MADRID to LONDON HEATHROW (MAD-LHR) on British Airways A319 in club europe (business) class
The Velazquez lounge is rather nice. I had a shower (get key from reception), some breakfast and a few drinks while awaiting my flight. The gate was not far from the lounge and boarding was on time despite the inbound flight being slightly late in arriving.
We had a delay in pushing back though due to "traffic", and then another wait at the end of the taxiway before we are cleared.
Each time I fly BA's club europe the product seems to be getting worse. Okay this is a fairly short flight, but seats are no better than space+ economy seats on Air NZ for example, food & drink was very mediocre, IFE consists of flight show, and service was minimal. No wonder then that half the passengers in the 3 business rows were BA crew.
Lunch was a choice of chicken or beef & pasta, roll, cheese, hot & cold drinks.
We had the obligatory circuit over southern England before landing and also obligatory stand off bay. This one was very close to the terminal, but we had a long wait with door 1L open before a bus turned up. At least I got on the first bus, those further back had to wait for the same bus to return to the aircraft after dropping us off. A modest walk to immigration, then a looong wait. I had the misfortune of arriving after a Pakistan International Airlines flight, and also the day after the Delta bomb incident with fresh news of the alleged terrorist's UK student status. Thus many people were being questioned at length and the lines for non-EU were glacial. At one point I spent 30 minutes without moving, 10 minutes of which there was no one manning a desk! Finally after 90 minutes of waiting I reached an immigration desk. Less than 1 minute later I was on my way to central bus station (a nice long walk to stretch the legs) to catch a free bus to Bath Road. I checked in at the Holiday Inn (got an upgrade to an executive room, not that it means much here), dumped my bags and then went back to the airport to grab a train into the city.