Review of British Airways flight Edinburgh → London in Economy

Edinburgh Airport and the BA Galleries Lounge

Welcome to Edinburgh Airport- where Scotland Meets the World!

Or if you fancy learning a bit of Scottish Gaelic: Fàilte gu Port-adhair Dhùn Èideann

Edinburgh Airport is the busiest airport in Scotland, its the sixth busiest in the whole UK and second busiest Airport in the UK not serving the London Area. Over 11 million passengers passed through Edinburgh Airport during 2022 alone. The airline serves a mixture of domestic UK services both regional and mainline, various European airline hubs, European holiday destinations and long haul routes to Canada, various US East Coast destinations and Doha in the middle east.

I spent the day in Edinburgh city and opted to use the Airlink 100 bus to get to/from the Airport. Its my favoured method of travelling between the city and airport. You can book a return trip on the Airlink 100 for £7.50p (as of March 2023).

I used my OneWorld Sapphire benefits (via Finnair Plus Gold) to use the priority lane for security. I know very well where the BA Lounge is at Edinburgh, but I hadn't been since August 2019, so I figured a visit whilst I had this privilege would be very worth while!

The lounge itself isn't as grand and full of potential services like the main BA Galleries Lounges at London Heathrow T5 or London Gatwick, but it is a very nice outstation lounge. Edinburgh Airport is probably the busiest route for British Airways domestically and the airline uses BA Cityflyer to offer some other selected routes on a seasonal basis, alongside Qatar Airways, Aer Lingus and Iberia flights it probably sees plenty of demand. 

The lounge is quite spacious, it offers a nice selection of food and drinks including hot food options and premium alcohol. Some various seat options also include these comfortable sofa chairs with easily accessible charging ports. Private spaces are provided for business travellers who might want to make important and confidential phone calls and video calls. There are no shower facilities, but the bathrooms are nice enough.

The only major drawback of this airport lounge is the lack of airport views, the lounge and its big extensive windows are all facing the bustling car parks and the Air Traffic Control tower. I ended up spending quite a bit of extra time in the lounge enjoying the food and drinks as my flight found itself very, very delayed!

A flight that was meant to have left Edinburgh Airport at 20:20pm, it would not leave until 21:50pm, which is when we should have been arriving into London Heathrow… Despite the delays, I was quite happy to chill out in the Lounge and take it all in as I have no idea when I'll be back at this lounge in the future!

My last serving in the lounge was a quick cup of tea and some biscuits. I also bagged a special copy of the HIGH LIFE Magazine celebrating 50 years of the magazine serving the passengers of British Airways and their predecessors. Whilst HIGH LIFE is now history on British Airways flights as a physical copy, the magazine can be picked up in BA Lounges still (including LHR, LGW, GLA & EDI), so keep your eyes out and possibly ask some favours if you want one!

In spite of the delay, I have nothing to complain about this airport lounge and I would give it a "jolly good thumbs up" to anyone wanting to visit if they have a business class ticket or high enough OneWorld status.

Eventually the plane arrived in from London Heathrow and we were given Gate 9 for our flight, which was a short 2-3 minute walk from the Airport lounge. So I waited to enjoy my final tea and visit the loo (just in case of further hold ups) before heading over for boarding the aircraft. 

I have to admit this flight was an "almost" last minute change of plan to fly to London Heathrow this evening. I booked this trip in advance with the plan to book a return journey on an overnight coach with Megabus to film a travel vlog, which obviously didn't happen. I had to book a one-way flight that evening instead due to a work schedule change making the bus idea somewhat unfeasible.

Whilst easyJet and Ryanair were offering flights into London Luton, Gatwick or Stansted for £27-£35 one way, I opted to splash £65 on a London Heathrow flight as it would be a shorter commute back to Bournemouth after arriving, plus the chance to enjoy the lounge a few hours also made the extra splash of cash more worth the while!

British Airways BA1436 (EDI-LHR)

Tonight's flight would be operated by G-EUYD, an Airbus A320-ceo that has been in the British Airways fleet since its delivery in December 2008, during the 2020 Pandemic it was stored at Bournemouth Hurn (my local airport and where my inbound flight came from) and then stored at Glasgow Airport after a few months back in service. On February 6th 2021 the plane returned to service.

British Airways opted for an open board on this flight today, probably to help make up for the delays. BA does use the boarding bridges at Edinburgh as well, so it can be hit or miss. Personally I find the open board more appealing regardless of the weather!

It was a busy and packed flight, I managed to get Seat 13F, one row behind the emergency over-wing exit. I tried to get a seat up front as it would be near the engine and would help with filming the flight review video for this trip, filming isn't easy at night I'm telling you!

We eventually pushed back and taxied over to Runway 06, passing the spotting point for Ingliston Market where I've been a few times in the past. We lined up and buzzed out into the skies over Scotland, before headed south for London.

Farewell Edinburgh, until next time!

The crew jumped into action to dish out the Euro Traveller snack service of a bottled water and the pretzel snacks. A short while after this was done I went onto the Speedbird Café to order a cup of herbal tea for the remaining flight.

Snack time! This is a measure I hope BA continues on their European services.

I didn't get many pictures during this flight as it was dark outside and a full cabin inside not far behind the drawn curtain, but eventually the uneventful inflight period passed and we began our decent into London Heathrow, flying around over London to line up with the airport.

We eventually arrived into London Heathrow and made our taxi over to Terminal 5A, parking up on the stands at the South of the facility which handle domestic flight arrivals.

As per the usual, I was one of the last to disembark the aircraft, and on departure I wished the flight crew a pleasant evening and end to their day, I'm confident they were just as pleased to be back at LHR as the rest of the passengers were.

And thus concludes this very brief flight report, I hope you enjoyed it and I will have some more exciting flights to report on over the next couple of weeks!

G-EUYK, a similar British Airways A320-ceo taxiing at Edinburgh Airport on a prior trip in daylight.