Our Holidays

Club World Seat 01A

LCY – SNN

Boarding started at 9:30 with the staff in the gate room / lounge announcing that BA 001 was ready for us to board. There were the usual reminders to ensure we had all our belongings with us and we headed out to the plane. 5 minutes all 20 passengers were on board and the cabin crew announce “boarding completed”. I already liked this service.

The cabin crew were headed up by Olivier who was very excited to have customers making their first trip to New York via Shannon on the BA 001 service. The seat was comfortable and we were installed with menu cards and ready to depart.

The on-time departure from runway 09 allows some views of the dockland area of London as we climbed into the mist and cloud, and that was that. Olivier came round and took orders for starters which were to be served between London and Shannon and then the main course with was to be served between Shannon and New York.

Menu

Having chosen the canapés they were served with a glass of champagne and I sat back and enjoyed the short trip over England, Wales, the Irish Sea, and Ireland to arrive at a very sunny Shannon Airport.

Shannon Airport

The cabin crew had told us to take all our belongings with us as we arrived in Shannon as they were going to fill up the plane with fuel and we were going to pass US immigration. Staff from Shannon airport met us and led us efficient along the to corridors first to security and then to the US Pre-clearence facility at Shannon Airport. Those of us with baggage in the hold were asked to take a seat for a few minutes while our baggage was unloaded and scanned by US CBP. Once they were ready for us we were invited to enter the US Federal Inspection Facility and present our passports etc.

There was a small hicup with my baggage receipt which meant they could not read it and count not get my back up on the screen… I was taken to the “naughty room” where they looked harder and managed to get my bag from the system and allowed me to confirm my baggage and was told all was good and having been thanked for my patience I was on my way to the seating area next to the BA 001 gate.

It was all very civilised and relaxed. This really was stress free travel.

SNN – JFK

Once back on board we soon took off on runway 06, starting from where we had exited the runway on landing.

Once in the air the service was continued with drinks and then our main courses being served followed by dessert.

The iPads had been handed out just after take off, but having seen all the films I wanted to see in the October select going to and from Chicago, there was not a lot on the iPad I had not seen or really wanted to see again. With that in mind I got on with some documents I had to write for work and slept most of the way across.

I woke up as we approached Gander and then stayed awake the whole way down the coast. The views of Cap Cod as we crossed overhead Boston were magical while I enjoyed my afternoon tea with Champagne. The choice of more bubbles with the afternoon tea service seemed to throw the crew a bit… but it just felt right on this flight.

After the tea service it was not long before we were making our way down long island and then lining up on runway 31R at JFK for our landing and very short taxi to our gate at terminal 7.

Diary