The last time I flew with BA to Vienna, the flight had departed from Terminal 5 so I was a tad annoyed that they had moved the flight to Terminal 3! Apparently the reason for the move is that Terminal 5 cannot handle non-containerised aircraft and as Vienna is now operated 50% of the time by a B757 it has to depart from there. [xx(]
My journey started 24 hours beforehand when I woke up early at 0730 ready to do OLCI when the flight opened. I know the flight is only two hours but I like the novelty of being able to pick my own seat as I usually travel standby and have to take whatever is left.
So Tink's guide to choosing a seat in Economy!
- An exit seat wherever possible. If there are two exit rows one behind the other, then always choose the second as the first row never reclines!
- If the exit row is available then the first choice is a window seat, followed by an aisle seat.
- If no exit rows are available, then an aisle seat in any other row.
As I checked in as soon as OLCI opened, my luck was in. All the seats in both exit rows were available so 11F it was - a window seat in the second exit row and on the right hand side of the aircraft for the view of Vienna on approach! [y]
Fast forward to the next morning and I'd talked one of my family into giving me a lift to the airport on their way to work. As the M4 spur road/tunnel/central area can be so unpredictable in the morning, I got them to drop me off at Terminal 5 - this also meant that they could get straight back on the M25 and head off to work much quicker. After walking into T5 and wishing my flight could have been departing from there, I took the first Heathrow Express train of the morning to T3.
Once at T3 I headed to the dreary corner of check-in that BA use to drop off my case. There were only a few people in the queue so I got seen in less than 5 minutes. The first question I was asked was 'Did you not print out your own boarding card?' I lied and said that I didn't have a printer rather than say that I prefer to have a proper boarding card! I'm sure it's only ever at LHR that they ask this as no where else ever has. Anyway bag checked in and proper boarding card in hand, I then went to buy a sandwich for the flight from Pret a Manger. As it still wasn't 6am yet it hadn't opened so I joined the various sleeping people and vagrants on the seats opposite until it opened ten minutes later.
Sandwich in hand it was time to brave the scariest of things - T3 security! Thankfully as it was gone 6am at this point the full early shift had started and there were no queues! I managed to get about two steps past one of the liquid muppets before having 'ANNNY LIQQUIDDDS' screamed in my ear. I know that a lot of people still have no clue about what they can and cannot take onboard but I wish they wouldn't tar everyone with the same brush. [:(!] I ignored the liquid muppet and carried on walking to find only a few people in front of me at the x-ray machine. The guy who was loading up the bags and trays was a rare species for BAA - he was actually very, very polite. He was wishing everyone a good morning and then wishing everyone a good flight - that must be a first! For the first time ever I didn't have to take my boots off and I didn't beep walking through the detector either so was through security in no time at all! [y]
Anyway after fighting my way through the duty free shop I headed to Boots to buy a bottle of fizzy caffeine and then to Starbucks for breakfast. If you haven't got the CH to go to for breakfast then Starbucks is the next best place. After a coffee and a panini I saw that the gate was open for the flight and headed to gate 24 otherwise known as the BA Bus Depot. All of the BA flights that depart from T3 park at remote stands so it's a bus every time which is a pain. Hopefully they'll use stands for their BKK and SIN flights that are now in T3 as it will be chaos otherwise! Anyway the buses were already waiting and I managed to time it right to be one of the last people to board the first bus so I was right by the door! After a two minute (if that) journey, we pulled up next to our little A320 (G-EUUK) which would be flying us to Vienna. Even though I was by the door I pretty much got pushed out of the way by some of my fellow travellers who ran off the bus and up the stairs. [xx(]
After being welcomed on board I headed towards 11F. Someone was already sat in 11D so I was hopeful of 11E being left empty (which it was!). After taking a few bits out of my bag for the flight, I went to put it in the overhead due to being on the exit row. As the guy in 11D had already settled himself in, I pretty much had to do bend my back limbo-dance style to try and put the bag up in the locker. Thankfully one of the BA crew saw this and came rushing over and took my bag and put it up for me saving my back from bending out of shape! [y] After another two buses had dropped more people off, the aircraft ended up about 70% full. Next was the exit row briefing to which I just nodded along and smiled when asked if I was familiar with the procedures on how to open an aircraft door. [:w]
I really wish BA would re-record their German announcements as they sound like the tapes you used to have to listen to when at school. I have never heard such a boring 'Herzlich Wilkommen bei British Airways meinen Damen und Herren!' We pushed back five minutes late at 0740 just as the safety video started. Something I noticed was that they used the wrong video for the flight - they used the one without the German subtitles. After taxiing we were airborne at 0756 from runway 27L.
Not long after the seat belt signs were turned off the crew came round with food and drinks! Yes food! I had been expecting another bag of those disgusting sunflower seeds that I'd had on my last flight so was amazed when I saw them handing out something else. I was looking forward to whatever they were handing out until I found out that it was an egg muffin - yuck!! [:$][:$] So I just had a cup of tea and enjoyed my sandwich that I'd bought in Pret earlier. The seat belt signs had to be turned on for about ten minutes when we got some bad turbulence over Dusseldorf but apart from that, it was an uneventful flight. After the crew cleared everything away I managed to nod off to sleep before being woken by the Captain giving out the arrival information over the PA. He mentioned we still had 40 minutes to run even though we were flying right over the city at that point. We had the normal approach of flying past the city and the airport before doing a U-turn and landing towards the north. Anyway 15 minutes later we had landed! [:?]
We pulled in on a proper stand which is a first for me in Vienna as it has always been another bus journey there. After disembarking, I stopped in the main terminal for five minutes before heading to immigration to check my email - the whole airside area of Vienna Airport offers free wifi which I wish all airports would do. The bags had just started arriving in the baggage hall when I got there and I waited another few minutes for mine to arrive before getting the S-Bahn to the city.
And now Tink's advice for anyone visiting Vienna!
If you have ever been to Vienna Airport then you will know that the airport is one giant advert for the CAT express train for the city centre. However when you are in the arrivals hall, look closely and you will see one small sign for the S-Bahn which is what everyone apart from clueless tourists use. The CAT train leaves every 30 minutes and costs 9 Euros. The S-Bahn leaves every 30 minutes and stops at the same station (Wien Mitte/Landstrae) as the CAT train and costs 3.40 Euros - the only difference is that it takes eight minutes longer due to a few stops along the way and you can transfer to the bus, tram and the U-Bahn on the same ticket so it is much better value. One word of note though is that if you buy a 48/72 hour ticket or a Vienna Card, then you will also need to purchase a 1.70 Euro 'Aussenzone' supplement to cover the part of the journey from the airport to the edge of the city travel zone. The other thing to remember is to validate all tickets and supplements using the machine on the platform before getting on the train as there are ticket inspectors on all the trains into the city. [|:)]
So there it is - my first ever TR! Hopefully it wasn't too boring and hopefully it'll inspire Neil to write his own! [}:)][}:)]
[:X]
