TRIP REPORT: Back to Innovation, Back to Hamburg – BA967 Hamburg Airport to London Heathrow (CLUB EUROPE)

BA967 Hamburg Airport to London Heathrow Terminal 5 (CLUB EUROPE/Business Class)
Back to Innovation, Back to Hamburg 

It’s time to fly again, this time back to London Heathrow – in Club Europe at least.

In this trip report:

• Back to the industry
• Sunday adventures to Heathrow featuring FlixBus
• British Airways Galleries – Club South Lounge
• BA974 London Heathrow to Hamburg Airport
• Into Germany, IBIS Budget, Saint Pauli
• When cables go walkies (A trip to Saturn)
• Sights of Aircraft Interiors Expo 2023 (What you might have missed)
• Back to Hamburg Airport
• Hamburg Airport Lounge
• BA967 Hamburg Airport to London Heathrow
• The joke of Heathrow Luggage delivery and the ride home
• Innovation continues

BA967 Hamburg Airport – London Heathrow Terminal 5
British Airways., Airbus A320, Seat 2F – Club Europe (Business Class)
464 miles flown, 0 Tier Points and Avios earned (redemption flight)

Heading aboard the aircraft after clearing the queues that Hamburg Airport likes to make, I headed down the jetbridge.

OK people… A or B…?

A 

or B…

I prefer A from an arty viewpoint. Your viewpoint may differ. 

I was welcomed aboard and quickly headed to 2F – my home for that evening.

With the queues building fast, I shoved my rucksack in the overhead compartment and my day bags by my feet.

I was not in the mood to mess around, as the plane was 1) running late and 2) the sooner everything was in place, the less chance my stuff would be messed around with.

Settling into the seat, we have the Collins Aerospace Pinnacle seat. As this aircraft was an older A320ceo, it maintained a cocktail table in the configuration (The A320neo aircraft BA operate do not have this feature).

For those of you who need power, there was a USB and mains outlet between the seat pairs – not a problem in Club Europe, but if you’re desperately needing power in Eurotravller, you might be jostling for position.

The aircraft filled up quickly, with people wanting to get home – but also trying to find a spot for their cabin bags. And that space ran out quickly.

If only there was some sort of trade show where you could order larger overhead bins for your aircraft as a retrofit kit. Or have ticketing options that included luggage as standard that didn’t feel like a rip-off.

Nah. That’s nonsense, isn’t it?

Eventually, the trolly bags vanished from view, as handheld-only bags were being shown as we headed to the last boarding groups, as the crew tried to manage the space issue

I know we all have a love of carry-on only (and trust me at Heathrow – it was worth it), but there comes to a point where we’ve got to ask, is the boarding and passenger experience being degraded to the point where it’s being harmed thanks to airlines on-time performance.

With everyone sitting down, the safety briefing was carried out and 30 minutes late, our A320 was on its way.

Putting “British Airways” and “on-time” together honestly doesn’t happen these days.

It seemed the pilot and ground control weren’t in the mood for us to hang around, so our A320 made quick progress to the runway.

Pick a tail, any tail

Resting between flights

A tower watches all.

Here comes the Summer son. He burns my skin (Texas – Summer’s Son). 

Turn and line up. 

And to the air.

With the sun setting, we had a reddish glow all the way home – it’s one of the lovely things about flying in the evening… and why I get a window seat.

With the aircraft climbing above 10000ft, it was time to play with the British Airways .air portal to see if anything was interesting to play with this time.

Sadly, it seemed that routing was an issue that night, as the phone wasn’t getting out to the gateway servers or internet, thus not loading any pages.

169 IP Addresses are never a good sign. And no, you can’t have my MAC Address. Love you lots, but that’s a hard no.  

Back to the game that I enjoy playing seemingly on non-internet-connected flights. That’s right – CrossyRoad.

I’ve freely admitted that I’ll never defeat this thing. I play it out spite some days. And mostly on flights. 

The onboard catering service shortly followed. A choice of meals was offered – an aubergine salad or a beef salad.

I went for the beef.

Let us play that favourite game I love on British Airways. How many things are numbered three in a catering product?

• Beef slices? 3
• Sundried Tomatos? 3.
• Leaves? 3
• Shaved Cheese slices? 1
• The mustard sauce underneath? 1.

It’s almost a formula or something. The bread was also offered from a basket, which was nice to see.

Again, this was catered by Do & Co – as can be seen by the orange and cream pudding.

For a one-hour flight, more than serviceable, but you can tell that this meal was costed to the penny.  Good thing I’m not paying full price for the fare.

Drinks were free-flowing, with another Gin and Tonic, with some water on the side to keep me occupied.

I’ve given up on short-haul bubbly after a year or so with BA. It’s not worth it. 

The crew were friendly, and made good time through the cabin, this being a full flight and a trade show shuttle – it was a challenge for them to conduct the service in time.

I just leant back and kept an eye on the reddening sky.

Our route took us over Germany, The Netherlands, across the North Sea and entering the UK via Essex, our approach to Heathrow would be towards the east, thus we would loop to the North of London.

Commuter belt 

I was of course on the country-side, not the city side. It could be worse.

With our time in the air coming to an end, the cabin was cleaned up and secured for landing.

Thankfully, there was no stacking in play, so our aircraft turned over at Maidenhead and lined up for Heathrow Airport.

With ease, the A320 landed at its home base and vacated the runway quickly, near Terminal 3.

I spy, with my blurry eye, something beginning with T.

LATAM 777-300ER and Finnair Airbus A320 

With a short taxi in mind, the Airbus A320 made its way to the Terminal 5 Complex, with the aircraft taxing between T5C and T5B.

A 787

Another A320 parked up

And it turned for T5C.

Wonderful. Considering how long British Airways takes to deliver bags these days, I wasn’t exactly worried about times, as the coach wasn’t due to go by 23:40.

And if I was waiting that long for luggage, I’d be very worried, considering were on the tarmac at 21:24.

With the A320 docked, there was a short wait before we were allowed to disembark.

Overall:

Club Europe for this hour was passable, with a friendly crew. However, it seems on busy shuttles like this, the only reason to get Club Europe is to guarantee overhead bin space, and maybe get around to enjoy the food and beverage service.

Whilst British Airways chose to operate a larger aircraft than normal (which is so welcoming), there has to be a consideration for the cabin – especially when it consistently loads out where hand baggage is having to be loaded in the belly of the plane.

And blue luggage tags won’t fix that.

Next:

When baggage delivery takes as long as a flight: Welcome to Heathrow.