BA749 Euroairport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg to London Heathrow (EuroTraveller/Economy Class)
Older. Yes, Wiser? No.
- Age is a social construct. Frequent flyer programmes, doubly so.
- Morning coaches. Coach Fun and comedies
- British Airways Galleries North Lounge, Heathrow Terminal 5
- BA772 London Heathrow to Zurich (Eurotraveller)
- Into Zurich
- Experiments in photography: The Canon EOS R50
- Back to Zurich Airport and a dreaded Text message
- IC3 Zurich Airport to Basel Hbf
- To EuroAirport Basel and The Queue from Hades
- The Skyview Lounge, EuroAirport Basel
- BA749 Euroairport Basel to London Heathrow (EuroTraveller)
- Little Britain at its worst
- Older yes. Wiser? Dear deity… of course not!
Ah. The concept of boarding is always an interesting one – with gate staff wanting to get shot of people as fast as possible… especially when the aircraft isn’t ready (as I saw the crew board this aircraft before everyone else).
Still, I had a view of the A320 that would be taking me home that evening.
Eventually, the queue began to move. Wonderful.
Into the front left door.
BA749 Euroairport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg to London Heathrow Terminal 5
British Airways Airbus A320
Seat 27F, Eurotraveller (Economy Class)
448 miles flown, £33 “Revenue” spent, 264 Avios earned.
I was welcomed aboard the A320, again noting this configuration has had the front left partition deleted
It seems that it optimises the boarding experience, whilst keeping row 1 keeps cold.
It’s just another reason for me to select Row 2 when booking a Club Europe flight (and ideally, not with pay with hard cash – not that Club Europe is anything special these days)
However, what was “new” to me was how far down the cabin I would need to go, with row 27 being the third to last row on an A320.
I plonked myself down, against a window, whilst stowing my rucksack in the overhead.
Yes – I could have put it between my legs, but honestly, it’s one of the few reasons to board first – overhead space.
In terms of leg space, I was crammed in down the back.
Whilst British Airways has been modifying its layouts to accommodate more seats, passenger comfort hurts – especially with the Pinnacle seat. Whilst it was designed for short-haul missions, it was designed to be comfortable at 31” and above. Here it fits a lot tighter. Sadly, I didn’t have my in-flight tape measure, but it felt less than the normal 30″ you’d expect.
At least this aircraft had power at the seat – a major upgrade over the inbound aircraft.
The aircraft filled up quickly, as did the overhead bins. There were appeals for coats to be stored by the person, but these were mostly ignored.
With the aircraft loaded, the captain came on the announcement and apologized for the late running of the service. Apparently, they had a medical emergency at Heathrow, which required them to go back to the gate, offload the passenger, and then head off again.
I can understand that – but it would have taken BA next to nothing to put out that a medical delay was causing the issue with the flight, rather than just saying “Flight delayed”.
No matter.
The aircraft pushed back in the rain that was showering Euroairport Basel, and we taxied out to the runway. Honestly, I was just listening for the double-bong indicating were were about to take off.
With ease the aircraft took to the air, leaving behind the rain of Basel, but running through a rather rough cloud patch as we fought to climb into the sky.
With the aircraft in the sky, I decided to play with the online portal – well, I certainly wasn’t going to pay for Wi-Fi this flight, as I would be only disconnected for an hour.
And sometimes, having that point of disconnection is an important thing.
Nonetheless, I had a look at pricing – it wasn’t exactly bad, but not allow me to reach the PayPal or Credit Card to hit the buy button.
Although I do wish BA would add an ADS-B powered map so passengers could monitor their flight and not just watch a time bar disappear into nothing.
I also feel they’ve missed a trick, by charging for messaging still. There’s a slow, but ongoing move to make at least messaging free of charge in the sky – and considering the bandwidth that takes (and considering you can’t send pictures over the messaging tiers normally), it would cost minimal amounts, yet yield a lot of loyalty data.
I guess the IAG bean counters can’t think that far.
A catering service began to flow through the cabin – again, there was a free bottle of water (250ml) with either the choice of a corn-based snack or a flapjack.
For reference, a 250ml bottle of water is one of the smaller bottles you can get. This should put the flapjack into some perspective.
Yep – it’s tiny. Good thing I dined in the lounge.
The flight continued along, with us putting distance between Basel and France. I could see at one point coastal lights – indicating we were nearing the UK. The crew were also finishing up their infight cafe service.
So, pro-tip. If you want time to enjoy your inflight dining, sit nearer the front.
As we closed in on our destination, a PA came out to allow connecting passengers to deplane first, as some had tight (and in a lot of cases), missed connections
Of course, Heathrow’s control was going to throw another spanner in that for their sins.
With us nearing London, we had some impressive views of the south of the city and were sent back and forth across the city, until air traffic control lined us up for arrival, with the aircraft targeting the south runway.
Now, there had been winds at Heathrow which I was aware of – it was the reason why two flights I had selected had been cancelled.
Well our pilot had fund, with them fighting the aircraft and the wind all the way down to the tarmac
Here’s the full video:
Yes, there was clapping when we landed. For once, you can’t fault anyone for clapping on landing. That was… a tough landing, to put it mildly.
Singapore Airlines and Korean Air Cargo
With the A320 taxing off the runway, it was clear something wasn’t quite right, as we were not heading to the terminal areas, but rather to the hard stands.
Cathay Pacific Boeing 777-300ER
A pair of Virgins
Hard stands it is
It seemed those with connections would be having a longer wait than they would like… and could well be spending the night in London.
Eventually, the aircraft taxied onto a stand. People did let those with tight connections off first, as buses were waiting.
Sardine Cans.
Awaiting the airstairs
I waited for the queues to abate and made my exit off the Airbus A320.
As exited I thanked the crew and the captain and headed down the stairs to one of the waiting buses.
Overall:
The crew did a good job of serving the customer base, with a basic enough soft product. And those in the cockpit did a marvellous job of bringing us onto the ground safely.
This is where BA shines – its product might be mediocre some days, but the crew can elevate a poor product into a good one.
Now, if they could work on better seats on the back of the aircraft. Even those fixed-back Recaros they have on their neo aircraft could be an improvement, allowing more leg space in the back of the aircraft.
Next:
And I don’t mean that in a comedic way, unfortunately.
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