little late and were airborne at 7.45pm with a very short 6 hour flight time. A drinks service came round before dinner which was again a choice between chicken and beef. I went for the chicken which was a schnitzel with penne and very little tomato sauce, again accompanied by a lettuce-heavy salad and a cookie and cream brownie. I had mentioned in my outbound trip report that the AVOD listed TV programmes that didn’t work, postulating that this was because we were on a 757 rather than a 777, but I found out that it was actually due to my incompetence at using the system so ended up watching She’s Out of My League (surprisingly good) along with two insane US programmes called Man vs. Food and Cake Boss. Another point to mention about the AVOD was that it ran continuously from the time we boarded to when we left the plane at Heathrow unlike on other flights where it is switched off before landing.
After dinner, I tried once again to get some sleep as by now the combination of not really adjusting to Central Time, travelling and not having slept very much over the past few days were really catching up on me. However, I was once again thwarted by a combination of the heat of the cabin, the fact that I’ve generally never been able to sleep on planes and the uncomfortable seat that had very little padding and support – something I didn’t appreciate on the outbound when I was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.
Lights came back up about 90 minutes prior to landing, associated with breakfast consisting of a croissant and a few pieces of melon. The passenger next to me had requested a vegan diet but she still received the croissant, with the flight attendant claiming that it was the vegetarian option which was very naughty. Apart from that, the rest of the flight proceeded smoothly and although we had to circle around a couple of times, we still managed to land at 6.50am, well ahead of our scheduled 7.40 arrival. However, although immigration wasn’t too busy, once again we were all left waiting at baggage claim and it was a full 30 minutes before the bags started appearing and a further 10 minutes before mine showed up. A quick ride on the tube and I was back to my bed.
As mentioned in my outbound report, Continental are fine when they are priced significantly lower than Virgin, however, I think I probably would still vote Virgin as although the Continental AVOD is better, in my opinion the VS crew are friendlier and the economy seat more comfortable.
Jonathan
All because she had to reach round to the other side of the trolley to get the can. 
