Hello once again fellow A.netters, welcome to my third trip report. This report details my return to MAN from MNI via ANU and LGW on SVG Air and BA. BA flights were booked in early July as return ANU-LGW-MAN(return flight in December) and the SVG Air flight MNI-ANU was booked as a one way a few days before the flight.
Before I start with the report, Ill share a few photos(aviation related ones) of the Emerald Isle of the Caribbean, Montserrat
This is the view from an abandoned lot in Look Out (yes, thats the name of the village), which could have the potential of being a really nice spotting area.
Unfortunately, theres not enough traffic flying into MNI to have regular shots like these during the day, but ive attached a few more pics at the end from another, but far more restricted location, you guys can have a guess where that might be .Ill attach some other pics of MNI as well at the end.
So lets get on with the report. I enjoyed my time back home, but it was time to return to university, believe it or not I was actually starting to miss it! Also I would like to apologize in advance for the quality of my pics but I still hope you guys enjoy reading.
Routing to MAN
Check in:
BA's online check in opens 24 hours before scheduled departure. Check in was done online this time rather than using the mobile app due to it not being available from ANU. Both flights were open and check in was completed with no problems. However I did notice that my ANU-LGW flight had very little world traveller seats available and all were behind the wing. At that moment a thought came to mind that it may be a 4 class 777 operating the route, but after a while I didnt think too much of it. So I settled for 33A for the LGW flight and 5A for the MAN flight.
Check in for SVG air was done at the airport although was a bit frustrating.
Day of Departure September 15 2012:
Before departing to MNI airport I decided to check the status of my BA flights using the BA mobile app and it was then the disappointment began and the beginning of a long 2 days. My ANU-LGW flight BA2256 was delayed, initially for 20mins but eventually turned to nearly 3 hours with a departure out of ANU now scheduled for 10 18 pm. Now seeing this would mean that I would miss my connecting flight to MAN the next day. So I decided that I would sort that out when I arrive into ANU.
Since I decided to take the midday flight to ANU(which now turned out to be a bad idea considering the delay to my BA flight), I got ready for about 10 30am. My Mother drove me from our house to the airport which took about 20-25 mins due to the island's hilly terrain and made it about an hour before scheduled departure.
Finally arrived to the check in counter and was met by this:
IMG-20120915-00177 by 817Dreamliiner, on Flickr
Empty check in counters, but an hour before departing is still early for flights out of Montserrat so I wasnt too worried at that point.
Eventually I met up with a friend and former classmate who was about to begin a shift at the ATC tower. We chatted for a bit and then he eventually left when his shift began. At this point there was still no one at the check in desk and the SVG air office was closed and this was around 15 mins before scheduled departure!! At this point I was really frustrated, but then someone finally came 5 mins later. As I was about to check in my classmate at the ATC tower sent me a message that they were in communication with the SVG air flight and they were inbound in about 5 mins. Then I just thought, O GREAT!!!!! . I haven't check in yet, cleared immigration or cleared security yet! Not Cool SVG/ABM Air! So basically I had to rush to do everything before entering the departure lounge. But at the moment it was the least of my worries as there were only 3 other people on this flight, funnily enough all heading to the UK like myself. So I said my goodbyes to my mother and sister and was off to the departure lounge.
817Dreamliiner From Montserrat, joined Jul 2008, 1402 posts, RR: 1 Reply 1, posted (8 months 2 days 16 hours ago) and read 5258 times:
Departure:
September 15th 2012
SVG Air
ABM204
MNI-ANU
BN-2 Islander
J8-UVF
Seat: Second row left side
Sadly this time I wasnt able to get the front seat like I did last time. Also I made the mistake of leaving my Blackberry in my bag and wasnt able to get it during the flight, hence no pics of this flight. I also forgot to turn the network off! The result of rushing... missed a really nice shot of the islands' volcano from the air because of that. Even so the flight to ANU was uneventful, although the approach to ANU took a different routing due a UA 737 landing on rwy 7. We landed soon after and parked next to a FlyMontserrat BN-2 and a Liat Dash 8.
While exiting the aircraft I finally got my blackberry out to make up for the lack of pics from this flight.
