Flying To Washington DC With United Airlines
Published On Monday 3 Jul 2017 by Sticky Beak
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I can thoroughly vouch for the comfort of the beds at the Sheraton Skyline Hotel at Heathrow Airport; we all slept like babies and woke up ready for the long day ahead. First item on the agenda was breakfast so we made our way down to the hotel restaurant to see what was on offer at the buffet style spread; it would probably be easier to say what wasn’t on the menu to be honest as there was everything you could literally think of to eat.
A lovely lady came and took our hot drinks orders and invited us to help ourselves to cold drinks and any food we wanted. The Man Bird dutifully went off to get glasses of fresh orange juice for us all, although there was also Apple, Grapefruit, Cranberry, and Breakfast juices available.
Chickadee headed off to the hot counter and filled her plate with delicious-smelling slices of back bacon, creamy scrambled egg, and some slices of bread with which to make a bacon butty. You can take the gal out of Derbyshire, but you can’t take Derbyshire out of the gal!
His Nibs had found the freshly baked Croissants and Pains au Chocolates, so he was chowing down on those quite merrily as I came back with a bowl of fresh fruit, natural Greek yoghurt and homemade Granola.
A tray with our pots of Tea and some fresh coffee for The Man Bird was brought over to our table and the lady said that if we needed more to just let her know. As it was we didn’t have any more hot drinks, we all had another glass of the fresh juice instead.
Having polished off the fresh pastries, The Boy Wonder decided to go and check the hot counter out for himself. In no time at all he’d managed to pile a full English breakfast assortment on his plate; slices of the tasty Bacon were accompanied by thick meaty Sausages, Hash Browns, grilled Tomato, Mushrooms, Beans, and a sizeable portion of scrambled Egg.
At this point in time I’m going to mention my incredible self-restraint (ahem) and just say that I resisted the temptations of the hot counter, eschewing them in favour of a Bagel, a Croissant, and an Apple Lattice Danish. Yes, I know what you’re thinking; and you’re right I didn’t show much restraint really did I?
Given the standard of the food the previous night in the Sports Bar and Grill and then the choice on offer for breakfast I think it fair to say that the Sheraton Skyline are an excellent choice for travellers of all persuasions whether business or casual, families, couples or lone wolves.
We headed back to our room for a final time to get changed and freshen up, before going back to reception and checking out. The Hoppa Bus pulled up right at the entrance and we jumped on, eager to begin our adventure at Heathrow Airport.
Looking back, I can definitely recommend the Sheraton Skyline for those travelling from Heathrow, and would very happily stay there again if ever I get chance.
Heathrow Airport is massive especially to a little rural Bird such as yours truly! I love how well signed it is and the check in procedure for our flights was completed before we knew it, so we had loads of time to explore the temptations of Duty Free (much to the despair of His Nibs!).
All the staff in the World Duty Free section were lovely, very helpfully showing us where the purchases we wanted to make were located as well as pointing out special offers to us that they thought might be of interest to our needs. The Man Birds’ wallet was feeling some serious heat, so we headed to the bar for him to refresh himself and recover from the shock of spending money! :)
Having got all our wish list items at duty free ticked off we headed over to our departure gate and waited for boarding to open. The boarding procedure by the United Airlines staff ran like clockwork and in no time at all we were seated comfortably in our seats just awaiting permission from air traffic control to take off to Dulles airport in Washington D.C.
The Captain did a marvellous take off, lovely and smooth, so the crew were soon coming round with the first refreshments and some rather nifty Pesto mini grissini snacks. United Airlines have a pretty good range of in-flight entertainment that includes films, box sets, audio books, board games, and (best of all I think) arcade games such as PAC-MAN. No prizes for guessing what I was soon doing, yep, reliving my younger days and chasing those pesky ghosties around :)
When lunch was served there was a choice of either Pasta or Risotto with Chicken, and my flock all opted for the Risotto dish. There was a lovely creamy mushroom Risotto with separate Chicken breast pieces and some wilted Spinach on the side. I have to say that for airline food it was pretty tasty, not top gourmet dining but certainly nothing that you’d throw out for the dog by any mark. Another container housed a rather nifty Bulgur wheat and vegetable salad and this had a lovely tangy dressing on it that really got the taste buds dancing. A wholemeal dinner roll and butter completed the savoury element of our meal, and there wasn’t much begging from our clan.
His Nibs and I both opted to have a glass of wine with our lunches; White for him and red for myself. My red was a cheeky little number, nice and rounded and it went down the hatch rather nicely much like The Man Birds’ choice of fruity white.
A short interlude then saw the arrival of dessert; a deliciously creamy Strawberry and clotted Cream ice cream tub. This offering from Loseley really was superb, I like their ice creams anyway and certainly wasn’t expecting such a pleasant treat for pudding.
Throughout the flight there have been no shortage of beverages being served, whether it is hot or cold; United Airlines certainly make sure that their passengers don’t dehydrate as they are always coming around offering glasses of iced water.
On previous trips to the States I have flown American Airlines, this has been my first experience of United Airlines, and I have to say that it’s been lovely flying with them. Scheduled flights tend to be slightly quieter than package holiday Chartered ones, and this was the case on this occasion, so that perhaps played a part in the quality of the service we received too. Whatever the circumstance, I would happily fly with United Airlines again.
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