Tag: British Airways

  • British Airways vs Wizz Air

    British Airways vs Wizz Air

    For the first time in a couple of years, I flew British Airways (BA) on my trip with Richard to Gothenburg. I had some Avios to use up, which meant that the flight cost £40 return and it gave me a chance to use Richard’s guesting rights to experience the lounges at Heathrow T3 once again. As a disclosure, I used to do work for BA and so I still feel quite an affinity to them.

    And then there’s Wizz Air, who I’ve flown with extensively over the last year because of their All You Can Fly pass which I very much like. They’re a budget airline who have a dreadful reputation, although, as a disclosure, I’ve flown them a lot and have now got something of an affinity to them as well.

    So, as I don’t get out much, I thought I’d compare the two using a series of artificial headings that I’ve created. I’m not including lounge experiences and I can’t take into consideration IRROPs (when things go wrong) which BA might be better at dealing with.

    All are out of five and I’m making this up as I go along, so at this point, I don’t know who will win this riveting competition. And so….

    BOARDING CARD ACQUISITION

    WIZZ AIR : Acquiring the boarding card on the Wizz Air app is an easy process, although it’s limited to just 24 hours before the flight (unless you pay extra, which I obviously don’t). There are quite a few screens to go through, but the process is easy and the boarding card stays saved in the app for months. Seating is random, although only on around 20% of occasions am I put in a middle seat. 4/5

    BRITISH AIRWAYS : This was a slightly disappointing experience, the app didn’t work (I got it working, sort of, for the return although it was very slow) and so I was forced to check-in on a laptop. This was the case for the outbound and inbound flights, wasting a fair chunk of time getting it resolved. There was the advantage of being freely able to select seats in the 24 hours before the flight, which was a benefit so it wasn’t entirely random. BA’s IT is, by their own admission in the past, sub-optimal and I’ve found them erratic before, but they have the advantage that you can print the boarding pass out at the airport for free which Wizz Air don’t offer. 3/5

    PRE-BOARDING

    WIZZ AIR : Wizz Air are impeccable about this and I note this on just about every flight, it’s clear where to stand and they work through the priority and non-priority queues quickly and effectively. It’s customer focused, it’s efficient and it’s quick. 5/5

    BRITISH AIRWAYS : This felt just slightly muddled, there was no defined queueing area which led to customers milling about in the way of others. There was no obvious time that the boarding desk would open, so customers couldn’t relax or at least wait in the appropriate queue. The process didn’t feel customer focused. One bonus to BA, I did like that I wasn’t concerned about whether my bag fit the bag sizers, which is always a slight concern when flying with Wizz Air. 3/5

    BOARDING

    WIZZ AIR : Impeccable, on my last 60 or so sectors there have been no delays or issues with boarding. 5/5

    BRITISH AIRWAYS : Particularly on the outbound flight, the crew were stressed (I know this as I was on the last row and the crew were talking to each other about the potential need to get bags moved to the hold), some passengers were stressed and it was just a little chaotic. Passengers were faced with searching up and down the cabin for space for their bags. The passenger in the middle seat next to me was one of those, so I ended up standing in the aisle for a few minutes whilst she found space. I don’t mind that, but she was unnecessarily stressed and could only find space some considerable distance away. I like my bag under the seat in front of me, which is what both BA and Wizz Air require me to do (if I had a big bag with BA I could put it above for free, which doesn’t feel entirely fair for those with small bags). 2/5

    SAFETY ANNOUNCEMENTS

    WIZZ AIR : The safety announcements are often ignored, but I always watch them out of politeness. All very professional. 5/5

    BRITISH AIRWAYS : I have no issues with the safety processes of BA, but I was disappointed that the flight safety demonstration was so far away from me down the cabin that I could hardly see it. As an aside, BA crew should probably check that lockers are shut (although they were trying to manage bag reshuffling for a long period of time) as an overhead locker went flying open during the take-off. 4/5

    CREW

    WIZZ AIR : The crews are always helpful, personable and polite. 5/5

    BRITISH AIRWAYS : And no difference with British Airways. 5/5

    FOOD ON BOARD

    WIZZ AIR : There is nothing free, but I like their noodle pot things which are reasonably priced. 2/5

    BRITISH AIRWAYS : I’m going to be overly fair here to BA as the food and drink prices were overly expensive, but economy passengers do get a free biscuit and bottle of water. This allows for more crew engagement, which I think is very positive. 4/5

