I'm a frequent flyer within Europe on BA and other airlines (mainly Lufthansa, Finnair, Austrian and Iberia) and I have this nagging feeling that BA gets second-class treatment at many airports - does anyone have similar experiences and is this to do with the level of service they pay for?
Last night flying out of FRA to LCY with BA, we boarded on time but were kept on the tarmac for almost two hours because there was a "long queue for de-icing", but funnily enough all the other airlines seemed to be blissfully unaffected - I couldn't find any other major delays in the evening's departures.
Generally at Frankfurt T2 most airlines seem to dock at an air bridge, whereas BA is always made to taxi to the furthest corner of the field with a long bus ride back to the terminal.
Similarly I've noticed at Heathrow T3 BA NEVER docks at an air bridge, whereas all the other airlines do. Same experience in Vienna.
Does anyone else think that the official arrival time of a flight should be when the bus opens its doors at the terminal? At T3 the difference can easily amount to 20 minutes or more.
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Welcome to Flyertalk nd100
Cant really answer your questions but just wanted to welcome you onboard, hope you stay and continue to post
cs
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Welcome, nd100, it's good to see you here in the BAEC forum, and welcome also to FlyerTalk. May your postings here be frequent and interesting!
You have managed to identify a number of "exceptions to the rule".
FRA is sometime airbridged (not for LCY services though I believe), but I can assure you that FRA quite cheerfully sends out a bus for a lot of Lufthansa services, as I am all too well aware. Dreadful airport! I've even been put on a bus to a 747 there. Also de-icing is bad there, I was cancelled on a Lufty aircraft to LHR yesterday due to delays to other planes from de-icing. Two LHR services were cancelled and about 4 had big delays.
T3 - well that's another oddity, but it's structural but temporary (the gates are often T1 gates), and there is a big building complex round T2 which is to blame there. T3 does airbridge the longhauls. We don't know what the end game will be, but it's not the status quo.
BA does airbridge at Vienna most of the time.
So no, it's not cheapo handling. I could list a lot of places where BA always airbridges.
Thanks c-w-s for your response, and perhaps I didn't have the full picture at FRA last night, but several colleagues who were flying out on Air France and Lufthansa to various destinations around the same time had no problems at all. Sorry to hear that your flight was also affected.
However, as far as T3 and Vienna are concerned I do have a lot of experience over the years, and it's very consistent.
From T3 I fly to Helsinki and Madrid a lot, both on BA and on the Finnair/Iberia operated code shares. My Finnair and Iberia flights ALWAYS dock, and my BA ones NEVER dock. I've done it far too many times to put it down to coincidence, and it's really put me off booking the BA operated flights.
As for Vienna, it's my home town and I've been flying there from London 4-5 times a year for the last 14 years. There has only been one occasion when a BA flight docked, which incidentally was earlier this year, so perhaps the policy has just recently changed for the better. For the previous 13 years, no such luck, even when there were plenty of free bridges on the non-Schengen wing of the terminal.
FRA is sometime airbridged (not for LCY services though I believe), but I can assure you that FRA quite cheerfully sends out a bus for a lot of Lufthansa services, as I am all too well aware. Dreadful airport!
:::SNIP:::
So no, it's not cheapo handling. I could list a lot of places where BA always airbridges.
Fully agreed with everything you have said.
I used to get driven nuts by the last flight of the day to OTP and first flight out of there being always a bus, but it was due to shortage of aerobridges and now that they have more aerobridges, BA is using one for those flights too.
I will continue to dislike bus on/off, but it can happen on any airline, anywhere. It's one of those things that are travelling 'hazards'
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Just on the subject of BA operations at T3 nd100
General rule of thumb is that Longhaul flights will arrive at and depart from a Jetbridge, however shorthaul flights will be bussed.
Its something to do with capacity at T3 which should be solved when some airlines move out into the new terminal over the next 18 months, its also thought that BA will move operations to T3 from T1 at some stage when other airlines move out.
cs
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nd100
Thanks c-w-s for your response, and perhaps I didn't have the full picture at FRA last night, but several colleagues who were flying out on Air France and Lufthansa to various destinations around the same time had no problems at all. Sorry to hear that your flight was also affected.
However, as far as T3 and Vienna are concerned I do have a lot of experience over the years, and it's very consistent.
From T3 I fly to Helsinki and Madrid a lot, both on BA and on the Finnair/Iberia operated code shares. My Finnair and Iberia flights ALWAYS dock, and my BA ones NEVER dock. I've done it far too many times to put it down to coincidence, and it's really put me off booking the BA operated flights.
As for Vienna, it's my home town and I've been flying there from London 4-5 times a year for the last 14 years. There has only been one occasion when a BA flight docked, which incidentally was earlier this year, so perhaps the policy has just recently changed for the better. For the previous 13 years, no such luck, even when there were plenty of free bridges on the non-Schengen wing of the terminal.
