Review of British Airways flight London → Amsterdam in Economy

Introduction

While my job was required to give me another week of holiday due to nearing my resting limitations, I was given a choice by them to take a week off right now or the last week of april. Knowing that end of april was going to be a period of national holidays in the Netherlands and I would be travelling again in May to Aruba with KLM for a wedding of my best friend, I opted to take off right now.

While I wanted to go to Thailand once again, I scanned the internet for a good hour to find a very cheap price with British Airways to Bangkok via London Heathrow. The timings were good, though I am not sure I would make my connection back to Amsterdam on my return leg as BA10's time reputation isn't the best over the past two weeks.

Check my routing below. 

Continuing my last leg to Amsterdam

While it was obvious in my previous reports that I missed my connection to Amsterdam yesterday, I was placed by British Airways in a hotel nearby the airport for a short nap. As I was re-booked to the next flight to Amsterdam of British Airways, it meant that my flight would depart at 6.40 am.

I arrived at terminal 5 at around 5 am in the morning and it was yet very deserted. I already received my boarding card and my luggage was already in their possession, I simply proceeded to security and border control, which took not more than a very few minutes. 

After security I ended up in once again a very deserted terminal as the earliest flight to Amsterdam in Terminal 5 is one of the first ones to depart. A lot of shops were still closed and some were about to open around this time. I quickly proceeded down to the escalator to grab a small bite and a coffee as I could not use a voucher for breakfast as it was too early…

Down below only one shop had opened it's door for passengers and luckily enough Starbucks was already open too.

I ordered my sandwich and some coffee and was slowly watching the seating area of T5A…. After a while it became busier and busier. Luckily enough the departure displays will tell you from what section of terminal you will depart from for the first flights in advance. A, B or C, but will not reveal your actual gate till a certain time.

Our flight would depart from terminal 5b, which meant that we had to go down the escalator once again to catch one of the trains (or walk if you're in mood.)

The famous transit diagram of T5 and yet again with a transit train fully deserted. I reckon only five people made use of it. So far I've been quite lucky with the transit train that when I went down, the train was immediately closing it's door for the departure.

The transit ride took no longer than two minutes and I went up to terminal 5b once again. The shops in those terminal were all closed as of yet with only two coffeshops open. A starbucks and the one on the left in the picture below who promotes free refills of americano's (yet hands them out via coffee machines.. Not ideal I would say)

At least the B section definitely gives you a better apron view and I must admit that Terminal 5A looks pretty nice in dark with all those lightning.

Plenty of seating available too with little people to occupy them.

It didn't take long for my view to be disrupted by this beautiful B777-300ER (G-STBI) who just arrived from Singapore as BA 16.

And the queen of skies (G-CIVW) followed soon after from Riyadh as BA 262.

Around 5.50 am with ten minutes to our actual boarding time (according to our boarding card), our gate was revealed. I slowly walked my way through to that gate and noticed this beautiful 787-9 (G-ZBKD) of BA being de-iced in advance for a flight to Moscow as BA 233.

Boarding was called 10 minutes past our boarding time with several announcements whether passengers were willing to check-in their carry-on luggage as they were going to operate a nearly-full flight to Amsterdam…. The perks it comes with when you want to lower costs and charge for additional things, right?

Our flight would be operated by G-EUUN. An 16.4 years old Airbus A320 who has solely been in service to BA and was delivered to them on the 31st of January 2003 and our aircraft was clearly de-iced too if you see those green wings.

While Seat 5A in this bird gave me more legroom than the A320neo on my first flight bound for London a week ago, the legroom was everything but generous to be fair.

Though the seat came with an excellent view of both the wing and engine.

While the literature was finally complete for the first time ever I took them on a flight, I took a quick scroll through the BoB menu… A boring offer, but the prices were ok. They weren't the cheapest I have seen nor the most expensive ones. Passable I would say.

