BMI flight BD705 MAN-ORD 28 August

Oh well, a.net seems to be down so you get if first!

BMI flight BD705 Manchester-Chicago in the “New Economy”

Arriving at Manchester airport at 09:00 on a bank holiday Saturday, I was expecting to find that the terminal was a like zoo. Surprisingly, having dropped the car in the long stay car park in a space very close to the entrance, I found myself faced with a queue of one passenger in front of me at the premium checkin desk in BMI’s area at Manchester’s terminal one (oh, the advatages of a gold card, even though there were probably only twenty people queuing at the normal economy checkin desks). This trip was to be economy, but I had an ace up my sleeve in that I had four BMI upgrade vouchers, meaning that the new economy (more later) was assured as long as that cabin wasn’t full. The guy asking the security questions eyed the Algerian visa in my passport (as they always do) but asked nothing other than “You’re coming back next Saturday?” to which I replied “As long as BMI is still operating the flight”.

After checkin, BMI have their own security process so some mere fifteen minutes after parking the car, I was climbing the steps to Globeground’s lounge (gold card again!!!) having been checked in very courteously, having completed all formalities, and having been assigned seat 15K in the New Economy cabin. The Globeground lounge in Manchester terminal one was its usual pleasant self, with views of the runway and BA and BD regional departures. Over a couple of gin and tonics, a few sandwiches and a read of the Times, I watch Balkan Holidays’ TU-154 LZ-HMW depart, two PIA’s leave (one 747-300 in the old colours and a 777 in the new colours), the Singapore 777 leave for Singapore, MAS Kargo’s 747-200F arrive, an Alitalia E-jet (Emb-170) depart for Rome, and a feast of regional and charter jet movements.

BMI very pleasantly send a staff member to the Globeground lounge to escort premium passengers to the gate, so there’s no need to watch the monitors. Some 20 minutes before departure, around 10 passengers were asked to gather at the lounge reception whereafter we were escorted to gate 29. No queues for us either – straight to the front our escort proceeded, where we were immediately allowed to board at the expense of the “normal” passengers who were asked to wait a moment. On boarding down the gate 29 jetway, one surprise at the 2L door of G-WWBB was Sir Michael Bishop greeting passengers! Without any prompting, I said “Good morning Sir Michael, are you joining us going to Chicago today?” which seemed to surprise him – how many passengers would have known who he was, I wonder? But he replied “No, not today, I’m just here to welcome you all onboard… How are you?” “I’m fine thankyou, and looking forward to the trip” I replied. “Well welcome on board and thankyou for flying BMI” was his response. A nice touch, and maybe a response to the problems BA were reportedly having at LHR, with the suggestion that CEO Rod Eddington would be patrolling the BA areas at LHR over the bank holiday weekend?

BMI’s new economy is a pleasantly better experience than normal economy… A seat near the front, 38” pitch, a more generous recline, and more attentive service differentiate it from the service that the proles get, especially pleasant when you get it just for handing over a voucher rather than paying any more. Seat 15K was just over the wing root, giving a fine view of the red portion of the Trent 700, a sweeping grey wing and the bright white winglet. A PTV in the seatback gives 20 video channels (although no VOD), a multitude of games, plenty of audio channels, and the best bit – a forward facing and downward facing camera view. Whilst seated at the gate, the downward view shows only grey tarmac and a yellow line, the forward view a tug and the wall of the terminal building. Pushback was five minutes early, possibly a testament to the efficient ground staff and light load – I’ve no idea how many were in the main cabin, but the “New Economy” was no more than one third full. Once underway, the forward camera view on the seat back PTV shows a pilot’s eye view of our taxi out to the runway and then a maginficent view of our take off on Manchester’s runway 24L. Just prior to line up, it was most “entertaining” to see the spotters on the bank on the south side of the runway, all pointing their cameras at our A330. The guy in 15C is madly tapping on a calculator and entering numbers onto a piece of paper – the cabin crew rightly insist that he fold up his table for take off, but the tapping continues (maybe the cabin crew presume that the calculator is not an item of electronic equipment, but is powered by clockwork?).

