BA8729 GLA-LCY 22nd Nov 2009
Posted: 23 Nov 2009, 23:23Headed down to the lounge (benefits of now being BA Silver) and maneged to find the last table in there - very busy. Settled down with some very nice white Rioja. Plane from LCY arrived, so we thought not much longer till boarding. There was then an annoucement that there was a mechanical problem and the engineers were working on it, and more information would be available later. There was then an annoucement asking anyone travelling to LCY to come to the front desk - apparently the plane couldn't be fixed that quickly, and therefore a replacement was being flown up to GLA from LCY. We were offered the option of transferring to the LHR flight (running about 30 minutes and leaving at 19:00). There was also a LGW flight - we actually helped some people by suggesting that they might be better to take this one. We decided that as we live so close to LCY, that by the time we had waited for bags and got from either LHR or LGW, it wouldn't save much time on waiting for the LCY plane.
One-by-one the LHR (x2) and LGW flights left and only those waiting for the LCY flight (all six of us!). The staff in the lounge were great and kept us updated on the progress of the replacement plane and what was happening. We were offered a 5 voucher, but they pointed out that there was no food available unless we went back through security and into the main terminal (we had had lots of sandwiches and stuff in the lounge anyway). New plane arrived at 20:00, and we were finally boarding just about 20:30. In the interim, watched the terrible rain outside and lots of EasyJet passengers getting soaked getting off their flights with the mobile steps.....and then the TV was turned over for X-Factor (almost would have preferred a longer wait to get through to the results).
The weather in Glasgow was pretty appauling on Sunday evening. When we got on the plane, it was being blown and bumped about by the wind....really thought the flight would now be cancelled due to adverse weather conditions. Luckily it wasn't, and we had a very bumpy take-off.....finally!!! The flight was just under half-full, which meant that quite a few people had moved to an alternative flight. The crew on board were fun and friendly, and provided a great service on board. Had some diet coke (and were persuaded to have some wine to drink on board/take home). There was the usual bird seed / cookies available - this time they were in a bsaket, although we were offered to take as many as we liked. This also came around again, with extra drinkies if needed.
The landing at LCY was very bumpy, and I was very glad to be on the ground and finally leaving the plane when it pulled up to the gate. We were just over 3 hours late when we finally arrived at LCY airport.
This was an example of a well handled delay - the airport lounge staff (non-BA in GLA) and cabin crew tried to be as helpful as possible as they could be in the situation. Glad this time round to be a BA silver member - much better than waiting around in the domestic area of GLA airport.