corporate-wage-slave

The ground crew reception party for the inaugural service.


New BA Routes: London Heathrow (LHR) to Tehran (IKA)

This is a guide for one of BA's revived route, London Heathrow Terminal 5 to Imam Khomeini International airport, Tehran, Iran. I need to salute BA Humbug for his own very interesting guide to leaving IKA, see post 24 below, it has a lot of photos and details in it, so by all means read his post in conjunction with this one.


Route history
BA, in the form of BOAC, first started regular flights between London and Tehran back in 1946, and at one stage it looked like Tehran would turn into the Dubai of the region, given the feeder flight options to India, the Gulf and further out in Asia. It's been reported in the recent publicity that BA stopped flying to Tehran in 2012, though there is more to it than that: it was a BMI route, and BA closed down the IKA service before BMI was integrated into BA's operations. Before that Tehran services were run by a BA affiliate, British Mediterranean Airways (BMED), an affiliate of British Airways, which was then acquired by BMI in 2007. So in some senses BA haven't operated this service since 1997. One upshot of this is that the BA crews with the greatest experience of flying to Tehran is EuroFleet: many of them are former BMI cabin crew and therefore were regularly rostered to Iran.

I am indebted to DrBernardo for this further insight (quoted from down thread):

Timetable
The current (September 2016) service runs 6 days a week, leaving London at 21:10 hours and reaching Tehran at 06:25 hrs; departure from Imam Khomeini Airport is at 08:35, both Iranian times are an hour earlier after the UK moves from BST to GMT. The one day without a flight is Sunday from London, and Monday from Tehran.

Aircraft
Four class 777-200 seems to be the preferred aircraft this far, though I can see this going 787 at some point.

Seating advice
The flight is overnight into IKA, daytime from Tehran. The airport is some distance from the city, there may be limited views from the port (left) side of the aircraft into Iran, and starboard side departing IKA. For general seating advice on 777s (etc) it is best to look at the seating guides in the forum's Dashboard.

Miles: 2754 miles on the Great Circle mapper between LHR-IKA. BA uses 2749 miles for calculating Avios and Miles.

Crew:
Worldwide Fleet. They get one night in Tehran, or two nights on the some flights. Female staff dress to conform with Iranian dress standards for women. So when they leave the aircraft and travel to their hotel they are dressed with a headscarf and are (currently) required to wear a headscarf fully hiding their hair. On board, female crew members dress as per the normal standards, other than that trousers are mandatory. Though the launch cabin crew were mainly female, that seems to have been a one-off, delays with uniform ordering means that it is currently a male only crew until the new uniform items get delivered.

Fares
Cheapest return fares LHR-IKA were on 10 September 2016:
WT=£375
WTP=£608
CW=£2200
First=£3830
For WT and WTP, this is similar to Dubai pricing, though the lower fares have wider availability, and interesting in view of the fact that DXB has a lot more competition. For CW and First the fares are a liot higher than DXB. For CW significant savings can be made from starting places such as FRA, AMS and CDG, where there is competition from other airlines, e.g. £1268 from AMS.

POUG and AUP
POUGs are not currently on offer but may be shortly. AUPs are potentially available from LHR but not IKA at the moment. One can expect a WT to WTP AUP to be about £180, subject to availability.

Earning Tier Points and Avios
The following table relates to a one way trip on BA code. Codeshares may give different - typically lower - Avios and similar TPs.


Avios redemptions
You will note from the gap between WTP and CW fares that IKA is an efficient way to invoke Upgrade using Avios (UuA). If you can get a low fare WTP, currently not difficult, you can get into CW for around £800 in cash equivalent terms if you are a GCH, given that you should earn a good chunk of Avios in WTP. It's also one of the easier and shorter routes for First availability. At the time of writing (September 2016) there is across the board availability in pretty much all cabins and all dates in 2017 and plenty of options in the rest of 2016 too. The following table is for return flights, "Mixed" means one way peak, the other way off peak.



Routing
This was the routing of the inaugural flight. My return flight took a very similar route. The outbound, being night-time, was of limited interest. The return to London was more scenic as we flew over the Armenian Highlands and Pontic Mountains.




Catering
All cabins:
The menus and food options will change each month, so this is to be regarded as a sample.

To IKA: evening meal, then on arrival: cup of tea/coffee and perhaps some lemon melts, at least in CW. It's a 5 hour flight and some attempt is made to maximise sleep time. Here I went for the couscous starter and then the cod main meal:





From IKA: Breakfast. Here is my CW selection, yoghurt and then veal sausage. Note that the smoked fish starter got recycled from the outbound evening service starter!






