Review of British Airways flight Marseille London in Economy

Airline British Airways
Flight BA369
Class Economy
Seat 04A
Aircraft Airbus A319
Flight time 02:00
Take-off 20 Nov 15, 15:05
Arrival at 20 Nov 15, 16:05
BA   #65 out of 95 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings. 960 reviews
Scott05
By 2013
Published on 28th November 2015
Hello everyone ! I am back with my first series of FR in English (a very short series of only 2 FRs actually)

For this trip, I needed to get to Sheffield, England from my home airport of Marseille. However, arriving at Doncaster Sheffield Airport was a bit of a challenge, as it's quite poorly served. I could have considered a transfer in Dublin with Aer Lingus, however their website does not seem to offer France to UK trips, for some reasons.

So for the first time in my short frequent flyer life I could use my BA Avios to get there. I considered flying to Leeds, however the friend I was meeting in Sheffield informed me that it could be difficult to get from Leeds Airport to Sheffield as there are no bus links between the two. The last option was to fly to Manchester via LHR.

Here is the very simple routing, note that I did not report the LHR-MAN flight as it was during dark hours and the LHR-MRS flight for the same reasons. However the service was exactly the same inbound and outbound so it's still a good sample of the BA short haul international and domestic offering.



  • Marseille-Provence - London Heathrow / BA369 / A319-100 Here
  • London Heathrow - Manchester Airport / BA1402 / A320-200 No FR
  • Manchester Airport - London Heathrow / BA1375 / A319-100 Later
  • London Heathrow - Marseille-Provence / BA370 / A320-200 No FR


______________________________________


I tried to check in online 24 hours before the flight, however after entering my booking reference and the number of luggage I was checking-in, the website indicated that online check-in was not available and that I should check-in at the airport.
I have no idea if it is linked with the fact I didn't have any luggages to check-in, or perhaps due to the recent tragic attacks in Paris… Or just a computer glitch.

So off I went to the airport and arrived there about 1:45 early. I proceeded to the check-in counters, which were divided in three lanes : general check-in which was quite busy, bag drop only which was empty, and Business Class plus other priorities.
Given the fact that I had no luggages I didn't want to queue so I went straight to the Bag drop counter.

The employee was professional (I won't say warm), and I told her I just needed my boarding passes. She asked if I had been rebooked from a cancelled flight, which I was not, and then proceeded to give me my two BPs to MAN.
She then asked me to go to the gate as soon as possible. - You mean right now ? I asked a bit surprised. She said yes.

I still waited a bit landside as the security lane for non Shenghen flights was almost empty and I did not want to wait for nearly an hour airside.

Security was still empty, and while I was walking in the lanes from left to right all the way to the control area, the man behind me laughed at how ridiculous we looked zig-zagging around this empty hall.

The gate was empty as I arrived, and the plane landed at around 14:25, which made me believe we were not going to leave on time.

As the Airbus rolled towards the gate, I realised the expected A320 had been switched to a smaller A319.

photo P1050001

G-EUPS was delivered new to British Airways in October 2000, so it's definitely not a recent bird.

photo P1050004photo P1050005

Boarding was called at 14:45, with priorities followed by all passengers. Some passengers had to had their BP changed because they had checked-in on an A320 cabin so the seat plan was different.

I grabbed a copy of the Independent in front of the jetty, I think the other newspaper available was the Daily Mail.

I was warmly welcomed on board by the female purser and walked the short distance that separated me from row 4, where my two neighbours where already seated.

A RAM 737-800 was also boarding next to us.

photo P1050006

The legroom just behind the Club Europe cabin is nothing to complain about (I'm 1.82m)

photo P1050007

The cabin is the new standard one (probably three years old), it has with new seats, curtains, and walls.

photo P1050008

The captain welcomed us through the PA, and announced an on-time arrival, although we pushed back late at 15:15.

photo P1050009photo P1050010

The RAM 737 pushed back at the same time, but we let it pave the way to the runway, for a westbound take-off.

photo P1050011photo P1050015photo P1050016

We let this HOP! Embraer 135 land before aligning…

photo P1050017

And take off !



It only took 10 minutes to the cabin crew to start the service. A Chinese steward who looked 20 distribited the snack down the aisle while his colleague followed with the beverage trolley. I had a Gin and Tonic.

The snack consisted of a Smoked ham and Picadilly sauce roll, with a Glazed chocolate and orange marmalade filling bun.
I actually enjoyed it. You can't say BA doesn't bring a British touch to its catering, plus it's a much better offering than what you would find on an Air France or KLM flight.

photo P1050024photo P1050025

The rest of the flight was smooth, and we did circle a couple times above London as usual. We landed at 16:24 at LHR, so 20 minutes late. I still had two hours to connect and change terminals, so no worries for me.