    FLIGHT COMFORT

    WIZZ AIR : I find Wizz Air flights as comfortable as I’m going to get on a budget airline. The seat pitch is fine for me, although only for flights of under four hours I’ve discovered. 4/5

    BRITISH AIRWAYS : BA declares their seat pitch to be nearly the same as Wizz Air, although I struggled more with leg room for reasons I don’t understand. I’m giving them the same score as the seat pitch is similar and I was comfortable enough. 4/5

    FLIGHT CLEANLINESS

    WIZZ AIR : Given their very fast turnaround time, the cabin is generally always very clean. I’ve never had a dirty tray table, although there’s sometimes a little litter in hard to reach places on the floor. 4/5

    BRITISH AIRWAYS : This was disappointing, my tray table was dirty on the return flight so it hadn’t been cleaned at all. There’s no excuse not to do at least some basic cleaning for passenger comfort. 2/5

    PILOTS

    WIZZ AIR : The pilots have always been impeccable. 5/5

    BRITISH AIRWAYS : Again, professional pilots. 5/5

    ENTERTAINMENT

    WIZZ AIR : There is a magazine in the seat pocket which has a map of their destinations I like to look at, as well as some articles to read and also their list of on-board purchases. I have enough things to read on my phone, but I like paper magazines for some variety. That’s the limit of the entertainment though. 2/5

    BRITISH AIRWAYS : There is no provision for printed material. 1/5

    INTERNET

    WIZZ AIR : There is no on-line provision, even a paid for one. 1/5

    BRITISH AIRWAYS : This was a strong advantage for British Airways, their free wifi for all passengers is limited to WhatsApp and email, but it worked well and was very useful. I was impressed at how well this worked. Very pleased. 5/5

    DISEMBARKING

    WIZZ AIR : There are too many bus transfers, although this isn’t something limited to Wizz Air by any means. Disembarking from front and back is efficient and passenger focused. 4/5

    BRITISH AIRWAYS : On the outbound flight I was first off, but on the inbound the disembarking took too long. Jet bridge only disembarkation when passengers are trying to scuttle around the cabin heading in the opposite direction to find their bags is just a little frustrating. I do have a comment relating to accessibility below though. 3/5

    TOTALS

    This gives Wizz Air a total score of 46 and British Airways a score of 41. This feels just a little unfairly skewered to Wizz Air and not entirely fair to British Airways, although the more I reflect on it, the more I realise just how poor some elements of these British Airways flights were. I did find the wifi to be useful, so that probably deserves a bigger uplift here, so the results should perhaps be a little narrower.

    One important element I haven’t considered in the above headings is accessibility. As BA often uses jet bridges, this makes it much easier for those with accessibility requirements. It’s right to give credit to BA for that.

    PRICING

    I now need to make an adjustment based on the average price charged for a flight. I had expected when I planned this post a few weeks ago that BA would be better, so I was going to mention the more expensive prices.

    Anyway, I’m going to use the headline fare for the flights we took to Gothenburg as these were the cheapest flights we could find for BA when we book, so that makes them £50 for a single.

    It’s unfair to note that my Wizz Air flights are £9 each as I pay extra for the all you can fly pass, so taking that into account, all of my single fares are around £20. This means that BA are usually significantly more expensive.

    CONCLUSION

    This is easier than I expected. I would still fly British Airways, but only if their flights were cheaper than Wizz Air.

    RESULT

    Wizz Air have got their processes to be efficient and they are in line with what I need from an airline, so my results are inevitably biased in that way. I like a budget airline for cheap prices and Wizz Air is very good at that, it’s all that they do. BA has to have a broader appeal across a much larger operation and they also fly from airports with higher costs, although for my own travel, I’m happy with London Luton airport.

    For those with bags, more complex needs, a requirement to fly from larger hubs or those with status, there is much to be said for BA. For those who want budget travel without stress, I certainly think Wizz Air is worth considering here. I’d add that I think both BA and Wizz Air are better than Ryanair for anyone interested in that perspective, I don’t tend to fly with Ryanair.

    But, taking everything into account, for short haul flights, it’s Wizz Air who I prefer over British Airways, which I’m not sure I expected to write when I started this.

  • Gothenburg Trip – Day 4 (British Airways – Gothenburg to London Heathrow)

    Gothenburg Trip – Day 4 (British Airways – Gothenburg to London Heathrow)

    After dropping the car off at the hire place, which isn’t something that I usually need to worry about on my trips, it was time to get a British Airways flight back to the UK. Richard went through premium security, but I was content muddling through in the poor lane.