CW menu example - LHR to IKA - evening meal


CW menu example - IKA to LHR - breakfast


Drinks menu in English and Farsi:



Club Kitchen on the return (only 9 passengers in CW):


IKA Airport facilities



See the post by BA Humbug below, for copious details of the airport.
NOTE: There is a separate very modern looking CIP terminal used by some airlines including Qatar, and your taxi driver may suggest it, but you want the main building.

IKA exchange bureau and currency notes
You should use the opportunity to get about US$20-40 in Iranian rials at the airport, particularly if arriving on a Friday, since the city exchange bureau will be closed. Iranian currency is not widely available outside Iran. Never use banks to exchange money, they are obliged to use the official rate, some 20% below the legal unofficial rate. The exchange offices are found on Ferdowsi Street, near the Iranian Central Bank towards the British Embassy, but there's one nearer Imam Khomeini Square, on the right side leaving the square. The largest note is 500,000 Rials, about £12, it's actually a bank cheque but is accepted like normal currency. You can pay your hotel bill in US dollars or Euros, you will get a sensible rate for it and saves you having to exchange tens of millions of Rials. Note that unofficially many people count in Toman, which is 10 Rial. You may see this in shops and cafés. Furthermore they may dispense with the 000s. So if you see something priced as "10" that may well be 100,000 Rial (£2.20). Don't worry too much, most Iranians are honest and won't take advantage of this confusion to cheat you.

IKA transport logistics


Baggage reclaim, IKA. The exit is on the far right, you don't need to go to the customs area unless invited, but you do need to put your bag through a security scanner before that.

There is an hourly bus (or rather coach) service from IKA to Mehrabad airport. This passes the southern metro station of Haram-e-Motahhar. Some buses go all they way to Azadi Square, though that may not be a terribly convenient end point. However the cost of taxis, given the 35 km distance from the town centre, is reasonable in the US$30-35 area, and it's cheaper in the city to IKA direction (US$20-25). There may be a case in getting your hotel to arrange a taxi, which will cost around US$40 since they will then be standing with your name directly outside Arrivals, and you can be sure you will end up in a reasonably good quality car and going to the correct hotel. It's OK to pay in dollars.

IKA Lounge
BA have arranged lounge access from day one, we are grateful for small mercies!

Mahr Nam Tossee (MNT.CO) First and Business Lounge


This is in the middle of the airside area, downstairs, so after passports and security. Get a pass from the BA check-in desk which gives you priority immigration and a guide through the terminal to the lounge. See BA Humbug's post 24 below and the Middle East lounge guide in the Dashboard.

Fast Track and Priority boarding
There is both Fast Track security, emigration and priority boarding, but it's at least as chaotic as anywhere else. Fast Track security - on entering the airport - is at the far right of the entrance area, nearest area for vehicles arriving to drop off (and therefore the more congested end). An airport worker may lead you to the front of the queue, if you have a BA boarding pass visible, it's run by MNT who run the lounge. At desk 28, the CW/First check-in desk for BA, you will be given a card to allow you to use the nearby fast track immigration and they you may get escorted to the lounge, which is in the middle of the main departures concourse, down a level, a bit hidden by a café in front of the escalator. There is another security screen at the area before the BA departure gate (no priority as far as I could tell, but I was the only person using it, so best to go 10 minutes after the gate is called or later). At boarding Priority Boarding is called from the front of the gate, you will need to show your passport to the secondary immigration control before going through. There is no point heading for the gate much before 30 minutes from departure.