After a longish walk, I entered the arrivals hall where it was packed with arriving passengers from the UA and VS flights. I eventually cleared immigration and customs and immediately walked to the BA check in desk to know the status of my flights. I already knew I was going to miss my flight to MAN seeing how delayed my ANU-LGW flight was. Turns out that BA had already rebooked me on the later flight to MAN, and was really happy to hear that. I returned an hour later when check in was open to obtain my boarding passes and was given a voucher worth 24 XCD to use in the Big Banana Lounge for the delay. I thought that was a nice gesture from them, so I went there immediately to kill some time and to let the Virgin pax clear security and immigration. If youve ever been to ANU when a Virgin flight is on the ground, especially on a Saturday you'll understand.
I entered the Lounge and was immediately presented a menu by a friendly waitress. I wasn't too hungry at the time but decided to buy a ham and cheese grilled sandwich with a glass of raspberry juice
I relaxed for a while in the lounge and used the wifi while I waited out the long lines at security.
Eventually I decided it was time to go into the departure lounge to do some spotting since you can't do it from the outside anymore. Got through immigration and security rather quickly since there was no line at all, though they did have to search my bag, because something showed up on their screens, however it wasn't anything to worry about and went upstairs to see what was outside. At this time I still had like 6 more hours to wait. During that time I met up with a another ATC worker from MNI and chatted a bit.
Blast Reality, Burst it into shreds! Banishment, This World!
Strangely the VS flight had its doors closed for like half an hour before it started up, with some of the ramp workers sitting on a belt loader on the starboard side taking shade from the sun! Soon after I saw a cat running across the tarmac, not sure if that was the reason but it immediately reminded me on my flight to JFK in December last year, though in that case it was a dog.
So after watching a few Dash 8s land, the delayed inbound BA flight from LGW arrives and confirms my suspicion earlier in the day about my flight being on a 4 class aircraft.
Eventually the aircraft return from its short hop to SKB and soon parked up in preparation for the flight to LGW.
A couple moments later I heard my name as well as other BA passengers being called out on the intercom to identify ourselves at the gate. Now I had a idea of what this was all about so I quickly proceeded to the gate and to my surprise, I was right again, I got upgraded to the next class! Nice! Was given a new Boarding pass for seat 21B in World Traveller Plus! I then returned to the departure lounge to wait for boarding to begin.
Not too long after boarding was called for all passengers and I proceed to the gate. I handed the gate agent my boarding pass to be scanned but surprisingly it rejected my boarding pass! The agent told me told hold on a few minutes and was suddenly presented another boarding pass, not for the same world Traveller plus seat, but a Club World seat! They told me ive been upgraded again but this time to Business Class! At that Moment I really excited, I mean how often do you get upgraded twice on the same flight? I was now seated in 14E unfortunately not a window seat, but hey I would have taken any seat In Club World! I then exited the terminal and made my way to the aircraft.
Blast Reality, Burst it into shreds! Banishment, This World!
I finished my drink and returned the glass to the Flight Attendant. Soon after the GE90s started up and vibrations could be felt throughout the cabin, What an awesome sound they make!! Gotta love the Boeing 777! We then Started to taxi unto RWY 07 for takeoff. We finally took off at around 10 18pm. Flight time was to be about 7 hours and 50 mins.
The climb was a bit bumpy but eventually began smoothing out as we increased altitude. As the seat belt sign went off, the crew began the inflight service. The Club World Menu featured three main options for this flight which were Fillet of beef, Pasta and snapper. I choose the Fillet of beef option which was exceptional!
After dinner was served and cleared, I put my seat to full recline and went straight to sleep. The cabin lights were dimmed a few minutes later. I slept for a few hours and woke up with around one hour and 50 miuntes left before we were expected into LGW.
Soon after we began our decent into LGW. The pilots then briefed us about the current weather conditions at the field.
We then started our final approach to runway 26L, however due to where I was seated I had very limited view of the outside. Upon landing I did catch a glimpse of an CA A330-200 and not 1 but 2 HX A330-200s, I thought HX didnt fly to LGW anymore?? Anyway we taxied pass the 3 A330s on the remote stands towards the north terminal. I dont remember which gate we parked at, but we parked next to another BA 777. I thanked the crew for their service and disembarked the aircraft.
Was quite a walk towards the UK Border agency, but eventually got there after about 5-10 mins and was directed to one of the e-passport gates where my passport was scanned and was allowed to go through. I then made my way back up to the departures area for my next flight to MAN, however I presented with an immediate disappointment, again while checking the flight status on my BA mobile app, my flight to MAN was delayed for over an hour. Was original scheduled to depart at 3 50pm but was now departing at 5 15pm. At this time it was about midday UK time, so I just sat outside the entrance to the departure lounge and waited for a while before entering security.
