Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Tag: Flights

  • Flights – Boston Logan to Heathrow T5 (British Airways)

    My favourite aircraft is the A380 and this was the plane G-XLEG which was delivered to British Airways in 2014. It was a moderately busy flight, although my bulkhead row of ten seats had just one other person on it, although the crew moved another two onto it just before departure. This meant plenty of space for me, rather different to my American Airlines flight of the previous day. Sitting on the lower deck of the A380 it is genuinely difficult to know that this beautiful aircraft has taken off, I never tire of just how much of an engineering triumph this is.

    The initial drinks run took place around 45 minutes after take-off, with the crew member saying she was surprised how little alcohol was being requested. I was content with my orange juice, sparkling water and mini pretzels.

    There was plenty of choice on the in-flight entertainment system, although I had hoped for some episodes of Friday Night Dinner again which unfortunately weren’t there. There were though some episodes of People Just Do Nothing and This Time with Alan Partridge which I hadn’t seen before.

    The meal was served around 20 minutes later, consisting of a salad with dressing, roll, chicken casserole with mashed potatoes and vegetables, caramel dessert and then cracker with cheddar cheese. Several people declined their food tray, but I most certainly didn’t. There was also the option of pasta with cheese, which I think has been an option on nearly every BA long-haul flight that I’ve ever taken.

    The quality was fine, the chicken was tender and had a decent amount of flavour, the vegetables retained some firmness to add some texture and it was all served hot. The dessert was also above average in terms of the richness of the taste. The salad was a little dull, but the dressing helped somewhat.

    I had some problems with my screen during the flight, but the crew member was able to successfully reset it. The moving map didn’t work though even after the reset. The crew were helpful with this and everything else, they were also visible throughout the flight. I thought that the temperature in the cabin was just right, although I suspect that this meant most other people were cold. The pilots and crew members made appropriate announcements throughout the flight and they came across as friendly and professional.

    The breakfast option was a croissant with tomato cream cheese, which tasted better than it looked. Another customer, who had refused his evening meal, didn’t look thrilled and a fair few of these were returned uneaten to the crew. The presentation really does need looking at and perhaps some choice to improve the options somewhat.

    However, overall, I thought that this flight still represented superb value for money. Coming in at under £125 there is pretty much no money in this for British Airways, but I won’t complain about that. The food and drink was served efficiently, the aircraft was clean and the crew were helpful and friendly. Lots of space and British Airways is once again becoming my favourite airline.

    The landing of the A380 was though quite heavy at the end of the flight which led to a crew member saying “we’ve certainly landed, I can guess that’s the First Officer landing that”.

  • Flights – Los Angeles to Boston Logan (American Airlines)

    I’ll start this post by commenting that I’ve written to American Airlines (not that the customer service staff can really do anything with my message), as the crew member said that they appreciate all feedback (which is the sort of mistruth that is often said). It was a frustrating flight, as nearly everything was excellent. The lounge exceeded my expectations, the airport staff and cabin crew were friendly and efficient, the entertainment system was decent, the snacks were fine, the service was quiet as it was a night flight, the aircraft was clean and we arrived on time.

    However, the problem is the recline on the seats, or at least, it’s a problem for me. Once thought of as the preserve of the budget carriers such as easyJet and Ryanair in Europe and Allegiant in the US, decent airlines are now scrapping the damn things, or at least offering customers the choice of rows where seats can’t recline. They cause seemingly endless arguments on flights and with the limited seat pitch and space between seats, they intrude far too heavily into the person behind. British Airways have started to scrap reclining seats in some of their short-haul flights and Delta have started to cut back how far the seats recline.

    The compromise of having several rows which have no recline seems to me to be an excellent one. No system is perfect in meeting the needs of every passenger, but that will mean that the majority of seat recliners get their seat recline, and the majority of those who don’t like seats reclining also get their way. I’m very pleased that at least British Airways has seen sense on this issue.

    The screen, which was bright and had an excellent range of different films and television programmes. One clever innovation is that you can also watch these films and programmes from your phone should you wish, which is probably a pre-cursor to the screens being removed in the future.