    That’s helpful of me, I thought I had taken a photo of the flight screen so that I could mention the time, but I appear to have failed to realise that it had gone to the second page with the flights for the day after. Anyway, it was the BA793 flight at 20:00. Once again I had problems with the BA app, so, to be safe, I printed a boarding pass out at the airport.

    Richard had priority boarding and he was anxiously waiting to be called forward with the VIPs, as he had spent a small fortune upgrading to business class. I hadn’t upgraded and I was happy to sit and wait until boarding was nearly complete. I was on an aisle seat near the back of the aircraft, so this wasn’t a problem. Boarding announcements were relatively poor, Richard was standing for 26 minutes and they had said they were about to commence boarding quite early on during that process.

    I was pleased to be able to board by the stairs as I like that to see the aircraft registration number, although it was partly hidden here. It was though G-EUYW, an Airbus A320 that BA has had since new in 2014. The boarding was more efficient than the chaotic outbound flight, but there were fewer passengers here for the crew to deal with and there were some issues with a lack of staff for bag storage.

    In terms of what I paid, which was £20 each way after Avios discount, I was entirely content. But, the tray table was dirty and so they had clearly made only basic efforts to clean the aircraft between flights. I mention this as Wizz Air, in the last 80 or so flights I’ve taken with them, have never offered me a tray table that wasn’t clean.

    On another note, the cabin crew were standing so far forwards during the safety demonstration that it was pointless for us at the back (they were at rows 1, 4 and 14, whilst I was on row 28 and there were rows behind me. Most passengers seem to disregard the safety announcement anyway, but I didn’t have much choice here if I had been interested in following intently. They were doing a safety announcement from row 4 as that’s where the economy section of the cabin started, but it felt slightly sub-optimal. I would add at this stage that I have complete confidence in BA’s broader safety processes and always have had.

    Disembarking was more time consuming than ideal as it was from the front only, although that more inconvenienced Richard as he was on row 1 and had to wait for me. This is really a side issue as to just how complex baggage storage is on the flight, there are passengers trying to walk backwards to the only space they could place their bags, it’s just a mess. I accept BA’s service style and the layout of the airport isn’t to have stairs at the rear at Heathrow, but it would have been quicker.

    On the positive side, the crew were helpful and engaging, with the benefit of free wifi being particularly useful so I could read messages on WhatsApp. I’m going to do a separate post about the comparison between Wizz Air and British Airways, I’m not at this stage sure who will win on my riveting comparison post, but it’s going to be very close. The provision of wifi might just be enough for BA…..

    When I did work for British Airways they said that their problem was that the only thing they were consistent at was inconsistency. I suspect little has changed and I certainly see no reason to fly with them again in the near future.

  • Gothenburg Trip – Day 1 (British Airways – London Heathrow to Gothenburg)

    Gothenburg Trip – Day 1 (British Airways – London Heathrow to Gothenburg)

    We had spent some time in the lounges and the gate was already boarding when we got there, so it wasn’t clear just how efficient the boarding process was in general. However, for us, it was fast and well managed, with the team members being personable and friendly.

    There are jet bridges to board the aircraft so everyone went by the front door. I like stairs for the simple reason that I can see the registration of the aircraft without looking it up, which in this case was G-DBCG. This is an Airbus A319 that has been in the BA fleet since 2012 and before that it was operated by bmi (owned by Lufthansa but sold to IHG in 2012) from 2006.

    I was in the aisle seat at the rear of the aircraft and I noted the rather rickety nature of the seats. That seat in front was reclined during the flight which is impressive as the seats don’t actually recline. The aircraft was rather hot during boarding, but was I pleased to note that the temperature became somewhat more comfortable after take-off.

    Boarding was a little chaotic. The crew members behind me were saying to each other that the overhead lockers were now full and so they were having to be creative. The passenger sitting next to me had a large bag and was walking up and down the aircraft trying to find a place to put her bag, so I ended up standing in the aisle for five minutes watching the confusion unfold. And the crew didn’t check the lockers as one flew open when taxiing which felt a little sub-optimal. But we were ready to depart pretty much on time.

    However, onto the positives, the crew were very friendly throughout and there was a free biscuit and water on BA which is at least something. I was surprised and delighted to have access to WhatsApp during the flight, this was something of a bonus to me. However, in a separate post, I’ll do a comparison between Wizz Air and British Airways as to who I thought was the better carrier.

