This is the new Club Europe catering that will be used by British Airways over the next three months or so, something of a change from the more substantial and usually cooked offering that was previously provided. Clearly not quite as exciting, but needs must given the current situation. Those passengers in Euro Traveller, who were previously given nothing as it was buy on board, do now get basic soft drinks free of charge.
It’s a relief, for the first time in months, to be able to book a flight and see this e-mail arrive. OK, it’s just a domestic flight for later in the year, but nonetheless….
British Airways e-mailed this morning with the subject title “something to make you smile”. And, the e-mail did, so that’s my loyalty to the wonderful BA confirmed for years to come. And, most importantly, I hope that BA are able to ensure their staff all remain in employment and that routes don’t need to be dropped.
Dear Mr White,
We all love to hear some good news every now and then. And so today, we wanted to tell you something that we hope will make you smile.
As the world prepares to fly once more, we know there is still a long road ahead, and we wanted you to know that we’ll be right there with you every step of the journey.
To say thank you for all your loyalty and support, we’ve added 12 months extra onto your Silver Executive Club membership. So you have more time to enjoy your benefits, whenever you’re ready to return to the skies.
What’s more, it will be even easier to retain your Silver status next time you’re up for renewal, as we’ve decreased the amount of Tier Points needed by 25%. This is the same for upgrade thresholds too, making that next Tier more achievable.
You can read more information here, and other ways we’re supporting you during this period.
We hope that put a smile on your face. Thank you again for your loyalty.
Your Executive Club Team
Along with the temporary suspension to numerous destinations, sad to see that BA have recently announced that they have stopped flying to four locations.
They’re:
London Heathrow – Beirut (Lebanon)
London Heathrow – Helsinki (Finland)
London Heathrow – Leeds Bradford (UK)
London Heathrow – Moscow Sheremetyevo (Russia)
The Leeds Bradford link to London seemed relatively popular, but there’s been an environmental argument for a while about whether this is a sensible use of aircraft. Moscow continues to be served by Moscow Domodedovo, but BA must be expecting that a permanent fall in the number of people prepared to go to Russia.
Disappointed about the removal of the Helsinki route as I planned to use that next year to get to Tallinn (after getting a ferry across the Gulf of Finland), a direct BA route they shut down in 2019. It looks BA has given up on great swathes of eastern Europe, which will be a handy boost to Ryanair and Wizzair. There’s always Finn Air, who are Oneworld, but I rarely see anything keenly priced there.
Hopefully when things return to some form of normality then BA can start looking at new routes to replace the ones that have been lost.
The current Coronavirus means that I can’t write about any recent flights on British Airways, so here’s one from six years ago. As a rider at this stage, I wasn’t intending to post these photos when I took them, so they’re not really a very complete set covering the aircraft’s exterior or interior. But, I took a photo of all the food, which is something I rarely neglect my obligations towards….
Back in 2014, British Airways decided that China was their future and they started a flight to Chengdu as their third destination in the country, as they already flew to Shanghai and Beijing (as well as Hong Kong). There was a documentary at the time where BA management, including their boss then Willie Walsh, said how important China was to them, although their enthusiasm waned and Chengdu was dropped a few years later, in early 2017. This flight was in Club World, or business class, with the aircraft being the Boeing Dreamliner.
The screen for the IFE.
The foldable foot rest, which then joined together with the main part of the seat to form a bed. BA have recently announced a new Club Suite, which looks amazing, so the days of having to step over someone else will soon be firmly in the past.
The menu.
The watermelon, feta and cucumber salad.
The Szechuan braised pork with bean curd, an appropriate dish as this was the area of China that we were flying to.
The summer berry cheesecake with mascarpone cream.
The breakfast menu.
Fresh fruit and the mango fruit smoothie. The smoothies on BA are world class and I always tried to get refills if they had enough.
The continental breakfast option.
I took these items from the Club Kitchen on board to nibble on between meals.
I can’t remember much about these meals, primarily because I ate them six years ago, but I was rarely disappointed with BA’s food. I also know that I got my first choice for all meals on this flight, which is always a bonus. Unfortunately, I didn’t note the registration number of the aircraft or much else.
