• Flying from Glasgow to Orlando via LGW for a change
A few weeks after booking the flights, I got the following email from British Airways:
“We regret to inform you that flight BA2039 on 3 July has been cancelled. We have tried to find the best alternative service and have re-booked you accordingly.”
The “best alternative service” was the same flight, BA2039 at 1350 on the previous day, 2 July. This was rather inconvenient for me, I had to change bookings for my return flights (which they didn’t do automatically), villa, car hire, travel insurance, airport lounge, works holidays, but I got there in the end.
A few months later, I was checking prices (always a mistake) when I noticed that my cancelled flight, the 1350 is still there. Indeed what BA had done is “cancelled” BA2039 and moved BA2037 from 1145 to 1350, and bumped me off the flight. This irritated me. I complained but got no explanation other than “operational reasons, reserve the right” etc etc.
We had already checked-in at Glasgow as it was a through ticket, and we’d actually managed to check-in for this flight 26 hours in advance due to the connection. We also hadn’t pre-booked our seats, initially they wanted £177 for the pleasure and then I couldn’t as it’s a small PE cabin (3 rows of 8) and with the front row blocked off there weren’t enough seats for my party. However BA website clearly states that “for families travelling with children… seats would be pre-allocated 5 days before departure.” Well 2 days before departure they still hadn’t been allocated so we gave them a phone only for them to say they’re allocated 2 days before departure.
Then the online system would allow us to select some of the now accessible bulkhead seats but not 5 together as we didn’t have an infant. They wanted us to sit 3 rows apart on different aisles, which was completely unacceptable. It was a mess so we waited until online check-in opened and then it let us select the bulkhead seats without any issues! Result! 
So anyway, we had arrived at Gatwick North Terminal off a BA Glasgow flight, missed the turning for transfers, ended out in the main terminal and had to go back through security which wasted another 10 minutes. We had 2.5 hours to kill and I didn’t like the thought of constantly watching the 2 year old in case he escaped so I had pre-booked us into the No.1 Lounge. It was a couple of pounds more than the Aspire lounge but had been recommended by you nice folk on V-Flyer. Was happy with what I found, the views over the runway weren’t as good as I hoped but the wee man liked the taxiway and climbed up behind the curtains. Amazing how many airports are cramming in so much retail space obscuring runway views, kids just want to watch planes! My lot are plane spotters anyway but the constant movements of LGW and the larger planes kept them happy, lots of different liveries to our usual spotting and always something to see.
The older two were happy on the Playstation (£10 deposit at the front desk), unfortunately the unnecessary firewall on the iMacs prevented the wee man playing on CBeebies or YouTube but iPad and free wifi made up for that. Mrs Fuzzy isn’t the beauty and pampering sort so I was unable to persuade her to get away. I nipped off to duty free to pick up some single malt and run an errand for V-Flyer chumba.
We helped ourselves to the food and drink, I ordered a couple of chicken Caesar pittas and a cottage pie and everybody had something. Maybe I was expecting more but thought we’d be fed a little better, I’d probably go a la carte next time. Wife happy with wine and they had Peroni on tap!
I think I’d book it again if I had a reasonable stopover at LGW.The time passed relatively quickly (it wasn’t particularly relaxing for me) and soon it was time to board our plane. It was a 5 minute walk to the gate where we found most of the flight already boarded, that’s when we got the first sign of trouble. An apology letter from BA and handed new boarding cards. Our plane had gone tech but they’d managed to get a replacement. Problem was the route is normally served by a 3-class 777-300 (40J/24W/219Y) the replacement was a 4-class 777-200 (14F/38J/40W/122Y), which if you do the maths has 69 less seats but at least we had a seat. Some were flying the next day. There were always going to be winners and losers out of this, a few of CW were upgraded to First, most of PE ended up in CW, lots of EC ended up in PE, we remained in PE but had lost our bulkhead seats ended up on row 22. As it turns out, the people in front who gained ‘our’ bulkhead seats were upgrades from economy and had older children, I could see no reason why we lost our seats.
We boarded, no pre-flight drinks
, plane sat around for a while then taxied to the end of the runway and sat around for a while more (thankfully we could use the IFE). Finally took off an hour late on runway 08R, by then it had been a long day and I’d had enough, starting to regret the connecting flight. Think of the money you saved…The people in front, the ones who pinched our bulkhead seats, were full recline w****rs, you know the type. Two had their seats back during the taxi and then they all had them all the way back permanently for the full flight, meals and all. There was no need for it especially given the extra space they had. Feet up on the bulkheads too.
