Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: Airlines

  • British Airways (Dublin to London City)

    British Airways (Dublin to London City)

    This was our flight back to London City Airport from Dublin Airport. It’s a decent terminal in Dublin and the boarding process at the gate was timely, albeit slightly clunky in terms of group boarding which seemed to be Group 1 and then everyone else, but the staff were friendly and helpful. The check-in staff did want to see my passport, which is the first time that I’ve been asked for it on this trip, as it was never needed at Heathrow. We were flying back to City Airport as our flight back to Heathrow was cancelled a few weeks ago, allowing me to change it free of charge to a different airport in the capital.

    The aircraft was G-LCYR, an Embraer E190 aircraft which is nine years old and has been with the airline since it was produced. This flight was serviced by BA CityFlyer, a wholly owned subsidiary of British Airways, but they do have different service standards.

    There are our two seats, both by the emergency exit giving us extra legroom.

    Liam, who I kindly gave the window seat to again.

    And me. Cabin crew were all personable, with the announcements made by them and the pilots being appropriate and useful.

    Boarding was well managed other than there were problems again with trying to fit all the bags on board. I write here regularly about the situation where people who bring a small bag are forced to put it by their feet, whereas those who bring their entire spare bedroom in a bag get to put it in the overhead lockers. It was a bit irrelevant for us as we had emergency exit row seats where bags have to go in the lockers, but it’s not an ideal arrangement. Where flights are nearly full, as this one was, there perhaps needs to be a change in emphasis now and maximum bag sizes could be brought down a little.

    This being a CityFlyer flight meant that we got free food and drink. The food options weren’t decadent (a small brownie, crisps or corn nuts), but it was perfectly acceptable for an hour long flight. The Brewdog beer was very handy, although given I’d had a Guinness in the airport lounge, I probably didn’t need it. But it was free and so I panicked and ordered it. I decided not to drink any more beer that day…… This is where service standards differ a little from regular British Airways short haul services, as the only free drink offered on those is water.

    And here we are back in London, all on time and without any issue. The delight of London City Airport is that it’s a short hop on the DLR back into Stratford, where Liam had parked his car, taking us no more than 25 minutes after landing to be back at the car. After Avios discounts and the like, this flight cost me about £20 (so, £40 return) which I think is excellent value for money and indeed so cheap I’m not sure that BA made any money on this little expedition of mine.

  • Dublin – Dublin Airport (T1 Lounge)

    Dublin – Dublin Airport (T1 Lounge)

    I’m still merrily writing up the trip that Liam and I made to Dublin two weeks ago, but that increases the anticipation for my three readers. Anyway, this is us arriving at Dublin Airport after being transported there via the Crowne Plaza shuttle bus.

    There’s only one lounge operational at the airport at the moment due to the reduced capacity and it’s oddly placed in the middle of the security area. Or, the entrance to it is at least. There were no issues with me guesting Liam in, so we then went upstairs to the lounge area after a wait in the queue of around three minutes.

    It’s a sizeable lounge, with some basic food options available such as cereals, yoghurts, olives and biscuits. The lounge is operating on reduced hours at the money, so closes in the early afternoon, so I suspect that this was the limit of the choice for the day. There was also a self-service hot drinks machine, although there was a more decadent coffee maker that staff could use for those customers with more precise needs.

    I went for a can of fizzy orange, olives and a mini carrot cake. We’d already had a really rather substantial breakfast at the Crowne Plaza about thirty minutes before, so this was already more than we needed.

    It was all relatively busy and there weren’t many free seats available across either of the two sections of the lounge. It was clean and tidy throughout, with staff members winding their way around the tables on a regular basis cleaning them quite thoroughly.

    The alcohol wasn’t self-service, so I asked at the counter if they had any small beers to calm my nerves before the flight. I accept that my nerves don’t need calming as I like flying, but it’s a handy excuse to myself. Anyway, the friendly lady behind the counter mentioned that they had Heineken or something equally pointless (my words, not hers) in small bottles, but they had pints of Guinness in cans. I’m not sure that I needed a pint of Guinness at 10.00 in the morning, but I panicked and said yes to that. Anyway, it was lovely and I was in Dublin. I noted that Liam didn’t order a Guinness, he’s a bit more moderate and sensible.

