BA717 Zurich to London in Club Europe
“Life, The Universe and Everything”
Contents
- In the beginning I begun to write this trip report. This made a lot of people very angry, and has been widely regarded as a bad move.
- First action of being 42 – Coach 210, British Airways Galleries South
- BA710 London to Zürich in Club Europe
- A brief wander into Zürich featuring the Canon 50mm F1.2
- Mostly Harmless – The Zürich Airport Observation Deck
- The Aspire Lounge, Zürich Airport (B/D Dock)
- BA717 Zürich to London in Club Europe
- The Race, The Coach, The Cold
- Six by Nine? Forty Two?
BA717 Zürich Airport to London Heathrow Terminal 5
British Airways, Airbus A321, Seat 1A – Club Europe (Business Class)
491 Miles flown, 0 Avios earned, 0 Tier Points Earned.
I was welcomed aboard – and headed for my seat of 1A. And since I’ve banged on about the B/E Aerospace / Rockwell Collins Pinnacle seat enough (and trust me, it might seem like luxury when BA start stuff the Recaro SL5310’s in… although part of me would prefer the Recaros if I’m blunt).
Meh.
I settled down and put my trash in the overhead bin. There wasn’t much to do with boarding taking its time, other than look outside, and look at the screen.
Tum tee tum.
Obey the Speedmarque.
And of course, read the safety card.
The business class cabin was lightly loaded today.
The plane pushed back on schedule, and we were soon on our way to London.
Helvetic Embraer E-190…. and I was up on that platform earlier…
With the plane commencing the long taxi to the runway, it was the perfect time to play the safety video. For those who aren’t fans, the new A320/A321s won’t have video screens – so the crews will be doing manual safety demonstrations.
Whilst it’s a good safety demo… six minutes is a bit on the long side.
Traditional overhead bins.
Our taxi took us around the airport, towards the short-haul runway for departure.
A taxing we go.
The E Dock.
Whilst the taxi was long-winded, I was making good friends with the sidewall, having a little doze until we reached the runway.
Air France Airbus A318 powering up for departure.
There was a short wait as we turned to the runway, but soon the engines of the A321 powered up to take BA717 for the hop over to London.
With BA717 climbing into the sky, you could see the snow and the lights below.
Tschüss Zurich!
The plane continued to climb – and broke through the cloud layer and into the winter sun.
As we climbed out, the on-board service begun with a hot towel, and cashew nuts.
Drinks were also served, with me choosing water and almost, but not quite entirely unlike Champagne.
Water.
Bubbles.
Now for the main event. A choice of ploughmans salad or sandwiches. And stupidly, I chose the sandwiches.
How bad are they? Bad.
Let’s see. A dry ham sandwich, a dry egg mayonnaise and a dry cheese and pickle. And Dundee Cake.
As we all know, the wonder that is Scones have long since been removed from the menu, leaving this rather sorry state of affairs.
Seriously, putting these into a F1.2 focus point makes them not better.
Well. Maybe the Dundee cake is slightly more appetising. I don’t honestly think so though, and I think it would had made great polyfiller to fix some holes in the walls in the office.
Certainly, I don’t expect catering from Milliways (The Restaurant at the End of the Universe), but this “Afternoon tea” service is nothing but a bad joke.
I might had even wrote about it.
The worst part was, if I had chosen the late flight – I would had got a full meal. This meal service – is nothing short of a bad joke.
The crew was friendly about it, and cleared the tray quickly – and offered another drink. I tried to drink another mini bottle of Champagne de Castelnau. And failed.
Instead I had more water. I knew I should had stuck to Vodka and Cola.
With the service cleared down, we were crossing over the English Channel, and into the United Kingdom.
The arrivals video played as the cabin was secured for landing – with our plane only making a loop in a Heathrow stack. With a clear night, we had a clear view of the city. And as usual, I was sat on the wrong side of the plane for the final approach.
I never learn. I might be growing older – but wiser? Nah.
With the plane cleared down, the lights were turned to the eriy blue everyone loves on planes these days
And to my left, the sights of the city appeared.
The bright lights of Central London.
With the south of London to the left of me, I watched the sights of the city as the plane descended.
Fairground attraction
Clapham Junction.
Twickenham Stadium
Passing Twickenham Stadium, the plane lowered its undercarriage – indicating the plane had reached the last 10 miles / 2 and a half minutes of flight.
With a bump, BA717 landed safely at London Heathrow.
With it being night, the plane landed at Heathrow, taxing past T3 and T5.
Cathay Pacific Boeing 777-300ER with the tower of power….
Qantas Airbus A380
Our plane took an odd route to T5A – taxing past the naughty planes row (aka bussing area), before turning right, passing T5C and B. Apparently, the gate that our plane was assigned to had been taken, and we were awaiting a new gate.
The waiting apron… and a Qantas A380.
Which was annoying on two levels – one, it would had been nice to leave to the plane on time, but secondly, it had just cost me the early coach home.
Eventually, our plane came to a rest on the South side of Terminal 5, ending this short European hope.
Overall: Whilst the crew were a lot more focused that the outbound crew, the on-board service for an early evening flight was nothing short of ridiculous. Hardly anything positive to look at in terms of food service (apart from the cashew nuts).
If British Airways want people to pay to use Club Europe – joke services like this early afternoon tea service need to improve.
And, yes – that means bringing back scones and focusing on a better product.
I guess this song summed up this flight.
Next: The Race, The Coach, The Cold… and some coffee.
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Those are the most pathetic little sandwiches I’ve ever seen. They make me sad. I almost feel sorry for them, being brought into existence without even a brief moment of interest in their lives, like a doomed whale on a brief voyage of interesting self-discovery, but just thinking to their dry little selves “not again…”
Much like the bowl of petunias, when crashing down on the planet of Magrathea.
After which many people speculated that if we knew exactly why the bowl of petunias thought this, we would know a lot more of the nature of the Universe than we do now.
Much like the BA Sandwiches and crew which are probably thinking “Oh no, not again” when they have to give these out for the afternoon tea service.