Spent hours lounging around on board, the other day, seeing as the pax had let us know they'd be coming later. Usually I always accompany the pax into the terminal on arrival and meet them in the terminal on departure, but this of course is a horrifying thought to the KGB that runs Vnukovo, so we stays firmly ensconced aboard ol' faithful. Then: a nervous call from the aircraft manager: 'why aren't you ready?' - the pax had called him to say that they were being kept in the VIP-area because - wait for it - 'The crew was late arriving for the flight and were not ready.'
What had happened was that the slothful immigration-monkeys had failed to process our crew-passports in time, and we were the convenient (absent!) scapegoats!
Still better than Luanda, if only just
