Boarding was done about 45 minutes prior to departure. I settled into seat 30H, which is an exit row seat, so tons of legroom and my seat reclined! It actually felt like the seat reclined a bit more than on Virgin, but that could just be my imagination. We pushed back about 10-15 minutes late but the taxi out was only 5 minutes or so and right into the air.
Dinner was served after take off along with drinks. I opted for the beef, which ended up being cottage pie. It was actually decent, and a warm fresh roll was served with it, along with a salad, some sort of fruit pudding, cheese and crackers, and a small chocolate bar. The cottage pie was served on real china, yes in economy!, although everything else was plastic. The cutlery was big and not that flimsy stuff that always seems to break. I ended up skipping the alcohol and just had a coke. All in all, it was probably one of the best economy meals I've ever had.
Talked for a while to my seatmate next to me who is a UK expat living in Bahrain. After which I fell in and out of sleep and finally woke to see southern Iraq drifting by out the window.
Breakfast was....juice. Yep, that's right, just orange juice. I guess they put all their money into the dinner meal....
We landed at a little bit after 7AM, 20 minutes early. The landing was probably the smoothest I've experienced in a while. Passport control was quick but customs decided to confiscate my camera gear. So here I am trying to cover this, and I can't until I get my gear back on Sunday when I have to produce a letter saying I can take the gear in! A few other journalists got searched too... From what I understand you don't actually need the letter, it is just an excuse for them to confiscate it...
All in all it was an easy flight, and I'm looking forward to my return flight home.
I'm writing this from my hotel just after an hour of clearing immigration and the madness at customs. Up there for a record??
