AMS-LHR, BA 431, Thursday, 2009/07/30, 11:40-12:00
Airbus 319, seat 2F

I arrive early and check-in (in fact, just print my boarding cards) at one of the kiosks. There's a line for baggage drop, but the CLub Europe line is short and I check my carry-on all the way to SIN. I also ask the agent to print my LHR-MAN-LHR boarding passes, and she's concerned about me making the SIN connection... Then she sees I have three hours between my MAN arrival and my SIN departure and smiles. I mumble something about a brief meeting in Manchester...

The Schiphol lounge (40) is large, spacious, nicely decorated and offers a selection of drinks, but no real food. I settle for coffee and OJ. WiFi is free but requires a password.










The flight is announced at 11:00, and I walk to gate D8. Security check is followed by a 10-minute wait at the gate as the fresh crew prepares the aircraft. The flight seems almost full, and Club Europe, which had only some 8 seats allocated this morning, now has 17 pax in 5 rows, including two crew members deadheading (why not in Y?)

I am completely unimpressed by the seat. It's not bad for a short hop, but pitch leaves much to be desired. Doors close at 11:40, push-back a few minutes later and after a really short taxi we follow a KLM 747 and a Singapore 777 and take off from runway 24 at 11:56 for a 45-minute hop over the channel.




I'm very impressed with the on-flight service. On a 45-minute ride, Maria and Daniella manage to serve five rows lunch, accompanied by a full bar service and post-meal tea/coffee. The meal is presented as "chicken and chickpea salad", and turns out to be nothing short of excellent: (cold) tender chicken breast in spicy masala dressing, accompanied by Indian (and, again spicy) chickpea salad and a green salad. I like it a lot. Too early for booze for me, and the coffee is mediocre. Take-off and landing announcements, as well as Air Show, are delivered both in English and in Dutch. All in all, wonderful service (with lots of smiles) on this flight.



The captain announces that we should expect a 5-10 minute hold over north-east London. Two and a half loops and we land just over the center of London, with wonderful views of the city from my window. A short taxi and we have a gate! At noon precisely the door is opened for an on-time arrival.












This is my first time at Terminal 5. I read horror stories about the queues, the security checks etc., but none of it materialized. I was first out of the plane, walked for a few minutes to the Connections Center, and then had the funniest experience at immigration. I presented my MAN boarding card and the officer wanted to know the purpose of my trips. I try not to lie to the Police, so I said: "to collect points". He smiled at first but then inquired further, and explained his concerns in terms of security. Once I presented my onward boarding card for SIN, as well as the one for my MAN-LHR flight, he eased up a bit, but still looked as if he though I was the strangest person on earth. "So you're spending 200 quid just to move from Silver to Gold?", he asked, and I said it was more like 60, and that it was worth it. I'm not sure he bought it. Some London family is going to talk about me over supper tonight, I bet...

There were reasonable lines for security, but I moved forward to the Fast Track which only had two people. I was in the lounge by 12:20.

And what a lounge! I was really impressed. Compared with Lufthansa's FRA business class loungers, the Terraces (or is it Galleries) lounge is magnificent. First, it's huge, and it has various separate areas with different themes in them, different types of seats and sofas, a children's play area, a movie theater, a bar and a dining area. Food isn't great, but it's plentiful and I treat myself to some pasta and coleslaw. There's an extensive wine selection and I sample two small glasses of white, both pretty good. I don't forget to book a free 15-minute massage at the Elemis Spa for 19:20.
(Pictures of the lounge will follow in a later post.)

To sum up, Heathrow's Terminal 5 is a great terminal, and my first experience here was wonderful. Above all, it's the lounge, far nicer than what I'm used to from other European airports.


Side trip:
LHR-MAN, BA 1394, Thursday, 2009/07/30, 13:30-14:40
Airbus 320, seat 1F

Boarding completed at 13:15, I find someone seated at 1E so I move to 2F. The flight should be 40 minutes, but at 15:25 the captain announces that a line of thunderstorms north of Heathrow creates some delays, and he expects us to push back in some 30 minutes. Originally I had thought of taking the 15:30 flight back from MAN, and I'm now happy I didn't. I still plan to try to catch it if we make it on time.

We finally take off from runway 27R at 14:25, and experience mild turbulence all the way. The flight attendants manage to distribute sandwiches but decide to skip the beverage service for safety reasons, perfectly understandable. For the second flight in a row, the cabin crew is doing a great job with an air of enthusiasm, and on-board catering exceeds my expectations. Surprisingly, this domestically-configured 320 doesn't have overhead monitors. Landing on 23R and short taxi get us to the gate by 15:00. Any chance I could move to the earlier flight back?



MAN-LHR, BA 1403, Thursday, 2009/07/30, 17:15-18:15
Airbus 320, seat 3A
==> BA 1399, 15:30-16:30, Airbus 320, seat 2E

So easy! I was first to reach the terminal, and headed straight to transfers. Found a BA agent, asked politely to be moved to the earlier flight and was issued a boarding pass for the 15:30 (which is delayed to 15:40), no problem -- on a cheap O-class ticket. Surprisingly, my boarding card says "C" under "class" -- we'll see how many TPs I'll get for this flight, if at all.

On to the lounge, and even in this regional non-hub BA station I am impressed: spacious, airy, well-lit and with a nice selection of beverages (didn't see any food, but I didn't look too hard).

Boarding starts a bit late, and I am one of the last pax to board. My Seq No is 127, and I overhear the flight attendants mention that there are 126 pax on board when the door is closed. I'm tucked uncomfortably in 2E but 3E and 3F are free so I move myself to 3F; life in economy is much nicer with a free seat next to you. I have no idea why the nice agent at MAN assigned me to 2E.

Unfortunately, the crew had changed so I don't have a change to see the surprised faces of the crew that got me to MAN... But again, they're nice and efficient and enthusiastic and manage a sandwich service followed by a beverage service on this short flight. Kudos.

There's a queue of three aircraft for take-off (and two that are landing on the same runway), so we take off at 16:00. Less turbulence this time. We land at 16:40 and return to the same gate I left a couple of hours ago.

(Side story: the miles and points for this last flight did not post, of course. I sent an e-mail to BAEC, with the precise details of the flight I took and the one I did not take. No boarding pass attached since I didn't have access to a scanner. The reply can within 24 hours, saying they've sent the details to London, and it could take up to two weeks. It took another day. Oh, and I got miles and points for C class -- indeed, this was what was printed on my boarding pass, for some reason.)