On my last evening in London I have tickets to see Agatha Christie’s Witness for the Prosecution. The original film from 1957 had the legendary Marlene Dietrich in the role of the leading lady. I won’t give away the plot for those of you who don’t know the short story and haven’t seen the film or play. I will say, though, that it speaks of the fabulous criminal mind of Agatha Christie that even after all these years, she is still capable of drawing a surprised gasp from her audience!

Getting to Heathrow

The next morning I exit the Sofitel St. James just after noon and walk up to Piccadilly tube station. Both the Elizabeth Line and Heathrow Express are still on a reduced schedule for planned maintenance work. So I’ll just have to hop on a Piccadilly line train that makes the journey out to Terminal 5 in 52 minutes.

Check-In

I can’t wait to finally arrive home, simply so I don’t need to schlepp my enormous suitcase around with me anymore. At Heathrow T5 I head up to departures on the top floor. Business Class check-in is on row A at the north end of the terminal building.

The British Airways Lounges at T5

The Galleries lounge is located just behind fast track security. The lady at the entrance tells me that the south lounge is likely not quite so busy. I have time to spare anyway, so I figure I might as well check out the south lounge.

I’m not sure if it’s really that much quieter, but at least I manage to find a seat at a table right away. As mentioned in my previous posts about British Airways, catering is something they do really well. And that includes the lounges. I grab myself a savoury pie and mash, drown it in gravy and I’m good to go.

Boarding

Boarding is from gate A 10, which is a bus gate at ground level. I don’t think I’ve ever boarded from a bus gate in Heathrow before.

British Airways is obviously taking the definition of remote in remote stand quite literally. Our aircraft is parked far, far away near the kerosene farm.

The Cabin & Seat

I’m seated on 1C, which is an aisle seat. While the seat looks like your standard issue Euro business set up, there are two things that strike me about the cabin. The first is the abundance of leg space on row 1, which is definitely better than what you usually get with British Airways on the bulkhead row. The second is that the bulkhead itself is white, and not the usual dark blue/grey that British Airways has on the rest of the fleet. It’s also missing the Speedbird swoosh.

The Crew & Service

The crew on this flight are interesting. Up front are two fairly young men. The purser is perfectly turned out. His colleague, though, not quite. He has unkempt and unruly hair that looks as though he didn’t even make an attempt to bring it under control. However, his manners are impeccable. He’s very friendly, polite and really goes out of his way to provide an excellent service. I don’t see the two other crew working the back of the bus at all during the flight. All I can say is that the one making the announcements has an excellent speaking voice. Unlike the crews you get on some airlines, he carefully articulates and enunciates his words, for example to give them a certain emphasis during the safety briefing.

The Meal – Afternoon Tea

Our flight time to Basel is 75 minutes. The service starts as soon as the fasten seatbelt sign is turned off just as we start crossing the English Channel. There are two choices, and I go for the vegetarian option.

The tray consists of a nice plate containing red slaw, a small piece of quiche, a Scottish egg, sun dried tomato, cheese, and pickles. With that, the crew serve warm scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam. For the sweet there is a small dulce de leche tartlet. The unkempt flight attendant and I have a brief chat on the merits of plain scones and the general vileness of raisins. He hands me my sparkling water and then moves on to the next row. All in all, it’s a very nice and enjoyable meal service.

Arrival in Basel

Along the way we get a few shortcuts, so that eventually our flight time is only just slightly over one hour. Basel airport is very quiet. There are five Easyjet aircraft on the ground with their engine covers on that don’t look like there going anywhere anytime soon. Accordingly, my suitcase arrives in record time.

Conclusion

It’s so nice to be back home. It’s also nice to not have to live out of a suitcase anymore. Other than that, this was a pleasant flight with BA. The extra legroom on this aircraft was a pleasant surprise. I couldn’t find anything on flight radar, but I was just wondering if perhaps the non-standard bulkhead was because this aircraft previously operated out of Gatwick or so.