    And safely in Gothenburg. There was disembarking from the rear doors and that meant I managed to be the first off the plane into border control. That is exciting, but is always stressful in terms of working out where to go and I had to wait for Richard anyway.

    The border was particularly friendly, a very positive first impression of Sweden. It also meant that I have now visited every EU country, which excited me….

  • Gothenburg Trip – Day 1 (Heathrow Airport T3 – British Airways First Lounge)

    Gothenburg Trip – Day 1 (Heathrow Airport T3 – British Airways First Lounge)

    Thanks to the decadence of Richard and his kind guesting offer, this was the first time in years that I’ve been able to visit the First Lounge of British Airways at Terminal 3. There was a friendly welcome from the BA staff who seemed upbeat and personable.

    This is the informal section of the lounge with Richard modelling the Christmas look.

    There’s a relatively wide spirits selection and three beers, including one non alcohol option.

    BA still has the order by phone option, although there is a self-service area as well. This was the really quite delightful toasted tomatoes and avocado with some chilli on top. Very decent indeed, served alongside the Brewdog Speedbird OG Transatlantic IPA, a hoppy and fruity little number.

    The breakfast on the self-service counter and this was cleared away at around 11:20.

    The cheese selection.

    The lunchtime hot food selection was brought out at 11:30.

    And the cold selection.

    I solely tested it for the purposes of this blog, but the beef & onion pie with beef dripping gravy was very agreeable.

    And the rest of the options.

    I accidentally ordered the pastrami and it was pleasant although it felt a bit like a cheaper supermarket option. But, I don’t want to be critical, it’s an airport lounge and not a Michelin starred restaurant or Greggs.

    This is the dining and work area of the lounge, which was my favourite area of the whole arrangement. This was a little cooler than the rest of the lounge, which was more preferable for my requirements.

    For those arriving at breakfast the options are more limited, but the lunchtime selection was much more decadent. There was an effort made with the alcoholic drinks, less so with the non-alcoholic drinks. I like the Brewdog tie-up and have done for some years, although I suspect now they’re owned by a US company that this might slowly come to an end. The lounge was all spacious and clean, with the team members all seeming friendly.

    But with that, we were off to the Cathay Pacific lounge for lunch.

  • Gothenburg Trip – Day 1 (Heathrow Airport T3 – Qantas Lounge)

    Gothenburg Trip – Day 1 (Heathrow Airport T3 – Qantas Lounge)

    Excuse the poor photo, but it’ll have to do. I’ve written about this lounge before, so I won’t witter on endlessly…. Or no more than normal anyway.

    We arrived at 09:10 and the ground floor restaurant area wasn’t open until 09:30, so I had a starter in the buffet area upstairs. It was busy, but not uncomfortably so. There were some pastries and yoghurts laid out, with a small hot selection of bacon and sausages.

    The brunch menu in the downstairs table service area.

    And the salt and pepper squid, my favourite thing on the Qantas menu. This was certainly acceptable, although it didn’t reach the usual melt in the mouth standard they’ve offered before. But, it was nicely presented, other than for the rickety old marked plate.

    Richard ordered his Eggs Benedict and received his Egg Benedict. He ordered another one though, so he didn’t miss out.

    The Qantas lounge doesn’t have a split between gold and silver (or their Oneworld equivalent) members, it’s all one offering. I’ve always liked the set-up at Qantas, an informal table service restaurant downstairs alongside the self-service set-up upstairs. The team members were friendly and agreeable, it was a lovely start to the day.

    And, Richard, who has been reading these blog posts, I feel deserves some praise. So, thanks very much for guesting me into the Qantas lounge, I might not be back here for a while….

  • Gothenburg Trip – Day 0 (BA Technical Issues)

    Gothenburg Trip – Day 0 (BA Technical Issues)

    I have a lot of time for British Airways, not least as they paid for me to travel the world for many years in the most non onerous way possible. But, their IT was famously poor and it appears that’s still the case. This is what the app shows me, despite starting it again.

    So, the app can’t be used. I can log in via the website, but I have to mention at this point that the Wizz Air app works every single time without delay or issue. Fortunately, I am travelling with a senior business executive who has status, so he will have to call on his contacts to resolve any issues. Or something like that….

    But, on the wider matter, this is the part of a riveting new series about my trip to Gothenburg! Woooo. The flight out is tomorrow.

  • Flights – British Airways (Heathrow T3 to Luxembourg)

    Flights – British Airways (Heathrow T3 to Luxembourg)

    [I originally posted this in July 2018, but have reposted it to fix the broken image links]

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    My morning British Airways flight from Heathrow T3 having safely landed in Luxembourg. The load was a little light across the aircraft and the new boarding by group operated by BA was efficiently managed.

