Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: Airlines

  • Flights – Heathrow T5 to Warsaw (British Airways)

    Flights – Heathrow T5 to Warsaw (British Airways)

    This was the clearest photo that I could get of today’s BA850 service from London Heathrow T5 to Warsaw Chopin Airport in Poland. The aircraft was G-EUPH, an Airbus A319, which British Airways have owned since April 2000 when it was new. These A319 aircraft are gradually being withdrawn from service, but they’ve served the airline well.

    As I was at B Gates lounge I asked the staff member if she could see where the flight was departing from before it was announced, to save me walking back if the departure was at B Gates. It was at Gate A23 in the main terminal and I was the first to arrive there, primarily since the gate number hadn’t otherwise been announced.

    And here’s the packed waiting area, although it soon got much busier. The staff were pro-active in trying to get customers with two bags to put one of them in the hold, as the flight was nearly full. Some people refused and so a different staff member, who was more forthright to say the least, went round and politely told customers that it wasn’t really an option. The amount of bags that customers are taking on board is becoming ridiculous, something will need to be done at some stage about them.

    The boarding process was otherwise orderly and well managed, with groups called forwards carefully and customers were despatched back to the seating area if they tried to jump the queue. I like organisation.

    I had an exit row aisle seat and there was no-one next to me, so it was a comfortable flight in terms of the space available.

    We were delayed on take-off, partly as the inbound flight had been a few minutes late, but primarily as the crew had problems trying to fit all the bags on. Some customers, mostly those who were trying to bring on a bag the size of a small hippo couldn’t find anywhere to store them. At one stage there were eight customers standing in the aisle of the aircraft with bags not fitting in anywhere, but the crew did their usual jenga tactics of moving and restacking bags, with another going into storage elsewhere.

    The flight eventually arrived into Warsaw twenty minutes late, so no real problem, with the crew members being conscientious with their announcements and updates. There was a buy on board service which went up and down the cabin, but I saw only a few customers buy anything from it. The fare was £55 return plus 2,500 Avios, although I get 1,350 Avios back with this flight.

  • Flights – Luxembourg to Heathrow T5 (British Airways)

    Flights – Luxembourg to Heathrow T5 (British Airways)

    And so, this is my last flight of 2019, a simple BA trip from Luxembourg to Heathrow T5.

    A view of the tarmac from the airport terminal, a photo which would have looked better if the terminal windows were just that bit cleaner….

    A nice smooth boarding process, group 1 was called first, then groups 2 and 3 together, then groups 4 and 5 together.

    The aircraft was G-EUPB, an Airbus A319 which British Airways have owned since it came into service in November 1999 (woooo, happy twentieth anniversary!).

    We were able to get exit row seats for a little extra comfort, although I had the usual dilemma of trying to keep an eye on my bag in the overheads. Some other customers never cease to amaze me with the size of their baggage which they bring on board and try and shove anywhere they can with little comprehension of how their bag simply won’t fit however many ways they turn it around. The crew on this flight were doing far more lifting than they probably should, making real efforts to ensure that everyone could get their baggage in the overhead bins. There must come a point though that customers try and bring just a little less on board, as the current system is unnecessarily time consuming.

    As an aside, I don’t mind my bag by my feet, but it is still unfair that crew ask customers to move their smaller bags to under the seat to make way for larger bags. For customers who only brought one small bag on board and wanted some extra leg-room, they’re disadvantaged in a bid to make way for those customers who have brought along something the size of a kitchen cupboard.

    One very minor disappointment, I was hoping to get the December issue of High Life (primarily as it was December), but they still had the November ones on board….

    A frosty Luxembourg……

    All was well with the flight, although the take-up of the M&S on board menu seemed lower than it usually was. One day the on-board menu will be from Greggs, then watch the sales soar…..

    The flight had a couple of loops over London meaning that time saved during the journey was lost, but the flight arrived on time and on schedule. As another aside, I was able to make it through Heathrow’s automated machines with no effort, but we had to wait about 20 minutes whilst Nathan joined a queue for special passengers (ones considered a threat to national security I thought, but apparently this wasn’t what the queue was).

  • When is Half Term?

    When is Half Term?

    If anyone is unsure when half-term dates are, British Airways have this handy feature on their web-site….

  • Flights – Palma Mallorca to Gatwick South (British Airways)

    Flights – Palma Mallorca to Gatwick South (British Airways)

    My flight to Palma last week didn’t go entirely smoothly, but I’m impressed that British Airways have already agreed to pay the EU261 compensation on this, which is very efficient of them. The aircraft for this flight was the Airbus A320 G-EUUT, an aircraft British Airways have had since it was new in 2007 (although it now has 180 seats, which is 30 more seats since it was first brought into use, which shows how the aircraft has been densified).

