BA887 Bucharest Henri Coandă to London Heathrow Airport (Club Europe)
Miles to Bucharest
Time to look at the Club Europe passenger experience for this 3-hour and 20-minute flight back to London. Will there be any surprises? And will the clouds be clear enough that when the aircraft approaches London, will I get decent nighttime views?
In this adventure
- The Last Gasp of Silver (or British Airways did us all dirty)
- Off to Heathrow and the wonder of Terminal 3
- Lounging around Terminal 3 with Cathay Pacific and Qantas
- BA886 London Heathrow to Bucharest Henri Coandă (Club Europe)
- Exiting Bucharest Henri Coandă Airport and into the City – Of Trains and Trams
- The Mercure Urinii – An Accor ALL Hotel
- A Nighttime Walk with an iPhone
- A Morning Exploration around Central Bucharest
- Back to Bucharest Henri Coandă Airport and the Visa Satellite Lounge
- BA887 Bucharest Henri Coandă Airport to London Heathrow (Club Europe)
- Two Trains, A Tube and a Bus to Home
- Silver retained. But a New Battle awaits
BA886 Bucharest Henri Coandă International Airport to London Heathrow Terminal 3
British Airways
Seat 7F, Club Europe
1,311 miles flown
80 Tier Points Earned,£266.revenue spent, 2,131 Avios Earned.
Heading down the jetbridge, I saw how Bucharest Airport was trying to keep on-time boarding – with passengers waiting on the jetbridge. 
G-EUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
Sigh.
Eventually, passengers were cleared to board the aircraft. I headed aboard the A320ceo (with no fancy sharklets, only the classic wingtip fences) and was greeted by the crew.
Turning right, I headed to the last row of Club Europe.
Utterly premium and checking the seat, again no one reset the headrest.
Since this is an Airbus A320ceo with Collins Pinnacle seats, these retain the cocktail table (compared to the A320neos, which don’t get tray tables unless you’re on the new aircraft with Meridian Seats).
The seat pitch is again tight for Eurobusiness with a 30” seat pitch. At least I could get semi-comfortable as the aircraft loaded up for the flight back to London.
I’d be more comfortable if they replaced the foam in these seats – they’ve been through more bottoms than… ummm. Hmmm. I don’t have a good comparison that would show me in a good light here.
With the aircraft filling up for a full flight back to London, the game of luggage jenga came along.
And I’m going to be blunt – airlines made their own rod for their delays when they stopped including luggage in basic fares. By doing that, passengers want to take everything with them and this is where we have luggage jenga. Of course, this could be avoided with larger overhead bins… but that would involve British Airways and IAG spending hard money.
I swore there. I apologise.
With the A320 fully loaded, the doors were about to close as we prepared for the return to London. We were advised that most of the wind of the storm had cleared, so it would be a smooth ride back to London.
The crew carried out the safety demonstration manually as our aircraft began the taxi out to the far North Runway, as we would be taking off in a Westerly direction.
Safety Card.
Cabin during taxi
Parked Ryanair and Wizzair jets
With a roar the engines came to life, propelling the Airbus A320 into the sky.
As the aircraft settled into its climb, the crew came around to give out menus for the flight back to London.
Again, it’s good to see that BA is loading menus for these flight segments in its premium cabin – even if the seating isn’t exactly premium.
As the climb continued, I connected to the on-aircraft Wi-Fi, with the airline offering 1 hour for £4.99, a full flight for £9.99 or a free Messaging session for Executive Club members.
Buy buy buy!
Full price… payable with Apple Pay.
Although you’ll need to manage in a 300mb limit.
I also managed to dig into the system and found the European Aviation Network maps of coverage, with EAN using S-Band connectivity for satellite connectivity and ground towers to improve speed.
I chose the messaging option, as it allows connection to WhatsApp.
These days, for short-haul flights, I prefer to be otherwise disconnected, playing CrossyRoad (at least the adverts can’t reach – so it’s a more classical gaming experience, rather than having an advert shoved in your face every time you splat a character in the road).
