Having missed my flight to JFK, on the converted American 777-200 I was not looking forward to the flight to Charlotte – on what is an old US Airways A330. I could not secure a window seat, which with the 1-2-1 seating, are the best seats in the house.

Boarding was from the most distant gate at Terminal 3 from the lounge, about a 20 minute walk. Boarding started, with Concierge Key passengers boarded a good 15 minutes before everyone else. I quickly found my seat in Row 4.

The crew had put out menus, amenity kits, and pillow/blanket sets. The flight boarded fairly quickly and I had a feeling it wasn’t full in the back. Every seat was taken up front and my seat mate soon arrived. Newspapers were handed out as were Bose headsets.

We had to wait for push back but were off only a little late. The crew were very attentive for the first part of the flight. Coming around and taking orders, introducing themselves and it turned out we had two pursers in the Front Cabin. Everything was served from the galley with no carts in the aisle until the dessert course. Pretty impressive really. Drink were topped up with the crew remembering what I had been drinking.

Of course, I had pre-ordered my meal on the flight I missed so had to take pot-luck on this new segment. In fact, they had plenty of choices left by the time they got to my row (4).

Starter

Hummus and Pita, with tabbouleh, dolma and black and green olives

Salad

Fresh seasonal greens with feta cheese and grape tomatoes – tomato and tarragon dressing or balsamic vinaigrette

They served the salad dressing on the side, which was great as it meant I could use as much or as little as I wanted.

ENTREES

Grilled Beef Filet – with porcini sauce, herbed potatoes and green beans

Roasted Duck – with cranberry sauce, apple confit, potato dumplings and sauteed red cabbage

Seafood Trio – Roasted Cod, pan-fried kings prawns and crayfish risotto with green asparagus

Thai Green Curry – With fragrant Thai rice and mint chilli.

I picked the beef which was lovely –

Dessert

Ice Cream Sundae

Gourmet Cheese Plate

Pecan Tart

The inflight entertainment had a large number of movies and TV shows and it was easy to find something to watch. Unfortunately, my controller had been damaged at some point meaning that I had to use the touch screen. This is pretty hard when trying to recline.

About two hours before landing we had a medical emergency. It wasn’t obvious to most of the passengers but the crew took a passenger, and what appeared to be his mother and grandmother to the area by the One Left door. Here they made a sort of nest of pillows and duvets from Business Class. No idea what was happening, but the crews attention was directed towards them with the Captain coming out to see what was happening. We continued over Boston so I suspect a diversion was not needed.

The crew left the second meal a bit late as a result of the emergency. There was a hot and cold option:

Grilled Vegetable Flatbread – red peppers, artichoke and black olives with a side salad

Charcuterie Plate – fine cold cuts and cheese with grilled vegetables and breaksticks

Chocolate and salted caramel pudding – was is the world’s obsession with salted caramel?

We arrived a few minutes late at CLT and had to wait for the medical emergency to walk off the plane with the paramedics.

A short walk to the immigration hall and the use of Global Entry meant that I was kerb side waiting for the shuttle bus about 20 minutes after landing.

All round a solid flight which I am sure would have been great if the crew had not been (rightly) distracted by an emergency.