Landing at LHR. The taxi time was amongst the shortest I experienced, the gates at Terminal 3 being just in front of the exit taxiway.



I deplaned and walked all the way to the shuttle bus to T5. Connecting at LHR isn't such a bad experience, but the walking distances and corridors can be stressful if you're on a tight connection.
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Verdict

British Airways

7.9/10
Cabin8.0
Cabin crew8.0
Entertainment/wifi7.5
Meal/catering8.0

Marseille - MRS

7.5/10
Efficiency10.0
Access8.0
Services6.0
Cleanliness6.0

London - LHR

7.4/10
Efficiency7.0
Access7.5
Services7.5
Cleanliness7.5

Conclusion

Overall a good experience on BA.
The crew was friendly and efficient, and the captain spoke to us several times, which is always pleasant.
The catering is just what I would expect for a light snack, although I might have been less generous if it was served as a proper lunch (which is probably what they do for mid day or evening flights).
The moving map on the screen is nice, altough I couldn't see it properly as it was behind the Club Europe curtains.

See you soon for the MAN-LHR flight and thanks for reading !

Information on the route Marseille (MRS) London (LHR)

Les contributeurs de Flight-Report ont posté 10 avis concernant 1 compagnies sur la ligne Marseille (MRS) → London (LHR).


Useful

La compagnie qui obtient la meilleure moyenne est British Airways avec 7.3/10.

La durée moyenne des vols est de 2 heures et 4 minutes.

  More information

8 Comments

If you liked this review or if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post a comment below !
  • Comment 151309 by
    Benoit75008 7191 Comments
    THanks for your report,

    MRS begin to be quite old, a huge renovation is required!
    BA is providing good services onbaord, anyways AF improved it too recently, meanwhile this british touch is a pretty good idea.

    LHR is not a nightmare like FRA or even CDG?

    See you
    • Comment 329168 by
      Scott05 AUTHOR 570 Comments
      Thanks !
      MRS is indeed showing its age, although they have a massive renovation and expansion plan going on, starting in 2016 to 2020 if I remember correctly.
      I haven't flown AF in years, but will fly them to AMS next month, so I will see for myself !
      I guess LHR could be seen as as much of a nightmare than CDG or FRA for any typical traveller, however I'm used to LHR so it probably doesn't seem so intimidating in the end.
  • Comment 151332 by
    BobbieD 93 Comments
    Thanks for this nice report. It seems like the service was quite good for short haul, certainly the food is more impressive than some other carriers. In the past I have avoided BA due to the lack of UK destinations and a reputation for a can't be bothered attitude but it seems here that you got everything you could wish for on this type of flight.
    • Comment 329190 by
      Scott05 AUTHOR 570 Comments
      Thanks ! I can't recall ever having a bad crew on BA, or maybe on some red eye transatlantic flights where you don't get to see the crew much of the flight, but on short haul they're generally friendly.
      Yes I remember flying from Lyon to Edinburgh via Birmingham on BA City Flyer only 10 years ago, this is a thing of the past !
  • Comment 151459 by
    NGO85 SILVER 1963 Comments
    Thanks for sharing this report with the English community!

    BA offers a decent product on intra-European flights, surprising considering how IB handles things. The catering looks better than LH and the seat looks like it has a good pitch. Definitely looks to be a better option than EI would have been.
    • Comment 329301 by
      Scott05 AUTHOR 570 Comments
      You're welcome ! I should find the motivation to always publish in both languages, perhaps when my FRs are a bit more exciting ;)
      The catering is always fine, but it's true LH usually offers a sandwich.
      Defintely a better option than EI, as they have BOB and use smaller ATRs on UK regional routes.
  • Comment 151907 by
    KévinDC TEAM SILVER 6668 Comments
    Thanks for posting this new series in English! I've flown BA on intra-European before (LHR-TLS-LHR) and found them to be above average service-wise. The sandwich and full bar is better than AF, with only sucré-salé, on similar routes IMO. Those look like the new seats. I thought they were only pitched at 30 even in Club Europe, but the legroom doesn't look that bad from your pics, especially knowing that you are 1m82. Thanks for sharing!
    • Comment 329701 by
      Scott05 AUTHOR 570 Comments
      Thank you ! I agree on the higher quality of service, although AF did upgrade their offering slighlty in the past months.
      Yes I found the pitch good enough, even if I saw a number of remarks online regarding the tight pitch. Maybe there is a different configuration but I did not notice it.

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