    There were announcements in the lounge when flights were departing, but I get stressed easily about potentially missing a flight, so I thought it would be a good idea to leave earlier than needed. The lounge was comfortable though with plenty of power points and suitable snacks and drinks, although I’m not sure that it’s worth the €20 per person for a maximum two hours which is the walk-up rate (and I think that’s discounted at the moment). I got access with British Airways, but it’s included in the Priority Pass and similar schemes as well.

  • Heathrow T5 (BA Galleries South Lounge in October 2021)

    Heathrow T5 (BA Galleries South Lounge in October 2021)

    I’m now back from my weekend trip to Dublin with Liam, leaving me with quite a backlog of posts to get through. How my excited audience must be positively radiant with joy and anticipation…… Above is Heathrow Terminal T5, the home of British Airways, where we departed from last Thursday.

    The view of the terminal building, which was all a little more exciting this time as Liam spent five years here as part of the construction team who worked on this complex. That the terminal is still there is testament to his competence.

    Before the flight, we went to the south lounges at the terminal, which were moderately busy. The ordering process has changed since my last visit to the lounge in August 2021, with food still being ordered by the app, but self-service has returned for all drinks. We noticed a few customers struggling to order via the app, sometimes because they didn’t have a smartphone and sometimes it seems because they were just getting muddled up.

    I was delighted to see that British Airways are now offering more than Heineken, which is far as I’m concerned a bland and generic beer with no logical connection to the airline. This is the Jet Stream beer, a perfectly decent option which follows on from the partnership with the brewery which last year delivered Speedbird.

    Liam played soup roulette as he didn’t know what it was when he ordered it, but it turned out to be lentil which was apparently all perfectly good. I’m pleased to note that Liam also liked the Brewdog beer, which might be evident from the cans in the photo. I did have a look for the flavoured vodkas that I enjoyed last time, but they seem to have disappeared. We had a little Baileys each instead for some decadence….

    I ordered a starter of sandwiches, which are the standard British Airways options of tuna, Coronation chicken and egg,

    The main course of chicken tagine with bulgur wheat, the kind of dish that I think British Airways do very well. It is difficult to provide food options that cater to both short haul and long haul passengers which also don’t cost the airline too much.

    I ordered carrot cake and I’m not sure that this is carrot cake, but it was rather lovely anyway. I did note that the crisps have disappeared from the lounge over the last year, I hope that they make a return. I accept that there’s more to life than crisps, but nonetheless..

    This was another very acceptable visit, with the staff being friendly and polite. The environment was clean and although the food sometimes took a little while to arrive the service was always helpful. Normality seems to be returning quite quickly now to the airport in general and I suspect that the food service will become self-service soon enough.

    It was then just a short walk to the bus gates for our flight to Dublin…..

  • British Airways (Heathrow T5 to Dublin)

    British Airways (Heathrow T5 to Dublin)

    A couple of days ago, my friend Liam and I headed off from Heathrow T5 to the delights of Dublin in the Republic of Ireland. More on the lounge in another visit though, which all went well.

    The gate was called relatively late and it wasn’t particularly well organised when we got there. A staff member apologised and said that she was the only one at the check-in desks and that she hadn’t had to do that before without assistance, with everything moving quite slowly as a result. The boarding by groups was also abandoned which caused a fair amount of confusion judging by other customers trying to cut the line without realising that there wasn’t another line to cut into. The situation wasn’t ideal, it all felt a bit more Ryanair than anything else.

    And joy of joys, a bus gate…. The aircraft driver (excuse the Inbetweeners reference) later mentioned that this wasn’t ideal, but that it was quicker to use buses than to get the aircraft towed to a gate.

    We were on the second of the three coaches which took us not very far away at all in order to board. The journey to the aircraft was short and the coaches weren’t crammed full.

