KeithMEL travels the world on a blast from the past: my first DONE4

[KeithMEL]

Review of the Sheraton Park Tower has been posted here.

Next: BA6938 LGW-MLA whY; The Westin Dragonara Resort, Malta; Pics of Malta

[KeithMEL]

Sector - LGW-MLA
Flight number - BA6938
Class - Economy
Seat - 12F
Aircraft - A320

I was supposed to stay in London for a bit longer but ended up getting talked into attending a bit of the BA Board Knights (and Dames!) of Malta Do. GB Airways, still operating as BA was offering a damn cheap deal to MLA in both Club and Economy, and so BA6938 was quickly established as the official outbound flight. I had to leave MLA a day earlier than everyone else to get to LA in time and so I only did one of the two party flights.

I got carried away with lunch and got to the airport a bit late. PhilH guested me into the Flounge and I had 20 minutes before boarding commenced to sip on the yummy Taittinger Millesime 2000. The Doers were already there in full force, demolishing the champers. It was nice to see some familiar faces again, as well as meet some new ones for the first time.

Most people were flying in Club, and so it was a bit lonely trudging to the back of the aircraft to my seat in whY. At least I managed to snag the emex row, and I had Boddingtons in front of me in 11F.

Had a slight issue with one of the crews, per my rant here. Other than that I thought the other crew members were fine - perfunctory, but at least relaxed and friendly.

We got a hot meal in whY on this flight. I can't remember for the life of me what I ate - I think it was chicken, and it didn't taste at all bad. Maybe some of y'all who were on the same flight in whY can refresh my memory - but in any case I took a pic:



The crew also failed to give out landing cards for non-EU citizens. I didn't know that I'd needed landing cards till I arrived at passport control, since some of the EU countries I entered hadn't needed them - so I didn't ask for them whilst onboard. Consequently i had to fumble for a pen and hastily filled one out at passport control.

My suitcase popped out pretty quickly despite the lack of priority tags.

[KeithMEL]

Review of The Westin Dragonara Resort Malta has been posted here.

Next: Pics of Malta; BA6939 MLA-LGW whY; Yotel LGW

[KeithMEL]

Malta!!

A very pretty country, and I thoroughly enjoyed it even though I only spent a night there.

Note to self: Always adjust the time manually. I've always relied on my phone to adjust itself to the local time but that didn't happen when I arrived in Malta. As a consequence I was operating on UK time for a few hours on the 2nd day and missed the tour coach by an hour...

Massive kudos to krug for a very well-organised Do!

Marsaxlokk, where we had lunch:





SeeYa, AndyFlyer, and myself


SeeYa, RoseFPS, AndyFlyer - we wondered about the significance of that sign...




Random old dude - he seemed a real character so I took a pic

Our tour coach:

krug - our defacto tour guide



Valletta:

[KeithMEL]

Valetta was all decked out for a carnival and we saw some pretty outrageous costumes!

Next: BA6939 MLA-LGW; Yotel Gatwick

[KeithMEL]

Sector - MLA-LGW
Flight number - BA6939
Class - Economy
Seat - 12D
Aircraft - A320

MLA is a smallish airport, with barely anyone at check in nor security. I got airside within 20 minutes.

I was politely informed by the dragon staffing the Valetta Lounge that as a BA whY pax my AA sapphire status wasn't sufficient to get me into the lounge since it's a contract lounge, and that I'd have to be flying J or have BA status. He did however make an exception for me, and was most friendly in doing so.





The lounge was small but surprisingly well-stocked. They also had complimentary high speed internet terminals.



There seemed to be no aerobridges at MLA. A walk on the tarmac is necessary for deplaning and boarding. I'd managed to grab an aisle seat at the emex row for this flight, with an empty middle seat.

The set of crew we had on this flight was a lot better than the previous one. They seemed to have more cabin presence throughout the flight, and even asked me whether I wanted extra bottles of wine when they came around to clear trash.

The catering wasn't too inspiring - some chicken sausages. But I could've eaten a horse and so at least there was hot food.



Arrived at Gatwick pretty much on schedule and took an extremely long walk to passport control as we had a gate at the 'wrong' end of the airport...

[KeithMEL]

Review of Yotel Gatwick has been posted here.

[KeithMEL]

Recap

So far I have covered, in chronological orders:

Flights
- QF29 MEL-HKG J
- CX504 HKG-NRT J
- JL719 NRT-SIN J
- QF9 SIN-LHR J
- BA109 LHR-DXB J
- BA108 DXB-LHR J
- BA558 LHR-FCO J
- BA2541 LGW-FCO whY
- BA8119 LGW-AMS whY
- BA8116 AMS-LGW whY
- BA2490 LGW-BCN whY
- LX1953 BCN-ZRH whY
- LX1736 ZRH-FCO whY
- BA559 FCO-LHR J
- BA6938 LGW-MLA whY
- BA6939 MLA-LGW whY

Hotels
- The Hilton Tokyo
- Sheraton Dubai Creek
- Hotel Eden Rome, a Royal Meridien Hotel
- Hotel Pulitzer Amsterdam, a Luxury Collection hotel
- Le Meridien Barcelona
- Sheraton Park Tower London, a Luxury Collection hotel
- The Westin Dragonara Resort Malta
- Yotel London Gatwick

City sights
- Nottingham
- Dubai
- Rome
- Amsterdam
- Barcelona
- Malta

To prevent this thread from getting too unwieldly, I feel that this would be an appropriate juncture to spin off the next part of my report into a fresh thread.

I hope you've all enjoyed the report thus far and may it be of help to those planning their travels. Thank you for all the feedback - they really mean a lot. Please do continue to follow the report in the following thread:
KeithMEL visits the US of A