Review of British Airways flight from Stockholm to London in Economy

Hello and welcome to another short series of flight reports, covering my recent trip to London. This part will cover the outbound flight from Stockholm to London onboard a Boeing 767-300ER operated by British Airways.

Background:
There was no actual reason to why we booked this trip, me and my dad just had random plans for a quickie to London sometime in July 2016 and spontaneously booked a trip with British Airways to London between July 25 and July 28 2016. The trip was close to being cancelled 5-6 days before departure due to some last-minute changes to my dad's plans for these days. He reviewed his situation a day or two before departure and told me he would still be able to head out to London as planned from the start. Norwegian, SAS and BA were the options for non-stop flights to London (or Ryanair from Skavsta). British Airways won the game at last, the deciding factor was to try out the Boeing 767-300ER that flies to Stockholm on the BA780/BA781 rotation. We chose BA781 as the outbound flight (despite unfavourable timings for us) and BA786 in an A319 as the inbound flight to Stockholm, BA786 is BA's last flight from London to Stockholm which meant we would be able to make some decent use of the last day in London before heading back to STO.

NOTE: Pictures used in this report are taken with my camera and phone.

Part 1 - ARN-LHR, BA781, British Airways, Boeing 767-300ER, G-BNWA - You are here
Part 2 - LHR-ARN, BA786, British Airways, Airbus A319-100, G-EUPE - Coming soon

There were 7 BA flights to LHR on our date of departure, we selected BA781 with the main reason being to try out the B763.

The last flight back to Stockholm is BA786 and departs LHR at 20:10 local time, we chose this inbound flight in order to make the most out of the last day in London. The flight arrives at Stockholm ARN at 23:40 local time, an appropriate ending to a trip for us.

Parking was extremely expensive and parking at the long-term parking lots were fully booked according to Swedavia, a taxi would be expensive as well so we opted for the bus to Arlanda. Flygbussarna (Airport Coaches) serves my local bus stop every 20 minutes, me and my dad purchased two one-way tickets to Arlanda Airport for 89 and 99 SEK respectively (USD 10,5/USD 12). We originally thought about catching the 15:52 bus for our 18:05 departure but later opted for the 16:12 departure because of a late inbound aircraft from LHR. This screenshot shows trips from the bus stop to Arlanda Terminal 5, the trip to Terminal 2 is listed at 28 minutes instead.

Our B763 was late coming in from LHR.

Swedavia predicted a 30 minute delay from 18:05 to 18:35.

We arrived at my local bus stop after 10 minutes of walking, we were early by 11 minutes to keep a decent margin as the airport coaches can be early sometimes. Here's a Volvo B9S 8500 operating line 554 to Råby.

Another Volvo B9S 8500 operating a blue bus line 179 to Vällingby, there were three of these buses going to Vällingby within 10 minutes. Security staff can be seen on the picture.

A VDL Citea XLE 145.

A MAN Lion's City G (A23) just completed line 523.

Our bus finally arrived with a delay of 5 minutes this time. Two buses operated by Flygbussarna came in at the same time, one to Bromma Airport and one to Arlanda Airport. The bus in the back was our ride to Arlanda.

I scanned my barcode ticket located in my phone and settled into one of many available seats.

A Volvo B9R 8900 and a Scania Omnilink in front to the left.

A last look at the bus stop (or bus terminal) before heading out to Arlanda via the E4 motorway.

Joining the E4 motorway to Arlanda Airport.

Taking the exit to Arlanda Airport 20 minutes after we left my local bus stop/terminal.

The ATC tower at ARN.

Driving up to Terminal 5 departures where the majority of the international flights are handled, we would continue to Terminal 2 as BA operates from Terminal 2.

The arrivals section is located here below the departures area.

Terminal 4, SK's and DY's domestic flights are operated from this terminal.

The last stop is Terminal 2/3, this is were we'll get off.

We arrived at Terminal 2 at 16:49 local time, a delayed arrival of 9 minutes.

Terminal 2 landside.

Security at Terminal 2, the queues for security were minimal during our short stay in the landsida area.

Pretty empty BA check-in desks, I wonder what the load will be in the 763.

I always issue a spare BP from the check-in kiosks, here I am issuing spare BPs for me and my dad with one of the newer check-in kiosks.

There was nothing to do before departure, me and my dad walked to security after I issued our secondary BPs. Security was very smooth and efficient as always.

Our flight was scheduled to depart from gate 86. Gates 70-87 at Terminal 2 are used for BA's, KK's (AtlasGlobal) and DL's flights out of Terminal 2 as these are the only non-Schengen airlines operating out of T2. There was a huge mess around gate 63-64 where the KL flight back to AMS and AB flight to DUS would depart from. I just walked past that area and went upstairs to the non-Schengen gates.

A restaurant was found upstairs before walking to the passport control.

Passport control.

ET 788, DHL 752, HP (Amapola flyg) F50.

Most of the time was spent sitting by the gate before boarding would get announced, we sat next to a few power ports. I took the chance to charge up my phone instead of using my power bank.

Seating area around gate 86.

BP.

Our 767 from London LHR finally arrived at gate 86 at 17:42 local time. A veteran in service with BA since 1990.

Flight information:
Airline: British Airways
Flight no & route: BA781 ARN-LHR
Scheduled time of departure (actual): 18:05 (18:43), 6:06 PM (6:43 PM) UTC +2
Scheduled time of arrival (actual) : 19:50 (19:58), 7:50 PM (7:58 PM) UTC +1
Scheduled flight time (actual): 2h 45 min (2h 15 min)

KL B738 heading back to AMS as KL1116.

