I was trying to find info about the BA lounge in Antigua before I came out here, but could not find any.  On arrival, I discovered why – it’s only been here for 2 days!  Previously it was before security, and next to the Banana restaurant on the first floor.  Now it’s past security, but still on the first floor – through a door in the back of the room about the main departure area.

I assume it’s not BA only, although most of the people here at the moment seem to be on the BA flight.  They have very low lighting throughout, although I think that’s partly due to the fact it’s not finished.

It does feel quite exclusive coming in as you have to knock on the door and wait for the ‘receptionist’ to let you in.  The guy controlling the door is the only member of staff on duty, so he is also the barman.  Nice friendly guy though.

They have a fairly well stocked bar (you have to be served by a barman due to U.S. laws), a selection of crackers, cheese and other nibbles and two nice washrooms.  No showers, but they do have a couple of free to use PCs as well as free WIFI (of course). 

There are currently no TVs up, but the guy said that they will be soon.  Anyway, here are the rest of the photos (click each to see a large version)…

British Airways (BA) were kind enough to upgrade my inbound flight last week, so I got to fly Club Class.  BA have 4 classes of travel on long hall flights – world traveller (economy), world traveller plus (premium economy), club class (business) and first class.  The club class seats feature a personal foot stall, a large TV screen, an electric divider for complete privacy and a seat which reclines in to a completely flat position.

As I sat in my seat and watched the plane being boarded, there were a bunch of business people, along with some American families sitting with me in the Club section.  All of the lower classes are towards the rear of the plane , so everyone has to walk past the classes above them in order to reach their seat.  The business people in Club tended to sit with a smug look on their face, as the lower classes held their heads in shame and walked to the back of the plane.  One American couple in particular took pleasure in standing up in their individual seating areas, smiling at passes by in an apparent attempt to hide their feeling of superiority.  Me…well, to be perfectly honest, I just felt a little awkward…

Whilst it felt nice to be sitting in the spacious seats, and exciting to think about the two sets of 3 course meals I would be served, I couldn’t help but think about my previous travel experience of walking past Club class to economy (or sometimes premium economy).  How many times do you think I walked past the business travellers and thought “they look so cool”?  And how many times do you think I walked past and thought “look at those smug gits, with smiles on their faces watching the lower classes walk past them”? 

To avoid looking like one of the ‘smug gits’, I decided to concentrate on reading blog posts on my iPhone with an obvious frown on my face – to make sure everyone knew (or thought at least?!) I wasn’t enjoying watching them walk past.  But then I realised that people may think I was completely blasé about sitting in the business class section of the plane, and I should in fact be happier that I get to spend the next 9 hours in relative luxury.

I decided that there was no way I was going to sit their comfortably…maybe that makes me a better person?  Maybe feeling superior for feeling a better person makes me even more of a smug git than those who enjoy the status of being in Club Class?  Anyway, there was nothing I could do about it, so I tried to ignore the perceptions from people in the other classes and simply enjoy my upgraded seat.

In addition to the spacious private seating area, Club Class also comes with an enhanced plane dining experience.  Before take off the stewardess  handed me a menu with a number of dining choices for the two meals which would be served during the flight (dinner and breakfast).  Whilst the choices were limited, as you can see it’s not too bad considering all of the food was being stored and cooked on the plane…

There was also a good selection of wine and champagne…

Unfortunately, the tasty sounding peppers had run out by the time they came to ask me my selections So I opted for a salad to start, followed by the ravioli.  The food was relatively simple by restaurant standards, but definitely an improvement over the normal packaged chicken or beef combinations served up in economy.  I must admit that I was not actually that hungry, however it didn’t feel right leaving some of the best plane food I had been served, so I slowly worked myself through the starter and main courses, but then opted out of the dessert.

My starter (salad)…

My main course (ravioli)…

Breakfast (fresh fruit, which was followed by a bacon roll)…

The seating layout in Club Class is designed to provide private ‘compartments’, which can be very secluded when the electrically powered divider section is raised.  I was in a compartment next to a mother and her two young children.  Based on the fact that Club Class seats cost at least £2000+ ONE way, I couldn’t help but wonder what she did for a job in order to be able to afford 3 of them!  I did get a little excited when I overheard someone call her ‘Mrs Cameron’, however when I heard her reply in an American accent I realised that she was not our Prime Ministers wife  

After take off I was keen to get the electric divider between our compartments up so that I could enjoy my privacy, however I felt a little awkward and anti social asking to do so (even though we not actually exchanged a single word), so decided to wait for Mrs Cameron to raise the divider herself.  For the first couple of hours it stayed up, however as I tried to get some sleep I guess that the sight of my backside, or the sound of my snoring must have been enough motivation for her to raise the divider and establish our private sleeping areas.