Above is the BA aircraft G-MIDT after we had arrived back into Gatwick on service BA2645. I haven’t flown on this particular aircraft before, it was brought into service in 2001 for use by bmi British Midland and then was taken over by BA in August 2012.
Boarding was smooth and without any delays, they called Groups 1 to 3 in one go and then Groups 4 and 5 went separately. There were sufficient seats in the boarding area for customers this time, something which isn’t always the case at Malta’s airport.
As seems usual in Malta, there’s a short walk to the aircraft and then customers use steps to board.
We had the aisle and middle exit row seats, with no-one sitting at the window, so Liam moved there. The cabin crew noted how sun-burnt Liam was to add to the occasion, with the crew always being efficient and pro-active during the flight. The loads were light, I’m not sure that the aircraft was even half-full in terms of the Euro Traveller cabin, a result perhaps of the current coronavirus situation. That did though mean that there was no shortage of space in the overheads and boarding wasn’t delayed whilst bags were shuffled around.
Boarding was though delayed as a result of French air traffic control, an element of which was on strike, which meant that we departed around twenty minutes later than expected. However, the pilots kept us informed and nearly all of this delay was made up en route back to Gatwick, a flight which took just under three hours. The flight itself was uneventful, all calm and comfortable, with the cabin crew making appropriate announcements, although the pilot seemed to get distracted when making her announcements, but I admit that it is rather more important to fly the plane.
Another perfectly acceptable flight from British Airways, with Gatwick South being well staffed so we had no delays getting through border control and then back to the long-stay car park.
And my fourth visit to the delightful island of Malta….
Earlier on in the day the flight was expected to be delayed by around ninety minutes due to adverse weather conditions, but there was then a change in aircraft and the delay became relatively minor. Not that this was a problem, we had arrived at Gatwick early, so we had plenty of time in the BA lounge. The gate was called and it was once again the set of gates at the end of the long corridor, a little bit of a walk from the main terminal. The boarding process was though very well managed, with all the customers boarded by group and this was carefully enforced. There are enough seats in the area as well for customers to wait before boarding.
Parked up at Gatwick, the aircraft G-EUUT, which has been operated by BA since 2007, which I was on when I returned from Palma to Gatwick South in November last year. The aircraft that I should have been on today, before the aircraft change this afternoon, was the one which went tech last year en route to Palma…..
I had an exit row aisle seat and Liam had the middle seat, although the window seat wasn’t used so we had the row of three emergency exit row seats between us. The flight was uneventful, which is a useful thing for a flight to be, with the buy on board seeming to be quite popular on this evening’s flight. Then there was just the matter of getting through border control at Malta airport and then the checks for the Coronavirus where everyone was corralled through a checkpoint….
The flight wasn’t unreasonably priced, costing £44 for a single journey, which I reduced by using Avios. The flight, which took just under three hours, was around 80% full, which meant it wasn’t sufficiently busy to cause problems with space in the overhead lockers.
When I arrived at Florence airport, most of the flights from that afternoon were being cancelled due to high winds, so it didn’t bode well for my later departure. Nor was the sign of a lady sitting on the floor outside of the terminal screaming particularly conducive to calm travel, although at least the Italian military and police were on hand to deal with the situation. The staff at the airport lounge were friendly, although warned me that my flight was likely to be cancelled, but as the afternoon turned into evening, all started to look better.
The inbound BA flight to Florence was delayed, apparently the pilot said due to a technical issue rather than air traffic control or the winds, but the departure was only around an hour later than it should have been.
The boarding process was a little confused as customers weren’t really shown where to wait, although to be fair to the staff, they didn’t have a great deal of space as there was another flight boarding at the neighbouring gate. There was a vague effort at boarding by group number as I did hear one announcement, but it was ineffective. Although it didn’t make much difference anyway as there was a bus to the gate rather than an air bridge. The boarding gate staff were polite and helpful, with the process being prompt if nothing else.
The BA flight to London City Airport before mine had been cancelled, so the aircraft I boarded was completely full, although I’m not sure where the other passengers were sent from the earlier flight. The crew member made some authoritative, but essential, statements that baggage must be placed into the lockers quickly and everything other than large bags should be placed under the seats. I like my bag by my feet, but it’s perhaps still a little unfair that BA reward those with large luggage by having the area under their seat clear, whilst those who pack light have their foot room impeded.
