I was sooooo excited! Can you believe I had never been on a 747 before today? Yep, I had Regent Cruises book us on British Airways from DFW to London's Heathrow Airport where we were to change planes for our flight from there to Rome. We would arrive at Rome's FCO airport at 2pm the next day. Well just before leaving DFW we found out our flight from London to Rome was canceled because of Italian workers strike. The BA agent quickly rebooked us on another flight two hours later so not bad, right! Well, I had limo set up to meet us at Rome airport so sent an email saying we will be arriving 2 hours later. As luck would have it they canceled the limo altogether so when we arrived very tired in Rome no ride to hotel. No Euro coins for the phones so after begging some I called limo company and they had a car there within 20 minutes but had already wasted an hour. We eventually got to our hotel and best news, all our luggage made it to Rome with us!!
Back to our 747 flight. Because I had booked a Penthouse Suite for the cruise Regent provided business class air for our flight to London and then 1st class from London to Rome. Nice!! I selected our seats on the upper deck right behind the cockpit on the 747. Made be feel closer to "my old home" being near cockpit. Of course I had to go visit with the pilots before leaving the gate at DFW. The Captain apparently told the F/A's that I was a retired Captain as they all called me "Captain" rest of flight and we got royal treatment. We were very impressed with BA's service from the agent who rebooked us to the flight crew.
Check out pictures of the business class seats. They fully reclined into bed so I popped half an Ambien (sleeping pill) after a great dinner service and got nearly 5 hours of sleep before they woke us for breakfast service prior to landing in London.
