Review of British Airways flight Warsaw → London in Economy

Welcome

Hi everyone,

As I've recently been quite busy with my studies and other things, apologies that I wasn't present at Flight-Report too much. With this report I am back, and I have a few nice reports coming up from the Summer time and early Autumn (including LX A330 on short haul, TK 7M8 in business class and IB A359 also on a short haul).

However today, I will share with you my experience on an empty BA flight from Warsaw to Heathrow in Economy, on one of their older A320s.

Enjoy :) 

Flight details:
Flight number BA847
Route Warsaw Chopin - London Heathrow T5
Flight date 3rd July 2021, 1150-1335 (actual 1255-1357)
Scheduled flight time 2:45 (actual 2:02)
Aircraft model Airbus A320
Aircraft registration G-EUUN
Seating configuration CY180 (8 rows of Club Europe)
Aircraft age (at the time of flight) 19 years
Seat number 12F (exit row)
Departure gate 24N (jet bridge)
Arrival gate A9 (jet bridge)
Load factor (approx.) 45%

Warsaw chopin airport

My journey started at Chopin Airport, zone AB, where BA check in is always located. It was a nice and warm summer morning, both here and in the UK.

Many of these airlines don't fly to WAW anymore, though they haven't been removed from the board: EI, OK, JU, U2…

The line for BA check in was rammed, with a wait time of approx. 20-25 mins! There was even queue for priority check in desk… Though not being tight on time and not intending to visit the lounge this time, I wasn't too bothered. At check in I asked for 12F (rather than my assigned 26F), as I knew the whole row 12DEF was empty in the system. The lady said no problem and she assigned the exit row seat for me (for the record I was travelling in Eco Basic). The printed boarding pass also reflected the new boarding time (delay of incoming aircraft).

Although there were a few departures scheduled around the time, WAW seemed to be quite empty actually - both the security, the airside, and the non-Schengen border control. Many COVID restrictions were still in place around the world.

Look at that beautiful E295 from KLM! I'd love to try it out soon <3

There were also many nice birds around our gate in the non-Schengen area, including our A320 which arrived from LHR delayed by 1:20 hours. And there was absolutely no reason for the delay, as the aircraft came straight from maintenance check that morning. It's unfortunately not the first time such exact thing happens on my BA flight…

Boarding started around 30 mins after our original departure time but was very chaotic and no priorities at all were respected. Everyone was asked to board at the same time. I feel sorry for Club passengers, one of such passengers even approached me and asked what's going on!

As we boarded, the crew in back galley was still taking pictures for Instagram on the outside stairs…

The flight: BA847

First impressions on board: a nice welcome from the manager, yet the other cabin crew members didn't seem to interested in what they were doing. (For my question of whether they know why BA846 was delayed, I received an answer "Yeah I know, we want to go home as soon as we can as well") hahaha… Nice refreshed cabin with comfortable Pinnacle seats throughout. A very large Club Europe cabin, which that day was actually more densely packed with passengers than Traveller! Plus they forgot to put the white antimacassars on the rear few rows of Club, which were added comparing to incoming flight.

My seat was in row 12, which is quite possibly the best one on the entire aircraft - features extra legroom due to exit row but also fully reclines. Additionally, the whole 3 seats remained free for myself. One of the passengers in row 11 was presumably given exit row by accident, but he didn't understand crew's instructions and so had to be reseated - someone else was lucky to take his seat.

1 hour after scheduled departure, we started pushback and crew performed manual safety demo, as the overhead monitors are no longer present in BA aircrafts :( Departure was at 1255 and we took off into cloudy skies.

As soon as the fasten seatbelt sign has been switched off, I went to the toilet to clean my hands before meal service. (We were also given disinfecting tissues from Dettol at entrance, yet I prefer to wash my hands anyway). The toilet was impeccably clean after the turnaround, yet small, as in all Airbus aircrafts equipped with SpaceFlex configuration. With the dark colour scheme and wood-imitating floor, BA lavatories look sort of premium in my opinion.

Not too long later crew passed through the cabin with complimentary service. This, on afternoon flights like this consists of a bottle of water and a pack of crisps. On morning flights you receive a muesli bar instead of crisps. However, as there were still some bars left from incoming flight, a lady in front of me, who didn't like crisps, received it.

As always, I also preordered a little fresh meal from the new Speedbird Cafe. It should normally be delivered straight after the complimentary service. However, 1 hour into the flight I still haven't received my meal, so I decided to react. I went to the back galley to politely ask, whether my meal has been loaded onto the aircraft at all… The view which I saw was at least surprising - all 3 cabin crew chatting and eating leftover crisps, while not all the meals have been served?! A Spanish lady, said she will check it for me and come back to my seat.

Thankfully the meals have been loaded. The lady apologised to me for the delay in service. Everything was tasty and fresh, as is always the case with Speedbird Cafe in my opinion. The vegan cauliflower wrap had a nice taste but was a bit dry. And one of the items which I ordered had an unsealed packaging (see last photo), which I think shouldn't have happened.

In the meantime, neighbouring rows were having a champagne party. The crew served a lot of champagne in Economy on that flight, to either Executive Club status members, or for someone that agreed to sit in exit row etc. Me, the biggest enthusiast of BA on that flight didn't get anything… hahah

But fear not! The Spanish lady soon emerged from Club cabin and put a can of beer and a glass on my tray table, not saying a word. I said, thank you, but why - you didn't have to. She said, yes that's a little present from the crew - and she apologised that it wasn't champagne but they ran out of. Like okey, I was really surprised! Thankfully I still had some chocolates from Switzerland so I gave her one.

The rest of flight was smooth and uneventful. Just worth mentioning, at the back of the cabin, a little bar was set with leftover water and crisps, which was nice.

I wanted also to show you the recline of my seat. It's not perfect but at least it's there at all.

We then commenced our descent into Heathrow and landed on 27R, around 25 mins behind our schedule - not terrible but still no reason for the delay. Thanks to the light load, the disembarkation was very quick.

I feared that there will be a long queue at immigration, as this is now during COVID sometimes the case at LHR. Thankfully, the eGates have reopened so we only waited around 10 mins, I had to help an elder lady with the process as well.

As I still had some time till my coach, I ate something in Costa cafe.

And then sat outside, as the weather was really nice that July afternoon. My National Express was on time, and took me directly to Bristol, onto a wonderful 5 day quarantine… to let me later start my long-awaited internship in the lab in Bristol.

Thanks for reading, more reports from my intense Summer are coming soon!

Mateusz