The aircraft was G-LCAA, an Embraer 190 which was used by China Southern Airlines from 2011 until May 2019, when it entered BA’s fleet. I find it quite intriguing to know that this aircraft has spent most of its life shuttling around China before being entirely refitted by BA.
The pilot then made a friendly announcement and in that he mentioned that there was a slight rush as we had headwinds against us and a need to get into London City Airport by 22:30 because no incoming flights are allowed in after that due to their curfew. As a slight spoiler to this post, the aircraft landed at 21:54, which meant that all was well and we avoided having to land at London Southend Airport which would have been over an hour by bus transfer. London City Airport usually closes at 22:00, but it remained open to deal with our flight.
Back to the flight itself… British Airways have, for the many years I’ve travelled with them, managed to perfect inconsistency. I’m aware of what the offering would be, since I read the timing of the flight and associated menu on Flyertalk, but it was a near pointless effort compared to the excellent meal provided on the outbound flight to Florence. I had eaten in the lounge, but most other customers hadn’t, perhaps expecting something similar to what they had received on their previous flight.
And into London City airport, safe, sound and only a little later than anticipated. The curfew at London City Airport is an absolute one, so all told, BA did well to get this aircraft back given all the problems there had been at Florence airport during the day. A bus journey from Southend Airport is something that I could have done without, so I’ll forgive BA for their limited catering arrangements on this flight….
This is the first time that I’ve flown from London City Airport, an accessible and easy to reach airport in east London with its own DLR stop. And I’ve liked the DLR ever since I lived next to one of the network’s stops a few years ago.
One of the advantages of London City is that it’s relatively small and compact, so it’s possible to roll up around 45 minutes before a flight and still board in time. I can’t be taking those sort of chances though, but I didn’t go through security until two hours before my flight, which is cutting it very fine for me. The airport was comfortable and clean throughout, with an almost endless supply of power points and places to work from for those who needed that.
There’s an extensive views of the airfield from the departures building.
The walk to the aircraft went by the side of a building, with the nature of London City Airport meaning that there aren’t air bridges routinely used.
Approaching the aircraft.
I started off on an aisle seat on the seventh row, but there were some empty seats ahead, so a crew member said that I could move to a window seat on the fifth row. The aircraft was clean and comfortable, feeling slightly tired though, with this aircraft being G-LCYI which is an Embraer 170 which BA have owned since new in 2010.
This flight left at 15:50, so there were some spectacular skies visible from the other side of the aircraft, they almost looked photoshopped in on this photo. But they’re not, I can’t use Photoshop….
The CityFlyer service still comes with free food and drink, although I was unsure exactly what the choices were before boarding. They actually seemed to be generous, with Speedbird available which pleased me. I think there was Heineken as well, but the Brewdog/BA partnership that has led to Speedbird is IMO much better. And BA are releasing a new beer soon in partnership with Brewdog again, so hopefully this venture has been a useful one for both parties.
The food was much better than I had expected, it was salmon on rice, along with a side salad, roll, cheese & crackers and a chocolate dessert. There was also a water thing served with it, although it was easy to get extra drinks from the bar from passing crew members.
The crew were friendly throughout and their announcements, as well as those from the pilots, were professional and appropriate. The aircraft landed into Florence slightly early, with the whole process being seamless and well managed. It was a reminder of how BA used to be across their short-haul fleet though with the free food and drink, as it allowed an engagement between the crew and customers. Now, that engagement has been nearly entirely lost, and on most flights there’s nearly no connection between customers who don’t buy anything and the crew. It’s a shame, the crew are one of the best assets that BA have in my view, but I’m sure that Alex Cruz knows what he’s doing…..
This, incidentally, is my 2,000th post on this blog. How lovely….
As evidence that I need to get out more, I was overly excited to see that British Airways have replaced Kettle chips with Tyrrell’s crisps in the lounges. Not that there’s anything wrong with Kettle chips, but a change is as good as a rest or whatever the phrase is. Hopefully they’ll change the flavours about a bit and won’t try and stock the vegetable crisps that Tyrrell’s make….