    The business class seats that I wasn’t in….

    The coach seats that I was seated in, which were actually otherwise entirely acceptable in their unreclined state.

    The crew came round and offered a free drink, with snacks of pretzels and biscuits. I opted for my usual Dr. Pepper, with the crew serving everyone efficiently. I was surprised that they served with the cabin in darkness, but they didn’t seem to experience any issues.

    Arriving into Boston, the pilot mentioned that those sitting on the right hand side would be a good view of the city, and fortunately, I was sitting on the right hand side by the window.

    So, in short, the flight was excellent, but the airline’s overly generous recline policy means that I won’t likely be flying with them again in short-haul. Which means I’ll be back to Allegiant.

  • Flights – Omaha to Las Vegas (Allegiant)

    Today’s flight (excuse that I couldn’t get a photo of the aircraft due to where the jet bridges were, so here’s a can of Coke) was Allegiant Air from Omaha to Las Vegas. Allegiant are a relatively cheap carrier with a reputation similar to Ryanair and I find them pretty similar, they’re reliable but not exactly customer service obsessed.

    Incidentally, on the Coke issue, they’re $2 which seems to be good value and I noted that nearly everyone on board ordered something. Allegiant don’t serve hot meals, just pre-packaged snacks and drinks. The crew service is efficient and well managed and they completed four sweeps of the aircraft offering drinks and snacks.

    Interestingly (just to me) this aircraft was an A-319, registration N313NV. This aircraft was from October 2004 until December 2017 operated by easyJet before Allegiant took it over.

    Views from the aircraft. I was fortunate that the middle seat was free and I was allocated the window seat, so it was all sufficiently spacious. The flight was delayed for around 45 minutes in Omaha because of adverse weather conditions in Las Vegas, so they were trying to space the aircraft arrivals out.

    The flight was also one of the most turbulent ridden that I’ve experienced and the aircraft landed at quite an angle. As a back story, the guy on my row was chatty and good humoured, but he hated Allegiant. He’s got a long history of flying and he said he only booked this flight because he was drunk. He claimed that the poor flying conditions were down to the flight crew, which is perhaps rather harsh. But their communication to passengers wasn’t great if I’m being honest.

    We landed in Las Vegas just under one hour late, but that didn’t seem unreasonable given the weather conditions. Then it all went a bit wrong. As the airport was being hit by thunder and lightning the ramp staff didn’t want to be hit and so went inside into the dry. My flight correspondence on the same row as me blamed the unions and said that Americans needed to toughen up. I didn’t get involved.

    What was meant to be a short delay for the ramp staff to come back turned into a 90-minute wait. Another Allegiant aircraft parked up next to us, stuck in a similar situation. Others planes seemed to be parking up, so I’m not exactly sure what was going on, but nonetheless it was a frustrating wait as it was never clear how long it would be. When the announcement we were moving was made it was performed by a cabin crew member rather than from the flight deck, which seemed unusual to me. However, the pilot was visible at the end of the flight in case anyone wanted to answer questions or be rude to him. As I was British I thanked him for a lovely flight.

    Overall, I can’t really blame Allegiant for the delays, it was a cheap flight and they got me where I wanted to be in a reasonable time. And I was very pleased that they auto allocated me a window seat. I’d certainly consider using them again.

  • British Airways (Heathrow T5 to Boston)

    The British Airways 747-400 service from Heathrow T5 (B Gates) to Boston Logan Airport. It had 22 crew and is aircraft G-CIVE, which has been operating for the airline since 1994. The boarding was well managed, with a staff member guarding access to the desks and checking that customers boarded in the correct group.

    I did hear a few customers complaining that they weren’t allowed to board whenever they wanted, but if someone has Group 5 on their ticket and they’re calling Group 1 only, it shouldn’t come as a complete surprise to them. The person behind me was also extremely displeased at the queue of customers who needed priority boarding for whatever reason. I heard a “he doesn’t look ill” and “that one definitely isn’t ill, he must know the pilot” with lots of tuts.

