Review of British Airways flight London → Paris in Economy

Report No: 2019-202E

Hi and welcome to this new series of reports which would consist 6 flights. Four of them would be on British Airways in the World/Euro Traveller Cabin and the other two would be exclusive reports that no hint would be given until the report is published. 

The second flight of this series would be my twenty-first airport on Flight-Report and that would be Paris-CDG, as this website is usually a French website, I am also honored to share my "10th Flight-Report in French" by adding a French destination to my inventory. ( This report is available both in English and French, you are now viewing the English version. ) This report would be a review of the British Airways A319-100 on a short flight from London Heathrow to Paris Charles de Gaulle. This report would also include a review of the breakfast service in the British Airways Galleries Lounge's in Heathrow Airport. This report would also have a bonus hotel review which would be the review of the ibis Hotel in Paris Charles de Gaulle. ( The one in Terminal 3 ).

Just a reminder that as I have already reported the first flight and a similar one to the second, I had used the chance to video report the first part of this serie for a test of YouTube flight-reports that I would start to post soon but things didn't go as well as I expected. It's really hard to capture good quality videos on a phone camera so I won't compile them as a video and present it to you, but I would share some parts of the flights as a video as well. Because that some photos were taken from the videos, they are not in their usual quality. However, these reports are complete Flight-Reports and I apologize for the bad photo qualities in some images and give the signal that I would start video-reporting soon as I have the chance to buy a motion camera. Once again, thanks for your understanding.

The routing for this serie would look like this
First Part

Second Part

Third Part

Pax for this flight

Club Europe: %100 [ Club Europe until row 4 ]
Euro Traveller: %90-95

The aircraft was fully booked but there were some no-show's or misconnections. 

London Heathrow AIRPORT - LHR

While when we were taxiing to the gate on my previous flight, I have realized that I have received this mail, that BA asked me to check my hand luggage. Of course, I wouldn't do that as I am only traveling with hand baggage on this trip.

After arriving to Terminal 5C from my previous flight, the FIDS showed that my next flight would depart from A gates.

As there were many people waiting for the transit;

I've decided to walk all the way to Terminal 5A. Walking after a long flight makes me feel more energetic and this specific walk helped me to wake up for the day.

Of course, I would follow the purple signs for connections

Later on, I have used the fast track lane for security screening which leads to the North Checkpoint. The waiting times were alright as it took me 5-10 minutes to clear security.

British Airways GALLERIES LOUNGE TERMINAL 5A SOUTH - London Heathrow AIRPORT

After I've cleared security, I've first walked towards the North Lounge and realized that the lounge was getting crowded so I have decided to go to the South Lounge instead. Even though, there was less than an hour for our scheduled departure time, the gate was not shown on the FIDS. However, while entering the lounge, I have learnt that my flight would depart from gate A18 which is close to the South Lounge.  

The lounge was empty and I have taken my seat in a set of couches at the southern part of the lounge. That day, most of the morning operations were departing from concourse B.

Daily newspapers and some magazines were available

Today's breakfast options; starting with yoghurt and cereal

Some bacon sandwiches, toasted breads, hash browns, and a vegetable frittata. ( The frittata is not visible in the picture )

Croissant selection

Fresh fruits available that day

More cereals

Two types of porridge was available that day

And to conclude the main bar area; fresh juices, fresh smoothies, and fresh fruit

The coffee and the bar

GATE AREA & BOARDING

I have left the lounge 35 minutes before scheduled departure time. At that time boarding was started with Group 1 passengers.

The gate area had separate lanes for group 1, groups 2&3 and groups 4&5. After queuing up and clearing the document check I have directly boarded as groups 2&3 were invited to board at that time.

Boarding pass

Due to the low visibility from the windows in Heathrow, I couldn't take a photo of the aircraft

The door

BA 304 London Heathrow AIRPORT TO PARIS CHARLES DE GAULLE AIRPORT

After being welcomed by the crew I had taken my seat 10F which was in the emergency exit row.

The seats are same on the BA A320s and the exit row seat pitch is similar as well. On BA A319's row 10 has the most legroom which makes that row the most comfortable on the aircraft.

Overhead panel

Our neighbor, G-TTOE, a British Airways A320neo which is going to head to Hannover that morning. Due to the amount of liquids on the window, I have decided not to spot aircrafts at Heathrow.

However, I've spent that time taking the photos of the seat pocket items. Starting with the safety card

The seat pocket also contained the High Life Magazine, the Business Life Magazine, the High Life Shopping catalogue and the Marks&Spencer Buy On Board menu. Inflight shopping was not offered on this short flight.

