Review of British Airways flight from London to New Delhi in Economy

Welcome to this second report of my trip to India back in September. The routing is shown below:

• MAN-LHR BA1402
• LHR-DEL -BA257
• DEL-JOH - AI475
• JOH-DEL - AI476
• DEL-KUU - AI9805
• KUU-DEL- AI9806
• DEL-LHR - BA256
• LHR-MAN - BA1402

After my delayed first leg from MAN to LHR my flight was already on final boarding. According to my friend who was already on board, they wouldn't be waiting for me if I didn't make it on time so I really had to run. Unfortunately we had landed at T5A and my departure was from one of the satellites so I had to take the underground transit to the gate adding to the time. The escalators down are very long and running down them made me feel rather dizzy.
Finally I arrived at the platform, but had to wait for the train to arrive.

On board

Typically the gate was right at the end and I had to run all the way down the satellite. As I arrived at the gate they shouted my to confirm my name, yes it was me I replied, now very out of breath. I was the last passenger to board. In all the rush I didn't have time to take a picture of the gate. I chatted to the ground staff as they were scanning my boarding card, trying to joke that I needed an upgrade after having to do that run - the charm didn't work. My plane today would be the B-787-9 reg G-ZBKN, at this time the plane was only around a month old.
I took my seat in one of the centre aisle seats 37F. I was unable to get my favourite choice of a window seat so this is my second choice as I can stretch out into the aisle and if I'm sleeping the centre passenger can go the other way and not disturb me. When I got to the seat I was annoyed to find that there was a media control box beneath the seat in front meaning I would loose about 20% of my leg space. These seemed to be in all aisle seats which I find quite excessive, surely in such a modern plane these things should be designed to be stored somewhere else.

My friend had was in premium economy and I headed up to to say that I had made it after all. We tried to joke again with the stewardess who my friend had spoken to previously about my late arrival. She seemed a bit surly and was having none the pity of me running through LHR to catch the flight and trying to be get an upgrade despite premium being only half full. I headed back to my (in comparison tiny) seat without even a glass of champagne for my troubles.

The entertainment screen was of a good size and with a decent selection of films to keep me entertained. There was a blanket and earphones provided at the seat and the safety card and magazines in the seat pocket.

The cabin lighting was in the blue mode before take off and this would be my view for the night.

My jumper was between my legs and I was quite rudely asked if it was my bag and that I should put it underneath the seat in front - typical BA attitude, no please could I put it underneath. We were soon taxiing to the runway while the safety film was shown.

Shortly after take off drinks were offered, I chose a Sauvignon Blanc of which I was given two bottles.

The meal service was soon to follow with me being served first with my veggie meal

I should have remembered when ordering the meal online that there would certainly be an Indian veggie option available, it smelled really good and I was jealous. Anyway, I was served with a vegetable lasagna and a red cabbage salad. For dessert there was a chocolate dessert pot - which was really tasty. Quite annoyingly the tray kept slipping around on the table.

I watched the lastest X-Men film and somewhere over Romania I decided to go to sleep for the night. I slept quite well considering the small amount of leg space - the aisle really did help.
I woke up over Afghanistan and it was time for breakfast. This time I wasn't served first and was offered the normal indian vegetarian breakfast, perhaps this is what they normally do or they forgot to give me a special meal. In any case I preferred this to a normal bland economy vegetarian breakfast and it tasted good.

Delhi wasn't far off and we landed slightly early. i managed to get a picture of business class on the way out but there wasn't a good view of the plane I'm afraid - this was the best I could get.

We headed off to immigration which was relatively smooth (much better than I remember from the last trip here in 2012) and to collect our bags before heading land side to check in again for our next flight.