Sleeping in Club Class was a dream! (Couldn’t resist the pun! )  The electrically powered seats recline to a completely flat position, which along with the drop down foot stall creates a very comfortable flat bed.  I managed to fall asleep for several hours, on my stomach and hugging my pillow in the same way I do when sleeping at home.  I actually woke up at one point, went to the toilet and was then keen to get back to my comfy ‘bed’ for another hour or so.  It was by FAR the best nights sleep on a plane I have had.  The only down side was the fact that my flight was only 8:45 long, so after taking off time for dinner, breakfast, take off and landing, the actual amount of time I had to enjoy my sleeper seat was limited.

The Club Class flying experience is truly awesome, and I would love to do it again.  Saying that, the flights cost AT LEAST 5x as much as an economy flight, so I am not sure that I will ever be earning enough money to justify spending that amount of money on a flight, rather than on activities at my holiday destination.  I guess I’ll just have to be REALLY nice every time I go to the airport and hope that BA upgrade me again

Had a bit of a travel knightmare on Friday

We were in Munich all week whilst southern UK had it’s heaviest snow storms in a couple of decades.  Heathrow and Gatwick have had closures, hundreds of flights have been cancelled/delayed and Munich airport was expecting heavy snow on the day we were travelling.

We woke up in the morning in the hotel and checked BritishAirways.co.uk to find out that our flight had been cancelled After calling American Express travel we found out that all BA flights to Heathrow were cancelled/unknown, so our best option was to fly to Amsterdam with KLM, and then from Amsterdam to Heathrow.  We booked the flights, but decided to head to Munich airport to see whether Serena’s “I’m a gold card member’ line made any difference with BA.

On arrival to Munich airport it became apparent that NONE of the planes which should have come from Heathrow had arrived at Munich, so there was little chance of getting on a BA plane.  Serena did try the BA Gold Card line, but the response was “We can’t change the weather, not even for Gold Card members” – fair enough   Our thoughts were that BA would have been hit worst by the problems, since they have lots of flights from Heathrow and Gatwick, so they are having to cancel/reschedule lots of planes to clear up the mess.  So, we decided to head to Amsterdam using KLM.

KLM flight went well.  The Dutch flight crew were pleasant enough and they served drinks and snacks even though it was a relatively short trip.  Serena did a bit of preparation reading for our unexpected trip to Amsterdam (airport)…

Thankfully on arrival to Amsterdam our KLM connecting flight was on time, although we still had 3 hours to kill.  The British Airways flights from Amsterdam Heathrow were all delayed, so in this instance KLM was definitely the right option.

The airport was enormous.  It is split in to three different sections each of which host many shops, bars and restaurants.  We grabbed some food in a little noodle bar…

…and then split up to do a little shopping.  Well, more accurately…Serena did shopping and I went and sat by the gate, listening to tunes on my iphone and caught up on email/blogs on my netbook.

Travelling is one of my favourite times to read or catch up on work, so I’m not a big shopper.  However if you do prefer to shop in airports, then Amsterdam is a great place to be…

There is even a museum…

After a few hours waiting/shopping in the airport, we finally took off (on time) and got back to the UK at about 5pm.  Unfortunately we landed at Terminal 4, and my car was in the business car park of Terminal 5, so we had to go on mini mission with a couple of buses to get back to the car.  I got a nice pic of a snowy English country side as we made our approach to Heathrow…

Based on the amount of abandoned luggage, I am assuming that there were quite a few disappointed travellers missing their essentials…

Two of my friends were having a leaving party in Reading in the evening, so I got back home as soon as I could (which took a while thanks to the lack of grit on any of the roads in my area), got showered and changed and headed to the train station, where I had to wait for another 45 minutes due to cancelled trains.

I eventually got to Reading at about 9:30pm, missing the buffet, but in time for wine, champagne and plenty of dancing Crazy travel day, but still lots of fun

Flying back to the UK in about an hour, but first just chilling in the BA lounge.  The new Galleries lounge is fairly nice.   As you would expect they have a fully stocked bar, some sandwiches, cakes and cereal (it’s breakfast time), 6 online PCs and free wifi…

There are some nice light airy sections (although no view of the runway disappointingly), as well as some cosier sections with low lighting and comfortable seats…

There is also conveniently a printer/photo copier/scanner available to use for urgent paper based activities…