    The queue to board, all orderly. I liked Palma Airport, it’s spacious and there are plenty of places to eat, to sit and to wait. I suspect that it is much busier during the summer months and customers then might find it slightly less spacious, but the terminal all seemed comfortable and modern.

    This seems to be the standard out-station way of splitting the groups, although the group numbers are still called consecutively. There didn’t seem to be any real delays in boarding, but British Airways have started to get people to wait on the airbridge in a style which is more Ryanair and easyJet. Apparently this speeds up boarding, but I can’t imagine that it’s by much.

    I shifted from the window exit row seat to the aisle exit row seat the day before the flight, I prefer aisle seats as I like being able to get out without disturbing anyone. Not that I got up during the flight, but it’s nice to have the option. I’ve had a little run, which has run its course, of booking window seats though as the views are sometimes worth it. Incidentally, the crew were very tolerant of the number of people who had bags under the seat in exit rows, despite about eight announcements not to do this. Also, I had no-one next to me, so it felt all very spacious.

    My bag, sitting quietly in the corner, in my full view at all times. I can’t imagine anyone would want to steal it, but I like it being visible. I did note the number of customers who put their bag in the lockers and then walked to their seat, often what seemed another twenty rows back. This then meant that some customers boarding a little later couldn’t find locker space to near their seat, so had to walk back past their seats to stow their bags. That’s fine when boarding, but it’s more of a challenge going against the flow when disembarking.

    The crew seemed competent and professional, with the pilot making appropriate announcements throughout the flight. The flight landed a few minutes early and I was particularly pleased that I was able to leave the airport terminal within ten minutes of the aircraft doors opening. All told, all very lovely, and the cost of the flight was around £25 each way.

  • Flights – Gatwick South to Palma Mallorca (British Airways) – Gone Tech

    Flights – Gatwick South to Palma Mallorca (British Airways) – Gone Tech

    Above is aircraft G-EUUW, the Airbus A320 which was meant to take me from Gatwick South to Palma Mallorca. Unfortunately, a technical malfunction with the undercarriage meant that the aircraft needed to make an urgent return to Gatwick South after it dumped its fuel. The aircraft is one of BA’s Gatwick fleet and they’ve owned it since new, when it was delivered to them in 2008.

    Going back a little, this is the boarding gate 28 at Gatwick South. The boarding process was all well managed, the groups were called in order and there was plenty of seating. There was the usual muttering from some passengers in group 5 who had clustered around the gate to board and then found themselves waiting until the end, but the signage and rules are clearly displayed. The staff members were pro-active in moving waiting passengers away from the queue, as there can be gate congestion if this isn’t well-managed.

    I decided that I’d avoid an exit row on this occasion and went for one which was the row behind the exit row, because I like having my bag with me. After a major repair undertaken on my McCain’s bag, I wanted to monitor whether it would collapse or not. The flight was nearly full, it took off time and the pilots sounded friendly and helpful. With everything in order,  I went to sleep.

    I woke up to hear “we are now returning to Gatwick after we circle to dump fuel”. I asked the passenger next to me what had happened and was told that the pilot had made an announcement that something wasn’t responding, but there was no cause for alarm. I thought that this was most exciting and started to wonder whether there would be a three hour delay to claim EU261. I always think it’s just me who ponders on this, but it was clear from listening to other private conversations that it wasn’t just me. A couple of passengers were unnerved and wanted to abandon their flight when they arrived back into Gatwick, but all else remained calm. The crew came around with water and to offer reassurance, which they did very well.

    Fuel dumped, landing back into Gatwick Airport.

    I thought that BA dealt with the process well, but they didn’t really explain to customers where to go, they simply said to return to the main terminal and find customer services. That was fine, I knew where it was, but I was conscious that some people seemed to drift off unsure where to go. Nonetheless, there was a queue ahead of me at the customer service desk, where we were told that we’d be issued with new boarding passes and refreshment vouchers. Instead, we just got the vouchers and were told that the seat numbers would remain unchanged. I’m not sure in that case why they couldn’t have done that at the gate.

    Every passenger got £10 to spend on refreshments.

    I went to Boots with my vouchers. I had to pay 7p for the bag as the refreshments vouchers won’t cover that.

    The boarding gate situation for the replacement flight wasn’t entirely clear, my app was telling me that the flight would depart from Gate 14. But, when I got there, no-one was there and the screen was blank. The boards didn’t give a gate number for some time, but eventually they did and I felt reassured that I wasn’t in the wrong place.

