6th July 2019
BA478
LHR-BCN
0740-1050
British Airways Airbus A320
Seat 1A


I dragged myself through the transfer bus system and eventually made my way through to the Cathay Lounge
I hadn’t been in terminal 3 for a fairly substantial amount of time and had forgotten how unpleasant the hemmed in shopping mall maze was
By the time I arrived in the lounge I was really feeling quite spent. However I did enjoy taking in the view, including of a QF A380 being towed *that way* and then a dreamliner being towed *the other way*.
I didn’t partake of any food, opting instead to stick with caffeinated beverages



Cathay F lounge view

At boarding time I made my way down to the gate and was greeted by an absolute zoo and the gate agent seemingly having a nervous breakdown. I was very happy to be able to make my way onto the aircraft to get away from it all!

After boarding was seemingly complete a family of 2 adults, a small child and a baby came on board and ended up not taking their seats. An argument ensued between the harassed gate agent and the ?father of the party about how rude she was, that they’d been lied to etc etc. Seems the crux was that they had been moved from an earlier flight but had lost their seats together in the process of rebooking. I didn’t previously thing that people could appear threatening with a baby strapped to their front but this bloke made a bloody good go of it. The level of beration of the GA was quite unpleasant and was one of those moments in life when you kind of hope the floor will open up and swallow you so you don’t have to be a witness to it all. At one point that captain emerged from the cockpit and asked what was going on, everything calmed down briefly and then picked up again after her retreated. The harassed GA ended up down the back trying to shuffle people to create a row together for them all.

Finally we were ready to go. Pushed and taxied slightly ahead of schedule. Then got to the end of the runway. And waited, and waited, and…

The captain came on to say they were just waiting for some final weight and balance figures

There seemed to be approximately a 50:50 split of BA planes taking off and clogging up taxiways. Subsequently I discovered that BA’s infamous IT had melted down that day. I suppose on reflection we were lucky to arrive only 31 minutes late…



Climbing out we were treated to a nice plan view of the result of all the QF shunting



Breakfast was served. I’m not a big full english fan so opted for the cheese and cold cuts plate, which was pretty forgettable




There was a large queue for the forward bathroom for more or less the entire flight, and there was pretty limited space for any standing or indeed for the crew to work up front
The view was quite pretty on approach but all in all I was quite glad to be off the plane


Approach to Barcelona

I had a fairly short non-connection at BCN, with my onward flight scheduled to depart at 1330. The delay in arriving (to 1121) had shaved a bit off my margin and the bags took absolutely forever to be delivered



What use are priority tags anyway