We were going up to Scotland for a quick weekend break, to do a bit of house-sitting. Did on line check in the day before - no problems and noticed it was a Boeing 757 and it was relatively quiet. Made it out to LHR on the tube - so much cheaper than the HEX. Picked up boarding cards and then headed through security. No queues which I thought was amazing. And now lap tops stay in bags. Not a great fan of the Gate 5 area, so headed down to the BMI gates which was really quiet. Went back down to Gate 5 just before boarding time and sat there. And then 10 mins after 'boarding should have closes', it came up as a 25 minute delay. Then 25 mins later, we got to head off to Gate 74. And then there was more delays at the new gate. Finally boarding started - not by seat row, so was a bit of scrum getting through the gate and also on the plane. Anyway aisle seat was free, so moved and had a spare middle seat. The plane seemed a lot more 'roomy' than other ones on the domestic route. More delays on the ground before we finally took off about 70 minutes late!
Flight was only 50 minutes, but obviously they managed the dinner service (bread roll, cold salad of salmon and potatoes, orange cheese cake) and tea/coffee and drinks round. Still impressed that they do that whereas the main competitors on the route (BMI) don't.
Ended up circling over GLA for about 10 minutes, since they were de-icing the runway and taxi-ways, as there was freezing fog. Off the plane relatively quickly and then the benefit of no checked bags and the increased luggage allowance meant we were rapidly off to the car hire desk and out of the airport!
Good things about this flight:
1. Free food / drinks service
2. Increased hand luggage allowance for all passengers
