Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Tag: Heathrow T5

  • Heathrow T5 – British Airways B Gates Lounge

    I’ve written about this lounge before in more detail here, but there have been a few new food developments….

    I haven’t seen this before, and although I’m not sure garlic is an ideal ingredient before customers board an aircraft, I very much like black pepper chicken.

    It was absolutely delicious, the chicken was tender and there was a peppery taste to the sauce.

    I’ve seen this before, but only recently, which is the carrot cake. Very nice…. Moist and flavourful….

    But, my favourite addition to the lounge food are the pork pies with piccalilli. I don’t like pork pies with lots of jelly, so these meet my requirements in terms of their overall taste and their lack of jelly.

  • 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 These A319 aircraft are gradually being withdrawn from service, but they’ve served the airline well.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).

  • 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.

  • Heathrow T5

    I hadn’t realised that BA has introduced this into Heathrow T5, what could also perhaps be known as a job replacement programme. There were rows of manned check-in desks here once (well, last year), now just self-service kiosks for bag drop. Such is progress I suppose….

  • Heathrow T5 at Night

    I haven’t been at Heathrow T5 at night for some time and I had forgotten just how impressive a building it is. It has been open for twelve years now, but it still has a modern feel to it and it’s one of the more impressive structures when looked at from the side.

    Inside the terminal. I think that passengers are discouraged from staying in the terminal at night, instead it’s better to be at terminals 2 and 3 which have a more conducive environment for resting. T5 is big, empty and also quite cold….

    Looking down from the departures floor all the way down to arrivals, a reminder of just how big the building is.

  • Heathrow T5 – British Airways B Gates Lounge

    I’ve realised that despite visiting the B Gates Lounge at Heathrow T5 that I’ve never managed to take any photos of the interior of it. With the exception of the food, which I appear to have taken multiple photos of on numerous occasions. Strange that.

    Anyway, this is my favourite BA lounge at Terminal 5 out of the three which I can access. There’s also the First Class lounge for those with gold cards and the Concorde Room for those flying first class, names which don’t quite make sense but are logical for reasons I’ll go into on another occasion.

    B Gates Lounge is the quietest of the BA lounges as it’s generally used only by passengers flying from B or C Gates and they usually are only there for a short period of time. There’s a legacy reason for this, as a few years ago there was no way to get back from B or C Gates (or no easy way) and so it would be ridiculous to go there before the gate numbers were announced. However, there are now public tunnels to B Gates, so passengers can walk there at any time, and more importantly, they can walk back.

    So, that’s what I do, I usually stay at the main galleries lounge at A Gates (which is the main terminal) for a short while and then wander over to B Gates. Sometimes I get fortunate if my flight subsequently departs from B Gates, but usually it doesn’t so I have to walk back.

    This is the breakfast selection, which is bacon rolls, beans, hash browns and pastries.

    The salad selection.

    Some kind of fruit stuff.

    From lunch-time onwards the sandwiches are also brought out. The coronation chicken is in my view the best sandwich offered.

    These photos are from two different visits and they show the main food selection which is available from lunch-time into the afternoon period. I like these selections, usually there’s a curry, chilli or casserole option and there’s rice or pasta to go with those. The food has a decent flavour to it and the meat, which is usually chicken, is tender and flavoursome.

    There’s a full drinks selection available at the lounge, including wine, champagne, soft drinks and there’s also a coffee machine. Take care if using the coffee machine as I managed to smash one of the plates which were meant to be unbreakable. It was stuck to the base of the milk jug when I picked it up, although the bloody thing managed to unstick itself as soon as it got into the air.

    There’s a story about that actually. I went to reception and mentioned in a casual manner that there was now a plate smashed across most of the floor. The staff member told me that I shouldn’t worry (although being honest I wasn’t particularly worried) and that he’d come and have a look. He did do exactly that, he went to have a look and then returned back to his desk as he couldn’t find anyone to clean it up. He wasn’t being lazy, he was the only staff member at the reception desk, and they do need someone there.

    The situation for the next fifteen minutes was that I was sitting there with my rather lovely coffee, surveying how far this plate had smashed across the floor. Customers carefully walked by the random shards and I pretended not to know anything about it. Then, eventually, a member of the cleaning staff comes along and does a double take at why there is a smashed plate across a tennis court size space of floor. Out come numerous warning signs, some tutting from the member of cleaning staff and then lots of furtive action at cleaning it up.

    I don’t know why I got distracted there recounting that story. I did incidentally mention I could clean it up, but the staff member at reception seemed adamant that neither I, nor indeed he, would need to do that. For anyone interested, my coffee was lovely.

