Summary of our flight from HEL-LHR:
Last night we had starters in the Exec lounge which were very good – pork satay skewers, breaded spicy chicken things and samosas. We also had a couple of glasses of red wine which was also pretty good. We decided to eat in the hotel restaurant – Gui, and although as others have said, it was expensive (23 Euros for a cheeseburger and fries) it was very good quality, and unsurprisingly on an Easter Saturday it was almost empty. Hit the sack not long after updating my blog and checking for updates on FT.
Woke way too early this morning - we both did. Air con was too hot, so we both tried in vein to encourage the unintuitive air con control panel to do what we wanted it to. Brain was then whirring, thinking about the possibility of Liverpool winning the league for the first time in 24 years after both Man City and Chelsea slipping up in the past few days. We play Norwich later today.
It wasn’t long before we were heading down the lift, checking out and then on our way to T2 departures. We had checked in online and printed the BPs out in the Exec lounge, so we were ready to go. I said to
billinghamv try going through Fast Track and see whether they turn you away, but she bottled out when BA was clearly not one of the airlines listed as those being allowed to use the express lane.
The normal security lane didn’t take long – probably only 5 mins and we were on our way. We headed down towards gate 36 and before the ramp signed gates 32-40, we stopped off at the @home lounge. From what I had read on line, it wasn’t that clear which lounge was the better one: the @home lounge or the Finnair lounge.
After being very unimpressed with the @home lounge where there was very little food and drink on offer, and it’s very small, we decided to head all the way to gate 36 and see whether the Finnair lounge was any better. It clearly was. The food and drink isn’t that much enhanced but the whole area is bigger, brighter and with a much nicer view out on to the apron.
With 30 mins to go we headed down to gate 38 and within 5 mins we were invited to board in priority order. By this time
billinghamv had already had a fight with vending machine that was supposed to supply bottles of water. Even after swiping her credit card a few times, no bottles of water were presented! Will need to check that no charges were made.
Boarding was speedy and just as we got on I asked one of the CC for some water for
billinghamv. As soon as the majority of pax were on board her glass of water arrived, (and was downed very quickly!) - she was then provided a second glass.
Billinghamv asked whether the CC had any bottles of water and was politely told that water was provided by the glass. However a few mins later, a bottle was provided out of the CC’s own supply – apparently she always has two bottles for every flight but was happy to give up one of them – a BA recommendation is being submitted for her.
The breakfast service started very quickly after take off. It was the standard cooked breakfast, but it has improved over the past few months (it seems to me anyway). The scrambled egg was nice and fluffy although later I realised it had an odd taste and
billinghamv thought it was too salty, The sausage and potatoes were very good but the bacon was relatively hard and over cooked.
After serving breakfast we got the “good customer” chat from the CSM which again was very much appreciated. She made a point of asking us when we were heading back to Manchester, so she had looked up a few details about where we were going. I wonder whether I’ll get this every time I fly now?
We landed about 15 mins early at 08:35 and we were off onto our bus by 08:50. We had a separate bus for CE pax and we were at T3 within 5 mins. We had to wait for a flight connections bus to T5 due to the number of pax waiting, but we were through the Fast Lane security at T5 within 30 mins or so of landing, which is pretty impressive.