    My seat was 40D, which is a bulkhead aisle seat, and there was also no-one next to me, so the whole arrangement was spacious and comfortable.

    The first drinks service, which was my only alcoholic drink of the flight (and indeed day) which was a gin and tonic. British Airways have done away with Tribute ale and instead have the slightly ridiculous products of Heineken and Tiger. Ridiculous given that BA is British and quite why it isn’t serving anything British is a mystery to me. The lady in the row behind asked for Tribute and rejected the other beer options, and quite right too.

    The other drink was a sparkling water, and a water which the crew member accidentally poured. Best to stay hydrated though.

    I think it’s fair to say that British Airways don’t serve the most beautifully presented food in World Traveller. One half of the cabin was advertising the choice as “chicken chasseur or pasta with a pesto sauce?”, the other was offering “chicken or pasta?”. I’m not sure that this really is chicken chasseur in any traditional sense, but it tasted much better than it looked. The chicken was tender, the sauce had a decent flavour and the vegetables retained just the slightest of bites.

    As for the rest, the posset actually contained lemon and was satisfactorily sharp, the cheddar cheese was excellent and the starter was tolerable. The roll was soft and the two portions of butter were, well, butter and not margarine. For the cabin, I thought that this was a perfectly good meal.

    The mid-flight ice cream.

    The second meal was basic, but this is an east coast flight, and this is better than it was for a while on British Airways when Cruz’s first cuts came in. The seeded roll had some tender chicken in as well as some tomatoes, which I wouldn’t have guessed were slow roasted. That might be over selling just a little. The chocolate bar was, well, chocolatey.

    The in-flight entertainment system, which now has the seat number handily showing on the front of the screen. Saves looking up I suppose.

    This was a highlight, a film that I had wanted to see last year. Free Solo is the incredible documentary of when the free climber Alex Honnold ascended El Capitan. He did this climb up what looks to me like a sheer rock face and it’s 3,000 feet high. He did this without any ropes, so if he made a single mistake during his 3 hour and 56 minute climb then he would have died. Brave isn’t the word for it….. On reflection, if he had made a mistake in the first few minutes, he wouldn’t have died as he wouldn’t have fallen very far. But the rest was very dangerous indeed.

    A mid-flight view.

    One important thing to note about this flight is that it cost £128 for a single trip (which includes the positioning flight from Newcastle), plus I received back around £5 back in Avios. Taking into account it cost BA £78 in air passenger duty, it cost £56 in Heathrow charges and about £26 in US airport arrival charges. They then had to cover the costs for my lounge access at Heathrow T5. It doesn’t take a Labour Shadow Home Secretary to work out that this is more than the ticket cost I paid……

    Taking into account the cost of the ticket, this flight was IMO excellent value for money. The flight arrived on time, the crew were helpful, the seat was comfortable and everything on board worked as it should. All very lovely.

  • Flights – Athens to Katowice (Wizz Air)

    A morning flight from Athens in Greece to Katowice in Poland, costing slightly more than my usual Wizzair flights and coming in at around £13. I was marginally disappointed that the flights were going from the airport’s satellite terminal, rather than the main terminal, as it precludes any access to the lounges.

    The seating area at the gate, which actually had enough seats for every customer. And the satellite terminal was clean, well maintained and very comfortable, some considerable money must have been spent here. There were also plenty of power points available, which saved me having to rely on my power bank.

    I had been automatically allocated an aisle seat, which is my preferred choice anyway, so that was a bonus. Although the flight was nearly full, the two seats next to me weren’t filled, so I had a row to myself.

    Flying over the Tatras mountains.

    And arriving into Katowice airport. Without making any political comment on the whole Schengen Project, it is an amazing benefit for passengers. My passport was only checked by Wizzair staff at the gate and not by border agents at either country, saving the tedious process of queueing for ages for a passport check.