    Of little relevance to anything, but this is G-EUYR. the Airbus A320 which I flew on last year to get to Warsaw. There was a friendly welcome from the crew when boarding and every customer was handed a wipe so they could clean their seat area to their heart’s content. Masks were compulsory throughout the entire flight unless eating or drinking, which I didn’t see being enforced (I mean the masks situation, not enforcing the eating), but it was honoured in the main anyway.

    I kindly let Liam have the window seat on what transpired to be a full flight. The boarding process was delayed for around fifteen minutes as the crew were struggling to get all of the bags to fit in the overhead lockers. The airline has made huge efforts to reduce the number of customers putting bags in the hold, meaning that the cabin bag capacity is effectively exceeded. We were seated in emergency exit row seats and so couldn’t put bags on the floor under the seats, but the crew were telling those with smaller bags they must move them onto the floor to make way for the bigger bags. This simply means that customers wanting to ensure they have floor space are advised to bring big bags, which isn’t ideal. There was the usual debacle of some customers not entirely understanding that if their bag is bigger than the hole they’re trying to put it in, then it won’t go in. Fortunately, the crew were being pro-active and resolving such little problems quite promptly.

    Anyway, bags aside, the crew and pilot announcements were friendly and welcoming, although I understand from the news this week that BA are moving away from the welcome the pilot offered of “welcome ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls”. There’s now a free snack and water provided on the flight, which was perfectly satisfactory for a journey of less than an hour.

    The disembarkation process was handled well, with customers asked to remain seated until their row was called by the crew members. That did make for a more peaceful and calm way of leaving the aircraft, although I suspect it’ll be abandoned once this health crisis is out of the way.

    The aircraft after landing at Dublin and it’s rare for me to be able to get photos of British Airways aircraft like this as there are usually air bridges to walk across to the main terminal building. The pilot had made up some of the time lost at Heathrow which meant that we landed only around five minutes behind schedule.

    Here we are safely in Dublin with no documentation checks for immunisation, although some of that process might have been automated. It took just a few minutes to get from the aircraft to the outside of the terminal building, all very efficient. After Avios adjustments and the like, this single flight cost me around £20, which I think is excellent value given that they also funded my lounge visit as well.

  • British Airways – A380 is Back

    British Airways – A380 is Back

    (Copyright of British Airways)

    This is a bit geeky I accept, but the A380 is my favourite aircraft and it’s coming back. There were rumours for a while that British Airways would have no future need for this behemoth of an aircraft. As I’m not a journalist and don’t need to embed this into a news article I’ve carefully and lovingly written, I’ll just copy and paste the press release from British Airways (yes, I know that’s lazy….).

    PRESS RELEASE – 6 October 2021

    British Airways is set to welcome back its first A380 aircraft in November and operate its biggest schedule since March 2020, with additional services to cities across the globe, including the US.

    British Airways’ A380 will initially operate to a number of short-haul destinations to allow for crew service familiarisation in November, shortly followed by operating to Miami and Los Angeles in the US, as well as Dubai in December.

    News that the airline’s A380 aircraft is re-joining its fleet follows the announcement that vaccinated Brits will be able to travel to the United States from November. The airline is set to fly to 23 US airports this winter* with up to 246 flights a week, more than any other transatlantic carrier.

    Across its US network, British Airways will be increasing the number of flights it operates with services to city destinations including New York, which will initially be increasing to five a day, followed by eight in December. The airline will also be operating double-daily services to Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, Dallas, Miami and Toronto, as well as daily services to Philadelphia, Phoenix, Seattle, Atlanta, Denver, Houston and Vancouver

    In addition to frequency increases, in October and November British Airways will restart services to Austin, Orlando, Tampa, San Diego, Las Vegas and Baltimore. In December the airline will also start flying to Nashville and New Orleans once again, which both proved to be a hit with customers when they first launched.

