I’ve seen sections of the Berlin Wall in numerous different cities around the world, not least in the male toilets of a hotel in Las Vegas. This section was a gift from the German Government and it was brought to the museum in 1989 by Jean Kennedy Smith, the sister of John F. Kennedy (she’s the only one of the nine Kennedy children still alive). It’s quite a bright piece of wall and it stands twelve feet in height and four feet in width.
My favourite aircraft is the A380 and this was the plane G-XLEG which was delivered to British Airways in 2014. It was a moderately busy flight, although my bulkhead row of ten seats had just one other person on it, although the crew moved another two onto it just before departure. This meant plenty of space for me, rather different to my American Airlines flight of the previous day. Sitting on the lower deck of the A380 it is genuinely difficult to know that this beautiful aircraft has taken off, I never tire of just how much of an engineering triumph this is.
The initial drinks run took place around 45 minutes after take-off, with the crew member saying she was surprised how little alcohol was being requested. I was content with my orange juice, sparkling water and mini pretzels.
There was plenty of choice on the in-flight entertainment system, although I had hoped for some episodes of Friday Night Dinner again which unfortunately weren’t there. There were though some episodes of People Just Do Nothing and This Time with Alan Partridge which I hadn’t seen before.
The meal was served around 20 minutes later, consisting of a salad with dressing, roll, chicken casserole with mashed potatoes and vegetables, caramel dessert and then cracker with cheddar cheese. Several people declined their food tray, but I most certainly didn’t. There was also the option of pasta with cheese, which I think has been an option on nearly every BA long-haul flight that I’ve ever taken.
The quality was fine, the chicken was tender and had a decent amount of flavour, the vegetables retained some firmness to add some texture and it was all served hot. The dessert was also above average in terms of the richness of the taste. The salad was a little dull, but the dressing helped somewhat.
I had some problems with my screen during the flight, but the crew member was able to successfully reset it. The moving map didn’t work though even after the reset. The crew were helpful with this and everything else, they were also visible throughout the flight. I thought that the temperature in the cabin was just right, although I suspect that this meant most other people were cold. The pilots and crew members made appropriate announcements throughout the flight and they came across as friendly and professional.
The breakfast option was a croissant with tomato cream cheese, which tasted better than it looked. Another customer, who had refused his evening meal, didn’t look thrilled and a fair few of these were returned uneaten to the crew. The presentation really does need looking at and perhaps some choice to improve the options somewhat.
However, overall, I thought that this flight still represented superb value for money. Coming in at under £125 there is pretty much no money in this for British Airways, but I won’t complain about that. The food and drink was served efficiently, the aircraft was clean and the crew were helpful and friendly. Lots of space and British Airways is once again becoming my favourite airline.
The landing of the A380 was though quite heavy at the end of the flight which led to a crew member saying “we’ve certainly landed, I can guess that’s the First Officer landing that”.
I didn’t really experience much of this lounge as I was waiting here for just over an hour for the BA lounge to open. For most of that time I was the only person in the lounge, so the atmosphere was certainly quiet. There was just one staff member in the lounge and he seemed helpful and pro-active.
This was my preferred seating area, large desks and plenty of nearby power outlets. Although, to be fair, there was no shortage of power outlets around the rest of the lounge. There were numerous different types of seating available and several smaller and more private areas.
More seating. There was free wi-fi in the lounge, but it didn’t work very well and so was the main reason that I left to go to the BA lounge. Everything else seemed to work as expected though and there were toilets and showers within the lounge.
The food selection at breakfast was average, there were some cereals, fruit, pastries and yoghurts to choose from. I didn’t have anything as I had just eaten, with the exception of a cereal bar which were also available here. The flavoured waters were good, as were the coffees, so that was all good.
Part of the drinks and food selection on offer.
All in all, it’s a perfectly reasonable lounge, but nothing exceptional. The unreliable wi-fi was the problem for me, and ironically it’s one of the few places in the airport where wi-fi isn’t available, as there is public wi-fi in the rest of the terminal which didn’t reach into this lounge. There also wasn’t a view from the lounge, so it did feel a little like being in a basement. But it was clean, comfortable and functional, so worth it for those with a lounge access card but perhaps not quite so good for those wanting to pay for access.
The Air France lounge at Boston Airport, which is a little tucked away in Terminal E, quite a way from the other lounges. I got access to this lounge with Priority Pass, it’s unusual in that it’s an Air France lounge that’s part of that scheme and also that it doesn’t have any restriction on opening hours.
