Images for this trip report can be found here.

LGW-RAK
Wednesday 13th December 2006
BA6922 (operated by GB Airways)

An opportunity for a few days R&R in North Africa presented itself and so I found myself travelling to LGW via West Coast Main Line and the Southern railways link between Watford Junction and Gatwick, both on time, all connections made and an efficient journey. LGW North terminal at first sight seemed rather busy in Zone F, the BA Europe/North Africa check-in area, and having checked in and selected a seat online, I was a little sceptical of the 'fast' bit of the bag drop, but the queue did move quickly and it only took 10 minutes. I did enquire after Club World availability, with plenty of ads in the queues encouraging passengers to upgrade, but there was none. Security was quick and efficient, and the departure lounge and shopping zone was quiet and civilized; the flight was showing a 20 minute delay, so plenty of time to peruse the bookstalls and to get a very acceptable Croque-Monsieur at Chez Andre, whilst observing the movements on the aprons and runway. When I had eaten, I found the gate announced as 111, which meant my first visit across the airbridge, and a chance for a photo or two. Arrival at the gate showed our plane to be an A321, G-TTIA, a slight surprise as online check-in showed an A319- had I checked, I'd have realised that GB Airways only have A320s and A321s, so evidently a misprint.Not a sight to be seen a few years ago, I'm sure...!.I was in 10A and one of the last to board, preferring to stay in the lounge and avoid the scrums, and probably as well- it was a full and quite noisy flight- some young children and some excitable adults in equal measure. We pushed back almost 30 minutes late, and taxied to 26L, where take-off was efficient and smooth, though the low cloud base meant there were few opportunities for pictures. Things improved over the Channel, and Jersey and the Normandy coast near Mont St Michel were clear. I was glad to be able to blot out all the background passenger noise with my QC2s and iPod- never had I been more grateful of them!
The first- and as it turned out, only- drinks run was 45 mins into the flight, and we were served both a soft drink and wine for the meal to come- just as well the meal didn't come for another 30 mins or so, as my bottle of red needed a lot of warming up, having arrived at a temperature more suitable for white! The IFE was limited to some trailers and then a showing of 'The Queen' with Helen Mirren; though I had seen this on a previous flight, it was entertaining enough to watch a second time. The meal was pleasant enough, chicken in an 'onion jus' with the usual accessories, though it was in fact the cheese and biscuits that I enjoyed most at the end. Our route took us over Northern Spain, including Asturias airport......and the Cantabrian mountains.

The descent was commenced as dusk was enveloping Morocco, and it was dark by the time the plane overflew RAK before executing a turn to land on Rwy10. For some reason, one of my ears refused to pop until much later- though the descent seemed to be pretty gentle. We taxied the short distance to a stand, before being bussed to the terminal, and a very leisurely passport control, by which time most of the luggage had arrived. Then the fun began. It not being possible to buy Moroccan Dirhams in advance, I went to the Bureau de change, where I was then redirected to the ATM, which brought up communication errors with all my cards; back to the Bureau de change; he pointed out a second ATM, this to refused to give me any money, this time just spitting my card out! I asked a nearby security guard, and he appeared very disinterested, but fortunately my French is fluent enough for me to persevere and he directed me to the other terminal and the departure area; this had an ATM that at least accepted one of my cards and I was able to get enough Dirhams to set out for the taxis and the next adventure of haggling with the taxi drivers for a lift to my hotel!