Visas and ESTAs
UK, Canadian and USA visitors need to get visas in advance. In theory this needs to be either a business visa based on a local invitation, or for tourism combined with an escorted local tour guide. The tour guide will apply for the visa from within Iran, for you to collect from an Iranian embassy in your country. Some local travel agents are happy to be "flexible" on the issue of escorting, though they will charge for arranging the visa. Assume that it will take at least a month to get a visa (longer during holiday seasons) end to end, six weeks would be safer, though in theory it can be done in two weeks. Once you have a visa number, leave it a week for the embassy to get the paperwork. Assume a few hours queuing at the embassy (either arrive very early or very late), there may be a same day collection offered for an extra fee, or you can collect a few days later, or hand over a prepaid recorded delivery envelope for postage back to you. Visas are issued with a 3 month validity period, you just need to arrive within that timespan. Most other European, Commonwealth and certain other passport holders can get a visa on arrival at IKA. There is are 2 queues involved, one to get the visa on arrival, and another to get medical insurance. The medical insurance isn't needed for those with traditional visas. Assume an hour or so to do this in IKA. Passport control in IKA is reasonably swift. USA and ESTA: As noted below, visiting Iran will need to be declared to the USA for ESTA purposes, and though there are case-by-case exemptions for business travellers, Global Entry holders and so on, one should perhaps assume you will not be able to use an ESTA going forward and will need to apply for a B1-B2 visa. This is obviously a nuisance, but holding a US entry visa, which lasts 10 years, has some advantages. If you visit Iran you should immediately apply for a new ESTA, since your current ESTA will become invalid at that point. The CBP says they will take 3 days to tell you about whether an ESTA is granted in your circumstances, but you can assume that really it will take 3 weeks. It would then take a further 3 weeks to get a USA visa, depending on the interview timescales at your local USA embassy. So plan ahead!

Weekend potential:
An unusual idea perhaps, and there are visa issues to skirt around if you are a UK, Canadian or USA passport holder (but unofficially possible). Tehran isn't as richly endowed for tourists as say Istanbul, Amman, Cairo or Tel Aviv/Jerusalem. Nevertheless it is only 5 hours away, getting Avios availability at the moment is easy, including in First. It's worth noting that Friday is the main day off there, and it is more respected than in other parts of the region, so not that many shops are open for example. The rest of the European weekend are normal days there. Because Tehran itself isn't hugely equipped for tourism (see next post), in a way a few days there will allow you to get a good grip on the city.


Some things to do in Tehran
See the next post for some ideas. Also the Rough Guide, Lonely Planet (in particular) and Wiki Travel websites will give you some ideas. Note that one key attraction, the Treasury of National Jewels, probably second only to the Tower of London for its dazzling collection including the Peacock Throne, is open for very limited hours, 14 hrs to 16 hrs, Saturday to Tuesday, and closes 30 minutes earlier from November to March, so you need to plan that one in carefully.

Local information summary
Power sockets: Euro style 220v. Credit and debit cards are not usable throughout Iran. Internet: widely available but some websites (e.g. BBC, image sharing sites) are blocked. Flyertalk is not blocked. VPN can be used to get around this, ExpressVPN works, and the censorship process is nothing like China. Google Maps works well there, but you can't do an offline download. Note many streets have 2 names, with the second post Revolution name on maps including Google Maps, whereas local people tend to use the old name. So Imam Khomeini Square in the centre of the city is generally known as Toopkhaneh, its 19th Century title, even by those born after the Islamic Revolution. Tehran is a really safe place to visit, there are occasional reports of pickpockets. Traffic is a bit overpowering, to cross the road you often just have to walk through 8 lanes of moving traffic. English is widely understood, particularly by younger women, signs are generally in both languages. Though women must cover their hair; men would be advised to cover their legs but there is no need to wear long sleeved shirts. Western T shirts are fine, there are plenty of youngsters going around in Kanye West gear. The clothing rules are not enforced dogmatically. It's OK to wear a crucifix or star of David and ties are now acceptable. English football teams are greatly followed by Tehranites, particularly Arsenal and Manchester United. Tipping is not a big deal in Iran, rounding up taxi and meal charges seems to work fine. Overseas mobile phones work well in Iran, but assume that data connectivity won't work even at 2G level.




Other links

Previous FT thread on this new route:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...14th-july.html

BBC News Story about the launch:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-37240977

BA Press Release:
http://mediacentre.britishairways.co...86/News-1/7221
(this press release has a number of tourism ideas in it).

Previous BA Press Release:
http://mediacentre.britishairways.co...6/2016-72/5621

British Embassy in Iran Twitter account (including photos inside the lush and large UK compound in the heart of Tehran, but the guy doing it is somewhat sports obsessed!)
http://twitter.com/ukiniran

Other route guides:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...lborg-aal.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...ay-2016-a.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...rness-inv.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...lborg-aal.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...hafen-fdh.html

corporate-wage-slave

Inaugural BA service to Iran - some notes about Tehran.

