Spymon
Jun 25, 12, 4:37 pm
Welcome to this trip report featuring BA Club Europe (Short Haul J) from LHR to LYS and back again, a cheap and tasty restaurant and a short trip on a TGV. All the photos are taken on my Sony Xperia S. I hope you find this report interesting.
If you enjoyed this you can also read my other reports
Three Ways From A to B a Statusless Persons Guide: BA vs. Eurostar vs. Easyjet (2012) (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-reports/1322582-three-ways-b-statusless-persons-guide-ba-vs-eurostar-vs-easyjet.html)
A West Coast Adventure: San Francisco, Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon with VX and BA (2012) (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-reports/1334163-west-coast-adventure-sf-vegas-grand-canyon-vx-ba.html)
North India (2010) (http://containsspoilers.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/voyage-to-india.html)
Introduction
Ms. Spymon's Mum had to go into hospital for an operation and Ms. Spymon was going home for a week to spend time with her family and to be with her Mum during the recovery. For the last week or so she kept saying, "I wish you could come with me." But with work and the cost of a last minute ticket I though that there was no chance I'd make it over on time. I suddenly realised I had the possibility of a weekend off and after having a look on ba.com over lunch I found there were some reward flights available and we could at least travel out together and spend a few days with each other. The following day I got my schedule re-arranged and a day of holiday approved and minutes later 16,000 or so Avios were spent and a Club Europe return was mine. This was the most last minute flight I'd ever booked at less than 24 hours before departure so all my usual planning around timings, seats etc went out the window. Being so close to departure I was able to check in straight away. The only window seat left was 3F so I chose that. Ms. Spymon was in 7C. After finishing work for the day it was home to clear the fridge of any perishable items which turned into a lovely chili. It also caused me to polish off the best part of a rather nice bottle of Cotes du Rhone which made packing and other such things not much fun.
http://i1264.photobucket.com/albums/jj500/spymon26/DSC_0217.jpg
Sometime after 12 it was time for bed with suitcases full of clothes and a few gifts we planned to bring later in the year safely packed inside. We had less than that 5 hours of sleep to look forward to and seeing as Ms. Spymon gets most upset at anything under 9 hours it was going to be a fun morning ahead of me!
The Smart Londoner Takes...
http://i1264.photobucket.com/albums/jj500/spymon26/DSC_0132.jpg
A bus and a HEX, at least if you're headed to T5 at LHR. There was apparently going to be some sort of bus strike in London but according to the Bus app on my phone there would be one along shortly. Shockingly there was little resistance that morning and thankfully I was hangover free and we actually left on time for to catch the 7:25 HEX.
The bus was soon with us and we quickly bumped, bounced and jerked our way to Paddington. Even with no traffic on the road we were still treated to the kind of bus journey that made a Varanasi road look smooth as silk (Long and painful story). Thankfully we were soon at Paddington and we headed down the ramp to the HEX platform with a good few minutes to spare. Unfortunately it was not one of the refurbished trains but it was clean, comfortable and got us in to T5 in no time at all.
http://i1264.photobucket.com/albums/jj500/spymon26/Untitled.jpg
After departing the HEX, we sailed up in the lifts to departures and found a desk to drop our bags, the queues were all pretty short and Ms. Spymon didn't feel like walking the extra few minutes down to Zone H for the premium check-in area. At check in we were advised of a 15 minute delay to our departure, not great as we had an already tight lunch reservation at the other end. As we ended up using South Security it would have taken around the same time to have used the Premium area, oh well, best not to argue. We were quickly through fast track for the both of us (Thanks AMEX Platinum, you will be missed) though my bag had the pleasure of being swabbed before being given back to me. However, instead of heading straight to the lounge we had some vouchers to spend in World Duty Free which meant more presents to take with us. As I was thinking of all the junk I could be eating in the peace and quiet of Galleries Club South Ms. Spymon was circling World Duty free where after what felt like an eternity we ended up with a bottle of Pimms, some Jelly Belly Beans and some Twinings Queen's Diamond Jubilee Blend loose leaf tea in a nice black box. At least there was time for some breakfast in the lounge as we went up the escalators and the kindly lounge agent took my CX Gold (Thanks again AMEX) so Ms. Spymon could enter as my guest. We found a nice spot near the cinema and settled in for some breakfast.
http://i1264.photobucket.com/albums/jj500/spymon26/DSC_0138.jpg
We soon found the flight was delayed for 20 mins so after the pain of circling world duty free it was nice to have the peace and quiet of the lounge.
http://i1264.photobucket.com/albums/jj500/spymon26/DSC_0139.jpg
Eventually the gate was announced and we headed back down to the main part of the terminal, on the way down I took a quick snap of the model Concorde on display as part of BA's take on the Diamond Jubilee celebrations.
http://i1264.photobucket.com/albums/jj500/spymon26/DSC_0141-1.jpg
After a few minutes waiting by the gate, boarding started and thanks to the priority boarding lane we were one of the first on board.
