Trip Report: ALC-MAN with TCX
TCX750L- 05/06/04 (Today)
Aircraft: G-JMAA
STD: 13:30
ATD: 14:39
STA: 15:05
ATA: 15:56
So, after a wonderful holiday with my cousins and my family, it was time to go home!!
At 07:35 this morning(Spanish time) and got up and got dressed ready to head off to the airport. I still hadn’t packed my bag so I did that and watched TV for a bit. The rest of my family gradually got up and we made sure we had packed everything. We then went round to my cousin’s house where they were ready. So we got into our cars and set off for Alicante airport. It is a long, but beautiful drive from Torrevieja to El Altet International airport. We finally drove through the tunnel by the runway, coming up by the runway lights, with an aircraft touching down at that very moment.
So we got to the car hire place, where we handed the keys over in the office. We proceeded into the terminal building where it was chaos. There were 38 check-in desks, with 19 flights being sorted out. Each flight had 2 check-in desks. TCX750L, with a full compliment of passengers, 286, had 2 desks. Eventually, they opened a third desk to sort this chaos out. We were first in line. We got checked in pretty quickly and went over to the special check-in to hand in the bodyboards!! We then went up the escalators to security, we all went through with no problems.
Into departures we went and the place was heaving with passengers. We found 9 spaces by the window to let me take the reggies of the planes as they taxied past (10 was in use) and let me watch movements. We then went to Burger King to get some lunch. From there, it was back to the gate to wait for the flight. We already knew it was delayed so we weren’t too worried. Finally, at 13:26, almost an hour late, G-JMAA landed and taxied to the gate. I took a few photos of her whilst she was being prepared. Then, at 13:50, we commenced boarding at gate 6.
We went down the steps to catch our bus, which took us across the airport to where G-JMAA stood. We had a brief diversion round a GirJet F100 to where G-JMAA was waiting. We got off the bus and climbed the stairs. We were greeted by a stewardess who had been on our outbound flight last week. We went down to our seats, where I got 15E(I let my cousin get the window seat this time.). The doors were closed and set to automatic whilst the Thomas Cook boarding music was still playing. The safety video was shown on the fold-down TV, before the engines were started up and followed G-EZYK out, followed by G-EZJN, G-EZJE(also visited AMS during the day). We waited at the holding point for the first Easyjet to depart before heading out onto the runway. We commenced a rolling take-off, easily beating the cars along the road by the runway, who seemed determined to win the race, before lifting off near the end out into the Meditteranean.
Bizarrely, we then turned south, before heading back in land and up towards Valencia. From there, we headed up towards Bilbao. From there, it was up towards Bordeaux, before overflying at 36,000ft, the D-Day celebrations. We commenced our descent over Jersey, coming through the clouds about 2 minutes before landing, with plenty of reverse thrust.
The services provided on this flight were just the same as the outbound, with the meal of beef and ale casserole being a lot better than the outbound flight.
It took us 1 hour to get our bags once we had disembarked before heading off to the car park and home!! The end of a wonderful holiday ended with a good flight!!
Service 9/10
Comfort 9/10
Punctuality 6/10- delayed by Thursday’s events
Food 6/10
Cleanliness of aircraft 9/10
Overall 39/50
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