Tehran is truly a city of paradox. Capital of the only functioning theocratic state, apart perhaps from the Vatican, and yet it is the most diverse city in the region. It is by far the largest Shi'a Islamic country, but has borders with Sunni and Orthodox Christian neighbouring states, and Israel is not far off. Religious observance by Iran's citizens, on the other hand, is not particularly high, slightly above the UK average, perhaps below that of Northern Ireland. A sprawling, congested, energetic city, with a high proportion of its citizens below 30 years old. A city of masjeds (mosques), synagogues, churches and Zoroastian fire temples. A city of extraordinary domestic politics, where freedom of speech is tolerated in some spheres but not in others. Where a harsh criminal justice system sits alongside fairly open drug taking. Where women have rights and opportunities broadly similar to Europe, far better than any other country in the region, and yet submit to a dress code directed at one gender only. A city where men walk hand in hand and demonstrate intimacy more openly than in the West, but where there is certainly no concept of gay rights. A country that attempts to restrict access to the internet, banning a quarter of popular websites, a country where anyone can readily get around these restrictions. A country that uses a version of the Arabic alphabet, but where Farsi is essentially a European language, with a German style grammar of subject-object-verb. The Persian calendar is a solar calendar based on signs of the Zodiac, unlike most of the rest of the Islamic world, which is on a lunar calendar.

How much of this will a tourist to Tehran come across? Quite a fair bit, in all probability. Helped, undoubtedly, by the openness of the citizen's residents, who generally crave more openness and transparency and who on the whole avidly and warmly welcome visitors. Tehran is not the main tourist centre in Iran, these would be Isfahan, Shiraz, Tabriz, Yazd, and perhaps Mashhad and Qom for religious tourism. Nevertheless there is plenty to keep a visitor occupied in Tehran. This has to be understood in the annoying context of many buildings, both secular and sacred, living behind tall walls and high gates.

Getting around is relatively easy, in that it is easy to get to many places on foot, there is an efficient metro system and plenty of cheap taxis. If you use the metro system then it is often very crowded, but no worse than the London Underground at peak times. Fares are low, about 20 pence a ride, and you get a ticket from the staffed ticket offices. You may want to get a stack of them if you don't speak Farsi and the ticket agent understands English. Incidentally, though you may come across a few German and French tour groups, there are very few British tourists in Tehran, I didn't see a single Brit in 4 days. One side effect is that because no one really expects foreigners in Iran, you will be largely invisible as such. I was stopped several times to be asked for directions (a national necessity for those without Google Maps), even though I personally think I'm a blue-eyed Anglo Saxon out of central casting. You are never hassled in the shops or bazaars, as you would be in Marrakech, Muscat or Amman.

Generally it doesn't cost much to visit Tehran. Some hotels are very expensive, others are not, but it is also fair to point out that hotels are not at international standards of comfort. Eating out is cheap, you can get a meal quite easily for under £5, public transport is very cheap, the main tourist sites are somewhat pricier, you need to allow about £11 for both Golestan and the National Museum.

1) Golestan Palace

This is the most important visitor site in Tehran and is on the Unesco register. It dates back originally to the Safavid dynasty, 16th Century AD, but in its current form it owes itself more to the Qajar period in the 19th Century. Iran can claim to have the longest running civilisation in the world and a quick read up of Iranian history will greatly improve your stay in Tehran. Suffice to say that the Qajar Dynasty - the foundation of the Peacock Throne - has a major impact on modern Iran. The magnificent Golestan Palace, in the middle of Tehran, not far from the Bazaar, is both beautiful and majestic, as it was designed to be. A two hour tour would be good for this, there is a café in the grounds. Ticket admission allows you to select different options, but you want the main admission to the palace grounds and the main halls (talare-asli). It is nothing like as big as Versailles, but that was clearly the role model at stake here.





Of note here is the remarkable tile decorative artwork, which is all over the complex. A favourite place for Tehranites to get selfies.

2) The National Museum and the Museum of the Islamic Era

These two museums sit along side each other just north of Imam Khomeini Square. They aren't too big, a few hours will do both for both of them and they issue joint and separate ticketing. The National Museum is the showpiece of Iran's pre-Muslim history, a set of eras about which the Iranians are very proud. A number of artefacts from the former capital of the Persian Empire, Persepolis, are exhibited here, including this exhibit, Audience Scene of Darius I, which dates from around about 500 BC. At that stage the Achaemenid empire stretched from Bulgaria to India, Egypt to the Ukraine, representing over 40% the world's population, and Persepolis was the capital.



The Islamic Era museum is next door, and is more modern and better designed. The second picture below is an illustation of the Qur'an from the 14th Century AD. This amazing collection would not be possible in many places, some of the items would be considered too heterodox. In both museums the signs are available in English, quite lengthy ones in the National Museum.