If it makes you feel any better, I was bussed to my Finnair HEL-LHR flight back in mid-August. And it was raining!
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I'm a frequent flyer within Europe on BA and other airlines (mainly Lufthansa, Finnair, Austrian and Iberia) and I have this nagging feeling that BA gets second-class treatment at many airports - does anyone have similar experiences and is this to do with the level of service they pay for?
Last night flying out of FRA to LCY with BA, we boarded on time but were kept on the tarmac for almost two hours because there was a "long queue for de-icing", but funnily enough all the other airlines seemed to be blissfully unaffected - I couldn't find any other major delays in the evening's departures.
Generally at Frankfurt T2 most airlines seem to dock at an air bridge, whereas BA is always made to taxi to the furthest corner of the field with a long bus ride back to the terminal.
.....
As said by others: @FRA LCY is always bussed but others do use the airbridge, but not always. If its any consolation the Lufthansa LCY flights are also bussed and my experience @FRA (my current home airport) is that anthing of Embraer size or smaller (CRJ, Avrojet etc.) is always bussed no matter what the airline. And using T2, BA often get shunted to the side if the airbridge is needed by a longhaul widebodied flight instead.
But I do have the feeling that BA get 2nd class service at FRA sometimes. I can not recall ever having a BA flight take off from anything other than runway 18 and thats a ~5km taxi from T2. But it may be more to do with the destination, as all my Lufthansa LCY flights also use runway 18.
The LHR T3 thing has always bugged me. Whats the point is having services from T3 which are bussed. Why not simply bus people from T5 instead? The same apron position can be used and it may be a longer bus ride but makes it easier for connecting passengers.
It drives me crazy when I have arrived in T5, transfer to T3, only to be bussed what seems like half way back to T5 to catch my flight!!
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As others have said, shorthual BA flights from T3 are ALWAYS bussed (even the 767 to/from Larnaca). Codeshares operated by IB/AY aren't.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dj_jay_smith
The LHR T3 thing has always bugged me. Whats the point is having services from T3 which are bussed. Why not simply bus people from T5 instead? The same apron position can be used and it may be a longer bus ride but makes it easier for connecting passengers.
It drives me crazy when I have arrived in T5, transfer to T3, only to be bussed what seems like half way back to T5 to catch my flight!!
I'd never thought about that...now you mention it, it seems bizarre that BA do it their way, rather than bussing from T5. I presume it has to do with the internal passenger capacity of T5 rather than lack of T5 bus stands?
In my recent LH experience in FRA, it's true that anything with 110 seats or less is almost guarenteed a bus gate, I've also been bussed for a LH 737. In LHR T5, I've been bussed for a 747 arrival from MEX.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nd100
Generally at Frankfurt T2 most airlines seem to dock at an air bridge, whereas BA is always made to taxi to the furthest corner of the field with a long bus ride back to the terminal.
This happens with Air France/CityJet when the regional flight from EDI lands and taxi's to the middle of nowhere @ CDG which I've always found bizarre.
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Anyone who complains about the bussing at LHR (and most specifically T5) just needs to make a few trips to FRA to see how bad it can get. They have ample opportunity to do something similar to what they do at GVA with the satellite gates, but no, a bus it is...
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I did once see a BA A321 on an airbridge gate at T3 on the first wave a while back. I was surprised, I suspect it may have been because they were substituting with an A321 which are not seen at T3. A320 and B763 only on short haul. I would imagine BAA give BA a discount for off stand parking on short haul. As for handling, well that's in house and it's not cheap at LHR (!)
I did once see a BA A321 on an airbridge gate at T3 on the first wave a while back. I was surprised, I suspect it may have been because they were substituting with an A321 which are not seen at T3. A320 and B763 only on short haul. I would imagine BAA give BA a discount for off stand parking on short haul. As for handling, well that's in house and it's not cheap at LHR (!)
There's a discount on the passenger charge for aircraft departing from a remote stand: £4.59 for arriving and departing passengers.
If BA's stands involved in T3 operations match HAL's definition of "remote", then that's £9.18 off the stonking £24.55 per passenger to Europe (and £34.49 elsewhere).
There's a discount on the passenger charge for aircraft departing from a remote stand: £4.59 for arriving and departing passengers.
If BA's stands involved in T3 operations match HAL's definition of "remote", then that's £9.18 off the stonking £24.55 per passenger to Europe (and £34.49 elsewhere).
This has been discussed before IIRC. The thing is, the airline has to pick up the cost of the bus transfer out of the discount. I'm sure they come out ahead, but it's probably not that much.
Does BA use "budget handling"?
