Getting to the Airport

My flight to Basel is scheduled for 14h20. The app shows that today’s flight is operated by a classic Airbus A 320. The Heathrow Express and the Elizabeth Line are both running again, which significantly reduces the journey time from the West End to Heathrow.

Check-In

Heathrow is very busy today. Security is taking forever, and passengers are aimlessly walking about like droves of suicidal lemmings. Ahead of me is an Italian this close to having an apoplectic fit because, apparently, he lost his boarding pass somewhere between scanning it to get airside and being ejected from security. I don’t get the drama. Just cool it, find a BA counter or kiosk and have a new one printed.

The BA South Lounge

The British Airways Club Lounge is also very full. The only difference between being in here or outside the lounge is that inside, the food is for free. Other than that, I see no benefit. It’s about just as difficult to find a place to sit. Although, probably, the public toilets are in better shape than the ones in the lounge.

Eventually, I grab a seat by the window and watch the seemingly endless queue of aircraft from around the world taxi to the holding point and then take off from runway 09R.

Boarding

Boarding is from gate A11 on the main concourse. This time, boarding is quite well organised and orderly.

Originally, I’m seated on 1C. However, once boarding is completed, 1D and 1F are both still vacant, so I shift across to take the window seat on 1F.

The Cabin & Seat

Sitting on row 1 makes a huge difference in BA Club Europe. The pitch is very good and much better than on the following rows, making it the only row on the plane in which I can fit my legs comfortably without having to sit there spread eagled.

The Crew & Service

The Business Class cabin is served by the purser, a female in her fifties, and a much younger trans woman I would place in her thirties. The purser in funny and so typically English. Her default seems to be to address every passenger as darlin’. She’s great! The younger one is a bit weird, mainly because she seems very shy. Which kind of makes you wonder why she chose to be a flight attendant, of all professions, in the first place.

On the ground there is no service at all. There are no menus to hand out nor hot towels, so the service is very much reduced to what happens inflight.

The Meal Service – Afternoon Tea

I know, I know: not another afternoon tea! But hey, this one really isn’t my fault. The meal is served on one tray that is brought out directly from the galley. There is a plate with three finger sandwiches. On the right is a ploughman’s, which is onion chutney and cheddar, followed by roast beef, and then a smoked salmon canapé. With that, the crew serve warm scones with strawberry jam and a pot of clotted cream. The sweet is a fluffy cheesecake.

I enjoy this afternoon tea, and I think it’s a nice way for BA to set itself apart on short-haul flights, by offering something that, to the best of my knowledge, no other airline in Europe offers and that is so typically English.

Arrival

The flight time to Basel is 65 minutes. By the time we start our descent into Basel, it’s already getting dark. We land and taxi to our stand at the non-Schengen pier. As we disembark, I notice the Turkish Airlines evening service pulling onto the next stand, which means I need to get a move on. The last thing I want is to be stuck behind a whole A 321 load full of Turks returning home with all sorts of goodies after the holidays.

Conclusion

The one thing that always strikes me about British Airways, is the level of professionalism of their crews. They just seem so polished and put together in the way they handle the passengers. And this flight was no different. The afternoon tea service is nice and a refreshing change to what other carriers in Europe serve on a flight of similar duration. Other than that, though, it’s obvious that the service has been cut back to the bare necessities. Most other European carriers will at least offer you a bottle of still water during boarding, for example. Also, the lounges in Heathrow are looking old and worn. They’re also way too crowded. Hopefully, the latter issue will improve over time with the recently announced changes to the Executive Club programme, which, I think, raise the threshold for achieving status with BA that will grant lounge access.