From the BBC:
Three British Airways passengers had a once-in-a-lifetime flight after finding they were the only ones on board.
Lawrie-Lin Waller, 33, said she and her friends were upgraded to business class, treated to bottles of champagne, and posed for selfies with the captain. And on their trip from Gibraltar to Heathrow on 17 December, her friends Laura Stevens, 34, and Sarah Hunt, 35, enjoyed three-course meals.
Ms Waller said: "We're never going to experience anything like that again."
Something like that once happened to me, it was a small airplane London City to Tessino, Switzerland, it had a capacity of maybe fifty people but there were only five or six of us. So second and third helpings of snacks and booze for everybody.
The plane made a pit stop at a tiny airstrip in the west of Switzerland to let one passenger get off. The stewardess said they were making good time and if anybody wanted to get out for a smoke they were welcome. A couple of us duly decamped to the bar at the side of the tarmac, had another pint and a couple of fags until the stewardess came in and shepherded us back onto the plane.
Not quite as impressive as the BA story, but truly a memorable/once in a lifetime event (I don't fly that often so I can't say how often it happens).
Another one bites the dust
3 hours ago
4 comments:
I was upgraded as a kid on a DH Comet flight Heathrow to Zurich in 1962. On my way to Davos. Part of a Red Cross / NHS project to send asthmatics to sanatoria in the Swiss Alps. So falling out for a smoke probably wasn't a good idea...
Hasn't happened since.
On a similar note, but a much smaller scale, I found myself the be the only resident at an hotel in Mallorca on 30th Oct this year. The hotel was closing down for the winter at the end of October. I dined and breakfasted the next day lavishly.
On short haul flights the BA "business" class is exactly the same as the rest of the plane except that they keep the middle seat free. They do this so that they can adjust the size of the business cabin as needed.
The exit row seats will have the most leg-room. They are usually in the economy class unless the business cabin has extended beyond row 12 (which can be the case on certain flights to and from Geneva/Zurich/Frankfurt).
If the flight was empty they could have sat anywhere. The crew probably moved them up front so they didn't have to walk so far when serving the food. I suppose there was no reason not to give them the "business" food since it would just have gone in the bin and the crew can only eat so much themselves.
The only good thing about BA these days is the pilots. The crew are variable, but hard to blame them when the newer ones on the mixed fleet contract get 16k a year. To be fair the crew on this flight seem all right.
BA is in full PR mode now since they rightly got a lot of flack for going to buy-on-board for short haul (despite which it is an improvement over the existing offering) and on a 7 hour overnight flight they now only have one meal in economy plus a bag of crisps or a biscuit for breakfast.
L, did the fresh air make any difference with the asthma?
J, that's the same thing, fun isn't it?
C, you spoiled the story a bit with your added explanations :-(
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