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Previous components to this trip:
JetQuay CIP Terminal
BA16 (A380) in Y+ Singapore – London (SIN-LHR)
Restaurant Review: Zedel
BA342 (A320) in C London – Nice (LHR-NCE)
Apartment Massena from Booking.com
Restaurants in Nice
The flight wasn’t until late afternoon so there absolutely no rush to leave the apartment. Fortunately the manger was very kind and said that I could leave when I was ready, and just to leave the keys and text her when we were off.
Our own conversation on WhatsApp was carried out in French, and it was impressive (to myself), that it seemed to go off without a hitch. Though, given the poor state of my French, it could have been that she was just simply angry at me for saying something offensive. Which is entirely possible!!!
Finally at about 1pm we left the apartment and headed towards MacDonalds in central Nice. Near by is the taxi stand, of which there just seemed to be Mercedes after Mercedes.
Anyway, the driver seemed very cheerful and we were on the metre so at least we could keep track of the cost, which was not as expensive as when we had picked up the taxi on the way in.
IMG_1423 by Globe Trekka, on Flickr
Thought, again for less than 10 minutes to the airport, it seemed an extortionate amount.
Check in was a bit of a farce. For some reason it hadn’t opened, and then when it did, the economy section opened first, and seemed to be processing passengers a lot faster than the Club Europe queue.
IMG_1425 by Globe Trekka, on Flickr
In, fact if you had arrived much after I had, it would probably have been quicker to go through the normal line. There was a couple at the front of the Club Europe/priority queue who seemed to take a good ten minutes to check in. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I always find it strange how long it takes people to get through their check in. Maybe they had an onward connection … who knows….
Once the check in had been negotiated, it was time for security. There was no priority line for security for BA. In this case, it seemed to be off peak, which meant clearing security was pretty swift. However, I can imagine during peak times it would be crazy.
The lounge is the in the B section of the airport, which is bizarrely located after some kind of check point, where there are no checks taking place.
IMG_1431 by Globe Trekka, on Flickr
The lounge itself was quite spacious, but I believe there was an Emirates flight departing shortly before the London flight which meant that it was actually quite busy. What it turned out, was that the Emirates departure was actually delayed. Nevertheless, I managed to get a table and get a look around to grab some food and drink.
IMG_1439 by Globe Trekka, on Flickr
A decent number of drink choices! Plus some sandwiches
IMG_1435 by Globe Trekka, on Flickr
A small number of snacks available
IMG_1434 by Globe Trekka, on Flickr
Hot drinks available from two machines
IMG_1442 by Globe Trekka, on Flickr
There were people queuing for the (delayed) Emirates flight departing from the gate next to the BA 345.
Finally, it came to boarding the BA flight to London. Although a single aisle jet, boarding was relatively quick and painless.
IMG_1450 by Globe Trekka, on Flickr
BA345 NCE-LHR
January 2017
A320
Class: Club Europe (Business)
Scheduled Departure: 15:50
Actual Departure: 15:59
Scheduled Arrival: 16:55
Actual Arrival: 17:08
Estimated duration:
Actual duration: 2:09
Plane registration: G-EUYN
Not the best photo I grant you. In fact pretty awful, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to get any closer to the window.
IMG_1453 by Globe Trekka, on Flickr
Once on board, the captain came on the horn apologising that we would be departing slightly late. I think they mentioned something about being late landing, but I can’t remember!
Anyway, we didn’t really take off that late. Only about 10 minutes by all accounts.
We finally got to cruising altitude and the crew started the afternoon meal service. Which is basically afternoon tea. Nothing to write home about but decent enough. And there were plenty of scones to go around for seconds … and thirds …. and fourths… if you so desired!
IMG_1458 by Globe Trekka, on Flickr
No sooner had they cleared the trays away, was it almost time to land. The crew came round to clear up all the last minute detritus, and my ears started popping.
Short haul flights find it very difficult to make up lost time, and indeed we had actually lost a few more minutes from the scheduled landing.
Getting through passport control is a bit of a faff with the new face recognition gates. Sometimes,
such as on my flight out from Singapore, there is almost no problem. However, on this leg, the system really seemed to be having heaps of problems. Nearly every other passenger was being sent for manual checks by border staff. It must have slowed the process down so much!
And of course, once I got to the luggage carousel, priority tags meant nothing … again!!!
I joke you not, my bags were probably one of the last out.
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