Two for the Price of One: British Airways BA974 London Heathrow to Hamburg

Two for the Price of One: British Airways BA974 London Heathrow to Hamburg

In this epic…

• Two for the price of one? Or when two become one?
• Off to Manchester Airport on the edge of my seat…
• BA Domestic – BA1387 Manchester Airport to London Heathrow
• Heathrow Transit, American Airlines Flagship Lounge
• American Airlines – AA87 London Heathrow to Chicago, Main Cabin
• Streamlined Immigration?
• The Crowne Plaza O’Hare
• Evening adventures with the Sony A5000
• The Hyatt Regency O’Hare
• Off to O’Hare, American Airlines Admirals Club
• American Airlines – AA1205 Chicago O’Hare to Boston Logan
• A Boston Omnishambles
• British Airways – BA202 Boston Logan to London Heathrow Terminal 5 in World Traveller Plus
• Transit and changes… from holiday to work, British Airways Galleries North Lounge
• British Airways – BA974 London Heathrow to Hamburg
• IBIS Budget St Pauli, Hamburg
• Trade Show 101 (or… don’t sleep on your glasses).
• Pounding the Halls of AIX – What you might had missed…
• A Walk around the Hamburg Dom
• Rushing back to Hamburg Airport
• British Airways – BA967 Hamburg to London Heathrow
• Homeward bound
• Mixing business with pleasure

I was welcomed aboard… and headed straight to my seat. This was a BA A320 fitted out with those wonderful B/E Aerospace Pinnacle Seat (and if I’m absolutely honest – the closest I would get to a B/E Product that week).

British Airways Short Haul seat – B/E Pinnacle.

Only to realise I was in the wrong seat. I had sat in 19A instead of 19F. I made my excuses (before the person who was meant to sit there arrive), and shifted over to 19F.

Mistakes happen with a lack of sleep.

The cabin filled up. But I didn’t notice. In fact I didn’t notice that we were delayed by 50 minutes by the time we had lined up for the runway… simply because my head was against the bulkhead, and I was snoring away.

So I missed a lot of photography opportunities. I suspect though my body appreciated the sleep more… and I’ll take that any day of the week.

Well I got this BA special when waking up.

As I woke up, the plane lined up for departure and powered on its engines to climb into the sky.

With the climb out in progress, I kept an eye on the world as the plane turned for its route to Hamburg.

I tried to stay awake… and mostly succeed. I even was awake when the food and beverage service came around.

Most of you remember the nice bacon sandwich that was served out Manchester on a domestic shuttle… however, I had lowered my expectations on what would be served on the short hop to Hamburg.

And boy was I right.

Yes, for your expensive ticket you get drink and a rather sorry for itself small ham roll. And it least it tasted fresh. I suppose that’s all I can say about a small unhappy ham roll like this.

Actually, is it possible to get rolls smaller than this? Finger rolls are normally a lot bigger than what has been served here…

At least the views outside were improving.

The flight was thankfully short enough to justify the ham roll and wannabe can of diet coke, and soon the little A319 begun vectoring on Hamburg as the German countryside rolled by.

Cabin in landing configuration… screens not put away yet.

With the cabin ready for landing, it was time to watch the ground come ever closer.

Landing wasn’t overly bumpy, and as Hamburg airport isn’t particularly large – it’s easy to the gate quickly.

Lufthansa Techniks at Hamburg and the Tower in Yellow.

And as it was Aircraft Interiors Expo week, there was some special traffic on the ground – in the form of Gogo’s Jimmy Ray (their testbed 737 used for testing their 2KU connectivity).

Hello Jimmy Ray! (or N321GO!)

Local traffic

With the bongs going off – it was time to be a professional for the next few days, and enjoy Airline Interiors Expo

Overall: Where as there was effort put in on the domestic flight… this flight seemed an A to B effort – get them fed, watered and landed as fast as possible. That’s no bad thing, but not what I expect from British Airways. There is room for improvement – be it in catering and that god awful seat.

I’m just glad I didn’t pay the cash fare to fly….

Next: Into Hamburg on the S-Bahn and the IBIS Budget St Pauli.

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