    I was one of the first at the gate.

    And here is my replacement boarding pass, a change from 13F. I had to check that this wasn’t an emergency exit row, for reasons already mentioned. I have, if I’m being honest, had better boarding passes, although it gave the information that was needed.

    This was when things went just a little wrong for some customers. My seat was changed as the exit rows on the replacement A320 were in a different place, so they had to shuffle some customers around. I suspect that every customer was told about a change if it affected them, but some people claimed on board that they weren’t.

    Anyway, I found one of the few plug sockets at the gate and charged my phone, conscious that the three hour delay was now quite marginal and if BA boarded quickly they’d get there just in time to avoid paying the EU261 compensation. Boarding started smoothly and I was on board again soon enough. The new aircraft was G-GATR, an aircraft brought into use by TAM and they kept it until it was sold to BA in 2015.

    The boarding process was confused as some customers had a new seat number and some didn’t. I got on board, sat down at 11F and watched what became a slightly chaotic situation unfold. I’m not sure how much is BA’s fault, as I knew that two customers were deliberately staying in the seat they had already been allocated for the first flight, instead of their replacement seats. They were effectively being moved one row back to a different emergency exit row, but they weren’t having that. Which led to a domino situation of some customers in the right place, some in the wrong place, but some also standing in the aisle in a mood.

    There’s a page on Flyertalk called DYKWIA (don’t you know who I am?) and there was a little of this kicking off. One customer told a crew member that they always had the same seat and he expected them to deliver that. The crew member didn’t seem impressed, but acted professionally, asking him just to take his new seat and they’d resolve the situation when everyone had boarded. Unfortunately, he didn’t like this and he told the crew that he was unhappy and stood up again, delaying customers. A few other people were murmuring, but BA had a crew member who was solid and firm, he wanted people to take their seats and he’d do what he could on what was a nearly full flight.

    Our passenger, let’s call him Gordon although I don’t know his name, then continued arguing with a crew member in what was becoming a difficult situation. I heard another crew member say that they might need the pilot to intervene, but the crew member dealing with the situation said clearly “sir, you have two choices, you either sit at the seat you have been requested to sit at, or you leave the aircraft now”. The customer said something about there was another choice about he could have the seat he wanted, but the crew member was persistent and received a final warning of “sir, sit down or you will be asked to leave”. He sat down. I was marginally disappointed.

    This whole situation had meant that BA no longer had any chance of arriving into Palma within three hours, although I’m not going to credit the grumpy customers with that. The flight was comfortable and the pilots were professional and calm, apologising several times for the delay. The pilot also mentioned that he had been led to believe that a new crew would have been taking us to Palma, instead of mostly the same crew, hence a delay as they had to complete a considerable amount of paperwork relating to the now broken aircraft. Incidentally, I was also pleased as I now had a seat free next to me on the flight, which I hadn’t earlier on.

    We received refreshments of biscuits and a glass of water from BA, as there was no catering on the replacement flight. This isn’t a problem for economy as it’s a buy on board situation for customers, who could get stocked up at Gatwick, but the Club Europe customers couldn’t have been thrilled. The pilot made an oblique announcement when we landed that EU261 would apply, although he didn’t use those exact words and left just a little to the imagination. The doors opened, which is the measure of whether the compensation is paid, at 3 hours 19 minutes late, so this wasn’t the cheapest of days for the airline. But, looking at BA’s profits, I think they’ll manage.

    But everyone was safe and sound, and all told, a professional operation from my favourite airline. How very lovely.

  • British Airways (Berlin to Heathrow T5)

    Every time I fly back from Berlin Tegel I wonder whether it’ll be the last time I visit the airport, with its replacement seemingly having been nearly ready for nearly ten years. Tegel has long since been unable to comfortably cope with the volume of passengers and it feels crowded and uncomfortable.

    The boarding process is unusual as the BA lounge is landside, so then there’s a long queue for the security and border checks. Above is a photo of the queue for the flight at the next gate, it’s one of the few airports I can think of where the queues to board are within a five second walk of the terminal entrance.

    The British Airways check-in desks. It took over 40 minutes of queueing to board the aircraft, with no seating for those who needed it. Interestingly, or at least I was interested, my battery pack was examined by the security personnel for compliance, which has never happened before. It is a large battery pack at 20000mAh and I was quite impressed that it was checked, since it is only just under the allowable level.