    I still prefer Wizzair to Ryanair, although they’re similar operations, but the Wizzair service feels just a little more relaxed. The cabin crew, who were all Polish, were helpful and efficient, although I  noticed they were sitting in the galley reading books for a portion of the flight. This is perhaps better than the Ryanair solution of having the cabin crew walking up and down to perform almost endless sweeps of the cabin selling food, drink, duty free, lottery tickets and so on.

    Overall, given the relatively cheap cost of the flight, this was another comfortable flight with Wizzair. Katowice is a little bit of a hub airport for Wizzair, as they serve over forty different locations from here, with a fair number of Italian and Spanish airports.

  • Flights – London Luton to Athens (Wizzair)

    My early morning flight to Athens from London Luton Airport which cost me the grand sum of around £8, which is less than the air passenger duty that Wizzair paid. It’s the first time that I’ve visited Greece and it’s hard to imagine getting a flight that would have been cheaper.

    The staff at the Wizzair desk were friendly and helpful, as long that is that you had a bag which was compliant with the airline’s rules. My bag is entirely compliant, but the airline staff were stopping customer after customer and charging them to place their bags into the hold. There were some rather displeased customers, but if airlines are going to have rules it seems sensible that they’re properly enforced, something that British Airlines doesn’t do very well.

    I didn’t pay for a seat reservation, so I was automatically allocated a seat and I was fortunate enough to get an aisle seat. It was the aisle seat at the very rear of the aircraft, an ideal location as far as I was concerned. The flight was nearly full, but there was no-one else on my row, so I had plenty of space.

    All was well with the flight and the pilot came across as warm and helpful, giving some updates during the course of the journey. He warned about heavy winds on the approach to Athens and it did get a little bumpy just before landing. Some customers applauded when we landed, something which I think should be made a criminal offence, but that’s just my view….

    The aircraft in Athens, attached to the jet bridge. I was pleased that I had a seat on the rear row as it meant that I would have been able to disembark first. However, for the first time in ages on my budget airline travels, there was a  jet bridge so customers could only depart from the front. Which meant that I was the last to disembark…. Fortunately, I wasn’t in any rush.

    The queue of passengers at the airport in Athens, although the immigration staff were efficient and I only had a fifteen minute wait. All in all, another comfortable flight from Wizzair with an exceptionally cheap fare. Wizzair have certainly become my favourite budget airline.

  • American Airlines (Las Vegas to Chicago)

    This flight was on 18 January 2017 and I flew with American Airlines from Las Vegas McCarran to Chicago O’Hare. I was randomly allocated a window seat, seat 23F and the above photo is of the aircraft when we had arrived into Chicago.

    Goodbye to Las Vegas…..

    As far as flights go, the view on this one was far better than I had expected because clouds weren’t in the way. Although there was some cloud cover towards the end of the flight, I was able to look out onto the varied terrain of the United States for most of the journey.

    There’s a free snack and drink, and I can rarely resist Dr. Pepper when in the United States…. Not sure why American Airlines selected such a European snack though.

    There was in-flight entertainment, which for some reason I hadn’t expected on this flight.

    Flying into Chicago and over Lake Michigan.

    This was a much better flight than I had expected and it was my first internal journey with American Airlines, as I’d only flown with them long-haul. Service was efficienct and polite, with the cabin being clean and comfortable. The views were also a highlight I hadn’t anticipated and the in-flight entertainment was another welcome distraction.

    The flight cost £65 which I didn’t think was too bad, although I’ve since realised that I can get better value by using my Avios balance. Using American Airlines also gives me the advantage of my Oneworld card, so I may as well as remain loyal to that scheme.

  • British Airways (Turin to Gatwick South)

    I was at first slightly confused when the BA app told me that my flight would be 21 minutes late departing and 92 minutes late arriving into Gatwick South. It transpired when we boarded that this information was correct, the inbound flight had been delayed by bad weather at Gatwick and we had now missed our slot in Turin. Fortunately the delay wasn’t quite that bad in the end and the pilots were good at keeping customers informed.

    The Club Europe cabin stretched back six rows, although there were only five customers in those seats. The main cabin was relatively busy, but by no means packed. I went for my usual afternoon drink of Gin and Tonic.

