Got to BCN airport and found the BA check-in. There appears to be no normal 'counter service' provided. Just self check-in and bag drop.
There weren't enough of either. There was a huddle around the check-in terminals with no orderly queueing system in place, and obviously progress was slow because there were people clearly not used to using the terminals. I got barged by some businessman type person who basically knocked his suitcase onto my colleague's leg so he could barge in front to the check-in machine I was waiting for.
A female 'hired thug' guarded the queue to the Business Class bag drop, opening the elastic barriers to let a colleague and I pass through to the counter, which was a single staff member behind a five or six person queue. When I got to the front of the queue, the Iberia person working the desk seemed a sandwich short of a picnic, pre-occupied with a phonecall, rather than serving customers. Didn't get priority labels put on the bag, and didn't get offered a lounge invite or told where the lounge was. 'After security' was the answer, when I asked!
So far, not impressed. Even less impressed by the organisation of security at BCN. There wasn't a long queue or delay, it's just that whoever organised the layout seemed to have forgotten that we're only (usually) blessed with the one pair of hands. There is no conveyor between the tables where the trays are and the x-ray machine themselves, so you have to pick up your trays with your laptop out of it's bag and your evidently dangerous toothpaste and lipbalm, and your bags and shoes (which you have to take off) and somehow juggle this lot over to the x-ray belt itself. Likewise when you come out the other end of the machine. Wow, I felt so much safer after that pathetic display.
So, to try and find the lounge. I'd hoped it would be somewhere near the gate itself. How wrong I was. It was the Iberia lounge, near the Iberia gates, at the opposite end of the terminal, but that was only worked out after a lot of wandering around. Thank you so much BA for being in partnership with the pathetically useless Iberia. Thanks BCN airport authorities for providing virtually no signage at all. Hardly worth going anyway, as the Iberia lounge at BCN is pretty crap, very tired looking. UA domestic RCCs are a step up from the IB lounge at BCN.
Flight was called about 20 minutes before departure time, so we ambled down to the other end of the airport, back to gate fourty-something, to find our 737 G-DOCF sat there and boarding hadn't even started yet... but we decided to move quickly once it did, so we could get sat down, rather than stuck in a boarding scrum.
We had a rather full flight, because some of the Gatwick flights over the past few days have been cancelled, apparently due to shortage of 737 type-rated flight-deck crew at LGW, so we'd manage to leave the scrum behind us.
A BA crew member in a sweater (who turned out to be the Purser) met us at the bottom of the jetway, and check-in boarding cards welcomed us aboard, but no namechecking.
We pushed back a few minutes late and had a long (15 minute) taxi out past the new terminal being built at Barcelona, which is south of the existing terminal complex and the original runways, to reach the new east-west runway, 25L, before taking off into the clear sky (well, apart from the pollution layer!) over Barcelona.
The Purser quicky started the cabin service and skipping hot towels and drinks, and got straight into the main meal - so rather like Gingerflyer's experience on LIS-LHR.
However, the food offered was quite good, there were two choices, hot being roasted salmon with pasta, cold being chicken caesar salad. These were served with hot breads, cheese and grapes, and Lily OBrien's chocolates. Each pair of people in a row were served individually from the galley, trays first, then drinks offered, before he proceeded to serve the next row.
Once all meals were served, topups of drinks were offered from the front, followed by tea and coffee. Sadly, we're now on Pommery champagne in Club Europe. Used to be Yellow Label or Piper at one point, didn't it?
Despite the service seeming a bit rushed, the Purser was otherwise very attentive and made several trips through the cabin.
I had the salmon, and it was a bit plain, but it was nice to have a warm meal. My colleague went for the salad, and he said that it was simple but enjoyable, with the food on the return flight to Gatwick (supplied by Alpha Flight Services) being better than his outbound from Heathrow (which is Gategourmet), and that reflects what others tell me - that the Gatwick operation generally has better food.
Apparently, his outbound from LHR was just a plate (rather than a plastic bag) of otherwise nasty sandwiches, but he did get a warm scone and jam on that occasion.
Before we could cross the Pyrenees, we were over the top of a heavy overcast layer, which didn't clear at all, so no sight of the surface again until Gatwick, which was reached by dropping through several overcast layers of varying thickness. There was no significant delay getting into Gatwick, so we had made up some of the time lost getting out of BCN, as we popped out of the murk and gloom below 1000ft, and with a lot of adjustment due to the building blustery winds, made a positive touchdown on 26L, rolling out quite a long way, I'm guessing because the Captain didn't want to use heavy braking on the wet runway, instead opting for more reverse thrust than usual.
Sadly we got one of the gates directly attached to the main terminal at LGW, so I didn't get a go across the bridge.
This was the first time I've flown through the North Terminal at Gatwick, and I was mostly impressed, as it wasn't fantastically busy like Heathrow. It seemed a very clean and spacious alternative to both Heathrow and LGW's low-cost and charter-ridden South Terminal.
However, the wait for luggage was very long, probably about half an hour, and even then, my bag didn't come out. I was dealt with very promptly by a very professional BA agent at the baggage desk, who said that the bag should be here, so he'd open a missing bag case. He asked what the agent at BCN was like, and I said 'seemed a bit dosey'. He nodded and said that problems with bags from the Iberia-run BA stations isn't that unusual (great!).
He said that it's most likely in three places:
1) Still in Barcelona.
2) At Gatwick, but fallen off the trolley and is sat somewhere in an airside road.
3) Been erroneously loaded on the LHR flight.
Just after he'd given me the lost bag report to take, another baggage agent came walking over with two *very* wet bags. One of which was mine!
It had, however, been opened - there's a plastic lined 'wet pocket' on the front of the bag, and this was open, when I was fairly certain I'd closed it when leaving the hotel in BCN. The agent I'd been dealing with came over and suggested that I check the main part of the bag there and then, but also gave me his business card so that I could get in touch should anything turn out to be missing. From a quick check, it wasn't evident anything was missing from the main part of the bag, so I headed off.
Again, this BA agent stressed that it would still be possible to make a claim if there was anything missing or I later discovered damage to the bag, and he apologised for the delay, suggesting that given it was very wet, it had fallen off in the road at Gatwick.
When I got home, it looks like I'm missing a couple of pairs of socks and a pair of used boxer shorts! I'm really hoping that they have fallen out of the bag, rather than been taken away by a baggage handling perv with a fetish for used laundry!
Verdict:
Check-in: Unacceptable.
Lounge: Crap. Needn't have bothered going looking for it.
Cabin Crew: Average to good. Didn't get greeted by name, and on boarding, it wasn't obvious the 'guy in the sweater' was in charge of the cabin, but otherwise, service was okay.
Seat: Okay. The interior of this 737 looked rather old and tired.
Food: Good. Nice surprise to be offered the choice of a warm meal. Nice cheeses, and yummy chocolates.
Priority Baggage: Hahahaha. But, the professionalism and helpfulness of the BA baggage staff at Gatwick was impressive.
Mike
