Hey guys, welcome to my first flight report.
Flight is from last year December when I went on a short vacation with my family to my home country. Our first choice of flight was Saudia but after comparing prices we found Biman was offering the tickets at much cheaper price.
Check-in/Immigration
We arrived at the airport at around 22:00. The check-in area was crowded with long queues as there were only 2 counters open for around 200 passengers. The process was very slow, after being on line for about half an hour a 3rd counter opened and we got priority to check-in there along with other family travellers.
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The Immigration and security check were pretty slow as well, by the time we cleared security the flight was announced and we proceeded directly to the gate. We reached the gate around 15 mins before departure time, it wasn't so crowded as most passengers have either boarded the aircraft or is stuck in check-in/security. We were sure a delay was imminent.
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Aircraft
Airline: Biman Bangladesh Airlines (BBC/BG)
Aircraft: Boeing 777-300ER
Registration: S2-AHN
The aircraft had two class, the economy class cabin layout was 3-3-3 and business was 2-3-2.
Boarding
We proceeded to board the aircraft at 00:45 (15 minutes after departure time, still no final call). My seat was 7E, which was the middle seat of the middle row. I looked around the cabin to find any empty window seat and there were few as the cabin was pretty empty, but I still can't switch seats as the boarding was still going on. The aircraft door closed at around 01:25 (55 minutes delay).
Taxi/Take off
After the door closed I quickly asked the cabin crew if I can switch my seat to the empty bulkhead window seat. He nodded with a smile and went to prepare the cabin. We pushed back at 01:33, in-flight safety instructions were played on IFE screens while we taxied. We took off at 01:47.
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Meals
20 minutes after take off peanuts and apple juice were offered. After 1 hour the main course was provided, no choice available so everyone got the same food. A dry bread with butter. Rice with chicken and vegetables along with water and cola. Cake for dessert. The meal was decent, the dessert was great!
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On-Board
Biman 773's are equipped with IFE screens on every seat, but the touch screens weren't so responsive and not so fast. They had average collection of movies, TV shows and games, no USB ports and no wifi on board either. My siblings spent their time playing games while I mostly looked at the flight information.
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Landing
At around 09:15 we landed on a foggy winter morning in Dhaka. The immigration in Dhaka was quick, but baggage claim wasn't. The luggage started to arrive almost half an hour after we crossed immigration. The airport had free wifi, which the Dammam airport didn't. It took another one hour to get all our luggages, then we crossed the customs and got out of the airport around 11:30 in the noon.
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Hi aali2o!
Welcome aboard!!
I have read other Biman reports and this delay comes as no surprise!
That's something we have to be thankful for in these times of LCC carriers where everything must be paid separately!
In a nutshell, I have learned from the reports that if I'm planning to fly Biman I must have LOTS of free time.
You wrote a great report! I'll be looking forward to those new reports, too!
Thanks for sharing! ^^
Thanks!
Thanks!
Thank you for this interesting report.
The cabin seems nice and the meal looks OK.
It took you so much time to be airside, patient you must be !
Thanks for the interesting report.
I've never flown Biman even though I travel to Dhaka for work on a very regular basis. Biman has had plenty of negative reviews and jokes in the past, one of which is its terrible punctuality record.
I noticed that you had moved to an emergency exit seat for the rest of the flight, and your siblings appear to be very young. Most airlines only allow able bodied adults on emergency rows.
Overall, it looked like a pleasant flight. How were the cabin crew?
Hi! Thanks for this very nice first report. Very exotic for EU readers. What a pitch you had. The seat looks very fine indeed. Not so much about the meal but that's average Y meal nowadays. Did the crew also offer hot beverages like tea? IFE is just enough although I quite like the neat flight information provided. DMM is definitely not a fast airport. Such a shame it was overcrowded and poorly staffed. DAC doesn't much better either. Hope to read the return part soon. Thanks for sharing!
thank you for the nice report, it is good to see different airlines getting reviewed