Foreword
Those of you who read my most recent reviews (which were for BA) may be surprised to see that I have added more BA reviews.
To refresh, I had a poor first longhaul experience with BA in 2023 and decided I would not ever fly BA longhaul again. I did however state that I would fly BA on shorthaul and domestic flights as the service is a lot more polished.
Today's flight falls on my Birthday day as well as being the first ever flight with my new Wife who had moved to the UK shortly before this flight.
Did BA dazzle me on this short flight down to Heathrow ? Read on to find out.
I had booked separately as only one of us needed a suitcase - it would be great if BA allowed passengers in one booking to add bags to select passengers without having to add a bag for everyone.
I tried to pay for 2 x meal deals but the system wouldn't allow it for this flight. Mr Sandeep and Mr Akshay on Livechat were amazing and added comments for my Wife to allow preboarding and helped with seat assignment.
I woke up to this on the morning of my flight.
The plan for today after being TG'd twice on other BA A319s ! Never been TG'd but I have now been BA'd !
The legacy of the Landor livery lives on - some nice BA items I found on ebay before my trip
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Checkin
I knew exactly where to find the British Airways checkin desks in Terminal 3 as I had flown BA, exactly 10 months before today's flight.
Upon arriving at 1450pm for our STD of 1650pm, there were only a very small number of passengers waiting. Surprising given it was a UK Bank Holiday weekend.
We were checked in by a lovely gentleman from Menzies named Joshua who was friendly,engaging and really professional. Enroute to security, I ran into an old MAN colleague from decades ago who is now a Manager.
After scanning our boarding passes, we were through security in around 30 seconds ! MAN has worked hard to improve the timings but it did help that we had liquids ready in a clear bag. Once through security we saw that the flight had a short delay of around 40 minutes.
I didn't read too much into this and after a quick stop at Boots, we made our way upstairs into the 'Quiet zone' . I will use this word very loosely as you will see.
On our way into T3 after clearing security.
easyJet is one of Manchester Airport's biggest airlines.
Amazing to think that easyJet only began flying from Manchester in 2007 !
Uh Oh..news so awful they have to tell me twice ! Funny to think that this arrived whilst I was checking in and I did not even notice it !
The Quiet Zone - quite the experience and anything but quiet.
An article from the online version of the Manchester Evening News from 21st July 2024 describes this area as " an oasis of calm with extra seating, charging points and runway views ".
The area itself is formerly the BA Manchester Executive Lounge and is next door to the Escape Lounge. There are no flight announcements but there is catering to buy from the "Hangar" kiosk ( if open ) and there are very well kept washrooms. There is a massive wall mural of a Ryanair 737 Max along with Max facts, perhaps a nod to Terminal 3's biggest Airline. A position once claimed by BA in this very terminal. Upon entering, there was an air of calm and I was excited to see the Runway views. Let's do some planespotting !
Pegasus A320neo off back home to Istanbul.
Some Birthday Juice and I tried hard to get a Juice and Jet photo - this is my best shot lol !
The Whale on her way back home to Dubai - this is the 2nd of 3 x daily Emirates A380s from Manchester.
Aer Lingus A330 off to New York JFK.
Lufthansa A330 at Manchester ?! Have passengers of the normally used A320/A321 from Frankfurt been upgraded to a widebody ?!
Unfortunately not. This a medical diversion to Manchester for Lufthansa LH444 - a Frankfurt-Atlanta flight. I hope the passenger was ok in the end.
The Princess of Doha on her way back home. One of three daily trips by QR from Manchester. In 2021, Qatar Airways had wanted to begin A380 flights to Manchester but nothing came of it. They certainly have demand to do so.
A very unusual Gulf Air departure but a welcome sight as often GF UK/Europe departures are early morning or late night ! Why was this flight late though ? All will be revealed later.
The Toronto Express taxying to runway 1 to go back home. Fond memories of when I used to prepare the afternoon teabox for their MAN-GLA domestic service !
First ever viewing of a Royal Jordanian aircraft at MAN after they recently began service here and it's a oneworld livery ! Royal Jordanian has a new livery being introduced gradually and this summer saw the operating aircraft upgraded to a 787.
Busy busy !