    Closer to home, British Airways has increased flights to a number of short-haul destinations by adding 13,000 more seats to holiday hot spots for families to get away this October. Popular leisure destinations Marrakech and Dalaman will appear on flight schedules again in time for October half-term, and brand-new services to the Turkish resort of Antalya will also be launching. Looking ahead to the winter, British Airways will be restarting a number of ski destinations including Innsbruck, Grenoble and Salzburg from December.

    To help customers get away for some much-needed summer sun this Christmas, British Airways is extending its Caribbean programme with 12 services a week to Barbados and nine each to Antigua and St Lucia, which will be split across Heathrow and Gatwick airports. Flights to popular luxury Indian Ocean destinations, Maldives and Mauritius, will also be increasing to 10 and six per week over the Christmas period.

    Neil Chernoff, British Airways’ Director of Network and Alliances, said: “This is an exciting time for British Airways and our customers as we see borders re-opening. With welcome news from the US, we are dramatically increasing flights and bringing home some of our A380s to give our customers as many options as possible. Elsewhere across our network we are also adding additional services to destinations all over the world, to ensure our customers can take advantage of a much-needed holiday.”

    Elsewhere across its short-haul network British Airways will be increasing flights year-round to key European cities with 48 weekly services to Amsterdam, 33 to Geneva, 35 to Dublin, 28 to Milan and 21 to Berlin, Paris and Rome.

    British Airways’ subsidiary BA City Flyer, is expected to operate a schedule of 43 flights a week to Edinburgh, 33 to Dublin, 25 to Glasgow, 18 to Belfast, 16 to Amsterdam, 15 to Rotterdam, 15 to Berlin, 12 to Frankfurt, 12 to Dusseldorf and 11 to Zurich. The airline is also set to launch a new route from Belfast to Birmingham, as well as new ski destination Salzburg, from London City and Southampton.

    To coincide with the increase in services as the world re-opens, the airline’s lounges are also welcoming customers back. In September customers were invited to enjoy British Airways’ Concorde Room in London and New York. Lounges in Chicago, Washington, San Francisco and Houston are expected to open this week.

    Customers using exclusive lounges can benefit from exciting new developments, such as the introduction of ‘Your Menu’ – a new initiative developed in the last few months to allow customers to order food and drink directly to their seat by simply scanning a QR code on their mobile device.

  • British Airways (Glasgow to Heathrow T5)

    British Airways (Glasgow to Heathrow T5)

    This is the return flight, I went from Heathrow T5 to Glasgow last week. To my considerable annoyance, this journey wasn’t available for anywhere near the same price using the rail network, I try to avoid using aircraft for domestic flights.

    I started from the Travelodge at Glasgow Airport and was pleased to note that they’ve made it easy to walk to the terminal by providing clear signage.

    And the terminal at around 6am.

    The list of departures, mine is the 08:15 flight. Note that I arrived only 2 hours 15 minutes before the flight, which was cutting it very fine indeed as far as I was concerned.

    There’s already a JD Wetherspoons landside, so it seems that there will soon be one airside as well. It was at this point that I popped into the British Airways lounge.

    I liked the artwork here, some interesting Scottish scenes.

    And some information about it, a really lovely idea to help promote the work of an airport security officer, Christopher Marr.

    The minor problem with air bridges is that I can’t photograph the aircraft, this was the nearest that I could get, but the back of it is pointing out at least. It’s aircraft registration G-EUUI, which I haven’t flown on before (I don’t remember the aircraft I fly on, I have to search my own blog, although that’s good for the access numbers….) but has been in the British Airways fleet since 2002. The aircraft went to Dubrovnik after it landed at Heathrow, I must admit to being slightly jealous of it….

    Lots of people in boarding groups 1 to 3, a lot more than my flight to Glasgow last week. The boarding gate staff were helpful and cheerful, which I thought was impressive for an early Tuesday morning. The cabin crew were equally engaging, so first impressions were all very positive again. The pilot sounded chirpy and happy as well with his announcements during the flight, so my general impressions remained positive.