It wasn’t very busy….. The interior is bright, although there isn’t really a view, unlike the spectacular one from the BA lounge.
The food selection was extensive, with salad items, chicken fajitas, pastries and baguettes.
More lounges need to do this and I excitedly prepared myself a chicken noodle, it made me feel that I was back on Amtrak….. Cheap and easy, but hot and convenient. I didn’t really explore the drinks selection in any detail, but there were plenty of spirits and also some wines as would be expected in a French lounge.
The toilets are in the lounge (as in customers don’t need to go out to visit them, they’re not literally plonked in the middle of the eating area) and there were around ten different French magazines, as well as some English ones. The news was playing quietly on screens around the lounge, but nothing that intruded on the atmosphere.
This isn’t an overdone lounge, but it’s clean, well presented and functional. The wi-fi was fast, there were plenty of power points and a range of seating areas. There were only a handful of customers in when I visited and a couple of staff members keeping everything topped up and organised.
I was slightly confused (which rarely takes much) to see a JetBlue aircraft at Boston Logan which wasn’t blue…..
All became clear with a little Googling. It’s a special painted aircraft to honour the Boston Celtics basketball team, with the Lucky the Leprechaun mascot on the tail.
I’ll start this post by commenting that I’ve written to American Airlines (not that the customer service staff can really do anything with my message), as the crew member said that they appreciate all feedback (which is the sort of mistruth that is often said). It was a frustrating flight, as nearly everything was excellent. The lounge exceeded my expectations, the airport staff and cabin crew were friendly and efficient, the entertainment system was decent, the snacks were fine, the service was quiet as it was a night flight, the aircraft was clean and we arrived on time.
However, the problem is the recline on the seats, or at least, it’s a problem for me. Once thought of as the preserve of the budget carriers such as easyJet and Ryanair in Europe and Allegiant in the US, decent airlines are now scrapping the damn things, or at least offering customers the choice of rows where seats can’t recline. They cause seemingly endless arguments on flights and with the limited seat pitch and space between seats, they intrude far too heavily into the person behind. British Airways have started to scrap reclining seats in some of their short-haul flights and Delta have started to cut back how far the seats recline.
The compromise of having several rows which have no recline seems to me to be an excellent one. No system is perfect in meeting the needs of every passenger, but that will mean that the majority of seat recliners get their seat recline, and the majority of those who don’t like seats reclining also get their way. I’m very pleased that at least British Airways has seen sense on this issue.
The screen, which was bright and had an excellent range of different films and television programmes. One clever innovation is that you can also watch these films and programmes from your phone should you wish, which is probably a pre-cursor to the screens being removed in the future.
The business class seats that I wasn’t in….
The coach seats that I was seated in, which were actually otherwise entirely acceptable in their unreclined state.
The crew came round and offered a free drink, with snacks of pretzels and biscuits. I opted for my usual Dr. Pepper, with the crew serving everyone efficiently. I was surprised that they served with the cabin in darkness, but they didn’t seem to experience any issues.
Arriving into Boston, the pilot mentioned that those sitting on the right hand side would be a good view of the city, and fortunately, I was sitting on the right hand side by the window.
So, in short, the flight was excellent, but the airline’s overly generous recline policy means that I won’t likely be flying with them again in short-haul. Which means I’ll be back to Allegiant.
Stephanie’s is a restaurant which takes part in the Priority Pass scheme, where those who hold the lounge pass can get a restaurant meal instead of (or as well as) the more traditional lounge set-up. Stephanie’s is the only option at Terminal B for those with the card as there aren’t any other lounges in the scheme.
When I arrived at the restaurant I checked that my boarding pass would be OK, as I had just landed at Terminal B, but I was departing later that day from Terminal E. They didn’t seem too concerned though and they didn’t ever check my boarding pass anyway.
The staff member tried to seat the two parties in front of me at the bar, but they both refused and wanted a table. Not to be put off, the staff member offered me the bar area, and she was rewarded with my approval as I had no real preference. A member of bar staff came over promptly to introduce herself and give me a menu and it all seemed efficient.
The orange juice was freshly squeezed rather than coming from a carton.
I opted for the Eggs Benedict, which along with the orange juice came to $25. The lounge pass allows for a spend of up to $28, although that doesn’t include the tip and I left that separately in cash. It’s a little expensive for a drink and breakfast, but it is at an airport and not a great deal is cheap at airports….
