1.5 - BA316. London Heathrow (LHR) to Paris Charles-de-Gaulle (CDG)
We return to the flight at A18
As boarding started, people realised that it was the priority boarding queue and the general boarding queue started to populate (at this point, I still hadn't taken any pictures). As Club Europe and bronze, I followed the sheep towards the boarding pass scanners. At this point, there was 20 people in front of me but this was quite quick. I was on the plane at 1500 (T+5mins)
I went into the cockpit to find out that we weren't pushing back for another 30 mins and airborne for another 50 mins. For the 5 mins I was in there, the times updated twice so by the time I left, we were estimating push back at 1540 and airborne at 1555.
The British Airways Club Europe product isn't much to get excited about. There was a good amount of space (including the centre console) as well as legroom available (for someone who is 5ft 10). Boarding seemed to resume very slowly for another 30 mins which meant boarding hadn't finished until T+35 mins (1530). One of the last people who boarded was the passenger in 1C: someone who got an upgrade (free or not no idea) from 28F (!) up to CE.
Doors were closed and captain's announcement at 1535 telling us a pushback at 1550. Having finally got on to the move at 1548, trouble wasn't over yet. Despite a simple, yet long taxi routing to 27R, the queue there was long. At 1607, we were in the queue when a BA 747 bound for Seattle had a bird strike as they took off. This closed the runway for about 7 mins; with the airport buried in fog earlier, this was the last thing Heathrow wanted. Hot towels were issued in the mean time and we took off at 1620. Here is a picture of the 747 and our takeoff.
Cruising at 25,000ft, the flight to CDG was well under way. The flight crew came around with Afternoon Tea or Ploughman's Salad. Having perused the choices before hand, I wasn't too keen on the Afternoon Tea so I went for the Ploughman's. There were a range of flavours and it tasted pretty good! I accompanied it with a cup of tea which was presented in a proper mug.
And that's it. 40 mins in the air, and we landed on 08R and it was a sufficient taxi in of around 7 mins. We were parked on A45 which involved no walk to passport control. When I arrived, only one desk was manned however this soon became three.
The bags took a while to arrive, but we were fully landside by 1835. Since CDG's 2A (not sure about the others) was small enough so that landside departures and arrivals were on the same level. It took us less than 30 secs to get to check in desks for CX. Overall, a solid Club Europe experience, thoroughly enjoyed. (Except the delay of course, but I can't blame that on anyone. Perhaps the bird?)
Below demonstrates the route from leaving the plane to the check in desk. It's not exactly exact... but something on the lines of that. Connecting at CDG isn't that bad, providing it doesn't involve switching terminals.
Part 3. CX278. Paris Charles-de-Gaulle to Hong Kong