This Time I'm Getting My Champagne
BA360 to Lyon
I settled in to 3F and waved Ms. Spymon off to 7C. Just in case you think I'm being mean by flying in CE and putting my better half in ET that is certainly not the case. When she booked her flights there were no reward seats available on her preferred flights, so she ended up paying in full for them. When I booked my flights only CE was left and I dread to think what the cash price would have been! In actual fact my traveling up front was an unfortunate side affect and I would have been happy to sit further back if that's all that was available (perhaps!).
http://i1264.photobucket.com/albums/jj500/spymon26/DSC_0142.jpg
Boarding was over pretty quickly and we were soon on our way. Once the seat belt signs were off the crew did a quick run of hot towels before handing out the breakfast trays and a bread basket with some warm pastries in it. Breakfast was better than it looked, though not by much, the sausage was cooked, the eggs were soft after penetrating the skin on top and the bacon was not rock solid like the poor bacon roll on my last flight.
http://i1264.photobucket.com/albums/jj500/spymon26/DSC_0148.jpg
On the negative side I don't like the fact that you pick up the pastries with your hands and also the drinks service felt a little out of sync with the food. After my last flight in CE was slightly spoiled due to a lack of drinks offered I thought I'd make up for it with a glass of champagne.
http://i1264.photobucket.com/albums/jj500/spymon26/DSC_0149.jpg
Not the best or the worst champagne but it made the short flight to LYS feel even shorter. The seat belt signs were soon turned on as we made our descent into LYS. We had a short taxi to the gate, it looked fine and sunny outside and we were quickly off the plane, being careful to left off some well behaved children and a tired out looking couple with a baby first. Flight was a solid 7 out of 10 with no major issues and a competent crew.
It was then a short walk through security and then a long wait for our bags. LYS is a small airport, the distance from aircraft to baggage reclaim is short, yet it still took a good 30 minutes from disembarking the plane for our bags to come out. I placed a bet with Ms. Spymon that my bags at LHR would be ready faster, she laughed at such a suggestion as we were met by her Dad and Sister at arrivals.
If you enjoyed this you can also read my other reports
Three Ways From A to B a Statusless Persons Guide: BA vs. Eurostar vs. Easyjet (2012) (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-reports/1322582-three-ways-b-statusless-persons-guide-ba-vs-eurostar-vs-easyjet.html)
A West Coast Adventure: San Francisco, Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon with VX and BA (2012) (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-reports/1334163-west-coast-adventure-sf-vegas-grand-canyon-vx-ba.html)
North India (2010) (http://containsspoilers.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/voyage-to-india.html)
Introduction
Ms. Spymon's Mum had to go into hospital for an operation and Ms. Spymon was going home for a week to spend time with her family and to be with her Mum during the recovery. For the last week or so she kept saying, "I wish you could come with me." But with work and the cost of a last minute ticket I though that there was no chance I'd make it over on time. I suddenly realised I had the possibility of a weekend off and after having a look on ba.com over lunch I found there were some reward flights available and we could at least travel out together and spend a few days with each other. The following day I got my schedule re-arranged and a day of holiday approved and minutes later 16,000 or so Avios were spent and a Club Europe return was mine. This was the most last minute flight I'd ever booked at less than 24 hours before departure so all my usual planning around timings, seats etc went out the window. Being so close to departure I was able to check in straight away. The only window seat left was 3F so I chose that. Ms. Spymon was in 7C. After finishing work for the day it was home to clear the fridge of any perishable items which turned into a lovely chili. It also caused me to polish off the best part of a rather nice bottle of Cotes du Rhone which made packing and other such things not much fun.
http://i1264.photobucket.com/albums/jj500/spymon26/DSC_0217.jpg
Sometime after 12 it was time for bed with suitcases full of clothes and a few gifts we planned to bring later in the year safely packed inside. We had less than that 5 hours of sleep to look forward to and seeing as Ms. Spymon gets most upset at anything under 9 hours it was going to be a fun morning ahead of me!
The Smart Londoner Takes...
http://i1264.photobucket.com/albums/jj500/spymon26/DSC_0132.jpg
A bus and a HEX, at least if you're headed to T5 at LHR. There was apparently going to be some sort of bus strike in London but according to the Bus app on my phone there would be one along shortly. Shockingly there was little resistance that morning and thankfully I was hangover free and we actually left on time for to catch the 7:25 HEX.
