BA921 Stuttgart to London Heathrow (Club Europe)
To Stuttgart and Schwabisch Hall
In this trip report:
- An Invite to Germany
- Testing and Paperwork
- Off to Heathrow, Terminal 5, and the South Galleries Lounge
- BA920 London Heathrow to Stuttgart (Club Europe)
- The joy of German Immigration, Into Stuttgart and the Novum Hotel Rieker, Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof
- Off to Schwabisch Hall, qubixx stattemitte Hotel
- Economy Class and Beyond at Recaro Aircraft Seating
- Back to Stuttgart and the joy of pigeons
- Off to Stuttgart Airport
- BA921 Stuttgart to London Heathrow (Club Europe)
- Welcome to Brexitainia, The Premier Inn Heathrow
- Off Home again
- Innovation is the driver
BA921 Stuttgart Airport Terminal 3 to London Heathrow Airport Terminal 5
British Airways, Airbus A320ceo
Seat 3F, Club Europe
471 Miles flown, 80 Tier Points earned, 500 Avios Earned.
I boarded the aircraft and was welcomed aboard by the crew. Like the time before, I was given a PPE bag and a Dettol wipe.
I headed to Row 3 – which would be my home for the flight back to London. Again, I had selected a window seat.
Club Europe was made up of four rows of seats, whilst EuroTraveller took the rest.
The seat again was the Collins Aerospace Pinnacle seat. I won’t repeat myself, but my opinions about it can be found in the outward segment of this trip report.
Legroom
Thankfully the seat had at-seat power as well as in-flight internet which would be enabled once the aircraft was in the air.
Find your power
Plug in…
…and charge.
Boarding of the A320 took a little time, but eventually, we were all set to go – there would be no delays for us today.
With ease, the A320 took to the air.
Cabin during the climb.
With the night sky closing in, I settled back. And of course, I brought Wi-Fi again because I needed to be entertained.
Performance of the EAN network was as expected – although I decided to pull some high-bitrate videos down the line.
Yes. It’s time for everyone’s favourite review video Crab Rave. If you’re not familiar with this wonder of music… well, see below.
Watching the full song without music on, it kept rendering reasonably well, able to render it at 480p.
Beyond that, the land of dropped frames awaits you. Certainly, 480p should handle most applications, but those wanting crisp 1080p or upwards crispness should consider pre-loading their content.
But compared to the promise of EAN and what’s being delivered – there are serious questions as to where the throttling is being placed in the product.
Food followed shortly after takeoff. This was a choice of salads that were being offered in Club Europe, whilst the buy-on-board service was offered in EuroTraveller.
Well, things are more than a little better than the outward bound service of an afternoon tea.
The chicken salad was relatively fresh, with the raspberry mousse rather nice. The bread roll, however… whilst it had olives in it, my friend said “It looked like there was mould”.
I’ll let you be the judge of that.
Beverages were offered at the same time – I went for my standard mix of champagne (served from a shared bottle) and water.
There was even a chance for a cheeky cup of coffee before landing – always a welcome sign to see (and the crew were more than happy to serve it – another good sign).
The aircraft made good progress, crossing France and over the English channel. The cloud cover meant I was on FlighRadar24 tracking my movements (as IFE on BA short-haul services seems to be a forbidden term these days… even the map has been downsized now).
Sunset.
Fire in the sky.
With cloud cover, nature gave a wonderful display until our aircraft dropped through it, and showing London lit up at night. And let us face it – there are some sights in aviation I miss…
…. And this is one of them.
Our aircraft made a couple of loops as it descend, before setting a path for 27L.
With ease, our Airbus A320 landed at its home of London Heathrow – nothing like an on-time landing.
The A320 peeled off the runway quickly – a little quickly for my liking. I kept an eye out for terminal buildings… and saw aircraft instead of a terminal complex.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Virgin
Parked.
It looked liked the bussing gods would have struck again. And indeed – we turned right onto a hardstand.
Thankfully, buses and unloading equipment were waiting – unlike the outbound segment.
With the aircraft on the hardstand, the crew requested passengers stay in their seats until they asked to disembark.
Disembarkation was by row to the waiting bus, with business class let out first.
I thanked the crew and headed back to the land of Brexitania.
Overall: The crew again did a great job, whilst delivering a much stronger service than the outbound – partially thanks to a stronger meal service than what was offered. Whilst the lack of premium facilities on the ground at Stuttgart was unwelcome, the crew made up for it by attending to the passengers’ needs.
At least the crew didn’t make the service feel rushed – something that can be hard on these short-haul segments.
Next: Welcome to Brexitainia, The Premier Inn Heathrow.
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