Having dropped off bags, we headed through immigration and to the lounge. Similar to the domestic area, security is by the gates. The lounge has been recently renovated into a Galleries Lounge. Nice area but no runway / apron views. Standard range of drinks - wine was Greek, so not great, and there was Ouzo if you wanted it! Really tasty sandwiches and some good hot options as well. No toilet in the lounge so had to use the ones outside (where people had been smoking). WiFi was through the "one hour free airport service" - had to switch between laptop and iPad due to time. No possibility of extending this. There is a comment book in the lounge about the wines - the most common comment in the book was not about the wine, but instead was about getting proper free WiFi!!
Left when flight called and they had a very effective fast track security lane. Flight fairly well boarded when we got there, so it was called at just the right time. On this flight, it was a standard "club europe" type plane.
After take-off, hot towels came around and then drink service with a cold appertiser plate selection. Not as good as on the way out, and no menu this time. The cabin crew were efficient but not friendly. I asked for champagne and for some reason the CC served both me and my partner champagne without actually asking him what he wanted - slightly odd! The service, like on the way out is slower, due to the longer flight time. We asked for some more champagne and were told "the bar will be back shortly". However, the cabin crew member did come back with two bottles in the end. Food today was chicken and vegetables (had this and very tasty) or some fried fish that I had never heard of. Dessert was odd (not sure exactly what it was) and the cheese was ok.
During the meal and the rest of the flight, the CC individual kept on coming through and clearing things away. However, when he collected a glass / bottle he never asked anyone if they wanted anything else, so everyone was having to ask him for another drink. I think he must have been on some BA cost-cutting course to minimise what customers can have (I doubt this, I think he was just rather rude and not very customer focused). Later in the flight, the crew were all huddled in the front gallery looking at what food options they could have today!
There was a second bar service during the flight and the usual duty free service.
Interestingly on this flight there was a new programme and a film due to the duration of the flight from the overhead monitors that usually display the map/flight info. We had iPads, so didn't watch the film - I really missed the map to know where we were etc on our way home.
Arrived a little early, despite circling for a while. Taxied to the gate and waited and waited. The airbridge was broken and wouldn't move, so we had to wait for some steps to come so we could get off.
For some reason our baggage belt was the same one as the flight from Beijing. The belt was full with bags from Beijing going round and round with no room for bags from our flight - the annoying thing is that there were lots of empty belts going round with no bags on them. Eventually the Beijing passengers started to get through immigration so that they could collect their bags and then ours started to come out.
Overall comments:
1. Lounge - get proper free WiFi
2. The cabin crew mentioned above, needs to have some training to be more customer focused rather than just efficiency based.
3. BAA/BA need to sort out baggage return at T5 as it is always so slow.