Return Journey, RAK-LGW
Wednesday 20th December 2006
BA6923 (operated by GB Airways)
A week in warm (though not overly hot) Marrakech soon came to a close, and time to return to the somewhat chillier UK. Now practised in the art of haggling, both for taxis and in the souks, I declined the 'hotel taxi' and managed to reduce the quoted price of 100 dirhams to 40 dirhams (about £2.50). Online check in was not available for this flight, and having stocked up on Christmas presents, I felt that my suitcase was 'on the heavy side'. I was in plenty of time for the flight, and had to wait about 10 minutes for the BA check-in desk to open; it didn't take long to get a starboard window seat (9F)- which I reckoned was the exit row on the A321- and there was no problem with my case at all, fortunately. Equipped with a Royal Air Maroc boarding card (could they not supply any BA boarding cards?), passport control/security was very quick indeed. The departure area was pretty small and pretty crowded- two small duty free shops which did not accept Dirhams and a buffet café to rival the international catering zone at Baginton airport, Coventry [ ] . I purchased a bottle of water, found a seat near the gates and settled into my book whilst a range of flights to Toulouse, Luton (Ryanair), Frankfurt, Gatwick (Easyjet), Manchester (Thomas Cook) boarded. By noon, my flight still had not been called, and the gate display system (which seemed to be a series of LED overdoor signs programmed by hand from a remote control by the gate staff) showed nothing; I then had an explore and found a further gate area, gate 5 which was showing the London flight; when I asked any of the staff if the flight was running late, they didn't know! At 12.20, the scheduled departure time, the flight was called and two busloads of passengers were boarded. G-TTOF was an A320, which had flown in from Heathrow, so my hope of extra legroom was dashed; the window also had some internal smears which no amount of work with a damp tissue would fix, so some of my photos suffered as a result, unfortunately. The flight was about two-thirds full and we pushed back about 30 minutes late, due to some fog and delays on the outbound sector (I later learned that this fog had caused a lot of cancellations of domestic BA flights at LHR), but I should pay tribute to the flight deck crew who came over the PA four times during the flight and were very informative, rather more than normal, about the flight plan and routing and what to see out of the window (on both sides!).I decided not to opt for the film, 'Flicka' and stuck to my book, iPod and QC2s, as the flight routing took us up the west coast of Morocco, over Tangier, with good views of Gibraltar......then over central Spain and Madrid, sadly just missing the optimum photo opportunity of Barajas airport as my camera was buried by my feet. I was also unable to rescue it for the meal, which was an acceptable Shepherds Pie, with Broccoli and baby carrots, Harrogate spa still water, a wholemeal roll, a 'Cheeky Eats' chocolate and vanilla sponge, cheese (Ilchester Cheddar Chuckle) and biscuits. Wine was an undramatic Merlot, Domaine Peirière from Paul Sapin, again served far too cold- it lived between my thighs for a while to try and address this, but is it too much to ask for coach class to have wine served even near the right temperature?!
After Madrid, the cloud set in and there were no views to be had over Bilbao and the Bay of Biscay until just about the Brest peninsula and then only fleetingly.The cloud cleared over the English Channel and there were excellent views of Brighton and Beachy Head to be had as we turned inland over Shoreham. Our informative flight deck crew even gave us a detailed breakdown of the Mayfield approach to 26L!
Only some very small pockets of fog were evident as final approach crossed the M23 and then a smooth touchdown, followed by some very aggressive braking- is it my imagination or does the A320/321 vibrate far more when braking on the runway than the 737- from my limited experience?We taxied to gate 111, the same as our departure. A second chance to cross the airbridge, take some atmospheric shots of the sunset......and do battle with the Gatwick Express, a taxi across central London five days before Christmas and the West Coast main line (made by two minutes!).Despite the fact this was the first of the fog-affected days in the UK, I was quite unaware of the chaos it was causing elsewhere until the next morning!

Images here

VS 400 LHR-DXB Friday 20th October 2006 (PE and UCS!)
I was booked PE on the outbound leg, but decided to book for the Clubhouse, having heard the good reports on this site. Travel to Heathrow via Virgin Rail and Heathrow Express was smooth and efficient, and even bag drop amongst the building works at T3 was quick and straightforward. The seat I had pre-selected, 20A, was allocated to me and I set off for what proved to be remarkably quick security process and, following a quick circuit of the shopping, off to the Clubhouse. It took a little while to find my way around and explore the different delights; I paid a visit to the roof garden to see the Jaguar XK Coupe and watch a few take-offs on 27L, before the warmth below drew me back downstairs. A cocktail and some smoked salmon seemed like a good idea, before checking e-mail and heading off to the Spa, where I had pre-booked a Rhinestone Cowboy. A puzzled attendant on the desk checked, double checked, read my e-mail confirmation, then apologised and said it had been double-booked and someone else was already in that slot. Rather a nuisance. I decided to ask for a haircut instead, which they were glad to do, when who should appear at Bumble and Bumble for a quick trim but SRB! I ended up two seats away, but got no opportunity to strike up a conversation- a PA buzzing round with a phone and documents as well. Nevertheless, a good bonus for my first clubhouse experience. Next stop was a meal- I had decided to eat in the clubhouse, forego PE catering and try to get some sleep on board. I opted for soup with Ham, followed by Chicken, and accompanied by an Australian Shiraz; a really excellent meal, well worth the clubhouse booking!

It was completed with coffee and choice of ice-creams- chocolate and vanilla in tubs, but good quality. With time moving on, I had the chance for a quick shower, and experienced the steam shower booth- very nice and a good way to freshen up before the flight.

Boarding was at gate 5, so a short walk, and despite a bit of a queue down the jetty , I was soon onboard what I knew to be a pretty full flight; aircraft was G-VYOU, Emmeline Heaney so a very recent addition to the fleet. I was just getting comfortable when someone else appeared with a ticket stub bearing- Seat 20A! A slightly frazzled flight attendant took away both stubs and returned a little later, and told me that I would have to be moved- to 4K . Maybe the aura of earlier being near SRB helped, maybe it was just my lucky day. 4K also proved to be a good UCS seat- on the starboard window side, not overlooked, in a quiet part of what is quite a big UC cabin. Indeed the flight was almost full and there were no other spare seats in UC that I could see- maybe travelling alone helped, but I’m curious to know how the seat allocation system could possibly have allocated two people to the same seat…? Why were Virgin double-booking me everywhere- in the Spa, on the Plane? Was there some conspiracy theory at work…?