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    This is the breakfast on Club Europe, which as I’ve commented on before is what I think is the weakest meal that BA serve. It’s excessively salty for my taste (and I like salt….) and sits in a pool of grease, but I’m sure that it’s not an unpopular product. It’s a shame that they don’t offer the cold meats selection as an alternative though.

    One minor thing which a few crew do is ask customers if they want tea or coffee when they serve the breakfast. It threw one customer, who wanted an orange juice, but thought that their selection was limited to tea or coffee. That promptly threw the crew’s service slightly as customers they’d already served then ordered additional drinks.

    Indeed, the service on this flight was about as minimal as the crew could get away with, never asking if customers wanted anything else and never really being pro-active. Fortunately I’m pro-active in asking for more orange juice…. There were two crew to deal with a very light Club Europe cabin, which was just four rows and that was only half-filled.

    Another problem I keep noticing on BA flights isn’t exactly a serious issue, but their cleaning crews even in their home base rarely seem to be able to check the seat pockets in the time they have. There are routinely things left in seat pockets from previous customers. Ryanair resolved this by removing seat pockets, creating a handy compromise of preventing customers from leaving things in them.

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    Although Club Europe customers can order from this BOB (buy-on-board) menu, it’s designed for Euro Traveller customers. Alex Cruz removed free food and drink from the Euro Traveller cabin and replaced it with this effort, operated by Bidvest. Most of the food is supplied by Marks & Spencer and the quality seems reasonable, not that I’ve ever ordered from it.

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    The sandwiches selection on the BOB menu.

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    One of the little illogicalities about the BOB menu is that the coffees that are served in Euro Traveller are much better than the ones in Club Europe. The Bidvest selection have the coffees which have in-built filters and there’s some attempt at selling branded products. The Club Europe coffees are the standard BA filter coffee efforts, and they’re not exactly a taste sensation.

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    The beer selection on the BOB menu.

    So, another efficient flight which took just 55 minutes to get from Heathrow T3 to Luxembourg. BA continue with their strongest point though, which is to be inconsistent with their customer service.

  • Flights – British Airways (Limoges to Gatwick)

    Flights – British Airways (Limoges to Gatwick)

    [I originally published this in July 2018, but have reposted it to fix some broken image links]

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    After a very lovely week in Limoges it was time to depart back to the UK on board Speedbird. Limoges is not an airport which is difficult to navigate and it rather makes London City Airport look large. Mine was the only flight for a few hours and it took around two minutes from entering the terminal to sitting in the departure gate area.

    I don’t intend to bore people with an in-depth review of the flight, as it was all efficient and well managed. The crew were welcoming and friendly, whilst being attentive throughout the flight. I was in Club Europe and the load there was light, just five customers, which meant that the bulk of the service was conducted by one crew member.

    The cabin was clean and I took my favoured seat of 2C. I say favoured, but I usually get seat 34B on Ryanair because I refuse to pay for a better seat on most flights…. But when I get some luxury, I like an aisle seat, but not on the front because I can’t be near my precious laptop.

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    I’ve always thought that the food across British Airways in First down to World Traveller in long haul, and in Club Europe in short-haul (since that pesky Cruz took away short-haul food) is actually pretty good. It might not be the best in the world, and can’t necessarily compete with Emirates or Singapore, but it has always met my requirements.

    That is with one exception, I’m not the biggest fan of BA breakfasts, especially on short haul where there is little other choice. So I’m always overly delighted when there is a choice for breakfast and one of those options is the plate of cold meats.

    The quality of the cold meats was towards the higher end of the scale, with the cheeses having a depth of taste and the tomato a particularly pleasant flavour. The meats melted in the mouth and there was a choice of four bread rolls, with the seeded one taking my fancy.

    Given it was a morning flight there was a lot of champagne and wine flowing in the cabin, although just for today I felt that this was a morning for orange juice. Although the champagne did look tempting…. The crew member pro-actively offered extra rolls, drinks and checked if I needed anything else, so I didn’t go without at any time during the flight.

    Due to my position in 2C it meant that I disembarked the flight first. And disembarked is the correct word, I refuse to use the word deplane…. I don’t actually like this, as it means that I feel I’m under huge pressure not to get lost as I walk towards the terminal. It’s amazing how I can deviate from what an airport can think is its idiot-proof walk towards customs.