The plane was tatty, it really needed a refurb. All our tray tables were broke and wouldn’t properly support a meal or drink (and I had two meals on my lap due to the wee man). The IFE didn’t have a USB port to power iPhones or iPads, instead it had Empower ports. The IFE was a tiny screen, Virgin economy is larger. I am a rather tall 6ft 2in so the 38” seat pitch (compared to 31” in economy) was ok despite the full recline w****rs. The seats are slightly wider than economy but to be honest I didn’t notice it. If anything the lack of a movable arm-rest was annoying as we couldn’t let the wee one spread out for a sleep. It just wasn’t as advertised on the BA website. It really didn’t feel premium anything.
We occupied seats EFGHJ, the older two were moved to the window seat and they were quite happy watching Lego movie, Frozen was advertised on the BA website but wasn’t on the IFE, in fact a lot of the content seemed out of date. They also picked up their iPads as well, accustomed long haul travellers!
I had the little one inboard in the middle row but he was pretty restless and kept trying to get out of his seat, he wasn’t really interested in watching a film but managed to get CBeebies and Baby Jake on to give me and fellow passengers peace. He couldn’t understand why his favourite thing, watching Thomas the Tank engine on YouTube, wouldn’t work on a plane. And yes, a 2-year old let loose on YouTube does terrify me. I barely had a chance to watch anything, 15 minutes of Python that was it, books newspapers went unread.
Meals… it was promised that “flying from London… your main course will come from our business class cabin”. I was looking forward to sampling some Club World food.
We had pre-ordered the kids meals not that they are particularly fussy but mainly to give us more options and swap about until everybody is happy. The wrong menus were handed out, they promised an evening meal and breakfast and the meal bore no relation to the food offered, lack of attention BA!
The meal ended up being braised beef which was very good and quite tasty, cooked well. Mrs Fuzzy had a Thai Curry. While it was good if I was in CW I’m not sure I’d be happy with it. The kids, which had been fed constantly up to that point, barely touched their chicken nuggets which looked pretty unapetising. Kids meals were handed out first which is good. Before landing sandwiches were handed out. Drinks service was fine, I only had to go back twice for refills, and they sorted us out with a bottle of milk for the wee man too after we forgot to refill in the lounge.
In previous trip reports my usual gripe was about Virgin not providing child friendly soft drinks (Fruit Shoots, Ribena) and it would seem BA are the same. Fruit Shoots actually appeared with the meals, but when more were requested we were told they were supplied with the meals by the catering company and BA didn’t have them in the drinks trolleys. Like Virgin, BA also provide kids activity bags consisting of a colouring book and pencils (no hat).
I tried to pre-book duty free a few days previously the website didn’t allow it, I phoned to be told that they didn’t offer the pre-book on that flight (but they did on the 11am flight to Orlando. Odd.) So instead of chancing the plane, I’d bought some models from Amazon, two A380s and a 787 which kept the boys happy.
Throughout the flight I would describe the cabin crew as ‘functional’. They weren’t particularly chatty or smiley. On Virgin I’ve felt they’ve went above and beyond the call a few times with talking to the kids. While there was nothing wrong with the BA service, it felt like they were going through the motions.
A very long 9 hours after take off we landed late at Orlando International. We are usually on the earlier Glasgow flight but it was now 7pm and two Virgin jumbos and a Lufthansa had beat us in.
It seemed the new self-service kiosks barely made any impact on the queue and besides we couldn’t use them with the kids. Cases were delivered quick enough, the pram lost its protective cover and a reasonable queue through customs. Off to the monorail, we use the suitcase transfer service, and straight to the car park as the hire car was booked Alamo via Virgin Holidays so we used the online check-in. Car loaded and on our way by 9pm local (2am UK ![][|)](./images/smilies/icon_smile_sleepy.gif "Sleepy"){kind=icon}
) it had taken us 2 hours to get out of the airport. Far too long a day and my worst experience of travelling yet. Complaint(s) will be going to BA.So to compare this flight (BA PE) with my usual VS EC direct flight
Food 4* adult meals were pretty good, kids meals had no thought put into them
IFE 3* Smaller screens, outdated content, broken handsets, limited choice
Seats 2* Worn, tatty, they were wider and more leg room but left me wondering was it worth it
Crew 4* Ground crew were good, cabin crew functional but were worked hard due to full flight
