Greetings and welcome to another flight report! Today I will be flying British Airways in Euro Traveler from London Heathrow to Edinburgh. My journey started in London with a quick Uber to Paddington Station and then a short journey on there Heathrow Express to Terminal 5. I arrived in the arrivals area and then proceeded to take an elevator to departures. I headed straight to the self service bag drop which was quick and efficient. Proceeding that, I headed to the security checkpoint which took about 15 minutes to clear. Upon clearing security I headed to the Club Aspire lounge in Terminal 5.
I was quickly admitted upon showing my Priority Pass membership card. I was directed towards the seating area and was told that someone would assist me. The lounge had 3 main sections: two normal seating areas and one restaurant-style seating area.
I took a seat in the restaurant area. Shortly after I was greeted by a staff member and asked what I wanted from the menus provided, which was complimentary. I ordered the English breakfast which was decent enough.
I also had a couple of scone with clotted cream because England.
I neglected to take a picture of the menu though I do recall a soup also being on the menu. I spent about 30 minutes in the lounge before heading to my gate, A9, which was in the same area of the terminal and only a five minute walk away. I stopped by Starbucks on the way to grab a much needed coffee. At that time the plane was already boarding Self boarding was done by row and I had to wait around 5 minutes for my row to be called.
I headed through the self boarding gates to the jet bridge, which had a small backup of passengers.
Before long I stepped onboard the nearly 19 year old A320 which would take me to Edinburgh. The cabin was decent enough with intra European business class being economy with a blocked middle seat and economy in the standard 3-3 configuration with comfortable enough seats with adjustable headrests.
The cabin was fitted with blue mood lighting which was a nice touch. Upon boarding, I was given a sanitizing kit with hand sanitizer and a disinfecting wipe. I walked down the aisle towards my seat, 18A.
The seat was outfitted with USB ports with business class having an AC plug and a USB port.
What I’d like to see more often is airlines providing USB-C ports for fast charging as the electronics industry is starting to lean towards them. Soon boarding was complete and we were pushing back.
After a 10 minute taxi we turned onto the runway and had a short and steep takeoff roll.
The views were pretty nice and as usual On British Airways, at 10,000 feet we got the standard announcement from the CSD, though she referred to herself as the purser, so maybe British Airways has changed the name of the roll on these short flights? In addition to the standard announcements were details of the COVID-19 safety measures onboard. As we leveled off, the inflight service commenced. The service during COVID-19 in economy is actually better than before, with business class being worse off. Economy had a pre packaged bag with a bottle of water and snacks, all complimentary, versus the buy on board service prior to the pandemic.
Business class has a boxed meal versus a proper meal on real crockery before the pandemic. The service was brief as it was designed to minimize contact between passengers and crew. I spent the rest of my flight writing this flight report.
Before I knew it the 10 minutes until landing announcement was made. We had a smooth descent into cloudy Edinburgh.
We had a soft landing and a short taxi to our arrival gate.
Deplaning was done five rows at a time to minimize passenger contact. As soon as we deplaned, I headed to the Aspire Lounge to get some pictures for the review. Like the lounge in Heathrow, it too operates a table service with no buffet. The lounge was nice enough and more than sufficient for a small airport like Edinburgh. I just had a ginger ale and sat down for 15 minutes while I charged my phone.
Soon, I left the lounge and headed to baggage claim to pick up my bag. I proceeded to the exit and caught a taxi to head into the city.
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Thanks for the report. So ironic how the pandemic has closed the gap between BA euro J and Y to basically non-existent, from the later boarding to the reduced catering. Glad to see the older A320s are still the ones to hope for with no slimline Recaro seating - my back's still recovering from the A321neo last week!