Review of British Airways flight London New Delhi in Economy

Airline British Airways
Flight BA257
Class Economy
Seat 37F
Aircraft Boeing 787-9
Flight time 08:15
Take-off 28 Sep 16, 19:35
Arrival at 29 Sep 16, 08:20
BA   #65 out of 96 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings. 960 reviews
BobbieD
By 8107
Published on 2nd January 2017
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.

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On board

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.



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Verdict

British Airways

6.0/10
Cabin5.0
Cabin crew4.0
Entertainment/wifi8.0
Meal/catering7.0

London - LHR

6.8/10
Efficiency5.0
Access5.0
Services9.0
Cleanliness8.0

New Delhi - DEL

7.4/10
Efficiency7.0
Access8.0
Services8.0
Cleanliness6.5

Conclusion

After my late arrival in LHR getting to this flight was rather stressful having to transfer between gates. No real apology was given for the lateness and certainly they weren't going to take pity on me and let me sit in premium with my friend. The cabin crew weren't the friendliest I've come across and at times were a little rude. The western catering was standard while the indian version was quite good. I was quite disappointed with the cabin, having the entertainment box in my leg room meant I lost about 20% of my leg room and the tray table wasn't great with my food slipping around on it all the time.

Information on the route London (LHR) New Delhi (DEL)

Les contributeurs de Flight-Report ont posté 5 avis concernant 2 compagnies sur la ligne London (LHR) → New Delhi (DEL).


Useful

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

La durée moyenne des vols est de 8 heures et 29 minutes.

  More information

6 Comments

If you liked this review or if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post a comment below !
  • Comment 380107 by
    Scott05 570 Comments
    Thank you for this report!
    I think you were quite optimistic in hoping to get an upgrade because you were late ;) However quite a poor handling of the delay, they should have sent you a person at your arrival gate to guide you or at least inform the other gate that you were on your way. And indeed a glass of champagne would have been nice, but I think it's not something you would have gotten on a lot of airlines.
    The main mea
  • Comment 380139 by
    KL651 TEAM 4534 Comments
    Thanks for this FR.
    I now understand why you prefer AFKL over BA given your experience.
    Sure you can't get an upgrade each time you barely make a connection but a bit more friendliness should be the norm as you didn't even delay the flight.
    It seems the catering cutback wasn't effective in september.
  • Comment 381276 by
    Chibcha SILVER 540 Comments
    What's with the retro IFE box? I would certainly not expect a box that size on a 787...shame on you BA!

    I remember when I was a kid BA was almost synonymous to quality flying....now it seems to be just another regular airline.

    Thanks for sharing!

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