    The aircraft was G-EUPE, an Airbus A319 that British Airways have operated since it came into service in 2000. I had a window exit row seat, which was sufficiently spacious and clean. It was also a busy flight and was at near capacity, although fortunately there didn’t seem as much pressure on the overhead lockers as usual. Then flight left around ten minutes late, but the captain gave updates and it seemed to be because there was a slight delay with getting everyone through the security process.

    The crew were professional and the buy-on-board (BOB) seemed to be popular, with a new menu having come out at the beginning of October. I still don’t think it’s a very innovative on-board menu, although my views on this are a bit irrelevant since I never buy anything on board British Airways flights anyway.

    The DHL truck had appropriate branding for where I had just flown from.

    The flight arrived into London Heathrow T5 at the expected time and the disembarkation process was efficient and timely. It took around twelve minutes from the airport doors opening to my leaving the terminal, allowing me to leave Heathrow in good time.

  • British Airways (Heathrow T5 to Berlin)

    Today’s expedition was to Berlin Tegel airport and, as usual, I arrived hopelessly early in the day to ensconce myself into the BA lounge. It was evident from the volume of rain hitting the roof of Heathrow T5 B Gates building that there were going to be some weather issues, although there were only a few cancellations and relatively minor delays.

    Fortunately, my flight was only delayed by around an hour, although there’s always the fear of a creeping delay where that one hour turns into two or three.

    Boarding was from gate A2 and I fail to understand why BA don’t make this process easier to understand. They did have separate queues for the different boarding groups, with groups 1 and 2 each having their own lane, and groups 3 to 5 were merged into one lane. But, in a piece of design brilliance, the lane for groups 3 to 5 was in front of groups 1 and 2 and so the others couldn’t be easily accessed. I’m not important enough for group 1, but I can sneak into group 2 and it took quite a determined staff member to get me, and some others, to the right place.

    There’s the aircraft at the end of the airbridge, which was registration G-EUOE, an Airbus A319 which British Airways have been using since it was manufactured in 2001.

    The aircraft was clean, although the crew had their usual challenge of trying to fit all the hand baggage into the overhead lockers. It’s the one disadvantage of exit row seats for me, having to engage in this whole overhead baggage game. This is a problem for me as my bag is relatively small, and usually there is someone with a ridiculously sized cabin bag who takes great exception to my small bag being in the lockers. So they try and shove it somewhere else. Always unsuccessfully I’d add.

    Waiting on the tarmac for departure, with the captain sounding professional and fitting the British Airways brand perfectly. I was also pleased to note that there was silence during the safety demonstration, it makes things feel so much calmer. Indeed, the whole flight seemed calm and the crew were efficient and polite.

    We landed around sixty minutes late, with the pilot being able to make up a few minutes of the delay en route. I flew to Berlin Tegel around five years ago and thought it’d likely be the last time there as operations are being moved to Berlin Brandenburg Airport. Unfortunately, this is currently one of the world’s most mocked projects, with an opening expected nearly one decade late. All of which means that Tegel is looking quite rickety and spending more money on it is pointless given that it will all be demolished soon.

    Anyway, this flight was a Reward Flight Saver (RFS) so it cost £17.50 plus 4,000 Avios points.

  • Ryanair (Santiago de Compostela Airport to London Stansted)

    I don’t often write up my flights on Ryanair, as there’s a limited amount that can be said about the experience. The boarding process is though becoming slightly farcical as the priority queue has now increased to being around 75% of everyone boarding, although I have to say that it is an organised process.

    The aircraft was EI-FZL, a Boeing 737-800, which Ryanair had purchased in April 2017. The aircraft set off on time and was also back in Stansted on time.

    The seating on board, which was clean and sufficiently spacious given that this is a budget airline. I had been automatically allocated an aisle seat for free (woooo), with the other two passengers on this row arriving soon after I took the photo.

    The safety demonstration was appalling and one of the worst that I can recall on any flight. The crew did nothing to try and quieten the cabin down and I’m not sure that many people were able to hear the safety announcements. I’ve been on British Airways and American Airlines flights where the crew have stopped the demonstration if the cabin wasn’t quiet, which does reassure me somewhat that the crew are focused on safety.

    I couldn’t hear the announcements from the pilots either due to the cabin noise, which is not a problem, but isn’t ideal. The flight was the usual constant process of trying to sell things to customers, which is fine given the price of the flight, but it’s again not conducive to a peaceful flight. And, on this particular flight, there were two crew members who didn’t seem to be entirely nimble on their feet and managed to keep bumping into passengers on the aisle seats.

