Helen Stephenson's India Trip - June-July, 2006 - The Flight to India

Saturday June 17^th

I was allowed to fly Business Class, but when my ticket was booked, Business Class was full, so I was booked in Economy and put on the wait list for a cancellation in Business Class - and I managed to get a Business Class flight in the end. As part of the Business Class service, I was picked up at my front door by a car and driven to Heathrow. The driver’s satellite navigation system sent him around the South Circular road and we made steady progress the whole way. My driver was just as glad not to go on the M25 – it’s almost double the distance for a small saving in time.

The drive-through check-in went amazingly smoothly. They looked at my passport. I think they looked at the printout of my eticket, but they may not have done so, as my driver actually checked me in before he left my driveway!

I went through the fast track security (another perk of Business Class) and although I had to queue, I didn’t have to queue as long as the people going through normal security did. I didn’t set off any alarms and nothing in my hand luggage raised an eyebrow. I had wondered about the Jobo Giga One, as it contains a hard drive and could have looked like a concealed PC. (You had to open the carrying case if you were carrying a PC.)

Then I went through Passport Control and had a little wander around the airport shops. I didn’t need much: just a couple of puzzle magazines and a couple of rolls of softmints. Fortunately they didn’t do dreadful things to my teeth! A softmint, of all things, led to some extensive (and expensive) dental treatment in 2005.

I found the Virgin Lounge, but only had about 15 minutes to spend in there, as they started calling my flight. I had a mineral water while I was there, and then made my way to the gate and onto the plane. They served drinks before take-off, and I was still nursing a half a glass of cranberry juice when we took off. I’m convinced that our plane was towed backwards along the taxiway as things outside seemed to be going in the wrong direction!

Anyway, we took off without problems. The business class seats had a huge tray which I couldn’t figure out how to work. After my neighbour managed to smash a glass trying to work his, I decided to wait and ask a flight attendant how to do it? Once airborne, they served a meal, and our large trays were covered in a little tablecloth. I added a glass of water to my remaining half glass of cranberry juice. There was a little light turbulence and I found it advisable to drink some of the water to take the level down a little as it looked like it was in danger of landing on the tablecloth. Anyway, I had tomato soup followed by an Indian meal which was strict vegetarian.

Then I had a neck and shoulder massage and had a look through a window near the front of the plane. Unfortunately I didn’t have a window seat, so didn’t have good access to the view outside. While it was dark, there was some colour on the horizon, and I tried taking a couple of pictures, but there really wasn’t enough light.

Then I folded the bed down with some help from a flight attendant, got into my sleep suit, and stretched out. I found that the motion of the plane wasn’t really conducive to sleep though, and didn’t sleep that well.

I must have had some sleep, though, because the announcement that we were descending disturbed me, and there was a queue for the toilets, and I didn’t get a chance to change out of my sleep suit until after we landed. One of the flight crew joked that I must be enjoying it so much on the plane that I didn’t want to leave!