Priority boarding commenced at 18:10 local time, Swedavia's predicton of a delay till 18:35 might not be inaccurate.

Getting my passport and boarding pass ready.

Boarding for the rest of the pack commenced a few minutes later, me and my dad were one of the last ones to line up for boarding.

We had no kind of priority, boarding for Y was done on both sides at the end to keep the efficiency up.

Walking down to the jetbridge.

Our 763.

Walking down the jetbridge.

Two cheery FAs greeted us upon boarding before we continued through the business cabin to row 32. The light in J was very light today.

Seatback.

Seat pitch was great in this 763, better than conventional A320s and B737s. More than doable for a flight of this length.

The load in Y was healthy with only 2-3 empty seats. The overall load on today's flight was around 90%. The cabin was very clean and well-maintained.

View from seat 32A. My dad was originally assigned to this seat but we switched, he knows I write flight reports and love to take pictures. I'm very happy that my dad is so supportive of my hobby, most of my flights these past years wouldn't have been possible without my dad. Appreciate it a lot dad! (He'll never read this though).

Boarding is almost completed.

The seat's armrest.

Boarding was completed a few minutes later and the safety video started running on these overhead screens.

Pushback at 18:31 local time.

The Jumbohostel in the distance.

DHL 752.

HP (Amapola flyg) Fokker 50.

Nordica CR7.

Taxiing to runway 19R.

Lufthansa A321 rolling down 19R as LH2419 to Munich.

Starting our takeoff roll.

Rotate.

Terminal 4.

Terminal 2 and 3.

Cargo City Arlanda.

The Alfa and Beta long-term parking lots, it was fully booked according to Swedavia but I could still see a number of empty spots….

Stockholm Nord logistikcenter (Stockholm North logistics center) in Rosersberg.

Martin1405 managed to track my flight once again, thank you very much for tracking my flight! All FR24 screenshots provided in this series were taken by Martin1405.

The safety card of this Boeing 767-300ER.

Barf bag.

Business life magazine. 'Who says cash is dead?' on the cover. Card is definitely king in Sweden, I'm under 18 years old and NEVER pay with cash in Sweden, I haven't gote any notes and barely have any coins (I have more Euro coins than Swedish coins). I pay by card even if we're talking about buying candy for 5 SEK (USD 0,6/EUR 0,5).

Highlife shop magazine.

Overhead bins.

Service began approximately 25 minutes after takeoff. Service consisted of a tiny chicken, salad and bacon roll with a muffin. OJ and coffee were selected for drinks. Me and my dad can't eat bacon so we asked if they had anything vegetarian, the first and worst FA on this flight just answered with 'No', another attentive FA said he'd check but later told us they had ran out of them. Catering was done in LHR, you are unable to pre-book special meals on most short-haul flights in Y (including this one) so there was nothing I could do about it. Air France's offering was more extensive even if I could have eaten that tiny chicken/bacon with salad roll.

The tiny roll with the muffin, I only had the muffin as I was unable to eat the roll with bacon. The muffin was pretty good and not too sweet. The diameter of these were approximately 2-3 cm (0,8 - 1,2 inches).

BA High Life magazine.

The High Life shop magazine with a different cover found behind dad's seat.

I charged my phone with my powerbank as always (since 12 July 2016).

Shots from the lavatory.

Cabin shot. Nothing was displayed on these overhead screens during the flight, except for BA's safety video.

Slowing down and descending into London-Heathrow.

Air-to-air shot with a DY B738.

Looks like floating windmills.

Descending.

Banking.

London.

Thames River with East Twickenham to the right and Richmond to the left.

Twickenham Stadium.

Landing on runway 27L, slowing down.

We took off from ARN 38 minutes late but managed to arrive with a minimal 8 minute delay.

Aeroflot A321.

Vacating runway 27L.

British Airways A321.

Taxiing to Terminal 5.

British Airways A319.

British Airways A321.

British Airways A319.

Iberia Express A320.

British Airways widebody planes at T5B.

We came to a final stop at 20:05 local time.

Walking to passport control.

Over 90% of the passengers from our flight seemed to be ending their trip in London rather than connecting to an onwards connecting flight.

It took roughly 15 minutes to go through the e-passport gates. Most of the passengers struggled getting through and seeked help from staff.

Going down to the arrivals hall.

My dad had to visit the toilet before continuing to our hotel using the London Underground, the estimated travel time to our hotel was 1 hour 15 minutes.

We purchased two Oyster cards for our stay in London and went to the Underground station located a few floors down.

Taking the lift to the station.

Taking the Piccadilly line train at 22:00 local time, we would have to connect twice before arriving at our hotel.

Connecting to another train.

Arriving at another station.

Connecting for the last time to a bus.

We finally made it to our hotel at 23:07 local time. Thank you for taking your time to read this FR :), have a good one and see you later!

Bonus from London:

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Buckingham Palace.

EK 380 flying over London.

Big Ben.

London Eye.

Oxford street.

Tower Bridge.

Brick Lane, a.k.a. Banglatown.

Street names in this area are written in English and Bengali.

My dad definitely felt at home in this area.

Altab Ali park, a park named after Altab Ali which was a 25-year-old Bangladeshi clothing worker living in London. He was murdered by three teenage boys while going home after work in 1978. This is a memorial to Altab Ali and all other victims of racist attacks.

The Shaheed Minar, a memorial for the Bengali language movement. This monument is a smaller replica of the original one in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Thank you once again for taking your time to read this FR :). I hope you enjoyed it! Have a good one and see you later.