The bus was soon with us and we quickly bumped, bounced and jerked our way to Paddington. Even with no traffic on the road we were still treated to the kind of bus journey that made a Varanasi road look smooth as silk (Long and painful story). Thankfully we were soon at Paddington and we headed down the ramp to the HEX platform with a good few minutes to spare. Unfortunately it was not one of the refurbished trains but it was clean, comfortable and got us in to T5 in no time at all.
http://i1264.photobucket.com/albums/jj500/spymon26/Untitled.jpg
After departing the HEX, we sailed up in the lifts to departures and found a desk to drop our bags, the queues were all pretty short and Ms. Spymon didn't feel like walking the extra few minutes down to Zone H for the premium check-in area. At check in we were advised of a 15 minute delay to our departure, not great as we had an already tight lunch reservation at the other end. As we ended up using South Security it would have taken around the same time to have used the Premium area, oh well, best not to argue. We were quickly through fast track for the both of us (Thanks AMEX Platinum, you will be missed) though my bag had the pleasure of being swabbed before being given back to me. However, instead of heading straight to the lounge we had some vouchers to spend in World Duty Free which meant more presents to take with us. As I was thinking of all the junk I could be eating in the peace and quiet of Galleries Club South Ms. Spymon was circling World Duty free where after what felt like an eternity we ended up with a bottle of Pimms, some Jelly Belly Beans and some Twinings Queen's Diamond Jubilee Blend loose leaf tea in a nice black box. At least there was time for some breakfast in the lounge as we went up the escalators and the kindly lounge agent took my CX Gold (Thanks again AMEX) so Ms. Spymon could enter as my guest. We found a nice spot near the cinema and settled in for some breakfast.
http://i1264.photobucket.com/albums/jj500/spymon26/DSC_0138.jpg
We soon found the flight was delayed for 20 mins so after the pain of circling world duty free it was nice to have the peace and quiet of the lounge.
http://i1264.photobucket.com/albums/jj500/spymon26/DSC_0139.jpg
Eventually the gate was announced and we headed back down to the main part of the terminal, on the way down I took a quick snap of the model Concorde on display as part of BA's take on the Diamond Jubilee celebrations.
http://i1264.photobucket.com/albums/jj500/spymon26/DSC_0141-1.jpg
After a few minutes waiting by the gate, boarding started and thanks to the priority boarding lane we were one of the first on board.
This Time I'm Getting My Champagne
BA360 to Lyon
I settled in to 3F and waved Ms. Spymon off to 7C. Just in case you think I'm being mean by flying in CE and putting my better half in ET that is certainly not the case. When she booked her flights there were no reward seats available on her preferred flights, so she ended up paying in full for them. When I booked my flights only CE was left and I dread to think what the cash price would have been! In actual fact my traveling up front was an unfortunate side affect and I would have been happy to sit further back if that's all that was available (perhaps!).
http://i1264.photobucket.com/albums/jj500/spymon26/DSC_0142.jpg
Boarding was over pretty quickly and we were soon on our way. Once the seat belt signs were off the crew did a quick run of hot towels before handing out the breakfast trays and a bread basket with some warm pastries in it. Breakfast was better than it looked, though not by much, the sausage was cooked, the eggs were soft after penetrating the skin on top and the bacon was not rock solid like the poor bacon roll on my last flight.
http://i1264.photobucket.com/albums/jj500/spymon26/DSC_0148.jpg
On the negative side I don't like the fact that you pick up the pastries with your hands and also the drinks service felt a little out of sync with the food. After my last flight in CE was slightly spoiled due to a lack of drinks offered I thought I'd make up for it with a glass of champagne.
http://i1264.photobucket.com/albums/jj500/spymon26/DSC_0149.jpg
Not the best or the worst champagne but it made the short flight to LYS feel even shorter. The seat belt signs were soon turned on as we made our descent into LYS. We had a short taxi to the gate, it looked fine and sunny outside and we were quickly off the plane, being careful to left off some well behaved children and a tired out looking couple with a baby first. Flight was a solid 7 out of 10 with no major issues and a competent crew.
It was then a short walk through security and then a long wait for our bags. LYS is a small airport, the distance from aircraft to baggage reclaim is short, yet it still took a good 30 minutes from disembarking the plane for our bags to come out. I placed a bet with Ms. Spymon that my bags at LHR would be ready faster, she laughed at such a suggestion as we were met by her Dad and Sister at arrivals.