V-Flyer

After a fun Hogmanay it was time to head back to London. The bus out to Edinburgh Airport was really busy – lots of people who had been up for the party.....although I did here that the wait for toilets in the centre of Edinburgh on the night was 45 minutes!

Only hand luggage, so was straight to security on arrival. Although there is a “fast track” lane, it appears that this is only available to every airline apart from BA! Normal security it was then, which was really busy indeed. Despite the fact it was busy, there was only a limited number of security lanes open which meant the whole process took nearly 30 minutes to get through – not a good start for the now non-BAA airport!

Straight off to the lounge which surprisingly was rather quiet. Asked about moving from the LHR flight to the LCY flight – unfortunately as we were on an Avios flight, this wasn’t possible. We could have moved to any of the other LHR or even LGW flights, but LCY flights operate as a separate business so transferring between the two wasn’t possible. Not a disaster, it is just that we live very close to LCY. Settled into the lounge, with a glass of champagne (well it was New Year’s Day) and caught up on some of the news. The earlier LHR and LCY flight came and went and then the sandwiches came out – was feeling peckish but the selection today was rather basic, disappeared very quickly and then was replaced. Hopefully this was just a one off as normally they are plentiful and better.

Flight called early and we headed straight off to gate 11 (almost opposite the lounge) – we arrived just as general boarding was starting so beat the rush onto the plane. Settled into 1A and 1B. Flight was pretty full, but plenty of empty seats – unfortunately 1C wasn’t empty! Left the gate 12 minutes early and the flight time was only 50 minutes (due to a 100mph tail wind). Manual safety demo again for some reason, and then a bit of a wait at the runway hold before we left.

The flight itself was uneventful – usual drinks service after take-off, which was fast in row 1 but I should have imagined further back you would have had you drink served just as they came to collect the rubbish!

Arrived at LHR and this time landed with no circling over Southern England and were on stand 26 minutes early! Luckily on a domestic gate, so no buses to get to the terminal and we were soon off and heading for the tube back home. All in all a very pleasant flight back – disproved our friend’s comment that BA never has an on flight time from EDI now that they have taken over BD......!

Thanks and sounds like a fun New Year in Edinburgh. BA short haul is a perfectly good option and always my choice where I have one - it's just the long haul cabin especially in Club that puts me off it.

Shame it took so long to get through security. I think BAA did a great job on improving the interior of the terminal over the years.

As to fast track, I did used to enjoy using my EZY Speedy Boarding to whisk through whilst my BA bound colleagues had to wait in the main queue. Mind you, all it meant was they had a little less time in the lounge whilst I had a lot more time at the gate wondering which muppet would start the rush to form a queue..