BA2902 LGW-MAN 28 AUG 12 (DOMESTIC)

this flight was booked to give my executive club a little boost in miles and so as i could visit Concorde at manchester airport (as I have wanted to do this for years!)

as this flight was departing LGW at 06:40 i checked in online from home the day before and managed to get SEQ1 but could not check in for my return flight to LHR as this flight was originally BD582 (more on that in the return report)

I stayed in the Travelodge (gatwick Central) just north of the airport and after looking at the price of the hotel hopper bus decided looking at google maps that the hotel was possibly within walking distance of the north terminal.
after a 20 min walk i was checking in to the hotel £4 bus fare saved

after waking up at 04:30 i went to the bus stop on the road outside the hotel and caught the fast-way 100 bus to LGW and proceeded to security with my boarding pass on my iPhone to find a huge queue stretching out towards the check in desks.
despite the massive line this was moving fairly quickly and would have been quicker had there not been people behind pushing through after realising that their easy jet flight leaves in 10 minutes. (from the amount of announcements in the terminal this was not uncommon)
security staff were all friendly and saw to everyone quickly and efficiently.
the lady and son in front of me in the queue held things up again as they had 4 plastic bags of fluids each and therefore were told that they would have to dispose of at least 2 bags. (the lady was not happy as this was all of her makeup)

still security was fairly easy and i even asked if they were like LHR and wanted my iPad out of my bag but they said no (so there is even a difference around the M25 in policy)
I was through in to the terminal in time to sit in costa coffee with a drink before going to the gate to board the flight.
LGW is a bit nicer than i remember the north terminal the last time i flew from LGW north was in 2005 and since then there is a better selection of shops and a slightly better layout. I was quite surprised that security did not lead directly in to world duty free it lead to a point directly opposite so i didn't have to walk through the usual hard sell area.
the gate was displayed on time at 06:00 and boarding started from gate 15E at 06:20 on to G-EUPV an Airbus A319
I had selected seat 22F at checkin as i like the back row on domestic flights as you rarely have anyone next to you.
There were 4 cabin crew and 1 flight service director on this quite full flight although 3 were sat in the rear galley for the entire flight from boarding to disembarking only the 2 at the front did any work. (1 did venture out for the safety demo to point at the over wing exit but that was it).
as only 2 crew were serving 'breakfast' by the time i got my bacon and scrambled egg panini we were well in to the descent in to Manchester and i had only just finished eating as the crew were completing the cabin secure for landing.

landing in to manchester was smooth and we were soon at the gate.

all in all this was a reasonable domestic flight although would have been better if more of the crew actually worked rather than completing the crossword in the daily mail sat in the rear galley.