Waves from No 1 Lounge Gatwick North

Good morning v-flyers!

So we’re finally off to St Lucia today - after the saga of three weeks for a retrospective Miles Booster to work, switch to an A333-200 and not acknowledging the refund due on an Amex PE upgrade (switched that booking to a PE flight to Seattle & back from Washington in September), then switch this outbound to an A333-300 and our exit row seats not sticking - we are almost on our way. And oh - the oven at home went pfft on Tuesday so have had to buy another one on the fly as the 25 & 21 yr olds are home alone & would otherwise be living on pot noodles & toast!

We pre-booked access here for our Priority Pass for £7.50 for two (25% discount through My Gatwick). They are turning PP walk ups away or charging £40 on the door.

It’s Ok - there’s a loud Vegas group behind us though The staff are very attentive at clearing tables but we had to wait 10 minutes for forks to eat breakfast with. Prosecco is free but champers is £6 a glass. Buts it’s a damn way better than being in the (heaving) departure lounge!

Time for a glass of fizz me thinks as I watch two VS 747’s being pulled onto stand.

Enjoy the lounge and your holiday.
Have a good flight.
Dick D

Not the best run-up to your trip but now you're in the lounge the problems start to melt away ….. have a really great trip.

A few years since I was on St Lucia, VS was still flying 747s out there so I guess that's a while ago …. and my favourite hotel is closed (presumably for refurbishment?) on the beautiful beach at Reduit, hotel was fairly basic but good simple food, very friendly staff and what a beach!

The St Lucian by rex resorts is closed

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At last you can sit back and relish the trip to come ! Enjoy the flight and have a wonderful holiday

Good morning again (ok it’s nine in the evening here ....)

Now the flight was, how shall I say it, interesting ..... With tongues firmly in cheek

We had exit row seats (50 A & C) on Golden Girl. Now if we had never been PE - let alone Upper - we would have been more than happy with the extra leg room (and for me in 50A the impromptu leg rest) and accepted the reduced width - which we did of course know about at the time of booking.

The food however was a different matter - as soon as I saw the menu I knew there was nothing on it I would eat - I don’t like Curry and everything else was very tomato focused (wasn’t there a tomato-gate thread a few years ago or am I confusing that with mushroom-gate?). By the time they got to row 50 all the curry’s had gone (fortunately) but they were offering pork chilli from the PE menu as an alternative. That was ok but hubby was left with the sausage ragu which he said was bland & watery.

Finally, a girl two rows behind us had earlier in the flight been getting drinks from every individual cabin crew so was well & truly intoxicated with the final unhappy result ....... whilst still at her seat

The crew were good however. They managed to sort out an elderly couple who were travelling onto Grenada but had different seats for each leg and on the St Lucia leg were separated by around 10 rows. They also stopped the short cutters using row 49 D-G, and supported the young lady behind us.

We now have 10 days here at Sandals Halcyon Beach to hopefully truly relax

Have a great holiday

We pre-booked access here for our Priority Pass for £7.50 for two (25% discount through My Gatwick). They are turning PP walk ups away or charging £40 on the door.

Overheard a conversation yesterday in the Escape “plus” lounge at MAN yesterday, well I say overheard but am guessing everyone in the lounge overheard, as she wasn’t a happy bunny.

Was having a real mump about being turned away from PP lounges which “seemed”empty multiple times and was questioning the value of her £240 priority pass card.

I know I’ve experienced this at some of the larger airports (especially when airline lounges have been getting refurbed) but this must be starting to be a problem (maybe just in the UK) for the priority pass business model. Its all right selling / providing them it if you can’t use them when the lounges “look” pretty empty it’s not a good situation.

David

Many lounges have a quota for PP. So even if there’s plenty of room, if they’ve already hit the PP quota it’s one in one out.

Remember third party lounges make their money from people who book for £ - or, even better, walk-ups for £. There’s no way they’re going to fill a lounge to capacity with PP holders, who earn them far less revenue, if there’s a risk they’ll have to turn away paying customers.