British Airways BA957 Hamburg Airport to London Heathrow (CLUB EUROPE)
Aircraft Interiors Expo 2022: Back in Person
- Redemption seats exist for a reason
- Off to LHR, Terminal 5 South Lounge
- BA0974 London Heathrow to Hamburg (Club Europe)
- Into Germany and IBIS Hotel
- What you might have missed from Aircraft Interiors Expo 2022
- What do I get up to on the off-hours? (or “Do you have a life?”)
- Back to Hamburg Airport
- BA0957 Hamburg to London Heathrow (Club Europe)
- There’s a coach around here, I swear…
- Innovation continues
BA957 Hamburg Airport to London Heathrow Terminal 5
British Airways., Airbus A320, Seat 3F – Club Europe (Business Class)
464 miles flown, 0 Tier Points and Avios earned (redemption flight)
The waiting A320
It’s art. That’s my line and I’m sticking to it
After a rather tedious queueing experience, I boarded the aircraft.
After being welcomed by the crew, I found a spot for my rucksack (as all the other passengers had filled up the overhead bins pretty tightly).
Let us move on to the seat. Again, we’ve got the Collins Aerospace Pinnacle seat that British Airways has stupidity pitched too tightly. This being an Airbus A320ceo however, it is fitted with power at the seat, as well as onboard connectivity.
Well, at least this aircraft has been dragged into the 2010s. Kicking and screaming no doubt.
As the aircraft filled up, the hunt for overhead bin space increased, as the cabin fully loaded up, with the result being that a fair few trolley bags were made to travel in the hold, rather than in the cabin.
If there was only an aviation show, where airlines can get upgrades to their interiors.
No matter.
With the aircraft finally loaded up, there was a short delay, but we were released, as the A320 taxied out of Hamburg Airport.
Pushback
The safety demonstration was carried out – again, this was done manually. With BA not willing to do anything with the screens installed on their older fleet – not to mention how long the safety video went on, it’s small comfort to have the instructions delivered concisely.
As soon as the demonstration completed, the cabin was fully secured for take-off, with the captain being directed to a runway for take-off.
Wizzair AirbusA320
A sister BA A320 parking up for the night
Lufthans AirbusA320
Condor A320
KLM Cityhopper Embraer E195-E2
It seems that hanging around was not in the book this evening for the Captain, with us rolling to the runway.
With the A320 in the air, it was time to watch the evening sun do its wonderful thing over Germany.
It was also time for dinner, with the cabin crew not in the mood to hang around, with them pulling the trolleys out 10 minutes after take off.
Offerings this evening was an aubergine salad or a roast beef salad. I went with the beef salad.
And here’s what we got.
Well, three slices of beef and potato salad, with a side salad (pureed avocado, radish and something else), along with a chocolate pot.
Inspired British Airways. Inspired and costed down to the penny.
At least the chocolate desert by Do&Co is still a passable affair.
With meals distributed, it was drinks time. Knowing how acidic the BA bubbly can be, I opted for a Gin and Tonic instead. I must be growing old.
It hit the spot as daytime edged away and dusk began to set.
With the crew working through the meals service efficiently, there was time for another drinks service, as well as plenty of time to enjoy the service – as opposed to the rush on way out.
Sometimes having two people doing Club Europe isn’t a bad thing at all, with an efficient service.
I took a look at the inflight Wifi service. This is based on the European Aviation Network deployment that BA brought by Inmarsat.
I took a look at the pricing plans, and I then took a look at myself. I could do without being connected to the world for an hour at least.
For those who want to know what the speeds are, they’re not impressive at around 1Mb. Good enough for watching videos online, but the latency is a killer.
With the service cleared down, the aircraft was readied for landing – these euro-hops taking around an hour go fast, Thankfully, with a clear path over the city of London, we had one of those displays that just screams how wonderful the city looks from the air.
With ease, the aircraft vectored over the city as it lined up for runway 27R. The aircraft descended and landed at its home base.
The Airbus A320 peeled off the runway and parked up. We had been allocated a hard stand… but there was no one to meet us.
Stop if you’ve read this before on a British airways segment from this blog.
Eventually turned into the area between Terminal 5C and the hard stands, and promptly parked in the taxiway as we awaited ground control.
And it would be an understatement to say that the captain was getting annoyed. Eventually, ground control found some people to receive our aircraft, and we were directed to one of the hard stands facing T5C.
Although the game was not over by a long stretch, Whilst the captain turned us the seatbelt sign-off, he advised us not to get up, as there were no stairs to meet us.
At least the luggage unloadeder had met us on time. Although, it seems that luggage around Heathrow is slow these days as I’d discover in a bit.
Eventually, some stairs arrived, along with some buses and we were allowed to disembark.
Overall
Oh, Dear. British Airways love to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory – and we’re now two for two on long delays on arrival (and this time on a Euro-hop). The service onboard was well timed, executed and done efficiently (to the point of it being perfect).
Timing elsewhere in the system is at a fault, with delayed departures, combined with another 40 minutes to find a gate and get staff to unload the aircraft.
We all know that airports have reeled out the line that their operations have been impacted as handling agents have cut back their staff, but the excuse is getting a little long now, to put it mildly.
And you know things are bad when those who are transporting you from A to Z are actively moaning about them upstairs not resourcing their services correctly.
Much more need to be done across the large airport sector – otherwise, things will just implode.
Next: There’s a coach around here, I swear…
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