BA4469 Dublin Airport Terminal 1 to London City Airport (CLUB EUROPE)
Polishing Silver
Onto the last flight segment of this trip, as I cross back over the Irish Sea, head out to the North Sea and finally land at London City Airport. But can BA CityFlyer teach lessons to its mainline compatriots?
In this Tier Point-laden adventure
- All I ask is for one decent airfare. Just ONE. Anyone?
- Off to Birmingham Airport
- FR669 Birmingham to Dublin Airport with Ryanair
- Welcome to Dublin, Premier Inn – Dublin Airport
- Early Morning Dublin Airport and US Preclearance, 51st and Green Lounge
- AA723 Dublin to Philadelphia – Flagship Business Class
- A Rocky Interlude – Exploring Philadelphia
- Return to PHL and the Philadelphia American Airlines Admirals Club
- AA2663 Philadelphia to San Francisco – US Domestic First
- A new terminal and The Crowne Plaza, Burlingame
- The Intercontinental San Francisco (and trying the new BART trains)
- Asian Eats around San Francisco
- A challenge unto myself: Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge
- Ferrying around the bay with Golden Gate Ferry
- Of Dragons and Lions – Celebrations in San Francisco Chinatown
- Back to SFO, American Airlines Admirals Club
- AA164 San Francisco to New York JFK – Transcontinental Business Class
- A snow-laden pit stop at JFK and the American Airlines/British Airways Greenwich Lounge
- AA104 New York JFK to London Heathrow – Flagship Business Class
- Transiting across Heathrow Terminals and the British Airways Galleries North
- BA836 London Heathrow to Dublin Airport – Club Europe
- A Two Hour Dublin Turnaround featuring the Dublin Airport Lounge
- BA4469 Dublin to London City Airport – Club Europe by BA CityFlyer
- To the trains
- Points in the bag
BA4469 Dublin Airport to London City Airport
Embraer E190SR
Seat 3F, Club Europe
209 Miles flown, Zero Avios Earned, Zero Tier Points earned (25 Avios via Credit card)
Once more, it was time to head across the tarmac at Dublin Airport, as the aircraft I would be meeting was waiting for me.
And yes, these gates don’t have jetbridges. At least it wasn’t wet outside.
I boarded the Embraer E190, welcomed by a very happy cabin crew member, and headed to my seat.
This had the makings of a good flight.
Considering this is the smallest cabin I’ve flown on this entire trip it’s a little bit of a difference. Those big overhead bins are now long gone. Thankfully I had boarded early enough to grab overhead space for the backpack, with the bag of experience going at my feet
These felt small after days of SpaceBin XL’s
With that, I settled in. This E190 currently has some of the largest legroom in the BA fleet, with a 34” seat pitch with Geven seating. That makes it a rather comfortable place to be – even if British Airways is planning on denisfying the aircraft.
The rest of the passengers loaded up on the aircraft – with the seat next to me remaining free – that’s lovely to see – even if it’s an hour’s flight, as Club Europe seats can be both occupied on an Embraer (given they only offer 2-2 seating on BA Cityfler).
With the aircraft loaded up, there was a short delay – but eventually, it pushed back.
Aer Lingus A330s.
The safety demonstration was carried out manually, as the light faded outside.
With it complete, the aircraft made a short taxi to the “new” runway at Dubin Airport. After a short wait, we were allowed to head into the dusk of the evening.
The main occupants of the 100 Gates
A little far from home
Another Aer Lingus A330-300. Three on the ground, rather than out of revenue duty…
Ryanair Boeing 737-800
Aer Lingus A320 in classic colours
Wait.. is that a fourth A330 parked?
With a turn, the engines spooled up to take us in the air and off to London.
Away from the Winter Sun
What little light there was faded into darkness soon enough – the downsides of flying in the winter months during the winter seasons.
The cabin crew commenced their service with speed – as we all know the flight is just under 300 miles in the distance.
The cabin crew lead at the front handled each person with care and attention – customing the Club Europe service to their needs. That’s a great touch – even offering a pile of snacks for passengers who had requested special meals… which weren’t loaded.
There’s always one, isn’t there BA?
A choice of a vegetarian or meat-based salad was offered – I went with the meat offering. What did I get?
Well, I can see a large leaf, a fruit skewer, a mini scotch egg, a tote, and a mini salmon and cream cheese bagel.
To the side, there was a cucumber salad of some sort (or at least that’s what I thought it was… in all honesty, I’m still not sure what it was).
This was rounded off with a blackcurrant cheesecake.
It’s an eclectic mix, but the mixture of flavours was more than welcome at this point of the day.
Even if I had more mother ruin to keep me going (And again, I had about a quarter of a shot of gin and drowned it in tonic water… the other gin bottle wasn’t even touched).
I was starting to get a large miniatures collection at this point.
The flight continued onwards, as we crossed the Irish Sea, over Liverpool and headed southeast towards London.
Cities peaked out from the cloud cover, however getting pictures was pretty impossible. Although, again, I was tired of even taking photos at this point. The creative battery was running a little low, as I was now thinking of how to get home.
As we neared London, the aircraft swung out and headed to the North Sea, as it began the long loop to London City Airport.
During this time, the service was cleared down and again, the detail of the Cabin crew leader was amazing, ensuring that her Club passengers were happy, whilst ensuring the cabin was ready for landing.
With the Embraer E190 lining up along the river Thames, it was time for the steep descent that London City Airport is famous for. Typically an aircraft has a glide of 3 degrees into airports. The glideslope is a lot more aggressive at London City Airport at 5.5 degrees, requiring special approach software and landing skills
And it’s always fun – no matter the size of the aircraft. I’ve done this in BAe146, Embraer E175s, Embrearr E190s and even in Airbus A318 in the past. Thus, it’s always a challenge for the pilot – least of all they have a total runway of 1,508-metre-long (4,948 ft).
Thus, it’s always impressive to watch a pilot land on the postage stamp of a runway, which this captain did with ease.
Peeling off the runway, we have the classic Docklands nighttime lights, with Canary Wharf lit up like a Christmas tree as always.
Docklands.
It would be looking at them a bit longer, as our stand was occupied by another aircraft. It took 10 minutes or so for this to clear before our aircraft was allowed to pull up and park – remembering that aircraft don’t push back at London City Airport – as they come to park, they turn 270 degrees to be in a position to power on and depart.
Once we were parked, there was another delay, as the appropriate exit control was prepared for us (given that were an Irish Arrival – we did not have to clear passport control).
It took a while, but eventually, we were able to disembark.
I thanked the lovely cabin crew member – and headed for the exit.
Overall
I’ve always had high praise for BA Citiflyer in Club Europe – where they know they have limited time to deliver a service and can focus on it in both a friendly and professional style – adding personalization to that service.
And this boils down to the crew – I’ve long said a crew can make or break a flight and this cabin crew member led from the front, delivering excellent service whilst showing the best side of British Airways I’ve seen for some time.
It just makes one hell of a difference.
Next:
To Docklands Light Railway, the Underground and back home to Birmingham.
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It takes a quality cabin crew to make a short flight enjoyable, rather than just doing the minimum. Nicely done, BA!
And your photos from Dublin on this trip did remind that while I don’t mind the new Aer Lingus livery, I definitely preferred the prior one.
Give me the olde shamrock any day of the week. The new one is a swoop with a shamrock.
As for BA Cityflyer and its crew – I’ve always found them a step above the Heathrow crews. They’ve got more practice at routes, know the time of delivery, and get on with it whilst engaging with people, as opposed to serving them.
Makes one hell of a difference