Return trip report
MON7699 – 29/10/06
FAO-MAN
G-MRJK
ETD: 14:20
ATD: 17:38
ETA: 17:10
ATA: 20:08
After a week of wet weather a little bit of sunshine, it was time to go home. We packed our bags the night before as we were due to be kicked out of the room by 10:00. We went up to Montechoro for breakfast before heading back to CPO and sat waiting for our taxi. The coach with the rest of the people on our flight staying at CPO arrived at 10:55, and soon after that left, our Easygo minibus arrived. We put our baggage in the back and we travelled back to Faro airport. After a half hour ride, we got to the airport with 10 minutes before check-in opened. We located a check-in screen, and to our horror, it said there was an estimated departure time of 17:30. We went to find check-in and we joined the queue. Sure enough, as we got to the desk, there was a notice saying our flight was delayed by 3 hours. We got a letter from Monarch explaining the reason why we were delayed, which was an aircraft going tech elsewhere, and we got vouchers for a light meal to be served in the International Restaurant at 14:00. We passed the time in departures looking bored, until we decided to go up to the International Resturant and collect our meals which consisted of a cheese or ham sandwich, a free drink, and a packet of crisps. We were among the first to arrive for the meals so we got a free choice of tables. The rest of our flight wandered into the Restaurant at 14:00 and got their meals. We remained in the Restaurant after finishing our meals as it was hardly thrill a minute action downstairs. Time edged slowly towards departure time, until at 16:30 we went downstairs and found some seats by a window. We asked at the information desk about our flight and she said it would be arriving in a couple of minutes. Sure enough, 2 minutes later, our plane arrived. I knew it was different as this plane at flymonarch.com titles above the cabin, rather than the plain Monarch titles on our outbound aircraft, G-OZBB. Very quickly, we were called through to departures so we passed through passport control and we were immediately called for boarding. After visiting the facilities, we boarded the bus which would take us to our aircraft. We got to our aircraft as the LS flight from Manchester (identifiable by the aircraft – Jet 2 Manchester) arrived. We boarded at the back of G-MRJK and we made our ways down to row 16 where our seats were. My sister had A and I had C. To my horror, I discovered the legroom was much less than on OZBB. Also, I discovered that there was nowhere to plug in earphones, or any music channels available, so the entertainment guide at the back of the in flight magazine was useless. We soon pushed back and the engines started and we headed our to runway 10 for departure. We taxied quickly out and commenced a rolling take off. We soon lifted off and into the sky for our flight back to MAN, and some on to EDI. The captain came on as soon as the seatbelt signs were turned off to apologise for the delay and explained that the EDI based aircraft (I suspect it was G-OZBB) had gone tech in Palma the previous evening. They had to get one of the MAN based aircraft up to EDI for the flight which they couldn’t do until that morning. Shortly after that, we got the drinks and snacks bar which I got water and some Maltesers. Soon came the meal of Sausage and Mash which was gorgeous. Again, it came with the My Travel mat. We put the rubbish in the rubbish bag provided. Then came the game cards and duty free as we started our descent into MAN. Soon, we could see the lights of Greater Manchester as we lined up on finals on runway 24R. As we got lower and lower the lights became brighter and brighter, and we came in over the road that runs by the end of 24R and touched down just past the Airport Pub and applied full reverse thrust. We taxied in past Concorde, and taxiing to the other runway was a TOM 763 and an XLA 738. As we taxied in towards our gate, an EK 773 came out and we parked up at gate 29, and we disembarked as an Air Berlin 738 came up alongside us. We headed through immigration to arrivals where we got our bags swiftly, and headed back to FSS to collect our car and head home 3 hours later than planned.
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