Pleasure and Business - BA967 Hamburg to London Heathrow in Club Europe

Pleasure and Business – BA967 Hamburg to London Heathrow in Club Europe

In this adventure…

BA967 Hamburg Airport to London Heathrow Terminal 5
British Airways, Airbus A319, Seat 1A, Club Europe
464 Miles Flown, 0 Tier Points Earned, 0 Avios earned (Redemption flight)

Heading down the quiet jetway, I spied the A319 that would be taking me to Heathrow

I was welcomed aboard, and headed the mini-overhead bin above seat 1A for my stuff. There’s sometimes a good reason to be a gate lice.

So onto the seat. This is one of the rare times where the Pinnacle Seats aren’t that bad – mainly because there’s not another one intruding into your knees.

Seating

Staring down the cabin.

The speedmarque in front of me – can’t escape that thing.

Legroom – about the only place it’s acceptable on a BA plane when travelling short-haul.

Boarding took its time, with a lot of disgruntled customers boarding. It appeared that boarding system broke down, and they were doing final checks by hand – increasing the time to arrival. Sometimes, things don’t go well on a trip – and this was just the latest fun on this short haul trip.

Oh well.

Eventually, we had a complete load, and it was time to push back, and headed out.

See you soon Hamburg!

Swiss Airbus A320

Lufthansa Airbus A321

With a short taxi, our BA967 lined up for departure, and headed into the sky.

A hot towel service was conducted pretty quickly, and soon the catering options were given – a ploughman’s salad or a King Prawn Salad.

With trepidation – I went for the King Prawn Salad (which Runway Girl reviewed a few days before)

Well – it has a King Prawn – I’ll give it that. There’s some chicken of some sort (probably some plain chicken, some coronation chicken, something green (that’s not the leaves, the thing towards the right).

To be honest – this is not inspiring. The seeded roll was a useful addition.

As an upgrade to the service was the cheese plate – yes, there’s a cheese plate in this picture. It’s under the oat biscuit. As I’m not a lover of cheese, this passed me by. The Rhubarb crumble was… passable I suppose.

Yes, this is what British Airways cater. Those who moan of the three-prawn salad, will pine for those days with plates like this.

Once again, I tried to like the Champagne de Castelnau Reserve.

And the only thing that made it palatable? A swig of water between drinking bubbles. Not great stuff I’m afraid at all as I found it too acidic in the air. Maybe chilling it might help – but I’m not sure.

I’m sorry Monopole Blue Top. Some is forgiven.

Meanwhile outside, the light was changing as the plane crossed out of Germany, over the Netherlands and back out over the channel and towards the British Isles.

Heading into the London area, of course – our BA967 got sent into a stack – it’s a law at Heathrow Airport.

With the evening sun setting, the reddening sunlight gave nice colours in the cabin.

Eventually, BA967 was cleared to approach Heathrow, with our plane exiting the stack and conducting a river approach to runway 27L.

South of the city.

Twickenham Stadium – The home of the hallowed turf of English Rugby Union, with The Stoop – home of Harlequins

With the wheels down, and me awake, the plane glided down to Heathrow Airport

With the plane down, it peeled off the runway quickly, and begun the taxi over to Terminal 5. With this being a European flight in the evening – we were set to arrive at the main building.

Closing in on T5

With a gate allocated, our A319 turned for a gate, bringing an end to this flight.

With the bongs going off to indicate arrival, I grabbed my stuff for a quick escape. With the doors opening quickly, I thanked the crew of BA967 – and started to make tracks for home.

Overall: Whilst the crew were friendly and all smiles, the actual British Airways product can be filled under “needs work”. The seating was just about bearable – only because I was in row 1, and the catering – a mess. If anything is going to help British Airways out of its pickle, it must invest in the short-medium haul fleet, and invest in the soft product.

And whilst there’s effort, it urgently needs more attention.

Next: Let’s pull it homeward.

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Pleasure and Business – BA967 Hamburg to London Heathrow in Club Europe

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