Shortly after taking our seats in this supposedly Quiet Area, I saw some small kids running around. Nothing major to report for this. But soon there was loud shouting and screaming. A large family from the Liverpool area found it ok to shout to each other in both Chinese and English. One of the males of the family, 6 foot tall and around 28 years of age, appeared to encourage the younger kids to shout and scream and run riot and held various kids on his shoulders. The adults seemed to have difficulty in conversing in a soft manner and looked very odd when every conversation was shouted. There was no staff member at the entry or inside this so called exclusive space to enforce a quiet policy. No amount of stern looks could encourage this rowdy group to behave. My head was hurting badly and after 2+ hours I could not hack the endless noise so we decided to head downstairs. Very suitably, the area has since rebranded to "Extra Seating". With no one to enforce good behaviour, it did not deserve the Quiet Area name.
The Gate Area
A lady working for MAN (smart grey and blue uniform) said we could head into the gates area for BA and said that our flight would likely go from gate 142 or 143. We scanned our Boarding Passes and went through. I could see many free seats near gate 143 so we headed there. We passed the crew who were about to take the flight down to Heathrow and one of the Flight Deck even gave a friendly nod. The aircraft was late inbound and after doing many Heathrow style Loop d'loops around the Northwest, the aircraft finally touched down at 1700pm having operated the BA1394 from Heathrow.
Birthdays mean Boeings…or Airbus in this case !
Aircraft and flight info for today as well as flight tracking for the inbound flight.
BA1399
G-EUOF
A319
STD / STA 1650/1750
ATD / ATA 1848 /1936
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Isn't she lovely ?!
Do you see Thai and Ethiopian ? The Thai A330 has been parked at MAN forever. Interestingly MAN appears on the official Thai Airways route map as a proposed destination. Thai's management visited MAN in September 2019 with a view to flying MANBKK from May 2020. We all know what happened a few months later.
As the aircraft arrived onto stand, the 23 year old A319 looked brand new and definately did not look it's age. The inbound passengers began disembarking very quickly. One such passenger had bandaged legs so a ground staff member escorted him to a lift and when he came back up (the ground staff member) I asked if I may speak to him. He had a beaming smile, wore a hi-viz saying Team Leader and looked very smart in the Menzies uniform, Menzies being BA's handling agent at Manchester Airport.
I told him my Wife is a nervous flyer and that there is a comment in her Reservation. He introduced himself as Dwayne and he was so kind and caring towards my Wife and told us that the crew are trained to assist with this and that we should come forward when boarding begins. I was really touched at Dwayne's kindness and care. An announcement was made that Boarding would start shortly and that there would be a crew change and that cleaning was taking place.
Boarding
Boarding began at 1715pm sharp. As the preboard passengers lined up in the airbridge, there was another 5 minute wait. During this wait I heard a male in the airbridge talking very loudly. I turned around to look at him. He was in plain clothes but seemed to be wearing a BA unbranded lanyard and holding a BA Uniform blazer, indicating he is off duty crew. He was talking loud and fast and not breathing between words. I hoped he would not be sat near me. As soon as one of the cockpit crew entered the airbridge from the side door,after his preflight walkaround, the cordon was released and boarding commenced.
When we stepped onboard, we were warmly greeted by Inflight Manager Clare. As there was a bottleneck, I let Clare know that today is my Birthday and also our first flight as Mr and Mrs. She said we would speak during the flight and I had no doubt on this. Please note that my only interaction with her would end up being at boarding and at disembarkation.
A couple, who appeared to have flown in on Emirates, leisurely stowed their handluggage without any care for the multitude of passengers behind them.
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Headrest has not been straightened out during the turnaround. My tray table was dirty and had stains and crumbs so I used my own sanitising wipe to thoroughly wipe it down. A very poor impression of BA.
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At the start of the Eurotraveller cabin ( and you see her above ) , a Scottish Airhostess named Shannon greeted us warmly as we walked past her. I always love hearing a Scottish accent from a crewmember as it reminds me of my birth country. We stowed our handluggage and immediately got seated. I did not expect great legroom and BA sure did pack the seats in on this babybus. I guess in a past life the Boeing version of the A319 was known as the 737-200. The legroom was appalling and I could not wait to be on our way. But I may as well have got comfy.
There was no boarding music or air conditioning. the cabin was warm during the endless boarding.