    I can’t recall how many Ryanair flights I’ve taken, I think it’s something around the eighty sectors mark over the last ten years. I’m now reluctant to book with them again though, primarily because the outbound flight was potentially caught up in the crew strikes. This concerns me because Ryanair’s IRROPS handling is inadequate and although I’ve never had a problem, it’s an additional factor which I’d rather not have to be concerned about. And, frankly, I’ve become too attached to Oneworld airlines (not literally, although British Airways do need to clean their cabins better).

  • Flights – British Airways (Luxembourg to Heathrow T3)

    This is the evening flight from Luxembourg to Heathrow T3 as the earlier one had gone tech. The forlorn and lost looking aircraft can be seen towards the back on the tarmac above, with the nice and shiny new aircraft waiting at the gate. Well, relatively shiny.

    The aircraft was an A320 with the registration G-EUYC, the same aircraft that I was on when I flew out to Luxembourg last week.

    I arrived a little early at the gate, which was the quietest that I’ve ever seen at Luxembourg. In terms of boarding, this was a bit of a mess and the staff didn’t make any audible announcements about who was supposed to be boarding when. This meant that people were queueing up in the wrong place and blocking the priority lines, although there were no particular delays.

    The crew from the aborted earlier flight were also no doubt keen to get home and they were seated in Club Europe. One of them said to their colleagues that they thought they should be professional and hang back for other customers to board first, although the others collectively agreed that they didn’t like that idea.

    I boarded early and so the flight looks quite quiet from the above photo, but the aircraft soon filled up because of the delayed earlier flight. The captain apologised for the problems with the morning’s cancelled flight and the rest of the announcements were also professional and helpful. BA’s communications had been good all day and I didn’t hear any customer complain about the situation.

    I don’t know if the engineers from Heathrow had arrived on the inbound flight to Luxembourg, but work was starting on the slightly stranded BA aircraft.

    Waiting to leave Luxembourg airport. The crew on board seemed efficient, although they didn’t manage to complete the buy on board trolley service, a situation caused by BA’s policy rather than a lack of ability from the crew. There’s been great play made by BA about the 12 different covers they have this month on the new in-flight magazine. It’s fortunate that I hadn’t got myself over-excited about this, since the aircraft didn’t have any in-flight magazines.

    Arriving back into London, landing around ten minutes ahead of schedule. The pilot did say that he hoped that the ten minutes made up would be useful for those who had been delayed earlier on in the day, although since that flight was nine hours earlier, I’m not sure that the ten minutes made much difference. Anyway, all was professional and the disembarkation process was well managed.

    All in all, I thought that BA managed the problems delay well. I got to sit in the lounge for eight hours (in addition to the two hours before my first flight) and the rebooking process was simple and easy. I was given a window seat and was able to confirm everything via the app, so the technology worked well. Another customer told me that they had gone into Luxembourg for the day, but I had rather got myself settled in at the airport and decided against that idea.

    But, that’s my first flight which has been cancelled due to technical issues, so I’ll probably remember it for many years to come. Although goodness knows why, I’m sure there are better things to remember.

  • Flights – British Airways (Gone Tech and Cancelled – Luxembourg to Heathrow T3)

    This is the forlorn looking BA aircraft that should have operated route BA0417 from Luxembourg to London Heathrow T3 today. The flight was cancelled due to technical issues and customers rebooked onto other services as it can’t be fixed within the next few hours.

    Being towed from the gate…. The aircraft is G-EUYG, an Airbus A320 which was brought into service in 2010 and has always been operated by British Airways.

    The whole flight delay process was well managed by the airline and there were verbal announcements which matched the information being displayed on the app. The pilot came out after around 45 minutes to explain that an oil leak had been discovered on board en route and that engineers had gone to look at it to see if the aircraft could keep flying. The information that the pilot gave all tied in to what we had been told, so the communications seemed excellent all round.

    Unfortunately, the engineers found that the oil leak was substantial and it couldn’t be fixed locally. Engineers from British Airways are flying over to Luxembourg to fix it later today or tomorrow and until then the aircraft will remain on the tarmac.

    This is my first flight gone tech and I think I’m up to somewhere around 200 sectors flown over the last few years (with around 150 of them with BA). The British Airways app automatically booked me onto a later flight and I have returned to the lounge to spend most of the day waiting for the late evening flight back to Heathrow. On the bright side, the delay was of over two hours, was the fault of British Airways and so I have claimed compensation of €250 via the airline’s web-site.

    Not entirely lovely, but I’d rather sit in the lounge all day than be flown on an aircraft with oil pouring out of it across the English Channel. And, incidentally, this is one positive element about the current weak pound as the compensation is delineated in euros……