    The view from the window, although I was more engaged in watching some customers in the aisle trying to put their bags into the overhead lockers. Children often have a toy where they try and fit a shape through a hole, I suspect some of these customers didn’t have that game when they were younger. They will try and fit a bag that clearly doesn’t go in the space provided and look endlessly surprised.

    I had an exit row seat by the window, but the aircraft was full and I didn’t see any empty seats at all on the flight. The aircraft felt very clean, but everyone was handed a cleansing wipe if they wished to do a bit more cleaning.

    Flying over Glasgow and what I assume is the River Clyde.

    The free food and drink was a bottle of water and a Nutri-Grain bar, entirely sufficient for an hour long flight. The newspaper was free at the airport, I’m not into paying for them.

    The aircraft arrived 29 minutes early at the airport, but arrived at the gate one minute later than anticipated, with a half hour wait on the runway for a gate to become available causing that delay. The pilot made regular announcements, so it all felt professionally managed and I wasn’t in a rush anyway. Customers seemed content (no-one was tutting or grumbling anyway) and the disembarkation process was well managed, with five rows being called to leave the aircraft at a time.

    And this is where the domestic passengers are tipped out, right down the end of the terminal.

    13 minutes?!?!?! This Piccadilly service back into central London was every ten minutes a couple of years ago, apparently now reduced to every 20 minutes. For most parts of the country a 13 minute wait would be normal for public transport, but in London it stands out as feeling a long time.

    Anyway, this was another perfectly operated flight from British Airways, I remain entirely pleased at their service. All rather lovely.

  • Glasgow – British Airways Lounge

    Glasgow – British Airways Lounge

    I wasn’t sure if this lounge would be open, as British Airways have closed some of their outstation lounge facilities, and also there are a few third party contracts that they haven’t yet renewed at other European airports. However, the facility was open and there was a friendly welcome from the staff member at the desk.

    It was busy when I entered, as the previous flight was about to depart, but it soon emptied out to this. I like this style of desk seating, but there were a range of higher chairs and lower seating as well, which should offer a suitable option to nearly everyone.

    There were plenty of power points dotted around the place and efforts made to put some artwork on the wall.

    Looking down the lounge back towards the entrance. The lounge was clean throughout and the staff seemed to be trying to thoroughly clean it after the first wave of customers left. There are also toilet facilities available directly from the lounge, so customers don’t need to go back out to use those in the main terminal.

    The food and drink section was closed off, so customers were served by staff. Unlike the system that BA have in their London lounges, there’s no app provision here, just helpful staff pouring coffees and the like.

    The menu wasn’t very broad, although I was there for breakfast time. They seemed to be mainly providing porridge to customers, that was certainly the most popular option. I went with the yoghurt and fruit, as the thought of porridge or muesli didn’t appeal. That was complemented by crisps and a pastry, along with a latte. The food and drink was all quite basic, but given the size of the lounge and limitation of the facilities, it seemed a reasonable offering.

    Announcements are made when it’s time for customers to go and get their flight, but there are numerous screens around the lounge so it’s easy to know when and where to go. It never got very busy during my visit, so there was always plenty of seating available for those who wanted it. It was also evident just how many customers knew the lounge staff, I imagine they must commute on a regular basis. As a lounge, it’s perfectly sufficient with food, drink, helpful staff, wi-fi and lots of power points, so a positive start to the day.

  • British Airways (Heathrow T5 to Glasgow)

    British Airways (Heathrow T5 to Glasgow)

    After a productive few hours at London Heathrow, it was time to board the flight to Glasgow from the domestic gates. I don’t normally take domestic flights for environmental reasons, but more on that later in this post. The boarding process was smooth and efficient, although there was a situation that I’ve never seen before that no-one in Group 1 boarding came forwards, and there were only two of us in Group 2 boarding. The member of staff at the gate said to me that this was unusual, although it wasn’t for lack of customers as the flight was nearly full. I think that more customers are just remaining in their seats until the end of the boarding process, which is what I tend to do if I have an aisle seat.

    The meander down to the aircraft, which I unfortunately couldn’t take a photo of as it was hidden behind the air bridge at both ends with no viewing points from the terminal. The aircraft was an A320, registration code G-TTNR, and it was only delivered to British Airways two weeks ago.