After about an hour I decided to go through security which only took a few minutes and entered the departure area.
With lots of time to kill, I managed to walk the entire departure lounge about 3 or so times, literally, until I finally got bored and sat in a seating area close to one of the flight info screens. Gate info for my flight was to be displayed at around 4 40pm and even at this time I still had another 1 and a half hours to wait for the gate info to show up. At about 4 30 I packed up my stuff and headed towards the gating area hoping that by that time the gate would be displayed soon. The flight info screen eventually displayed 55C for my flight BA2908. I then quickly made my way to the gate to prepare for departure.
Blast Reality, Burst it into shreds! Banishment, This World!
Boarding soon commenced and we boarded the aircraft G-DOCZ for the Flight to MAN. Boarding was completed quickly and we were soon off and running taxiing to runway 26L with immediate takeoff.
We parked at the gate and I thanked the crew for their service disembarked and walked to the Domestic arrivals area. I exited the arrivals area and took the lift to the skywalk to the train station to catch a train to Salford Cresent.
Well here ends another long trip report, I know my pics aren't the best but I hope you all enjoy them and the rest of the report. Even with the delays I had with my BA flights, I thought BA handle my situation rather well hence they always will be my airline of choice. Thanks for reading.
Blast Reality, Burst it into shreds! Banishment, This World!
817Dreamliiner From Montserrat, joined Jul 2008, 1402 posts, RR: 1 Reply 8, posted (8 months 2 days 4 hours ago) and read 3873 times:
Quoting beeweel15 (Reply 6): Nice report. Would like to make it to Montserrat one of these days. Can the LIAT Dash 8 land there.
Thanks alot! You should go, its a really nice place to visit. At the moment dash 8s cant land there and the only aircraft flying into MNI currently is the BN-2 islander but it can accommodate the twin otter as well.
Quoting JM02 (Reply 7): nice report, really excited about what will take place at ANU, though I can imagine, ticket prices will go up to pay for this.
Thanks alot JM02! Im really glad that theyve started building the new terminal as well, its long overdue, though im not sure if ticket prices will increase as a result.
Blast Reality, Burst it into shreds! Banishment, This World!
817Dreamliiner From Montserrat, joined Jul 2008, 1402 posts, RR: 1 Reply 10, posted (8 months 2 days 3 hours ago) and read 3828 times:
Quoting GUYAIR707 (Reply 9): Sweet and excellent report. Now you are inspiring me to do reports of my trips. Man that is a long trip though, and many legs.
Montserrat is beautiful, I would love to visit there one day. Good luck in school.
Thanks alot GUYAIR707! Yes it is quite long I had actually thought it would be shorter than my last report, but as you can see that wasnt the case, as a matter of fact it should have been even longer! Glad to see that your now inspired to write reports, will look forward to reading them.
Yes Montserrat is a Beautiful island and you should go and visit when you have a chance. Thanks for the best wishes
Blast Reality, Burst it into shreds! Banishment, This World!
LimaFoxTango From Antigua and Barbuda, joined Jun 2004, 692 posts, RR: 0 Reply 11, posted (8 months 1 day 14 hours ago) and read 3443 times:
Great trip report! Of course I'm biased to the pics of you passing thru ANU. Can't wait for that new terminal to be completed. Walking thru that airport on a weekend can be a riot sometimes. Must take a trip to the UK one time.
Nice pics from the tower in MNI btw
You are said to be a good pilot when your take-off's equal your landings.
817Dreamliiner From Montserrat, joined Jul 2008, 1402 posts, RR: 1 Reply 12, posted (8 months 1 day 10 hours ago) and read 3274 times:
Quoting LimaFoxTango (Reply 11): Great trip report! Of course I'm biased to the pics of you passing thru ANU. Can't wait for that new terminal to be completed.
Thanks alot LimaFoxTango! Yea im really looking forward to the new terminal at ANU, the current one has run its course IMO.
Quoting LimaFoxTango (Reply 11): Walking thru that airport on a weekend can be a riot sometimes.
It really was a riot there, especially in the arrivals hall!
debonair From Germany, joined Jan 2004, 2096 posts, RR: 4 Reply 13, posted (8 months 1 day 6 hours ago) and read 3184 times:
Just saw the Montserrat episode on "Man Woman Wild" (Discovery Channel). Very fascinating island...