    I took this flight for purposes of securing BA status next year and it cost £84, which I think is very reasonable for a business class flight. Although, having said that (well, written that) Limoges is one of the cheapest routes for business in Europe on BA, but it’s a seasonal flight only.

  • BA Switch to Revenue Spending Tier Points

    BA Switch to Revenue Spending Tier Points

    I’m a bit of a Wizz Air boy (I use the word boy loosely, but it’s my blog and if I want to use it, then I am) now with my All You Can Fly, but I’m pleased that I didn’t try and renew BA status as it’s near impossible for me now given the changes announced today. Before I was able to use the system to have silver status for a few years, but that will now require a spend of £7,500 a year which is rather beyond what I’d spend. More details are at https://www.britishairways.com/content/executive-club/about-the-club and although I can see the financial reasoning for BA, especially given how busy their lounges have become, it’s beyond me. I’ll just have to get used to Wizz Air…..

  • Bucharest Trip – Day 1 : British Airways Flight to Bucharest

    Bucharest Trip – Day 1 : British Airways Flight to Bucharest

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    I mentioned in a previous post for my two loyal blog readers that I was on razor thin timing for my flight, having left the hotel just 2 hours 30 minutes before take-off. I considered the reality that it might take over an hour to walk to the bus stop, get on the bus and then arrive into Heathrow Central bus station. In reality, it was 11 minutes. But, that meant one thing, I was safely at Heathrow Terminal 3 ready for my British Airways flight to Bucharest. For all of its faults, I’m still keen to use British Airways and I opted for them to get me to Bucharest. Steve had used BA the previous evening, whilst Bev, Susanna and Thim had decided that Ryanair was for them. Bev would use a cattle truck to get there if she could, but I’m surprised that Susanna and Thim weren’t a little more decadent. But, naturally, I didn’t say anything about the matter.

    Back to the flight though. The boarding gate process was handled well, there was no wait and there was a seat whilst they called the groups forwards. All very organised and calm, this felt well managed. It’s always pleasant when the boarding process feels calm, sometimes it all feels a little chaotic and stressful.

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    Here we are on board. I say we, but I primarily mean me and the other passengers. It was an Airbus A320 aircraft, registration G-EUUF (although I need to check this, as two sites have different aircraft registration codes for this flight which I haven’t seen before). Assuming it was G-EUUF, BA have had this plane since new when they purchased it in 2002 and I don’t think it’s one that I’ve been on before (but my records are quite patchy, I didn’t know I was going to become interested in recording this for some time). Once again, I should really get out more…

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    One of the vestiges of my status with British Airways is that I can still book these for free, so I got an emergency exit row seat. I’ll be back to silver status early next year (the lowest status I can get which gives me lounge access), required given that I do like visiting the airport lounges as I get excited by free cans of Fanta. Also for my comfort, there was no-one on else this row which was quite handy. Especially given that Thim was reporting he had a somewhat less comfortable experience on the Ryanair flight he was on. The seating area was clean and everything worked as it should,

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    Satisfactory leg room and the cabin crew were pro-active and friendly. There were also working power points on the service which proved handy. The pilots were the usual middle to upper class sounding British Airways flight crew, sounding reassuring and competent. Not that other pilots aren’t competent, it’s just that the announcements made by British Airways crew seem to be so quintessentially British that it fits their brand well.

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    There were no delays on departing and the passengers all seemed sensible and efficient which meant no issues with people trying to shove large bags in awkwardly to the overhead lockers.

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    The free snack and water, which I still think is a positive touch rather than the previous effort they had which involved giving passengers absolutely nothing.

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    And safely into Bucharest, twenty minutes earlier than expected. There was little to report from the flight, which is a positive thing as too much drama on board is often sub-optimal. I had mentioned to Bev that I didn’t want her, Susanna and Thim waiting for me as they got in 90 minutes earlier, but that was good since they didn’t bother anyway. Once again, I didn’t comment negatively on that situation. On the matter of the weather, it looked just a little bleak, but the temperature was fine for my needs and the rain wasn’t too bad.

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    I won’t go on about the European Union as my thoughts on this are well known to my two loyal blog readers (and for anyone else, #iameuropean) and EU citizens were able to breeze through passport control. Those from the UK had a much longer wait which was sub-optimal. Anyway, I was again impressed with British Airways, everything worked as it should, everything was clean, the crew were friendly and the service was efficient. The flight cost £42 each way, which I think is very reasonable, especially as I used Avios from previous flights to reduce that to £24 each way. All rather lovely.