    The aircraft was spotlessly clean and things feel much cleaner than they used to when boarding British Airways flights. There were no maintenance issues, although the aircraft is only two weeks old and so it would be a little strange if there were.

    Every customer was given a Dettol wipe if they wanted to clean their seat area a bit more.

    Ready to depart. I’m still intrigued at watching the bags that customers try and fit into the overhead lockers, with some clearly never going to fit. But, I don’t get involved with such dramas…..

    I had an emergency exit row seat and there was no-one sitting next to me, I’m guessing due to BA’s Theoretical Seating platform.

    The flight was scheduled to depart at 20:15, but the boarding process was so smooth that the pilot made an announcement to say he was ready to go early. Air traffic control were happy, so we left at 20:06. The flight was also meant to arrive at 21:40, but we landed at 21:17, so much earlier than I had anticipated. Above is Heathrow whilst we were taxiing before take-off.

    British Airways flights in Euro Traveller have reverted to offering a free drink and snack. This was the crisps and water offered on this flight, sufficient I imagine for most customers given the short journey.

    The disembarkation process was by seat row, so customers were told to remain seated until their batch of five seats rows were announced. An American in the row behind me said “you’d never get this in the United States, everyone remaining seated” and I must admit that even I was surprised at the compliance. I didn’t have much interaction with the crew, but they offered a friendly hello and goodbye, so that’s good enough for me on a flight of this length.

    Back to the environmental issue that I mentioned earlier. I’m a huge advocate of the rail network and have been delighted at the improvements that have been made over the last two decades. But, for these long journeys, the rail network cannot match British Airways in cost, in comfort, in efficiency or in its ability to allow customers to get work done. This sort of journey should be viable by rail as the best option for the environment.

    Looking back to my LNER journey a few weeks ago, the company is just badly run as far as I’m concerned, and they can’t even get seat reservations right, let alone have enough staff to deal with the problem customers. Long journeys need to be handled more elegantly by rail companies so that customers are actually comfortable. At the same time, British Airways has worked out how to transport people cheaply, with excellent customer service and handles customer loyalty well. And, they’re doing it with the advantage that it’s a much quicker form of transport. There needs to be a much greater capacity on the mainlines from London to Scotland if they want people to get out of cars and off planes to go back onto the rail network. This is all happening whilst the HS2 East leg looks to be cancelled and that wasn’t meant to open until 2033 anyway.

    The nearest best option is the sleeper service and I enjoyed using that, but it’s being threatened with strike action which makes it hard to rely on. If they retain some of their social distancing so as not to pack out the carriage, then that becomes more viable as there are lounge areas and it’s a comfortable enough way to travel. I accept that it’s possible to use coach services and these are much cheaper, but the length of journey and lack of comfort are challenges here. I got the long distance National Express service from Newcastle to London and they hadn’t even bothered to provide seats at the bus station (or outside it in my case, as the bus stations is shut for many departures) for waiting customers and had drivers smoking in the entrance to their coach. I can’t quite imagine the pilot standing in the British Airways cabin vaping away whilst vaguely looking at customers walking by.

    On many Amtrak services in the United States, a staff member welcomes customers and shows them where their seat is and writes their destination above the seat on a card. There is a substantial amount of leg room, there are observation cars, a buffet car and the whole service feels spacious and comfortable. It’s easy to get work done and there’s a loyalty scheme which rewards frequent travellers. On long-distance rail services in the UK, there’s no-one greeting customers, there’s often not even a seat (or someone else is sitting in it), there’s a poor loyalty scheme, crammed in seats, no observation cars and inadequate dining cars. But there’s not much point in offering that to customers given that the network is so busy already.

    So, in short, this was a near perfect flight experience for me and I can absolutely see why customers are choosing this form of transport. I have no need to take domestic flights on a regular basis, but I was surprised to see just how efficiently British Airways are managing the process at the moment. Given the problems with using rail for long journeys, I suspect that the best medium-term strategy is finding more environmentally efficient air travel and I know that funding is pouring into that. Otherwise, we’ll have another 50 years of people staying in their cars and driving everywhere, which really isn’t ideal as it’ll lead to no end of new road projects.