Takeoff was 27L, and there was quite a queue, but eventually we were airborne into the night sky and I set about enjoying the unexpected UCS. I had travelled UCS once before, in the summer on VS032 from St Lucia to LGW and that was a real treat- the exclusive nature of the UC cabin on the 747 was preferable to the larger A340-600 UC cabin, but I wasn’t grumbling too much this evening!Despite wanting to sleep- and I was pretty full, so couldn’t enjoy much of the inflight hospitality though I did make room for a nightcap- I wanted to spend a little time exploring v-Port.Unfortunately it takes about 30 minutes to boot up and there were clearly problems- I was about 15 minutes into a film- when it was announced that over half the screens on board didn’t have a connection and the system would have to be rebooted. I decided to don the sleep suit, put on my eyeshades, turn the seat into a bed, and go to sleep. Thanks to Bose QC2s, sleep on an aircraft is now just about possible for me- the flat bed certainly helps!Somewhere not quite over Baghdad- the flight screen showed that we were wisely skirting round the east side of Iraqi airspace- I woke up, and was invited to a wake up head and shoulder massage from the onboard masseuse- well a massage at 38500 feet somewhere over a mountain in Iran would be a first, and it was a gentle way to wake up, and would make up for the missing Rhinestone Cowboy. Breakfast of a lamb sausage bap, Mediterranean fruits and crème fraiche and cappucino was very welcome (and tasty) and as v-Port had successfully rebooted, I changed, went back to chair mode, and settled to watch a few more bits and bobs.DXB was misty on approach and few of the sights were visible out of the window. We taxied to a remote stand and were bussed off to arrivals, where another perk of the upgrade, fast track immigration meant for a very quick and efficient process- it wasn’t long before I was in a limo en route to the hotel. Marks out of ten for the Virgin Atlantic VS400 experience: 9.85- excellent; a haircut with Sir Richard Branson and a free upgrade to Upper Class were really good bonuses, and it was marred only by the problems with vPort. Photos should be embedded above, if not, here is a link:http://picasaweb.google.com/davidrnoble31/LHRVirginAtlanticClubhouse

Return Leg, VS 401 DXB-LHR Friday 27th October 2006 (PE)
A dreadfully early start- wake up call at 3.30am and arrival at DXB at 5am- an hour too early I reckon, though not of my choice, and a wait of 20 mins until the check in staff arrived and set up, though the Friday call to dawn prayers may have been the reason for the delay. Thereafter the formalities were quite quick and efficient and there was plenty of time to explore the famous departure hall and duty free centre.I notice that the second (or actually third) terminal is still some way off completion- the shell is complete but there’s lots still to be done on the underground area.Gate 43 indicated a remote stand, and indeed the plane was in the same stand near the Emirates cargo bay, and proved to be the same aircraft, G-VYOU Emmeline Heaney. Once again I had chosen 20A, only this time, despite some hints, I got to experience it. There were a few seats spare in PE, and I had the impression they had room for manoeuvre in the other cabins as well. The crew seemed busy though, and it was a while before pre-flight drinks were offered; in the meantime the cabin was disappearing in mist from the air-conditioning unit at full blast.We were about ten minutes late in pushing back, but a short taxi to runway 12L and we were soon in the air, turning N over Sharjah and then NW out over the Gulf and up to cruising altitude, whilst headphones and ‘amenity pencil cases’ were distributed.This being a day flight, I was keen to explore V-Port a little more, but it was still misbehaving quite badly, and the interactive menus would not work for me (or many others), nor was there a moving map available. The flight attendant did try to help but it was clear others were also having problems. However after a little while about 20 video channels came on line, and (with a bit of guesswork and detective work and quite a lot of rewinding) I managed to watch ‘Stormbreaker’, ‘The Queen’ and ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ which passed the time well. Breakfast was Scrambled Egg with Hash Browns, fruit salad, orange juice, coffee, Croissant and a muesli-type snack. Sadly this was the hot meal service and early lunch was not served later, only a roll as ‘elevenses’. Weather over the London area was clear, and our approach over the Thames Estuary gave plenty of opportunity for photos- no need to stack either, so our approach took us north of London City Airport before a 27R approach and smooth landing, some 15 minutes after the advertised arrival time. The arrivals procedure was quick and my case was already on the Carousel as I reached the baggage reclaim- the priority baggage seemed to be successful as many other bags were UC labelled. And… home! The flight was pleasant and comfortable without being hugely memorable; maybe I‘m getting too used to the experience of flying at the pointy end! I preferred the PE experience upstairs on a LGW 747 where the cabin feels more exclusive, there is a dedicated crew and there is more space to stow things; however I think the A340 will benefit from the proposed improvements to PE (not in evidence today, unfortunately). Finally I do hope they sort out the V-Port problems on G-VYOU pretty soon!Photos should be embedded above, but if not, this is a link to the return leg:http://picasaweb.google.com/davidrnoble31/VS401DXBLHR