The food was fine, although very heavily salted, although fortunately I can willingly tolerate this. The home fries, a concept I very much like, were crisp, flavourful and, as mentioned, salty. The eggs weren’t runny when I cut into them, which I would have preferred, and the Hollandaise sauce didn’t look overly appetising. However, the sauce tasted fine and the thick slice of bacon had a firm texture, rich taste and it was also, as mentioned, salty. The sauce didn’t have a particularly strong taste of anything and the muffin was a little soft and wet for my liking. Overall though, it was an acceptable breakfast, although at the price point charged it was really only just acceptable.
Overall, I very much like the Priority Pass scheme where restaurants offer this sort of deal. The meal cost me $4 as a tip, so this seemed excellent value for money, and it was clear that some other diners in the restaurant were also using their card. The restaurant wasn’t otherwise that busy, so they also seemed to be benefiting from the extra customers.
Oh, and I saw this review on TripAdvisor, so don’t go if you’re vegan. Although can anyone really be surprised that the restaurant didn’t let them in?
“EXTREMELY Vegan un-friendly. OK, so it is not the restaurant’s fault that at 5:30 pm, the last decent meal I had up to that point was breakfast at 8:00 am. It is the restaurant’s fault for not allowing me to have my dinner with my colleagues with food that I bought from another vendor at the airport because the only vegan offering at Stephanie’s is a plain green salad with oil and vinegar (not nearly sufficient). As my colleagues enjoyed their dinner provided by the restaurant, I was left drinking my iced tea with my stomach growling and feeling nauseous.”
I probably wouldn’t come here with my own money as a first choice, as there are some better value alternatives in the airport, but I’d certainly come again to take advantage of the Priority Pass deal.
That $1 advertised offer written all this bus, that’s what I paid, a bargain. Irritatingly, in the UK Megabus aren’t allowed to advertise their £1 fare because the advertising authority said it was misleading, even though they offer £1 fares. Madness. Anyway, that’s a different matter and I’m pleased I didn’t mention Brexit given that I’m writing about things written on buses.
I decided to go from Boston to Philadelphia by Megabus not just because of that price, although that was a helpful factor. I like Megabus, they’re efficient and everything makes sense to me.
Flixbus would have been shocked and appalled at the service offered by Megabus, as the bus was advertised as going from gate 25 in the bus station, it was signed as going from gate 25 in the bus station, there was a staff member reassuring people they were in the right place and the bus left from gate 25 in the bus station. Flixbus would have proudly left from some random stop perhaps vaguely in the same approximate area as where they said they would. Anyway, enough of my dislike of Flixbus.
I said that I paid $1, but this is actually a lie, I accidentally booked seat 8 which cost me an extra $1. The reason for this is that the web-site was struggling when I booked it (mainly because they release all the $1 fares at the same time) and I remember just trying to get the ticket booked. This meant that I was near to the front of the bus though, which was about 80% occupied.
There are two sets of steps, I was seated by the front set. The journey was uneventful, other than when the driver got lost for 45 minutes. She admitted she was lost and got a Megabus supervisor to get her back on track, but she otherwise did a great job and got us to Philadelphia just a little earlier than advertised.
A lady near to me had booked three seats, but her son wanted to sit at the front. I liked this, as he was meant to be in seat seven next to me, and I thought that was a marvellous idea to send him somewhere else. So that was a win-win, although the guy who had paid to sit at the front seemed less pleased that he had a new seat companion. The seat next to me stayed free all the journey, so I was very pleased with the lady’s actions.
And, one more story. When I was already boarded an initially pleasant woman wanted to pay cash to get the bus. However, Megabus don’t work like that, so the driver told her to book on-line. With two minutes until the bus left, this added some extra excitement into the arrangements, so half of the bus was really getting into this drama. I think I speak for the bus that we were disappointed when she got off and didn’t try and book as she said her phone didn’t work.
We weren’t disappointed with how this drama progressed though, as she found someone with a phone in the terminal who would book her ticket using his card and she would pay him cash. The excitement was mounting now, the driver helpfully telling them that she would give this one go as she wanted to leave. The man agrees to give it one chance and tries to book the ticket. Anyway, he couldn’t as the bus had technically already left so the Megabus website wouldn’t let him book it.
