Time for a two-for-one snapshot – involving British Airways. With the service identical between Heathrow – Hamburg – Heathrow, I’d thought I would lump them together, with the differing experiences on the ground.
The Heathrow Experience:
Terminal 5 remains a reasonable hub to go through. Not bad, but not excellent. At least security wasn’t 10 miles long. I swear sometimes it’s quicker to enter the United Kingdom, clear customs, go back upstairs and re-clear security at the top than use transfer security.
Lounge – British Airways Galleries North:
Heading to the North Lounge
Tea or Coffee?
Or something a little stronger?
Food.
Getting a seat was fun enough. The lounge was pretty packed. The bigger problem I had, was finding a power outlet… and that was a troublesome find to find one in the North Lounge.
Boarding: At least it was from A17 and not A10 (that’s seemed to have cursed me way too much in recent trips).
The Hamburg Airport Experience
It was busy – mainly as a lot of airline executives and people were leaving a city in a hurry after a trade show. Check in was conducted quickly, with additional security queues opened up.
Hamburg Airport Shared Lounge
Hamburg has two lounges – a lounge for Emirates Passengers and one for anyone else (Elite Membership/Pay Lounge. Some impressions:
Lounge entrance
Some seating found…
A good view of the apron…
Drinks bar, Hot-dog station… and magical soup machine. We’ll get to this in a second.
Fruit.
Hot dogs… yes…
Chicken Hot Dogs.
Salad Items, including Kartoffelsalat…
The star of the show – a soup machine. Press button, soup appears! A choice of Tomato, Asparagus and Mushroom
Suppe! 😉
For semi instant soup out of a machine… it wasn’t that bad. Not restaurant quality, but it was quite nice.
Boarding: Boarding was from the non-Schengen zone at gate B31. You have to clear passport control.
To say the queue was “elite heavy” would be an understatement, with boarding taking time.
The Planes
Heathrow to Hamburg: Airbus A320
Hamburg to Heathrow: Airbus A319
And they all look like this on the inside:
Or like this (Apologies – shaki-cam in progress).
Yes – It’s the wonderful B/E Aerospace Pinnacle seat. If you were press at Aircraft Interiors Expo, this all you probably saw unless you were lucky.
Take off
Heathrow: 35 minute delay to get from the gate to the runway (I slept through it…)
Hamburg: Taxi out, and off we went…
Climbing out of Heathrow
Climbing out of Hamburg.
In flight service
The same both ways: Ham roll and Cola. And I’m not making this up… it was exactly the same.
Outbound…
Inbound.
I believe there was an option for a cheese roll if you asked nicely enough.
IFE
Heathrow: The Map and the Outside views
Hamburg: Outside views… no map.
Landing and Taxi
Heathrow: Off 27R, and a taxi straight to the gate at the A Gates
Hamburg: Off the runway, turn left, and taxi to the gate
Both flights on time.
Oooh. It’s the GoGo Boeing 737!
At Hamburg
Coming into the A Gates at Heathrow, with all the British Airways tails at the gate.
The full reviews in the next few weeks!
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