An announcement was made at 1742pm to say that the Boarding was complete. I asked a lovely French Airhostess Valerie for an extension seatbelt and she said "yes of course" and brought me one. She also offered to stow bags at the front for some passengers who had large hand luggages. I don't feel BA help themselves by allowing such huge handluggage onboard such a small aircraft with heavily restricted overhead locker space. There was an announcement that there would be no WiFi or USB power onboard this aircraft. But a slightly not so great announcement was yet to come.
I wish Loganair would restart Manchester to Glasgow service. I really love the tartan tail and livery !
After the coat loop inside my suit jacket was damaged last year on BA, It is with some reluctance that I hung my jacket up today. I am glad the coat hook is on the right side of the seat rather than in the middle. Not sure whose bright idea it was to have the hooks on the left on newer aircraft.
At 1750pm FO Jamie made an announcement and apologised that we were an hour behind schedule today due to the late inbound aircraft.
He said, that although we were ready to go , the MAN ATC had issues and were using pen and paper to co-ordinate departures and it would take 30 to 40 minutes to get clearance and that this was affecting all airlines at MAN today.
He said he will get the steps reattached to let in fresh air to make the cabin cooler as he appreciated we were sat in a warm aircraft.
He advised the crew was Inflight Manager Clare, along with Esther, Valerie and Shannon.
The flight time after take off would be 35 minutes and he said to keep seatbelts loosely fastened in case of turbulence and to have seatbelts visible to crew and that he will give information regarding connections. Look what I just spotted in my Inbox whsilst sitting onboard an uncomfortable A319.
The doors were opened and some fresh air entered the cabin. The motormouth I mentioned earlier from the airbridge ? Guess where he was sat ? Yup, the row behind. This individual did not stop talking from the time he entered the aircraft to the time he disembarked in Heathrow. More on him later.
I noticed Valerie handing out water bottles to Club Europe passengers and looked forward to receiving a bottle asap. How wrong I was. Only Club Europe passengers received a bottle of water. Despite the flight taking off just shy of 2 hours late and being on the ground an hour or so, surely Eurotraveller passengers should have received a bottle as a small gesture ? Shannon, the Scottish Airhostess was keeping passengers informed about the delay and very kindly took our handluggage out to let my Wife get something to eat, before stowing the bag back into the overhead locker. Telling her it is nice to hear another Scottish accent seemed to cause lots of laughter and smiles from passengers sat around me ! So far the crew have been perfect. Will I feel the same by the time we land ? Stay tuned !
Pushback and take off
The Engine roar at 1830pm was a welcome relief and pushback was at 1833pm whilst a manual safety demonstration got underway. The safety announcement was done by Airhostess Esther who had the most beautiful Spanish accent I have ever heard.
Egyptair A321neo about to head home to Cairo. I am so in love with the Egyptair livery and it is one of my all time favourites ! Really well done to whoever created it.
The cabin was secured and at 1848pm it was time to speed down runway 1 on this sunny Saturday Birthday evening !
Inflight Service
A tiny packet of lovecorn roasted corn was offered with a plain white serviette and a small bottle of still water. No gloves were used and the crew directly touched the serviettes and snack/bottle.
You would think that after covid19, Airlines of all companies would ensure the strictest hygiene. I do not feel comfortable with someone touching something with their bare hands that I will have to put on or in my mouth.
The thought of crew touching pets, prohibited foods or having unacceptable hygiene preflight and coming straight onto the aircraft makes me question BA's hygiene policy. If there is one.
As per BA ;
"Our in-flight meals do not contain peanuts or peanut products. However, they may be produced at a facility that handles peanuts, therefore we are unable to offer a peanut-free alternative meal. Peanuts may be used in some airport lounges. Please confirm with lounge staff upon arrival. "
I wonder if BA suspend the snack service if just 1 person has a nut allergy.
Seat pocket content
The Club Europe curtain stayed open for the whole flight and I could see trays being dished out rapidly to an almosf full cabin. The flight time between Manchester and Heathrow v.v. is very short and I am very experienced regarding this route both as staff and as a passenger.
To Fly To Serve ?
Once the complimentary inflight service was finished in both cabins, a strange turn of events happened.
