I fly pretty regularly for work as well as pleasure and can some weeks rack up a short haul flight a day as well as other long hauls to visit our US HQ or other EMEA sites.
Anyway, to the flight in question. I had been supposed to fly out on the Monday however was not well enough to travel having picked up a lurgy the week before in Istanbul. I'd even got up the Monday morning and was within one hour of leaving the house for LHR before deciding to call it quits on this trip as did not want to be like the guy across the aisle from me the week before to IST who was actually sick.
Took me a lot of will power to not join in on that one.£1250 odd pounds later I was transferred to fly out on the Tuesday. (oh yeh, my company book fares that are not transferrable or refundable)
Having finally made it into TLV after additional questioning, the Dubai stamp in my passport which were no issue last time I entered and the Ben Gurion one is beside it were questioned this time round.
Work meetings done and dusted I return to Ben Gurion only for my poor work colleague to get more questioning than I did. Through security after having to remove make up brushes for additional scanning then off to the gate. All in all around 25 minutes to get through security which is good given it can take three hours and I've had work colleagues have laptops, iPads etc confiscated and the dreaded strip search.
Unlike last time when I flew out Club World and got upgraded to First I'm flying Economy so no lounge access.
The only good thing about Blackberry proves it worth again as Blackberry Travel is showing a delay of 30 minutes although as per usual nothing is showing in the airport, at the gate or on the BA app. Crew arrive at the gate and all are still stood there past the shown boarding time.
Eventually boarding commences and the normal gate scrum occurs that I see regularly on the short haul european flights. Asides the fact most passengers seems to try and get away with more than the allowed 23k hand luggage I'm really not sure why this happens.
Greeted with an afternoon from the crew and boarding pass checked, vast difference to last weeks flight to IST where I was welcomed back on board by name!
All finally seated and announcements made that as it a full flight only one piece of luggage should go overhead and the other if small enough under the seat infront. Strange as like the outbound flight a load check had showed the flight as half empty/full. Outbound they even at the gate asked passengers to check wheeled carry ons.
TLV has recently changed to using a two cabin BMI plane from the previous three cabin BA option. I've never experienced the BMi Club World Equivalent and didnt get to this time due to the rebooked ticket. The seats look a little like the old VA UC where you sleep on the floor.
What I can say is the econ seats are the most uncomfortable I've had the displeasure to sit in. Perhaps I need more padding on my backside but I found them really uncomfortable not least of which a sharp piece of metal on the end of the seat belt ruined the cardigan I was wearing.
The flight was not full at all and there were plenty of spare seats or in fact rows available and before take off another passenger had asked if they could move to a free seat further back. They were given the ok for this but told the last two rows were blocked off.
If you have ever flown this route you will know its one of the ones with the most special meal orders ever. If i'm flying PE or EC I order a low fat meal as its proven over time to be a wise move particularly as the starter and desert are more to my taste and you get it first if it has been loaded... I've had it happen on both BA and VA that its missing. So meal over and done with and once again very tasty and edible I go to the rear to use the toilets. The last two rows are filled with crew resting/sleeping - ah so thats why they wanted them blocked off although on a less than five hour flight I'm not sure why they need to rest after a few hours work, and the galley has two crew members reading their books. Unlike the outbound flight there was no further drinks service (juice/water) and they had not laid out drinks in the galley for you to pick up if you wanted to go up there. I asked for a juice and it was a huge pallaver for them to get everything out to produce one glass of juice. (this is still with three hours flight time)
The good thing with the BMI planes (or not) is the AVOD touch screens which you can use with the supplied headphones during taxi, take off and landing as well as in flight. Its a shame though that the touch screen does not come with instructions that it is a touch screen and not a thump screen. After thirty minutes I had to ask the passenger behind me to kindly please press the screen lighter whilst playing a game as it was really , really pissing me off!
All in all not a great BA experience particularly when compared with a similar flight time the previous week to IST. So, consistency is an issue with others too. Unfortunately for some of the routes I fly I don't get too many options but count down is on to using my G with VA in March
Oh, and I have submitted an email to BA so will see how/when they respond. My last comment to VA got a response from the executive office and was appreciated its comments and response given I had only informed them that the lounge they use at HAV would not let UC passengers take in a guest.
