This is a Trip Report from the Premium Economy cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
Boarding commenced about 9.35am and was well organised with Upper and PE in 1 queue and Economy in another. We were all on board by 10am which boded well for an on time departure. Big mistake!!
About 10.15am a ground crew arrived and commenced loading 2 pallets of freight into the front hold. Then the de-icing man turned up so we pushed back about 10.30am. Not too bad. We then sat for 15 minutes before the Captain announced a mis-match in the paperwork and we were overload and had to return to stand. Ground crew then turned up and removed 1 of the pallets they had just loaded!
11.05 we pushed back again and commenced taxiing. As take off was north towards Manchester we taxied down towards Concorde stopping by the Air Livery hangar where we sat for about 15 minutes. Crept forward a couple of times and the I could see why. The taxiway to the end of the runway is closed as it is dug up and being worked on. Aircraft were having to wait and the taxi down the runway to turn around at the end. This meant they would send 2 aircraft down to turn await incoming aircraft then take off before they could repeat the procedure. Maybe somebody could explain why they didn't use the newer 2nd runway and how much aviation fuel is being wasted never mind the extra pollution.
We eventually took off at 11.45am with a full 9 hour flight time so that we would be an hour late into Atlanta. The flight itself was fine and we both enjoyed the cottage pie recommended by a Vflyer. Arrival in Atlanta was 65 minutes late but with a short taxi we were on stand at 4pm. We were off quickly and into the chaos, sorry Immigration. It wasn't too bad only 45 minutes of being moved from 1 queue to another before we could collect and drop off our bags pass through security and catch the train to terminal A for our flight down to Fort Myers. Our 3.25 hour layover meant we managed to arrive at our gate 45 minutes before departure which was better than many others who had missed their connections.
Delta were well organised and we pushed back 10 minutes early arriving in Fort Myers a whole 25 minutes early. We were off quick collected our luggage and car and were in our hotel in Naples by 8.30pm and ready for some sun tomorrow.
Our return at end of March could be interesting as we will be sampling Upper Air Berlin style!
Last edited by David1946 on 06 Feb 2018, 13:00, edited 2 times in total.