This report doesn't include the content of the M&S Onboard menu but you could find it here in one of my previous reports. Also, the items marked with the earth symbol was not served on this flight due to the duration.

BA Europe route map

And, Paris in the destination list. This flight is only 225 miles.

We had started our pushback on time and the crew made the safety demo manually as the overhead monitors were not working. This meant the route map isn't working either. After we entered the runway queue, due to a problem at another aircraft at the queue as the captain told, we had waited for 20 minutes and then took of for this short flight to Paris.

After we have gained altitude, the liquid on the window evaporated and I was able to take photos.

While we were finishing crossing the English Channel, the BoB service had begun.

As I had breakfast in the lounge, I have requested a cup of tank water from the galley just after the service had ended via the call button. The crew was happy to help me.

Shortly after, we started our descend for Paris

The Eiffel Tower is visible

Stade de France

Paris Le Bourget Airport

And we had landed to Paris before schedule.

The first visible aircrafts were these HOP! regional jets which were parked in remote stands.

F-GSQK was going to head to Sao Paulo that day

And this 777-200 would head also to Brazil, this time to Rio de Janeiro as AF 462

Terminal 2E M Building - mainly having SkyTeam partners but an exception of China Southern

F-GZNU was going to head to Bangkok that day as AF 166.

And this CityJet and A320 parked in non-schengen gates would visit Newcastle and Marrakesh that day.

Terminal 2E - K building had mostly Air France and Delta aircraft

This Delta 777-200 was heading to Atlanta that day as DL 83

After passing the Air France terminals, this Emirates A380 ( A6-EUM ) was the first visible aircraft

The next visible aircraft was this Jet Airways A330-300, which was regularly operating the Chennai-Paris rotation at that period.

Gulf Air A320 getting ready for its flight to Bahrain

This Etihad A380 was also parked in Terminal 2C.

And this XL Airways A330 was getting ready for its flight to Pointe-à-Pitre 

And we had parked to gate A44 which meant parking position A10.

PARIS CHARLES DE GAULLE AIRPORT - CDG

British Airways uses Terminal 2A for their flights from/to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport.

A view of our aircraft from the jetbridge

As I am not an EU citizen, I have followed for the signs for "All Passports".

Immigration lines didn't seem that bad but the Acces No 1 lane was closed and no officers were in the booth related to that lane.

While walking to the queue, I had to chance to take the last photo of our aircraft G-EUPH

After a 5 minute wait in the non-EU lane, I was called by the next available officer. After the passport control, as I didn't have checked luggage I just left the baggage claim area.

Arrival FIDS

As I was going to stay in one of the airport hotels for this trip, I have made my way to the CDGVAL ( people mover ) to reach my hotel.

While on the way, A6-EUM appeared again.

The CDGVAL station is located between Terminal 2C and Terminal 2E.

These are the stations of the CDGVAL

And photos from the short CDGVAL journey

After arriving to Terminal 3 - Roissypole. I have followed the signs for my hotel which was ibis.

And found the hotel within 2-3 minutes.

This report has came to an end. The hotel review bonus is located all the way down, under the coming up section.
Thanks for reading this report and hope to see you in another one.

Bonus : Click here display hide

The main reason that I've chosen ibis because it was cheap and the price difference between its superiors, Mercure and Pullman, were not worth it. Two days before my check-in date I have completed the online check-in process for the hotel.

The day before my reservation, the hotel had sent details how to reach the hotel, both in French and in English

I have reserved a Standard Room with a Double Bed. The concept is similar to all other ibis Hotels. But, this one didn't have a laundry bag or a refrigerator. The room was large enough for one person and it's worth the price €83 per night including breakfast. Also the free Wi-Fi was fast as 13mbps which is quite good for a budget hotel. Also, if I need to say negative points about the hotel, I would say that the room keycards are bad as they don't work sometimes and a key change at the reception becomes mandatory to access the room. By the way, this hotel also has an hourly option for €14 if you want to rest between your flights. The reservation for that could be only made via the reception of the hotel.

The only negative point about this hotel was that I have left the room once around 14:00 and put this sign, no one had came and cleaned my room when I arrived to my room at night.

The breakfast of the hotel was good and it was worth paying it beforehand. I didn't expected this much from ibis.

And the last thing that I want to mention is that guests in participating AccorHotels could use the pressreader application for free which I had the chance to read newspapers and magazines in several languages including Turkish.