KQ 103: Kenya Airways London Heathrow - Nairobi
by JFC AdminThis trip was taken shortly before the current election related troubles in Kenya.
Flight KQ 103 departs Heathrow Terminal 4 at 08:15 so I decided to spend the night at the airport Hilton which is attached to Terminal 4 by a walkway so no need to mess around with airport buses in the morning. Check-in at the Hilton was smooth, as a gold member I had been upgraded to the club level and had free access to the lounge which had a selection of complimentary drinks. The lounge was closed the next day in preparation for the Christmas holidays so I was given a voucher in the morning for breakfast.
Woke up at 6am, decided on a very quick breakfast and then to drop the bags off at the check-in desks, I’d already checked in online so I’d already chosen my seat. I enjoyed the breakfast, mostly because they had haggis available which is very unusual for what was described as a ‘Full English’ breakfast, perhaps the ‘Great British Breakfast’ would have been a better description. There was no queue at the baggage drop off point and after that it was off to the fast track security lane. I was in the queue for about 15 minutes which is longer than I usually experience in fast track but it was a major improvement over the regular security line. Despite all the signs I forgot to take my shoes off when walking through the metal detector (they only ask you to remove your shoes in London City if they alarm the metal detector) but this was spotted and they had to be x-rayed.
By the time I got through security the flight had started boarding so I decided to skip the lounge even though I may have had time for a quick orange juice. There didn’t appear to be any special line for business class passengers but the boarding process was fairly quick with 4 separate gate agents.
I was travelling business class (called Premier World by Kenya Airways) and I happened to be the first business class passenger on the plane, the blankets, headphones and amenity kits were already placed on the seats. After a few more people boarded a member of the crew came round with some pre-flight drinks. I took an orange juice but there was also water and champagne (well some sort of sparkling wine) available.
The cabin layout in business class on this 777 was 2-3-2 which is the same configuration that KLM uses. The problem with this layout is that you could get a middle seat if the aircraft is busy and you’ve not chosen your seat early enough - always secure your seat as soon as online checkin opens.
While waiting for the aircraft to finish boarding they played a SkyTeam promotional video (the same one that Alitalia plays on some of their flights), once boarding was compete and doors were closed the crew offered another drink. Once we were ready to leave our parking stand the glasses were collected and the safety video was played, as is common with Heathrow we had a bit of a queue before take off.
TO BE CONTINUED - check back on 9th January for the rest.