The woman made a final plea to give the driver cash as she needed to get the bus desperately. Not so desperately she didn’t book it before like everyone else, but I don’t judge. Well, I do, as did the woman opposite who was very excited by this late night turn of events. The outcome of this story is that the driver told the customer (not really a customer I suppose though) to get off the bus, so the customer swore and got off.
And with that, the night bus was ready to go, about a 7 hour journey. I did get sleep, although there was a mid-way stop at a 24-hour McDonald’s. I didn’t get off, but I rather regretted that, as the woman with two kids bought half the restaurant and then promptly made me hungry with her bags of food. So, I went back to sleep in a mood.
Also, I woke up to see the New York skyline, which I hadn’t expected as I didn’t think the bus would go that way, as it only had one stop at Syracuse before Philadelphia. It was beautiful to see the Freedom Tower at night, quite inspirational.
As for whether I’d book Megabus in the US again, absolutely I would.
The British Airways 747-400 service from Heathrow T5 (B Gates) to Boston Logan Airport. It had 22 crew and is aircraft G-CIVE, which has been operating for the airline since 1994. The boarding was well managed, with a staff member guarding access to the desks and checking that customers boarded in the correct group.
I did hear a few customers complaining that they weren’t allowed to board whenever they wanted, but if someone has Group 5 on their ticket and they’re calling Group 1 only, it shouldn’t come as a complete surprise to them. The person behind me was also extremely displeased at the queue of customers who needed priority boarding for whatever reason. I heard a “he doesn’t look ill” and “that one definitely isn’t ill, he must know the pilot” with lots of tuts.
My seat was 40D, which is a bulkhead aisle seat, and there was also no-one next to me, so the whole arrangement was spacious and comfortable.
The first drinks service, which was my only alcoholic drink of the flight (and indeed day) which was a gin and tonic. British Airways have done away with Tribute ale and instead have the slightly ridiculous products of Heineken and Tiger. Ridiculous given that BA is British and quite why it isn’t serving anything British is a mystery to me. The lady in the row behind asked for Tribute and rejected the other beer options, and quite right too.
The other drink was a sparkling water, and a water which the crew member accidentally poured. Best to stay hydrated though.
I think it’s fair to say that British Airways don’t serve the most beautifully presented food in World Traveller. One half of the cabin was advertising the choice as “chicken chasseur or pasta with a pesto sauce?”, the other was offering “chicken or pasta?”. I’m not sure that this really is chicken chasseur in any traditional sense, but it tasted much better than it looked. The chicken was tender, the sauce had a decent flavour and the vegetables retained just the slightest of bites.
As for the rest, the posset actually contained lemon and was satisfactorily sharp, the cheddar cheese was excellent and the starter was tolerable. The roll was soft and the two portions of butter were, well, butter and not margarine. For the cabin, I thought that this was a perfectly good meal.
The mid-flight ice cream.
The second meal was basic, but this is an east coast flight, and this is better than it was for a while on British Airways when Cruz’s first cuts came in. The seeded roll had some tender chicken in as well as some tomatoes, which I wouldn’t have guessed were slow roasted. That might be over selling just a little. The chocolate bar was, well, chocolatey.
The in-flight entertainment system, which now has the seat number handily showing on the front of the screen. Saves looking up I suppose.
This was a highlight, a film that I had wanted to see last year. Free Solo is the incredible documentary of when the free climber Alex Honnold ascended El Capitan. He did this climb up what looks to me like a sheer rock face and it’s 3,000 feet high. He did this without any ropes, so if he made a single mistake during his 3 hour and 56 minute climb then he would have died. Brave isn’t the word for it….. On reflection, if he had made a mistake in the first few minutes, he wouldn’t have died as he wouldn’t have fallen very far. But the rest was very dangerous indeed.
A mid-flight view.
One important thing to note about this flight is that it cost £128 for a single trip (which includes the positioning flight from Newcastle), plus I received back around £5 back in Avios. Taking into account it cost BA £78 in air passenger duty, it cost £56 in Heathrow charges and about £26 in US airport arrival charges. They then had to cover the costs for my lounge access at Heathrow T5. It doesn’t take a Labour Shadow Home Secretary to work out that this is more than the ticket cost I paid……
Taking into account the cost of the ticket, this flight was IMO excellent value for money. The flight arrived on time, the crew were helpful, the seat was comfortable and everything on board worked as it should. All very lovely.
Have safely arrived in Boston, MA, and what a lovely first impression (well, second impression as I’ve been to Boston before) this is.