Please bear in mind, that aside from the complimentary service, anything else you want to eat or drink onboard a BA domestic/shorthaul flight, has to be preordered from the High Life Cafe. As in, if you suddenly want a can of Sprite, you cannot buy it there and then. This has been confirmed to me personally by Esther from the High Life team in London ;
Kindly be advised that on domestic flights, the only way to eat and drink on board is to pre order.
I can confirm that on selected short haul flights, there are trollies, however, with at seat limited stock.
We do always advise customers to pre order due to limited availability of stock on board to secure their meal.
Kind Regards,
Esther
High Life Shop After Sales Support
The off duty BA Steward ( loud male ) on row 15D, made a point of letting the aircraft know that he is staying the night in London and then flying to New York the next day. He said to the older couple next to him, that if HE was the crew on this flight, he would bring them champagne. At the time I was unaware why he would say this.
There were Uniformed crew seated a few rows ahead, being served multiple varieties of soft drinks on a tray in real glasses. The next thing I know, Shannon appears with a tray of around 20 neatly lined up champagne glasses. She offered these to Mr Loud on 15D as well as the older couple next to him. Someone then said Happy Anniversary to the older couple, but I don't remember who. Shannon also offers some glasses of champagne to 1 or two passengers on rows DEF.
I genuinely thought I will get at least a Happy Birthday or a Happy minimoon verbal greeting. But nothing. I thought perhaps at the end of the flight the crew will surprise me. Mr Loud got up and took the couple's empty glasses and walked all the way from Eurotraveller into Club Europe and the galley to stow the glasses of the older couple. None of the crew seemed to have an issue with this.
I cannot imagine the free flowing trays of champagne were beign served without the consent of the Inflight Manager. Read on as to why this fact is important.
Circling London and landing
At 1911pm, we began our descent already and did the usual loop d'loop as we circled London and surroundings.
Eventually we passed by key Landmarks like Big Ben and the London Eye as we lined up to land at Heathrow, which we did at 1935pm, just short of 2 hours late and we arrived onto a remote stand, in order to be bussed to the Terminal.
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Mr Loud carried on talking and I felt glad glad to give my eardrums a rest from him. We were the last few passengers and when asking for a souvenier photo with the crew, the Inflight Manager Clare who was stood at the L1 door, put her hand on her chest and said "I don't personally want to be in a photo with you " but ( after checking with the cockpit crew ) she said the cockpit crew were happy to let us have a photo in the cockpit but to be quick as a bus was waiting. Charming.
Even this late into this flight, she did not once wish me Happy Birthday/Honeymoon or that my Wife had moved to the UK or that it was our first flight as Mr and Mrs. Yet she had the time to arrange free flowing champagne for an older English couple and her crew were pampering uniformed and deadheading colleagues who were passengers.
The First Officer took our photo in the cockpit and wished us Congratulations. I bade him farewell. I am not saying the anniversary of the couple behind me should not have been celebrated. But it seems my own happiness was not worth bothering about. Not one bit. Thanks BA and Clare for making me feel like rubbish on my milestone travel day. The single worst ignorance of crew I have ever witnessed.
We got the bus to T5 and enroute saw several Iberia aircraft. I feel lucky to see this A320neo named "Barajas" - Madrid's Airport is named Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport - Barajas being a district of Madrid.
At T5 we immediately got our case and exited Arrivals to get our Hotel Hoppa bus.
Destination Wall outside Heathrow T5 ( turn right out of arrivals ).
After the flight this arrived via email. They really want to hear how my experience was and how much I rate BA ? No words at this laughable email or the poor flight experience aside from the delay as delays do happen.
Enter text here…
Oh interesting, I guess domestic flights are too short for them to roll out the buy-on-board cart
LOL I don't know why you get the impression that this would ever happen---it's not really a normal thing. I fly on my birthday all the time and I've never gotten a Happy Birthday and I'm BA Gold. I would never expect something like that on a flight, personally.
I feel like I've said this before, but in my humble opinion, it seems you have unrealistic expectations of personalised service. Apologies, I don't want to sound judgemental, it's just this is a recurring theme in your flight reviews and I honestly think you'd have much more positive experiences if you lowered your expectations to a more reasonable level.
Thank you for sharing and congratulations on you wedding
Hi KevinDC :)
Thank You so much for taking the time to read my review.
I really appreciate your feedback !