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You are here: Home / Trip Reports / Paris / Trip Report: BA332 London Heathrow to Paris Orly (Club Europe)

Trip Report: BA332 London Heathrow to Paris Orly (Club Europe)

03/07/2014 by Kevincm

Hello Daytrip! A Tier Point run to the Paris Pokemon Centre
BA332 London Heathrow to Paris Orly in Club Europe

Pokemontripreport

In this trip report…

  • I wanna be the very best, like no one ever was… (The Introduction, with added POUG)
  • To Heathrow, British Airways Galleries First Lounge
  • BA332 London Heathrow Airport T5 – Paris Orly West in Club Europe
  • Would you like to heal your Pokemon? – The Paris Popup Pokemon Centre
  • Other bits of Paris (or which scam is where!)
  • Iberia Lounge, Paris Orly Airport
  • BA337 Paris Orly West – London Heathrow Airport T5 in Club Europe
  • Homeward Bound on Heathrow Express and Chiltern Railways
  • Wrapping up the DayTrip – To catch them is my real quest, to train them is my cause….

BA332 London Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 to Paris Orly West
British Airways, Airbus A320,
Seat 1A, Club Europe
40 Tier Points Earned, 228 Miles Flown, 1250 Avios Earned

I was welcomed aboard, and headed for my seat… at 1A – the front of the plane.

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The AC block – Note the squished middle seat.

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Club Sweetie. Club.

Legroom – being at the bulkhead was pretty reasonable for a 1 hour or so flight

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Legroom over the two seats

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Classic Airbus overhead panel

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Art on the Bulkhead

With a welcome aboard, I turned right, and straight into my seat of 1A for this morning run to Paris. I stowed the bags above, keeping the phone and camera on me.

Loading took time, as EuroTraveller loaded up – with a pretty full load on the way out to Paris that morning.

There was some minor seating commotion with a double seat allocation (which the crew solved quickly), with the seat next to me clear.

Soon enough, pushback begun along with the safety video. We were advised of the changes in Personal Electronic Devices before the video played (with BA not updating the video. Oops)

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Safety Video Introduction

With that, our plane begun its taxi, heading over to 09R, where we taxied to the end of the runway.

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Local traffic.

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Lining up

There was as reasonable amount of traffic as other short haul aircraft were filling up the runway for take off runs, requiring a bit of a wait. We were 3rd to take off.

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Taking off – a relatively quiet T3 below

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The pilot made a quick ascent into the sky, and into the bright day that was unfolding.

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Climbing.

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Through the cloud layer

Soon enough, the dividers were drawn and service preparation begun. This being a short 50 minute flight, you wouldn’t expect much on certain carriers (a case in point is most US carriers where you’d get a drink and snack pack in “First” on a sub 300 mile flight if you were good).

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Dividers drawn

So first up was a hot towel service. And yes, these were hot, not tepid.

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Towel

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Meanwhile  outside

Breakfast arrived with a very nice tray for a first thing in the morning, with a choice of a continental cold breakfast, or a hot english breakfast.

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Tray

So, what’s on the tray?

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Traditional English Breakfast, (Omlette, Bacon, Sausage, Mushroom and Tomato)

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Fresh Fruit

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Speedmarques

And it was truly the weekend with nearly everyone having at least one bottle of bubbly. Including me.

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It maybe Monopole, but it’s semi-drinkable. Ish. When its cold.

The cabin itself was “well loved” with the seats comfortable, but there were signs of age…

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Chips in the tray table.

Still, there was enough time to wolf down the meal, drink the fizzypop and have a coffee (those were going to become more important as the day went on).

The crew themselves were pretty on the ball in the Club Europe cabins, checking for customer needs and requirements – and filling them quickly too.

With the tray taken away, it was time to settle back as descent begun towards Paris Orly.

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The cabin was cleared down, dividers removed as the plane begun its approach into Orly. The Captain had hoped Paris control would allow us to shortcut directly to Orly, but we seemed to be sent around the houses for landing

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Preparing to cut through the cloud layer

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Dropping

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Cloud

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The Île-de-France below us.

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Soon the wheels went down and the countryside turned into urban sprawl

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Paris in the distance

A relatively quick landing, the pilots steered the plane off the runway and begun taxiing toward the gate

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The last time I was at Orly, I had the joy of a bus gate. Not today, as we were guided into an Air Bridge gate, where our plane had a short wait to finally come onto stand.

And with that the bongs went off, and it was time to depart.

Overall: Not bad at all. A good breakfast choice combined with a quick service delivery is never a bad thing. And to goes to show that in a premium cabin, you can deliver and clear down a meal service in 50 minutes or less. Hear that certain North American carriers?….

Next: Off to Central Paris and the Pokemon Centre


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Related

Filed Under: Paris, Trip, Trip Reports, Trips Tagged With: A319, Airbus, Airbus A319, British Airways, Chiltern Railways, Club Europe, Heathrow Connect, Heathrow Express, National Express, Paris, Paris Orly, Pokemon, Pokemon Centre, RER, Strike, Trip Report, Trip Reports

Comments

  1. VG says

    03/07/2014 at 7:08 am

    I never have understood the empty midget seat in the middle. Why not more room for the passengers?

    • Kevincm says

      03/07/2014 at 4:11 pm

      The squished middle seat (or converter seat) is so that BA can convert the seat into a full economy flight if needed (as used on their Domestic programme). In this configuration, the seat is wider for those in Club Europe.

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