Headed off to the gate and were pretty much the first on board. I was in 1C and when I sat down it was clear that the seat width was not right......I had to squeeze myself in and there definitely no extra space. I raised this with the cabin crew, who got the purser to look at the situation. To determine whether the seat was the correct width, she used my newspaper to measure the width in comparison to the seat behind (and clearly it was about 4-5 inches narrower!). She then went to get an engineer to fix the seat....I did offer to move to 1A which was free to prevent any delays. When they turned up, the purser spoke to the engineer and said that they issue was due to a “wide passenger” – I don’t think she realised that my travelling companions were in 1D and 1F! It became apparent that the seat was “broken” and it was agreed it should be taken out of service – so not just me being wide then. I moved to 1A and thought that would be the end of it.....however, a friend of the First Office travelling was upgraded to this seat (rather than one of the other two spare seats), which made me feel a little awkward.
Once everyone was on board and everything sorted, we had a shortish taxi and then we were off to CDG. The pilot advised it would be a short flight of only 45 minutes. Food came out very quickly – we were offered a plate of tapas style food and warm rolls. A huge amount better than the “afternoon tea service” that they offer – BA should offer this tapas plate in the afternoon instead. Served with a bottle of champagne of course. During the short flight I went to the toilet and asked if I could have another champagne, to which I was told help yourself from the trolley.....take two if you want..... I took two!....well what would the average v-flyer do??
Arrived to a deserted Terminal 2A at CDG and off to find the train station so we could get over to the Hilton CDG airport. Great hotel – got upgraded to executive plus rooms overlooking the runway and aprons...and even though we had missed the executive lounge we managed to get a free round of drinks!