Pushback was done only a few minutes past our departure time as the pilot informed us that they were waiting for one cargo door to be closed by ground staff before they would be able to depart.

As we were scheduled for a departure from RWY 09R, the aircraft was pushed back facing northwards to 09L…. We shortly taxied and holded short north of T5B on the inner taxiway for a good 15 minutes without any comment from the cockpit. I guess an airport slot would have been involved with our flight somehow that we were not to depart before a certain time…. Well at least Seat 5A gave me a view of landing aircraft.

An Boeing 787-9 (N841AN) that was about to touch down from Chicago O'Hare as AA 86. 

Followed by another Boeing 787-8 (V8-DLB) of Royal Brunei Airlines arriving from Brunei International Airport as BI 3.

Meet the Airbus A320neo (G-TTNH) that brought me over to London Heathrow a week ago being towed to a gate.

And the last contestant to show it's landing to us before we would move on a southbound taxiway to proceed to 09R was a Boeing 747-400 (G-CIVZ) of British Airways arriving as BA 194 from George Bush Intercontinental Airport (Houston).

Some atmosphere light was now turned on with a look of a cabin…. Kinda weird that BA fails to refurbish an old B777, yet the older A320s are refurbished? Though no wifi available on regional routes.

We were being taken over by OO-SNA. An Airbus A320 of Brussels Airlines in a red devils livery that would depart ahead of us to Brussels as SN2104.  The text says ''Brussels Airlines - We fly you to the home of the Belgian Red Devils'' which makes a reference to their national football team nickname(or soccer like you mericans like to call it).

Lining up behind that behind it while rain was approaching LHR.

Not much later we were rolling for take off at 07.18… A delayed departure by about 38 minutes, which gave us a terrific view over the older terminals of London Heathrow with some big birds .

With a very early left turn that gave us a view over the maintenance facilities of British Airways.

At a safe altitude, the BoB service was initiated by both flight attendants who were rather old to be frank and their level of service was pretty low and unimpressive…. While I thought BA delivers a great service by flight attendants on long haul in terms of hospitality, it was definitely lacking on their shorter regional routes. At the time they passed by, we were overflying London Stansted.. Probably ''the'' low cost airport of London with a massive hub for Ryanair planes and a smaller hub for EasyJet.

About to cross the North Sea towards mainland Europe.

After the bob service was done, the flight attendants never appeared again until we had to disembark. Pilots checked in with us that we would be descending shortly and wished us a pleasant stay or onward journey. By the time we fully crossed the sea, we were already approaching into Amsterdam's RWY 18R… A runway you technically don't want to have if you fly into Amsterdam due to it's long taxi.

Established on the final approach of 18R with the Amsterdam Canal below.

We landed 09.03 at 18R which meant that we were ahead of time by two minutes with quite a hard landing to be honest. It also gave us a view of one of Amsterdam's tower. This tower was build to support RWY 18R/36L as the tower near the terminal is unable to witness any movement here.

About to cross the bridge over the highway to proceed to our gates when I captured this idle Boeing 787 of Tuifly Netherlands.

The usual parking stand for the Embraer's of KLM Cityhopper. The odd Embraer on the right is from Stobart Air who is currently performing flights on behalf of KLM to Dublin and some other destinations.

Parked at D26, which is the same gate I departed on with flight BA429 next to an AirSerbia Airbus A319. Disembarktion was followed shortly and we were waved away with a very cold ''bye'' by both the purser and the captain… Not the most memorable crew I've had.

Quite a distant walk from the D pier to border control.

Border control itself took no more than two minutes to clear, yet we had to wait another twenty minutes for our luggage to appear on belt…. Oh Amsterdam, when are you going to improve your luggage system in terms of speed? Amsterdam is always a big fan of promoting their fully advanced belt system, yet it takes ages for your bags to appear.

My bags were collected like ground crew said it would, I proceeded my way to the designated area for our shuttle bus to pick up my own car.

And a look of the flight path we took from London Heathrow to Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (FR24)