3) The Grand Bazaar

Twenty kilometres of alleys over several floors, twenty thousand shops, the Grand Bazaar of Tehran is a true maze of mercantilism. It is easy to get lost, but it doesn't matter much, if you stick to one direction you will eventually emerge somewhere recognisable. Google Maps to the rescue! Different sectors have different specialities. Carpets are everywhere but there's a larger set of carpet shops on the west side. Everything imaginable is on sale here, particularly clothing, but food, spices, electronics, phone shops and cafés are well represented. Haggling is compulsory, but this is not quite as ruthless in other areas of the world, you are unlikely to pay much over the odds even as an amateur. Better still, no-one will hassle you to enter a shop. The bazaar is most busy around 18:00 hrs, but by 20:00 hrs the shops will be closing down.



Yes, this is a mis-spelling, it is supposed to be Queen, and that is what is meant here. I saw quite a few of these being worn, which rather illustrates how seriously some women take the dress code.



4) A crash course in Dizi

Dizi is the national dish of Iran, a form of comfort food, and I would certainly encourage you to try this in Tehran. The more formal name is Abgoosht, or gravy, the dizi is the name of small green pot in the photo and is the nickname that is well known (and easy to pronounce correctly). In that pot is a bubbling hot rich stew, the contents can vary a bit, but typically it's mutton, onions, chickpeas, beans, tumeric and some lime. All sorts of other herbs and spices may be present. It's served with a basket of greens (rocket and some corriander) and an onion, and (not shown) a small plate of spicy pickles. You will note two metal implements: a spoon and a pestle - along with flatbread (under the water bottle, there's also a sheet to protect the furniture) and a bowl. What you have to do is tear up the flatbread into the bowl, each piece being a few centimetres across, then with help of the spoon pour off the liquid from the top of the dizi onto the bread, so it becomes a somewhat soggy soup. That's the first course. Then you should use the pestle inside the pot to pound down the remaining meat and vegetables into a sort of mash, you'll see it is the perfect size and strength for this - it does need some hefty elbow grease. You then eat this second course from the pot using the spoon, taking bites at the greenery, pickles and onion between bites of the mashed mutton. Iranians tend to put a lot of salt into the dizi pot, but I really don't think it's needed. You may not find it on the menu of your local restaurant outside of Iran, it is regarded as peasant food to some degree, but it may well be something they will be delighted to prepare on request.



5) Oudlajan Dizi (Timche Akbarian)

I had the dizi (above) in this place near the Grand Bazaar, around the corner from one of Tehran's oldest synagogues, in the Oudlajan area of the city, a former Jewish enclave. The building is quite remarkable, an former Jewish caravanserai (inn) dating from 1775 AD, it became the first bank in Tehran soon afterwards. The whole building is beautifully tiled, with a remarkable central dome. The building has been returned to something close to its original structure, and along the side of the central courtyard are fairly large booths where you kick your shoes off, lie back and scoff dizi. The guys working there don't seem to speak much English but if you ask for dizi and point to the tea urn, you will get them (eventually!). Under £5 for a meal there.



6) Modern Tehran

The northern half of the Tehran is a completely different place to the southern half, which all the previous photos come from. For me this is less interesting, but it's the modern side of Tehran with bright lights, shopping malls and Western style cafés and restaurants. If you want to meet younger Westernised Iranians (and even perhaps see a few women without headscarves....) then you could try the Diamond Café one block northeast of Ferdowsi metro station, or Reera Café, one block southeast from the Russian Embassy compound. By Tehran standards a 2 course meal and some coffee there will be outrageously expensive, we are talking £10 a head. But it's nice to rejoin the 21st Century sometimes. I preferred Reera. Both cafés can give you a wifi password so you can slowly catch up with the BA forum on Flyertalk.



7) The other faiths
The other religions of Iran don't always have an easy ride. The Bahá'i faith in particular is persecuted ruthlessly, and Sunni Muslims often struggle to keep their masjeds going, with the authorities sometimes giving them a hard time. Tehran has long been the home to a large Zoroastrian, Christian and Jewish population, who have some freedom of worship and formalised representation in the Majlis (parliament). They tend to keep a low profile, and their places of worship are not often open to the public. One that is the Adrian Zoroastrian Fire Temple which was completed in 1917.


Immediately over the road is St Mary's Armenian Church, which has a large congregation. Christians in Iran consist mainly of Armenians and Assyrians.


