09 July 2009 British Airways BA 506 London Heathrow (LHR) - Lisbon (LIS) B757-200 G-BPEE EuroTraveller aka Economy Class
After landing in Heathrow, I met my friend who arrived on the earlier SQ flight and we still had another flight to catch to Lisbon. Pure madness flying for almost 24hrs from Singapore to Lisbon!! There was a 3hrs transit for my BA flight and as BA flights to Lisbon departs from Terminal 3, no change of terminals was needed. The tickets were booked seperately and so no through check baggage. We did an online check-in earlier and just need to collect our boarding passes and check-in our luggage. Terminal 3 was truely a madhouse and really needed a facelift. Just too much human traffic to be bearable. Luckily we did not have too long a connection.
After the tight security (which resulted in my friend's hand luggage being ransacked as he forgot about a can of coke), we proceeded to the gate. We would be departing from a bus gate today as apparently, all the short haul BA flights at T3 are parked at remote stands. A short wait later, we were on the bus to our B757, a first on BA and a first (or probably a 2nd I might have been on a SQ B757 before) on a B757 aircraft!
Boarding the plane. Its been a long time that I boarded a plane in this manner.
G-BPEE
The Rolls-Royce engine on our B757-200
We boarded from Door 2L and was welcomed aboard by the crew. Initial impression, the cabin was really showing its age. Walls and lights were yellowish and wear and tear were visible. Seats were upholstered in leather and were not in the best of conditions too.
Seats
Another view
Safety card
Seat pitch was good for a short haul flight. Felt more than TG's B772 but definitely less than TG's B744s. My friend also commented that the pitch actually felt slightly more than SQ's A380.
Legroom
There was no audio or video entertainment devices on this B757 aircraft. Thus, the crew had to perform the safety demonstration manually. We pushed back slightly late and taxied to Rwy27L for takeoff. Of course with the heavy traffic, we had to queue. Flight time was announced by the chatty pilot to be a short 2hr 10min, 20mins shorter than scheduled.
Queuing for takeoff
Taking off! The B757 really did felt very powerful on takeoff!
Over the clouds of London.
A cute boy at the row in front.
Shortly after seatbelt signs were off, cabin service started. Service was a sandwich with full bar service followed by duty free service. Service was prompt though with little smiles. The sandwiches were also nothing to rave about though the chocolate bar was nice. Full drinks and alcohol selection was available followed by coffee or tea. Well, at least BA still serves a sandwich on their intra-european flights, unlike many other carriers which have switched to buy-on-board.
Cabin service
Ham & cheese / tuna sandwich with chocolate bar
Diet coke and coffee
After the meal service, there was nothing much else to do except to see the world go by outside the windows. We were also quite dazed at this point in time with the long hours of flying.
Somewhere over Portugal, near Porto i think.
Descending into Lisbon
The approach into Lisbon was quite spectacular, with the clear skies, beautiful scenery and the low approach over buildings!
Final approach
Over Lisbon
Flaps out, gears down..
The spectacular landing into Lisbon
Parked at the gate.
We arrived slightly ahead of schedule.
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Verdict
British Airways
6.8/10
Cabin7.0
Cabin crew7.0
Entertainment/wifi6.0
Meal/catering7.0
London - LHR
6.8/10
Efficiency6.5
Access7.5
Services6.0
Cleanliness7.0
Lisbon - LIS
7.4/10
Efficiency8.0
Access7.0
Services6.5
Cleanliness8.0
Conclusion
First flight on BA, not really very impressive but not too bad either. Cabin is very worn out (probably cuz the B757s are really old) and the crew just do their job, nothing more. However, have not tried them on long-hauls so can't comment much, but their intra-european offerings must have already been the better ones out there.
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3 Comments
Most of intra-european BA flights are flown with old airplanes :(
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