JapesUK

An absolutely flawless boarding experience today, group 0 called first and I wandered past the gathered passengers accompanied by a muttered ‘Group 0??’ Or two

First on the plane and into the last row of club, seat 7F.

It’s fair to say there is absolutely no legroom, even when manspreading!



Let’s just hope that 6F is the civilised sort and is not going to recline the seat minutes into the flight.

It’s looking like most of the passengers are on board, we are already thirty minutes late with no sign of the dispatcher yet, hopefully not too long now.

Next stop: London Heathrow

JapesUK

Next stop London Heathrow….. eventually.

We are still awaiting additional baggage because of the thoroughness of the gate agents in stripping bags from everyone, but, first officers announcement, the bag will not delay us adversely as we also have a 25 minute slot delay due to bad weather at Heathrow.

Nothing to do about it other than break out the iPad and watch a bit of TV

JapesUK

HAJ-LHR
BA997
G-TTNI

We were eventually pushed back fully a hour late, at 17:20, and ten minutes later we were on our way.

Crew were pretty good this afternoon, it took around twenty minutes for them to serve the 7 full rows in the business cabin. Afternoon tea was the order of the day, accompanied by a coffee and JW black label.





The crew continued to work the cabin the entire flight, I saw the champagne bottle pass up and down at least three times. Good, personable, interacting with everyone, the sort of crew that make it a pleasure to fly on BA short haul.

We have Finally landed at almost 17:45, will BA add insult to injury and send us to a bus gate?

Some really good views on the way in.


The walkie talkie building

London eye

Houses of Parliament

Kew Gardens

Lots of rain!

JapesUK

At first it looked like we were on a bus gate when the plane stopped here.



However the captain came on to ask people to stay in their seats as we were just waiting to go to the gates. He said that due to earlier disruption ‘planes were no where they were meant to be’ and apologised for the delay.

A few minutes Later we’d moved down towards the terminal when he announced that we were now waiting for Iberia to clear our gate.

and here we sit



Edit: and sit some more! 6:15 and captain expects us to get the stand by 6:30. Quite the queue a LHR and the captains comment of Heathrow being ‘in disarray’

JapesUK

And we made it eventually. Out and back in again via the first wing and no prizes for guessing where




I’m not the greatest of fish eaters but two new (to me) fish dishes have to be worth a try. Also worth a try are the Chardonnay and Chablis, a short pour of each to try with the fish.




At the time I passed through the first wing was surprising quiet considering the disruption

JapesUK

A disappointing dining experience in the Concorde room this evening.

There were a couple of new items on the menu so I thought I’d give them a try. they are both seafood dishes and I’m not much of a seafood eater but will go for it from time to time



The prawn polonaise starter and the fish pie main were the choices of the day. Both were disappointing . The prawn polonaise tasted of nothing, and the fish pie was a pea and fish pie. Never seen so many peas!






I thought I’d try a couple of wines for a change so ordered a half-pour of the Chablis and the Chardonnay. The Chablis was surprisingly tasteless to the point where had I been told it was a Pinot Grigio I wouldn’t have been surprised.

Things went significantly uphill for desert, the cheesecake and Sauternes were both enjoyable






And downhill at the end. The light had changed and I noticed this UNUSED water glass that had been on the table all meal, it was filthy



Time to retire to the bar where more disappointment awaited, the JW Umami is all gone Otard XO tonight… no hardship

Toula

Have to agree with you, that looks more like a pea pie with a token scatter of fish, very disappointing as fish pie is one of my favorites when someone else makes it.

JapesUK

Having lingered over the XO cognac and chatted to a chap at the bar who was on his return from the England match, it was 40 minutes to boarding so I decided to head to gate 9.



The gate itself was a bit of a scrum so I politely made my way to the agent managing the Tensa queue and asked about group 0, and was immediately marshalled to a separate queue to the left of the maze. A couple of minutes wait and I was first through and heading to the aircraft.

According to the boards we are scheduled to depart at 21:22 and experience dictates that there is absolutely no chance we will even be close to that, we will see.

I’m way back in 11C tonight and sitting side saddle! Mr 11B may not have the legs for the exit row but he has shoulders you could build skyscrapers on





And, no, definite not leaving at 21:22! Latest estimate is 21:36, which is 4 minutes time. Captain has made his announcement but the flight deck door is still open and the crew are still wandering around so even that time is looking highly suspect.

Next Stop: Newcastle, eventually

rapidex

Excellent as always. I'm back home to Thailand next week so I hope we have some decent trip reports for Ginger Tom to enjoy sitting on my lap

JapesUK

How is Ginger Tom these days?

JapesUK

LHR-NCL
BA1338
G-EUYU

Another new one to tick off the list, I’ve never had the pleasure of flying on G-EUYU before, although I’m not sure pleasure is the right word!

Pilots announcement and, shock, horror, gasps of amazement, not only have we missed our optimistic departure time, we now have a ten minute slot delay taking us all the way out to a 21:46 departure.

Eventually we were pushing back fully an hour late. It could be worse, the gent I was chatting to at the Concorde room bar already had a 1 hour 40 minute delay on the board for Aberdeen, and that was only likely to get worse.

And of course having said it could be worse, it was. Once we had pushed back and cleared the gate we then sat there for the best part of thirty minutes going nowhere!

A double ding from the flight deck signalled our impending take off and we were up up and away at 22:10, fully 110 minutes late.

Once the seatbelt signs were off I headed to the back of the plane to get a jump on the queues for the loo and there was an absolutely lovely crew member who was dead heading. I spent the vast majority of the flight standing in the galley chatting to her. Eventually I could feel that we were on our descent so said goodbye and returned to my seat just as the seatbelt light came on. A minute later the captain announced FIVE minutes to landing, along with an apology to the crew. Always good to have a bit of drama for the crew on the late flight

theshaun

11B's legs are definitely encroaching.

JapesUK

You should have seen the shoulders on that guy, he was a mountain. Worked out well in the end, I had a fun time chatting away in the rear galley and the flight went past really quickly.

JapesUK

And that brings this weekends adventure to an end. Not quite what was expected, and not without its dramas, but fun nevertheless. Standard arrival in Newcastle, gate A3, straight through to landside, and a 1 minute wait for an Uber.

It’s now 23:20 which is obviously a lot later than I’d expected, so it’ll be straight to bed as I’m working tomorrow

Thanks to everyone that followed along, hope it was entertaining, and maybe I’ll have another go at getting to Sibiu in the near future, who knows

I have nothing on the radar for a few weeks now, next planned trip is the FT do in Bristol at the end of the month. That said, I’m still sitting on a mountain of Avios so who knows what itchy feet may demand

theshaun

Thanks for sharing, Japes! I think it's safe to say you have developed quite the following of fans.