Again, this was a much more relaxed service for Club Europe, so there was a separate drink, then a meal service. I was basic and stuck to what I knew. 
Yes. Predictable. Nothing is going to change on this front I suspect in the future. And yes, the crew provided top-ups.
However, it was perfect to watch the world go by, as two other aircraft were tracking in the distance. The meal service commenced, with a choice of items on the menu. They were
- Sticky chilli chicken grilled vegetables, basmati rice
- Mascarpone panzerotti wilted spinach, Parmesan crusted cauliflower, Snowdonia Red Fox cheese sauce
- British roast beef salad
Thankfully, all items were still available by the time they got to me. I went for the Sticky Chilli Chicken. Here’s what turned up. 
The tray
Top left: Smoked chickpea salad with roasted chilli broccolini, oven-dried cherry tomato, Kalamata olives, lemon labneh.
Top right: Red Fox Leicester and Wensleydale Blue with apricot and ginger chutney
Centre: Salted Caramel mousse
Side: Roll
Smoked chickpea salad with roasted chilli broccolini, oven-dried cherry tomato, Kalamata olives, lemon labneh.
Sticky Chilli Chicken with Grilled Vegetables and Basmati Rice
Salted Caramel mousse
Not a bad tray at all. The salad was not a bad presentation, whilst the Sticky Chilli Chicken was filling.
The cheese was passed as usual – whilst the salted caramel mouse was a nice sweet treat.
With the trays cleared down, all that was left was to look out of the window and guess where I was in the world.
I do wish BA would reinstate a map function, either with an overhead screen or on the webpage via the BA Portal screen via the phone – it would help to spot locations out like this a lot easier, rather than pouring over GPS coordinates in images.
With solutions such as FlightPath3D or even the ADS-B Map that AirFi have deployed and is somewhat easy to integrate, it’s not impossible to give that experience to short haul pasengers.
To be honest, time flew as I was looking out of the window as day turned into night. Soon enough the cloud changed from darkness to twinkling city lights as we began our descent to London Heathrow.
With the cabin cleared down, the cabin went into darkness as we made our approach.
Docklands, and The Dome
East London and Tower Bridge
Parliament, The Elizabeth Tower and The Wheel
The West End
Hyde Park
West London
Football pitches
With a bump, our Airbus A320 made it to its home base of Heathrow Airport.
The aircraft landed on the North Runway, so it taxiied off the runway at the first opportunity and onto the taxiways, as it began its loop around Terminal 3 (remember that Bucharest flights are serviced from T3).
Penalty parking spots
Terminal 5 in the distance
Waiting Speedbirds
Looking at the Cargo area
The aircraft made a loop of the T3 complex, passing the usual American Airlines, Cathay, Virgin and Delta gates, as it taxied towards the south runway, then turning towards the Gate 8/9 and the A380 gates at Terminal 3
And if on cue… an Emirates A380
With the aircraft lined up for Gate 309 – Gate 9, it began its final approach to the gate.
Back to the beginning.
With the engines powering down and lights coming up, the scramble for the exit began. I wasn’t in a rush, but it seemed the rest of the cabin was.
I grabbed my rucksack and waited for the jetbridge to attach. Like a bottle of champagne that had been shaken up, people started flowing out.
When it got to my turn, I thanked the crew.
I was in the mood to head home.
Overall
Again, a perfectly reasonable service – even if I was in the last row to be served. The Club Europe meal was passable to the point of being favourable, whilst not being outstanding. For once, the aircraft departed and arrived on time – even if its the typical “wait in the jetbridge boarding style”, famous of various European airports.
As for the seat, I do wish BA would spend the money and upgrade to the Collins Aspire Seat (compared to the existing Premium Economy seat, they’re taking a pounding over the years).
However, the most interesting chatter in the cabin was BA’s changes in Frequent Flyer point earning. The natives were not happy in the least (and I noticed this both on the outbound and inbound flights).
Whilst there have been some changes to attempt to please the masses, it remains to be seen if it’s enough to keep them as passengers.
Or me.
Next:
Two Trains, a Tube and Bus – Return to Birmingham
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