Quoting 817Dreamliiner (Reply 3): Upon landing I did catch a glimpse ... not 1 but 2 HX A330-200s, I thought HX didnt fly to LGW anymore?? Anyway we taxied pass the 3 A330s on the remote stands towards the north terminal.
Are you sure it were pax versions? May you just saw A330 Cargo's in HNA-Group livery?!
817Dreamliiner From Montserrat, joined Jul 2008, 1402 posts, RR: 1 Reply 16, posted (8 months 6 hours ago) and read 2757 times:
Quoting airjamaica (Reply 15): Great TR. Liked the rainy shots at MAN. Even in not so spectacular weather conditions, aviation spotting/photo can be quite interesting..............
Thanks airjamaica! You're right, weather can make aviation photos interesting . Thanks for your comment.
Blast Reality, Burst it into shreds! Banishment, This World!
reifel From Germany, joined Feb 2005, 1127 posts, RR: 1 Reply 17, posted (7 months 4 weeks 14 hours ago) and read 2480 times:
Thanks for sharing. Such a nice island! And congrats for having such much luck with the upgrade. I bet even with the delays and all that it has been an excellent travelling day, sitting in lounegs at caribean airports, enjoying sun and food and planes
817Dreamliiner From Montserrat, joined Jul 2008, 1402 posts, RR: 1 Reply 19, posted (7 months 4 weeks 10 hours ago) and read 2353 times:
Quoting reifel (Reply 17): Thanks for sharing. Such a nice island! And congrats for having such much luck with the upgrade. I bet even with the delays and all that it has been an excellent travelling day, sitting in lounegs at caribean airports, enjoying sun and food and planes
Thanks reifel! yes, despite the delays it was really a great travelling day. the double upgrade from world traveller to Club world was the real highlight of my journey. I quite enjoyed that, the lounge was really good too (especially since it was really hot outside in ANU)
Quoting jwhite9185 (Reply 18):
Great report there from an interesting route.
abrelosojos From Venezuela, joined May 2005, 4915 posts, RR: 55 Reply 24, posted (7 months 3 weeks 6 days 10 hours ago) and read 2021 times:
Thanks for the report - and especially the pictures of MNI. As the resident A.Net expert on MNI, it was good to see your perspective. I really must go there sometime soon. Maybe, 2013? Let's see ...
Quoting 817Dreamliiner (Thread starter): Not too long after boarding was called for all passengers and I proceed to the gate. I handed the gate agent my boarding pass to be scanned but surprisingly it rejected my boarding pass! The agent told me told hold on a few minutes and was suddenly presented another boarding pass, not for the same world Traveller plus seat, but a Club World seat! They told me ive been upgraded again but this time to Business Class! At that Moment I really excited, I mean how often do you get upgraded twice on the same flight? I was now seated in 14E unfortunately not a window seat, but hey I would have taken any seat In Club World! I then exited the terminal and made my way to the aircraft.
= You're extremely lucky. This is super rare, and I hope you know how lucky you are .
Quoting 817Dreamliiner (Thread starter): About 1 hour before landing we were served breakfast which included a fruit bowl and a croissant.
= Wow. That is an INCREDIBLY poor breakfast for JCL! You get that kind of thing on VS TATL YCL service.
Thanks for sharing the report, and I am glad the delays worked out in your favour.
Saludos,
A.
Live, and let live.
25 817Dreamliiner: Thanks alot Alex! You should go there when you get a chance, MNI usually gets positive reviews from foreign visitors Yea I realize how lucky I was, I
26 baexecutive: Nice TR Regarding the breakfast, you would have been offered the fruit alongside an assortment of bread items including pastries, croissants and muffi
27 817Dreamliiner: Thanks! Now that you mentioned the sausage roll, I did get one but it wasn't much too talk about and I did have tea with it. plus the FA's never real
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.Ill attach some other pics of MNI as well at the end. 
. I haven't check in yet, cleared immigration or cleared security yet! Not Cool SVG/ABM Air! So basically I had to rush to do everything before entering the departure lounge. But at the moment it was the least of my worries as there were only 3 other people on this flight, funnily enough all heading to the UK like myself. So I said my goodbyes to my mother and sister and was off to the departure lounge.
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