For the flights, there are a few recent BA trips commented on so I'll try to be short. The no. 1 used some old fashioned air miles for the flight so we were in economy. Out on an Airbus 320 and back on a Europe-configured 767. Some tips - BA configure the front rows with flexibility to convert between Club and Economy, so on the Airbus I think rows 1-9 and on the 767 the same. This means these rows have 34' pitch rather than 31' and on the 767 the A-B and G-H pairs are wider when they are used as economy seats - worth remembering because I often think BA Club Europe is really not worth the extra ...
This was, unbelievably my first time at T5. Unlike many others I was totally underwhelmed. OK first mistake was to check in in the A zone when with my EC Ag I could have used another area, which meant queues and an awful security experience. BAA muppets with no CSEs directing passengers through tensa barrier mazes meaning we ended up queuing for near 30 minutes ... and what are those scanning machines with everything in a basket and so slow to boot (and don't get me started on all the people who reach the scanner with belt on, coat on, etc. then express surprise that they may have to remove something!).
The terminal is vast, not really that bad but I strongly prefer the concept as at HKG or Madrid to the very large box layout. At least the flight was on time and not having time to do anything else we headed for the gate, sat in 7 B and C and the plane was full and doors closed 5 minutes before scheduled time. Then we sat for 19 minutes with nothing happening and magically pulled off the stand 14 minutes after scheduled time - a ha, BA can claim an on time departure then, except we then moved 200 metres and sat for another 40 minutes. Twerps methinks, we're not all that dumb. Not impressed with the BA ground operations experience here and virtually no cockpit communication.
But at least we had a good view of taking off planes including a Singapore A380.
Flight time out was 2hrs 20mins and it's all very efficient if not overdoing with the charm and humour. An economy lunch of stale cheese sandwiches is doled out as quickly as possible to leave maximum time for the duty free. There's a good flight map on the overhead monitors and with no delay we arrived into ARN terminal 2. A strange little airport but quite efficient and we're out and into a car.
On the return, a much better crew, a 767 almost entirely configured in economy layout apart from the very front two rows and full too. Having been cleared out of funds by Swedish alcohol prices we leapt on the offer of BA quarter sized red wine bottles (not bad Cotes de Rhone and a few more followed), had the same sandwich and breakway bar box (fresher this time) and spent the 2hrs and 15mins reading Hello and Business Traveller lightly lifted from the lounge [:I].
Landed into the very farthest gate in the B complex at T5 - the whole place was very quiet but we marched, and marched, made our way up seemingly dozens of escalators and eventually to the baggage hall. You feel like you are walking forever but not actually getting anywhere in this complex, including from the baggage hall to the outside, given its compact plant the architects decided to make every corridor bend and turn back on itself and take far to long, when in reality you probably only 'travel' a short distance. Actually I hated it! But we got out, our driver awaited and with no traffic we're back home to get the champagne out of the fridge and enjoy a quiet New Year!
BA is not so bad, OK the 767s are old and tired but I generally like the crews and the service - sometimes they work very hard on short flights. The Mannions Singapore trip has wetted my appetite for another long haul CW trip, so I may forego a coming VS plan to compare anew!
There's a plane at JFK, to fly you back from far away
all those dark and frantic transatlantic miles
all those dark and frantic transatlantic miles