    Anyway, rant over and a very lovely flight from British Airways.

  • Heathrow T5 (BA Galleries South Lounge in August 2021)

    Heathrow T5 (BA Galleries South Lounge in August 2021)

    This is my first flight in nearly a year, a domestic flight from London Heathrow T5 to Glasgow Airport. I don’t like taking domestic flights for environmental reasons, but the rail network didn’t give me many options on this one in terms of the price. Things are going to have to change to improve capacity, customer service and pricing if people are going to be tempted away from their cars and from airlines.

    I’ve always liked this “welcome to our home” messaging from British Airways at T5. I was able to use premium security several hours before my flight as I like to arrive early at airports in case of a disaster en route. I then meandered around a rather quiet airport to the T5 Galleries South lounge.

    There’s a new scanner at the entrance to the lounge check-in to avoid needing to go to a staff member. Anyway, it rejected my boarding pass and the kind and patient lady overseeing it mentioned “they’re new and don’t work very well”, but it was soon over-ridden when I used the more traditional staff member at a desk set-up. The lounge felt quite quiet and there’s no self-service offered still, everything is ordered on-line by customers and it’s brought to the table. Staff in the lounge were all personable and kind, it’s a friendly and peaceful place at the moment.

    Having quite a lot of time to get things done I was able to work my way through the menu, this is the Sticky Ginger and Tamari Chicken. I’ve never heard of Tamari, but a quite Google search tells me that it’s a Japanese version of soy sauce. This was really pleasant, tender chicken with a rich sauce and fluffy rice. And some green stuff. Incidentally, on another point, there are power points available so that my devices could charge up throughout the afternoon.

    The beer choice was Heineken, which is a completely pointless drink as far as I’m concerned. BA have reverted to having a whole range of wine, but absolutely no beer of even average quality. I hope that the Brewdog tie-up can be brought back soon to rectify this little omission. I’m sure that normality will resume soon enough in this regard.

    The beef chilli with sour cream and rice, again all very nice.

    I had a quick vodka and Coke, because the Pineapple Ciroc sounded very lovely. And it was, I’m a fan of that now.

    Photos of part of the lounge.

    My dessert of carrot loaf, or whatever it was called. It’s like a stodgy carrot cake.

    At this point a lounge manager walked around politely telling everyone that as it was quiet, they were closing the Galleries South lounge down for the day. She added that customers could go and use the First Class lounge instead, somewhere that I haven’t been for over five years.

    I had finished for the day with food, but there was a different menu on the on-line ordering system in the better lounge, so I felt the need to have a little try of the Barbacoa beef tortilla. This was a step-up in terms of the food quality, very tender beef and the sour cream complemented it well. Quite messy to eat though, but an innovative little dish. Other options I could have gone for were the red wine & mushroom pie and the Caribbean spiced chicken.

    The infamous (well, on Flyertalk anyway) lounge horse lamp…..

    Then the walk to my flight began, through a very empty Heathrow T5. The whole experience is somewhat different to what it was two years ago, but I think it’s all nicer now for customers, although that’s partly just because it’s quieter. Anyway, all very lovely, and a pleasant way to spend a few hours before the flight.

  • British Airways – No Gdansk Flight….

    British Airways – No Gdansk Flight….

    A few months ago, British Airways launched some new routes to Poland and Romania, which I thought was very exciting. I was only able to book one as I was already mostly busy, but I had hoped to go to Gdansk on 8 August 2021. Unfortunately, British Airways have today cancelled that flight which is a shame, although entirely understandable given the global events that are taking place. Hopefully though they will be able to put these flights back on next year as the route of London Heathrow to Gdansk is a very agreeable to me, such is my love for the Tri-City.

    My next flight is now meant to be to Spain in mid-September, but we’ll have to see what will happen there…..