Shortly after take off, our initial route towards Chicago involved a right then left turn, a climb over Burtonwood and Liverpool, and a gradual assent over the north Wales coast – pitty the bank holiday travellers northbound on the M6 who were stacked back for miles approaching the Thelwall Viaduct! Pre-lunch drinks were the usual suspects – gin and tonic being the order of the day for me, of course! Lunch in the “New Economy” was salad with thousand-island dressing, then a choice of chinken korma, cumberland sausage with onion gravy, or savoury vegetable bake – I have to say that the second of these three choices was very tasty! Cheese and biscuits and ice-cream (vanilla or strawberry) with tea or coffee rounded off a very pleasant meal. The cabin crew have been pleasant – talkative, informative, efficient, and most importantly they’ve already recognised my desire to have my glass of G&T recharged on a regular basis without prompting.

And so it was that after some two and a half hours, just south of Iceland, the flight settled into routine. The view outside was all engine, wing and winglet, the Trents gently thrumming. If I were forced to explain what could be seen ourside, I would say it was pretty much blue sea and blue sky, with a smooth ride for us above it all. “Will and Grace” followed by “Friends” and “Scrubs” was on the PTV (I had no desire to see “Welcome to Mooseport” , “Shrek 2”or any of the other movies again, having seen most of them before), my seat was reclined, footrest was out, I was pleasantly fed, and two more G&Ts were on the table of the empty seat beside me. Ahhh – this is the way to travel! Eat your heart out Ryanair!! According to the driver up-front, today’s flight was to be an exceptionally long eight hours and thirty minutes due to headwinds, which as far as I was concerned just meant there was more time to kick-back and relax!

Three and a half hours in, and there’s nothing outside except blue sky, blue sea, a red engine, and some icy rocks that the real-time flight tracking system purports to be Greenland. “Friends” is on the screen, most of the cabin blinds are down, the gin is working its miracles, the lights are dimmed, and its time to take a nap. I put down Barbara Cassani’s entertaining insight into “Go” (the cabin crew noticed that too, and asked why I was reading about a low-cost airline!) and closed my eyes. Talk to you all later! Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

Five hours in… I awake from my snooze to find Jeremy Clarkson on the PTV, spouting on about some Cadilac no one in their right minds is going to buy (especially after he’s trashed it on “Top Gear”). And speaking of things from Yorkshire (the aforementioned Clarkson making the link), a bottle of “Harrogate Spa” has mysteriously replaced the empty glass of G&T – I thought that the only things that came from Yorkshire were wippets and flat caps, but evidently there’s high-quality water that comes from this remote outpost somewhere north of Leeds! According to the moving map, we’re well past somewhere called Godthab, and outside the sky is still blue, the engine is still there and still red, but everything below is white – assuming we’re still over the Atlantic, which the moving map insists that we are, I’m forced to presume its become cloudy! We’re flying at an altitude of 11887 meters, whatever that is in old money! I’ve just noticed that the guy in 15A (right across the cabin from me) is so large there’s no way he’d fit into a normal ecomony class seat! As I nod off again, I’m wondering whether he has to buy a “New Economy” ticket whenever he flies, or whether the ground staff at Manchester took pity on him (or whoever was going to be sat in front of him!).

Six and a half hours… Jezza is back on again, waxing lyrical about some Mercedes none of us is going to be able to afford in our lifetime, and discussing the finer points of handling a Suzuki Liana with Paul McKenna – apparenly JC comes on the PTV every two hours or so if you don’t bother to change the channels! Caracas and Mexico City are on the moving map, leaving me wondering for a few seconds whether I was really on the right flight, before James Bay and Chicago reassuring reappear on the larger scale map. Outside, its blue sky, brown land and lots of lakes.

Finally, seven and a half hours after departure, the cabin crew are reassuringly preparing to give us something else to eat. Pizza (cheese or ham) has replaced the paninis of old, and a pleasant chocolate chip cake has displace the heavy syrup cake of old. Not bad. Another gin and tonic made the story complete. One thing I’ve never figured about BMI is how early they put on the seat belt signs and collect in the headsets. Right after top of decent, everyone’s strapped in, sitting upright and remains so for a good half hour even when the air is clear like it was on this flight. Kalamazoo is the order of the day on the moving map now, although its shrouded in cloud. Final approach into Chicago O’Hare took us onto runway 27L, but breaking low cloud at around 1500 feet meant few views of anything interesting. As the rollout on 27L goes close to the international terminal at O’Hare, a short taxi behind a United 747-400 took us onto a gate and the inevitable queue for immigration.

The one hour late arrival due to those headwinds means nothing now – I find that my onward United connection to San Francisco is delayed by five hours, requiring some frantic rebooking and an anxious wait to see if I got a standby seat on the next flight, but that’s another story!

Andy