    Anyway, I got distracted there. The lounge is spacious and there are plenty of different types of table and seating depending on what the passenger wants. I like the high chairs and tables as I can use my laptop. By high chairs, I don’t means the ones that toddlers use, just that the chairs are high. Unfortunately these are mostly near the kids area of the lounge, but it’s rare that there are any bloody screaming children, so that’s fine. By bloody I’m just randomly swearing, the children don’t have blood on them.

    The newspaper selection is reasonable and BA also have the system where you can download magazines and newspapers for free in the lounge. Most of the television screens are on silent, but there are instructions on how you can download an app which lets you listen to them via headphones. I like this, the less noise in an airport lounge the better, and televisions blaring out aren’t conducive to quiet and calm.

    There’s also a spa area of the lounge, although I’ve never engaged with that. There are also showers available at this lounge and the queue for these is usually minimal, so there isn’t the wait that there might be in other lounges.

    So, that was my quick explanation of why I like the B-Gates lounge. Spacious, quiet, clean and comfortable. Fortunately not many people will actually read this random splurge of text, otherwise they’d all go to B-Gates lounge and then I wouldn’t like it as much.

  • British Airways (Heathrow T5 to Baltimore)

    This post is more just to upload the photos than anything else, as I can’t remember much else about the flight now. I flew from London Heathrow T5 to Baltimore on an A380 in August 2015. Unfortunately, the photos aren’t very clear, but since they’re the only ones I’ve got of that flight, they’ll have to do.

    I was travelling in Club World and obviously I wasn’t paying since otherwise I’d have been in World Traveller.

    The aircraft at Heathrow T5.

    The Club World cabin during the boarding process.

    This happens too often….

    The starter and salad.

    Corn fed chicken, mashed potato and batons of carrot.

    Some sort of mousse.

    An ice cream from later on during the flight.

  • Flights – Hamburg to London Heathrow T5 (British Airways)

    The boarding process for the British Airways flight to Heathrow T5 was smooth and better managed than usual. Groups were called through so that Group 1 went through first, then Group 2, then Group 3 and then everyone else, sometimes it’s not quite that organised. There were also a lot of passengers with status, so perhaps that’s why they take particular care. The staff at the boarding gate were polite, efficient and visible, so first impressions were all positive.

    My first minor irritation is that this is an A321 neo, which meant that my emergency exit row seat had transformed into a normal row. Not that it much mattered as I had an aisle seat and there was no-one sitting next to me so I had plenty of space. This is aircraft registration G-NEOP and it only came into service in March 2019, so it still nearly new.

    I was in row 11 so I was seated in a seat which is the same as British Airways have been using in other aircraft, but these seats only go back as far as row 14. They went that far back in case the Club Europe cabin ever justifies such a number of passengers, and both plug and USB sockets have been put into these first fourteen rows. I had one under my seat and it was already damaged and knocked out of its holder, so I didn’t trust it to charge my devices on. It’s not perhaps ideal for an aircraft that is so new.

    For row 15 and behind that, British Airways have introduced a new ultra-thin seat which doesn’t recline. Nearly nobody I’ve heard likes this arrangement, although handily I do. I hate seat reclines and I like the ultra-thin seats as I sit in a near bolt upright manner anyway. These seats just have USB sockets, so where possible, it’s best to be seated in the front fourteen rows when on this aircraft.

    As for the aircraft, I think British Airways have gone too far with their tinkering about. They’ve taken out a washroom from the rear of the Euro Traveller cabin and this caused an evident problem on this flight as they had passengers going up and using the Club Europe toilet. One of the advantages for Club Europe is that it’s a quieter cabin, so I’m not sure what the customers will think up in those seats when there’s a queue of people standing by their seats and they themselves have to wait to use the washroom.

    And British Airways have decided to remove the drop down screens, so I can’t get to watch the moving map, or more importantly, the flight safety announcement by Chabuddy G. The crew safety demonstration on this flight wasn’t really ideal, the crew member was giggling and it wasn’t entirely audible. This meant that I didn’t see many passengers actually listening to the demonstration.

    Other than that the service was efficient and polite, but I can’t help thinking that the interior of the cabin is more Wizz Air than British Airways. That’s fine, but I don’t see British Airways have any choice but to keep on their downwards spiral of pricing if they’re determined to keep cutting corners.

    And here was a little problem at Heathrow T5, although it caused a delay of around fifteen minutes when disembarking. The air bridge to the aircraft broken down near to the front door and couldn’t be moved. This meant that steps had to be brought to the rear door and then buses used to transport passengers to the main terminal. Given that this wasn’t expected, the delay didn’t seem too excessive to me, although there were inevitably complaints.

    Given that this was a reward flight saver, the price was very reasonable and so I’m probably one of the reasons that British Airways keeps trying to save money by taking out any hint of luxury from their cabin. The pilots sounded professional, the cabin was relatively clean and so overall it was a comfortable and easy flight.