Hello everyone! Ciao a tutti! Last November my sister turned 18, therefore I decided to buy a plane ticket for both as b-day present. After evaluating many different European cities (Paris, Bruxelles, Barcelona…) I chose London. Having spent two months there last Summer, it would have been an occasion to be her "guide". By the end of October I searched the flights. Thanks to SkyScanner I found the best solution: British Airways for the outbound flight to London-Gatwick and Vueling for the return flight. I chose the first weekend of March to be free with university exams.
British Airways allows online check-in 24 hours before the departure time The day before the flight we chose our seats (17E and 17F) and printed our BPs
AT THE AIRPORT
Having just the hand-luggage we planned to be at the airport around 15, one hour and half before the departure time (16:25) Our dad brought us to FCO and left us in front of Terminal 3 T3 hosts most of the airlines operating at FCO, except for Alitalia and its partners, hosted at T1 We proceeded straight to the security checkpoint The waiting time was just one minute and the control itself took around 2 minutes While domestic and Schenghen flights depart from B, C and D boarding areas, extra-Schenghen operations are all handled at E boarding area Passport control made in no time thanks to the eGates As it happens in many European airports, the security area is followed by a large duty free area Passengers are obliged to pass through it to reach the departure lounge The gate number is showed a few minutes before actual boarding time Lower level of the departure lounge Having around one hour before boarding, we decided to go upstairs for a coffee Even if the departure lounge is great (it still smells new since its opening in December '16), it lacks of good spotting points Alitalia A320 and Saudi Arabian A319 parked at gates E11-24 In the background an Emirates A380 tail can be spotted A bit later, Alitalia A320 and BlueAir 737 Our gate, E16, was called at 15:45, 40 minutes before departure It is located in the new pier, opened with the departure lounge Alitalia Lounge Piazza del Popolo As other European hubs (like MUC or ZRH) EU-Secure arriving passengers desembark directly in the departure lounge This explains the exit gates at the end of the pier Our gate is located in the middle of the pier Even if the boarding time was close, we had to wait arriving passengers to desembark from LGW London, here we come! Our A319 for today's flight: G-DBCH, delivered to bmi in Febraury 2006 (13.1 years old) and to British Airways in June 2012 Norwegian.com 737 and easyJet A320 parked at gate D area Being in the 5th group, we had to wait a little before boarding Going down the jetway Our bird The pier Alitalia A320, I-BIKD named Maestrale Almost onboard Some technical stuff AZ A320 and departure lounge building behind
THE FLIGHT
Flight details Airline: British Airways Flight Number: BA2541
Departure: Roma Fiumicino - FCO Scheduled Departure Time: 16:25 Actual Departure Time: 16:30
Arrival: London Gatwick - LGW Scheduled Arrival Time: 18:00 Actual Arrival Time: 18:04
Flight Time: 2h 34m Travel Date: Thursday March 7th Class: Euro Traveller Seat: 17E Aircraft: Airbus A319 Registration: G-DBCH Cabin door shot I really like BA's livery Fuselage shot I gave the Flight Report Form to the Purser and I made my way to my seat, 17E My sister had 17F, the window seat The boarding finished on time The view from 17F As I had read many times, the legroom was a bit small, but enough for a 2-hour flight After the pushback we waited for about 5 minutes We taxied to RWY7/25, usually used for takeoffs at FCO Roman coastline after TO The cabin while we reached cruise altitude Crossing Alps Since in the morning I had to wake up early for the university, I fell asleep I woke up while approaching Anglia English countryside while we descended to LGW Apart from usual boring English weather, there was a quite strong cross-wind And after a bumpy landing… …welcome to London! Taxiing to the gate took a bit of time The initial planned gate was changed and we waited around 5 minutes in a remote stand Passing under North Terminal bridge, connecting the departure lounge to Pier 6 Approaching gate 12, in the South Terminal Turkish Airlines 737 next to us While desembarking I asked the Purser about the Flight Report She invited me to greet the Captain and F/O in the flight deck They didn't fill the paper, but no matter, they were kind as well Bye bye G-DBCH! Going upstairs for the exit Last view of our bird Fortunately the gate we arrived to is quite close to the main building Apron's view Turkish Airline 737 and British Airways A320s Her Majesty the Queen kindly welcomes you to London We headed straight to passport control While I made it in a couple of minutes, my sister had some issues with the eGate, and was sent to a regular desk Unfortunately, an Italian family with 3 kids was in front of her They had just IDs (Italian one is just a piece of paper) and the border guard had to put their details manually It took around 10 minutes :P
After exiting the customs we change some money and proceeded to the railway station In about half a hour we reached Victoria Station and another half a hour to our hotel in Bayswater
Arrivals hall Railway station entrance
See more
Verdict
British Airways
5.9/10
Cabin6.0
Cabin crew7.5
Entertainment/wifi5.0
Meal/catering5.0
Rome - FCO
8.3/10
Efficiency9.0
Access8.0
Services8.0
Cleanliness8.0
London - LGW
7.1/10
Efficiency7.5
Access8.0
Services7.0
Cleanliness6.0
Conclusion
This was my first time with British Airways and I'm generally satisfied. The crew was very kind and they were not so boring with paid in-flight service Only negative note: the legroom :(
FCO is such a great airport, very efficent and modern It really deserves the prize for Best European Airport
4 LIKESLIKE TO THANK THE AUTHORTHANKS ! FLIGHT-REPORT LIKED
You are welcome, thank you to have read it! Fortunately the seat was confortable overall, the problem was just the pitch Yeah, getting to central London is very easy from LGW
Hi Carlo, thanks for sharing this latest report! Although the newer seats that KL651 mentions above look much nicer than the seats on these former BD birds, having flown both, I believe the cabins of these old BD birds are more comfortable. In regular Economy the seat pitch of 30" in the new cabins is really tight, when, as you mention, the legroom was tight to begin with.
Flight-Report is a free website hosting more than 500 000 pictures and 17 000 reviews, without ads, this website can't exist. We understand that ads can be annoying, this is why we only display a maximum of 2 non-invasive ads per page.
To continue using Flight-Report, we invite you to add Flight-Report to your blocker's "white list".
#62 out of 94 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings.
981 reviews
4 Comments
Shame that this ex BD plane didn't havr the nice usual BA seats.
I didn't know LGW was only 30 minutes away from Londond by train.
Fortunately the seat was confortable overall, the problem was just the pitch
Yeah, getting to central London is very easy from LGW
Thanks for sharing!
Login to post a comment.