    I was a little disappointed by the food, not because of what I was served, but because I saw what other customers thought of it. I thought that the salmon on quinoa was excellent, with a depth of taste, fresh flavours and it was nicely presented.

    However, one customer rejected it and wanted a sandwich and another asked where the toasties had gone. Toasties? This isn’t what I’d personally want on a flight, it’s stodgy and uninventive in my view and I’m glad BA got rid of it last year.

    The service was polite and efficient, although the cabin manager did get caught talking to a customer for quite a while and even I could sense other customers wanting another drink.

    The flight made up a little bit of time en route, so what looked like it could be a delay of a couple of hours got halved. All in all I thought this was another well managed flight. Unfortunately, after a run of Club Europe flights, I’m back in economy for my next few excursions with BA so I will no longer be able to praise the improved Club Europe catering arrangements.

  • Flights – Malta to London Gatwick South (British Airways) (Third Time)

    This is the return flight on my third, and likely final, visit to Malta in 2019. The flight was full today so the usual A320 was used and the boarding was organised, if not particularly rushed. The Club Europe cabin cabin stretched back eight rows and the Euro Traveller cabin also looked nearly full, so a busy flight.

    No menu card photo on this journey as the crew couldn’t find them. The meal options were though salmon salad, butter chicken with rice & mini naan and some sort of risotto. Nearly everyone in the first few rows went for the chicken and I couldn’t hear if they ran out by the time that they got to the eighth row.

    BA do curries well, and this was no exception, a decent amount of chicken and it was tender and moist. The naan was soft and I liked the mini side salad. The dessert of some kind of strawberry cheesecake was also excellent, and the cheese selection had a really good cheddar as usual. One of the better meals that I’ve had on BA in the Club Europe cabin.

    The crew were friendly, efficient and warm, although there was perhaps a lot more potential for engagement. The problem is that I tend to set the best crews as my benchmark, so sometimes other perfectly competent crews don’t seem quite as good in comparison. However, it was easy to get a second gin and tonic, which is my current drink of the month, and sparkling waters.

    I took similar photos a couple of weeks ago since the aircraft inevitably took the same route, so here’s another of Valletta, the capital of Malta.

    Lots of mountains on the way back, these big hills are the Alps.

    The flight arrived around on time and Gatwick impressed me again, as I was able to leave the airport within six minutes of the aircraft doors opening. This has been happening on a continual basis recently, I’m becoming very impressed at Gatwick.

    Overall, all rather lovely again.

  • Flights – British Airways (Luxembourg to Heathrow T3)

    A morning flight back to Heathrow T3 from the beautiful country of Luxembourg.

    A relatively light load across the cabin, which meant sufficient space in the overhead lockers. I had a row to myself, the same as on the way out.

    As for the crew, they were exceptional. The crew member who managed the cabin had a service style which made me wonder if he was a crew trainer, he was faultless. He introduced himself to everyone and he remembered the names of all of the customers, that alone is a very impressive service standard which is rarely ever attained by the crew. For the first time in a long while, I’ve contacted BA to tell them just how good he was.

    There was a choice between warm quiche or the above, which is smoked salmon with cottage cheese. Served with a roll, which appeared after I took the photo, and fruit and dessert. The salmon was sapid and flavoursome, the cottage cheese was unexceptional and the cucumber was, well, cucumber. BA seem to have thing about capers, and I’m certainly not one to complain as they add taste and texture. Overall, it was a perfectly acceptable brunch, as the airline calls it.

    Note my initial choice of drink, which was sparkling water, was served alongside with a champagne I hadn’t even thought of having until the crew member so politely mentioned that it went well with the salmon. As did the glasses of it he followed up with during the flight.

    The flight departed about five minutes early and landed around ten minutes early, not that I was in any particular rush. Heathrow T3 was well staffed, so I was able to leave the airport within twenty minutes of having landed. I’m sure that BA is on an upwards trajectory again after some years of complacency….