Got woken up by Angel this morning to finish my packing of things used overnight. It did not take me long to get ready. She served an egg for breakfast along with her usual morning blend drink of greens/bananas/apples/other healthy items. She dropped me off at the Bentalls Centre and the bus was late. I got to Heathrow a little past 9AM. I got to use the Flagship check in but had to go to the central check in to go trough security. I got to use the fast track but got stuck behind a lady traveling with a small child. She took a while to get everything through security.
The next challenge was to choose which lounge to access first. I decided to use the Cathay Pacific Business lounge since it was further away from the other two that I would visit. The set up was nice, but no windows. They had a breakfast bar of sandwiches, dim sum, fruit, yogurt, and cereals. I grabbed a few packaged biscuits to go for later. The dim sum was ok but the sandwiches were not tasty, would not have them again unless I was starving. The fruit bowl was a nice touch but the yogurt was sour. Soft drinks were chilled in the fridge while the bar had a open tap of different liquors. I used the computers a bit to check my email and surfed for a while. After an hour, I decided to head to the British Airways Galleries.
Somewhere between the Cathay and British lounges, I lost my boarding pass. It was embarrassing to show up at the BA lounge and not have a boarding pass. I backtracked to Cathay but did not track my pass down. I went to the American Airlines Admirals Club to get a reprint of my pass and also to use the facility there. They had a good set up of continental breakfast and juices. The bar was open as well along with chilled soft drinks. The atmosphere was very calm and the lounge had a great view of the runway. The space is huge and very open. Not sure where the Flagship lounge is but it is being remodeled right now.
I walked a few steps to use the BA lounge. The space was big as well but not open like AA. I grabbed some fruit and water from the bar since they did nit serve diet Coke. I stayed long enough for them to change the food line from breakfast to lunch. One thing I did notice is that Cathay and BA had free WiFi while American limited to the lounge members and those with a one day pass. They all had open PCs for use though with printers available as well.
I went back to the BA lounge and sat my bags down before checking out the breakfast spread. Cereal, fruit, yogurt, and croissants. I took some fruit and water since they were out of diet Coke. I waited round until noon and then went back when lunch was set up. It was some type of Chicken Tikka and rice or noodles/marinara sauce. I did not realize that there were small open bars towards the other side with snacks at the other end of the lounge until I went to use the restroom. I grabbed some chips and cookies on my way out.
It was about a 10 minute walk to my gate. When I got there, there were two equal long lines waiting to get into the secure gate area. I was glad that an agent went through the right lane and inquired to see if everyone in the lane had Priority AAccess on their boarding pass. About 2/3 of the line moved to the other (much bigger/growing) line. One guy had headphones on and did not pay attention. He also had a bottle of Maker's whiskey that he sipped periodically. Everyone noticed and the agent kept on asking him to move and stood there. She got a supervisor to come with her to grab his boarding pass and passport. He was a UK citizen and flying economy. They would not let him board since he was intoxicated. He left the bottle on the floor and asked for coffee to sober up. They left him to his own devices and he waited to see if he could board.
I made it to the secure area and tried to see what was going on with him. They called for boarding for business class so I had to leave the area. I ended up sitting next to a weird big guy who had a bad case of halitosis and really gassy.
The business class ended up with 3 empty seats and I ended up with the guy that had questionable hygiene and no shame. It seems that the left side of the plane always gets served last for everything from the personal entertainment devices to the food and beverage services. We had the hot nuts for snacks and I took it with my diet coke and bacardi. We were then served an appetizer of shrimp and salmon. I got my first choice of dinner which was beef, green beans, and potatoes. Dessert of Ben & Jerry's vanilla ice cream topped with whipped cream, butterscotch, nuts, and hot fudge. I had coffee and Baileys which went wonderfully with the cookie and fruit platter. I only used half the bottle of Bailey's for my cuppa of Joe and used the rest for a second cup. They did give me another bottle of Bailey's so I took it home. It was slim pickings for movies so I watched I hate Valentine's Day. It was an ok movie, nothing really outstanding about it. I starting watching The Big Bag Theory and will need to catch up on it from the beginning. I tried to sleep but it did not really work since it was still a day time flight. We landed a few minutes early and I cleared through customs pretty funny. My mom had problem finding me but she found me eventually after learning that there was only one arrival door for international flights.
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