Hong Kong 3: For the LOVE of Avios! With Swiss and British Airways
British Airways T5 First Class Lounge, BA484 London Heathrow – Barcelona El Prat
Sections:
- Memo to Self: Stop looking at Booking Engines Late at Night
- Leaving Birmingham, Servisair Lounge, To Zürich with Swiss and OLT Express on LX425
- Zürich Night Stop – “Zürich Dayrooms”, Senator Lounge
- LX1952 Barcelona to Zurich
- A Free Tour of Barcelona
- Back to El Prat, Lounge, BA0475 Barcelona – London
- British Airways T5 First Class Lounge
- BA027 London Heathrow – Hong Kong
- Holiday Inn Express Soho, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong Island
- One Time Exception: Macau with TurboJet
- GhettoIFE Special: Images of a Fragrant Harbour
- Lounging Around Hong Kong Airport
- BA026 Hong Kong to London Heathrow
- British Airways T5 First Class Lounge, BA484 London Heathrow – Barcelona El Prat (THIS SECTION)
- Barcelona Switch, Lounge, LX1955 Barcelona – Zürich Airport
- Run like the wind, LX424 Zürich – Birmingham Airport, Homeward bound
- Avios? Oh Yes, Oh Yes, OH YEAH!
I maybe in London, but there’s a lot of this journey to go yet. Firstly I have to get to Barcelona…
BA Galleries First Class Lounge
The Pictures: http://www.photoblog.com/kevincm/2012/12/17/heathrow-airport-in-the-morning.html
You might want to look at http://economyclassandbeyond.boardingarea.com/2012/12/12/oh-for-the-love-of-avios-british-airways-first-class-lounge-t5/ for my initial impressions of the place… and if I’m honest, the impressions remained the same.
As it was 5am, there seemed to be no-one out to do food at table service, so I went to the food service area to get breakfast
Mmmm. Bacon.
Sausage, Mushrooms Potato and lots of other bits to make an English breakfast
And more sausages!
Of course there was a glass of this to start the day. Don’t look at me in that tone of voice.
The lounge got busier as the morning waned on. It was still quiteish, with comings and goings of busy people doing busy things, whilst there was little olde me in a corner dumping pictures onto an ever groaning hard disk drive.
Well, it’s something to do to waiting between flights. Besides, it frees memory cards for the next steps of the journey. There’s three more segments to go before the day is out…
As 8:30 ticked passed, a boarding gate was announced, and I packed my trash up, heading for Gate A1 (whilst stopping off on the way to get some chocolates for the office), still making it in plenty of time for the Barcelona flight.
Gate Alpha 1
Art near Gate 1 in the public area.
After a short wait, boarding was commenced. As I was in the priority queue, I used by BA Gold to get through the gate and onto the plane
Leg 6 BA484 London Heathrow – Barcelona El Prat
British Airways, Airbus A320, Seat 11A
10 Tier Points Earned, 1434 Avios (717 Base + 717 Status bonus)
The Pictures: http://www.photoblog.com/kevincm/2012/12/18/ba484-lhr-to-bcn.html
I was welcomed aboard by the crew and headed for my seat in the 2nd exit row of this Airbus A320. After stowing my bags, I settled down to watch the plane load in its entirety, with a fair few hunts for space for bags being made
The Shorter version of the BA Safety Video played, and we pushed back a bit late, heading again for runway 27R, and powering off into the sky.
Once we cleared the cloud there was but blue sky and sunlight… with some higher-level cloud.
Turning in the morning sun
Cabin during Cruise.
Well, this A320 appeared to be “well use” I think the term is. Whilst it was clean, there were signs that it had seen better day’s
Better days… and Better Glue needed.
Soon enough the food and drink cards made their way down their aisle, with me selecting a diet coke, and an Egg Mayo Croissant for the meal with a cuplet of orange juice too. Add a cup of water as well to help the dehydration I seemed to be going in, this is not a bad idea.
I don’t expect high life catering on short segments, and this breakfast seemed to fit the “fill the corner of a customer’s stomach” category. Saying that, the croissant was a reasonable size, and the service was designed for a reasonably quick clean away.
Whilst the leather had seen better days, the seat was extremely comfortable with lots of leg room – one of the joys of being an exit row on a European leg.
Meanwhile the crew on-board were performing their duties and being helpful. Sadly, I didn’t get a hello from the CSD with his iPad (and also to note – not on any of the long haul legs either). Whilst the crew were there and being helpful, they weren’t overly warm compared to some of the recent crews I’ve experienced.
The flight moved on quickly, and soon enough the bumps of the Pyrenees occurred, signalling the plane was closing in on Barcelona.
Soon enough, clear down was done as was duty free, and we were descending down on the Barcelona area, breaking through the heavy cloud into a rather grey Mediterranean morning.
I swear the Med is down there. Honest.
The plane begun vectoring in for final approach into Barcelona, with the A320 making a nice decent on a wet Barcelona morning.
There was a fair old taxi as we were taxing over to the Non-Schengen gates, but after a while we docked next door to another BA CityFlyer E-190 next door – how this BA Journey begun.
Shortly after powering down the jetbridge was engaged, and we were allowed to disembark
Overall: Not as special as some legs, but perfectly functional for the flight length and a reasonable service. Could be worse, could be better.
Next: A Barcelona Switch, a Lufthansa Business Class Seat and a Swiss flight