This is the outside of the Danial Haim (Polish) Synagogue, originally built for refugees from World War Two. There are over 30 synagogues in Tehran, mostly built since 1945. There are two 18th century synagogues in central Tehran, but both are struggling to survive since the worshippers have largely moved to the suburbs.


8) National Jewels (Jewellery Museum)
Though the opening hours are limited, and the entry procedure is a bit odd, a visit to the National Jewellery Collection is definitely recommended. This is the Peacock Throne, which was a cipher for the monarchy in Iran. This collection is second only to the Tower of London in importance, and going by strict monetary value probably exceeds it. The main contents are the officially jewellery of the former Royal Household, much made in Iran, some given by Queen Victoria, or the governments of France and Russia. Another remarkable exhibit is a big globe of the world, made with over 44 kgs of gold (something like £2 million worth, just in metal content), and over 50,000 jewels. Iran, Britain and France are marked by diamonds. The collection is in the main building of the Central Bank of Iran, just ask for the museum, there isn't a sign outside the building. You can't take phones or cameras to see the jewels, but there is quite a good illustrated guide book, from which this photo is taken, in English or German on sale for about £1.


I conclude this post with a photo of a building from Tehran, this is the Ceramics Museum, but it was built in 1902 by a court official, combining European and Iranian traditions. As is common with such buildings there is metal plate outside giving the historical background in English. There are many such places hidden away in Tehran, and a lot can just be found by just walking around with a keen eye - the city is there to be discovered.

corporate-wage-slave

I can see the launch is getting quite a lot of publicity (e.g. Sky, the PM progamme and BBC TV News), and to keep it in the same place - and so that BA FT doesn't miss out on some real time hype - I've created this thread ahead of the actual flight. In the meantim we have this Youtube commentary from Captain Kami Johnson Hosseini where he speaks about the route:

I'll do an update if there is anything at the gate, the departure isn't until 21:10 hrs.

Previous commentary, including some from today:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...14th-july.html

Geordie405

It may well be worth pointing out that anyone visiting Iran who would otherwise be eligible for entry to the US under the Visa Waiver Program will no longer be eligible and will need to apply for a US visa: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2016/01/251577.htm

themapelligroup

Happy to see BA is flying to such inspiring and marvellous place. Hasn't the state department of the US put in place some visa restrictions for those who have traveled to Iran and a bunch of other countries though?

corporate-wage-slave

Actually you need to apply for a new Visa Waiver, at that point various exceptions may or may not apply, so that either a VW will be issued, or a B1-B2 visa will need to be applied for. More details here:
https://www.cbp.gov/faqs/are-there-a...y-requirements

BotB

Look forward to your review c-w-s ^

Have to ask: have you been before (with BA or another carrier?) Just to get some context as to whether this is a first or just a first on the new BA route but old hat otherwise

When I saw the news that the route is opening again, I did hanker after trying it out myself someday so curious what your impressions will be. (never been myself to Iran but always thought it would be an interesting trip, had a colleague that went several years ago now and he was quite complementary about Tehran, the countryside and the people and food)...

Safe travels. ^

corporate-wage-slave

This is the first time for me since 1979 and I wasn't able to go while Sanctions were in place. As you, and others know, I have a deep interest in Iran, so yes, a red letter day for me too.

henkybaby

Enjoy! I am sure you will have a great time. It is still on my bucket list as well. From what my friends tell me, it is a wonderful country with amazing people. ^

stu1985

I did wonder if you would be on this flight

mattyw

My reading of the final example on the page is that if you visit Iran whilst holding GE they might not hold it against you, that right?

corporate-wage-slave

It appears that the at gate party and cake have been enhanced but one can tell that there is going to be a good atmosphere on board, I know some of the crew members . They all seem to be from the VIP or Ambassador teams. The return crew are also on this trip, so not such a good deal for them.

travelwithross

Pathetic. How low can they go?
So glad i'm now out in the ME and don't have to settle for these numpties.

haasha

Might is the important word there.

I had to go to the US some three weeks after this change in ESTA elligibility had been annouced, so I had to apply for visa hastily and though I got it without any issues, it was a bit of stress. At that time it was completely unclear to me how can you apply for that 'waiver' (and I still don't know).

FlyingScientist

I saw two dedicated check-in counters for BA 153 in Zone H of Terminal 5 this evening at around 20:45 (as well as a professional video camera nearby), failing to realise that today marks the first flight.

Incidently, I am in London for a visa interview with the US embassy tomorrow morning, resulting from them having thrown me out of the Visa Waiver Program because of previous travel to Iran.