What? Malta again? Well, yes, because we really adore Valletta, and the non-tourist bits of Malta. Why do you think we keep going back? OK, I know, a handy 240 BAEC Tier Points every time, but it’s more than that … it’s a lovely and relaxing place to live in the middle of largely unspoilt history.
Previous TRs are here …
So … the usual flurry of bookings back in May, for a 6-day trip in October to enable us to relax after a busy fortnight in Virginia 2 weeks’ previously. Just enough time for Lady T to do the laundry (
) and for us both to get back into routine before …. a simple JER-LGW-MLA with BA, and on this occasion I remembered to abate the cost with Avios! Club Yerp for us both was thus a £660 - bargain, saving £400 by using 75k Avios. Palazzo Valletta booked with the owner [now a friend?] in the Penthouse for 6 nights at about £1,000. What’s not to like? We adore the residence, and we love the City … twice a year will do nicely!
And, as the previous TRs show, we really try to avoid ‘cookie-cutter’ chain hotels: small privately-owned and quirky is far more to our taste. We were watching a TV programme on ‘
The World’s Most Luxurious Hotels’ and agreed that we didn’t like them at all. Too much bull**** and bling four our taste - we are ‘normal’ people.
Having covered the locations in those earlier Tis, there seemed little point to doing a reprise of the same old stuff, so this TR will mainly focus on the flights and airport aspects … and thus be a bit boring!
BOOKING. All done on 7 May, having weaved our way around the awkward/random BA schedules on this route. Outbound on 10 Oct at 1605 gave us a reasonable chance of being able to get to LGW on the same day, albeit with the penalty of a
lonnnnnng layover there (1035-1605) as BA had kindly dropped the lunchtime JER-LGW rotation. Inconvenient is the polite word for that, but at least we will have the First lounge to … lounge in. And at least the return on 16 Oct was sensible, with just 1h50m to savour the familiar delights of LGW.
CHANGES. On 30 May, BA kindly informed us that our return flight on the 16th had been cancelled, and that we were rebooked for the 15th. Oh, hang on!!! … this trip was short enough without you stealing a day of it. A few minutes chat on the BAEC Gold line successfully moved the whole trip forward a week to 3-9 Oct with the same flight times [give or take 10 minutes or so] … at no charge, of course. Still stuck with the 5-hour layover, though
Accommodation rebooked with ease, and we relaxed.
OFF WE GO … EVENTUALLY.
3 Oct 19
BA2771, JER-LGW, 0935-1035, A319, CE seats 1A/C
Utterly routine from our POV, with the added luxury of NOT being on the 0705 red-eye! Punctual boarding at Gate 10, with the ‘status pax’ being shepherded into our own waiting room as usual. Once airborne, we enjoyed the Great British Breakfast, or whatever BA call it these days … and on this occasion it was indeed great. We received 2 rashers of decent back bacon (yes, TWO) and the scrambled eggs with chives were both fluffy and tasty. We were delighted!
On arrival at LGW we ‘enjoyed’ the experience of the new Domestic Arrivals via an airbridge. This was our 2nd encounter, and on this occasion I took the time to take a sequence of photos as we trudged along, down stairs and up stairs in the windowless warren of corridors behind/beneath Gates 1-5.
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/31612431-post21.html
Eventually, after the usual kerbside cigarette or 2 [it also helped to pass the time!], we re-entered and proceeded through Departures to the BA First Lounge. Logging on to the Lounge WiFi, I discovered an email from CheckMyTrip flagging a delay on our departure from 1605 to 1807. I immediately checked with Reception, but they knew nothing about it. More emails from CMT came in, with further delays … 1807>1826>1835! Reception checked with Ops, and all was revealed. ‘Our’ aircraft was doing Gatwick-Zagreb, but due to thunderstorms had to divert to Dubrovnik … and once the storms had cleared, the a/c made its way back to Zagreb, before heading back to Gatwick. No wonder it was late … and according to Reception/Ops, BA also had 2 s/h a/c gone tech already, so no chance of a replacement.
Tracking the aircraft’s progress on FR24, I eventually saw an ETA at LGW of 1742. Having entered the Lounge at around 1100, eventually a Gate was declared for our 1835 departure. Don’t get me wrong, the LGW(S) FLounge is quite nice, but spending the best part of 7 hours sat there at the start of a short holiday was not exactly a laugh a minute. What was extra-annoying was discovering that on this day, BA had kindly operated the lunchtime JER-LGW, of which I was unaware when doing the re-booking ... that could have saved us at least 3 hours of tedious Lounge time!
3 Oct 19
BA2644, LGW-MLA, 1605-2010 ~1835-2230, A320, CE seats 1A/C
The Gate was eventually declared at 1750, so I quickly emailed our accommodation to re-schedule the limo transfer with our new ETA . And, whenever it was [somewhere around 1900] we eventually staggered into the air for the 2.5 hours or so to MLA. So, yes, 2.5 hours late.
No bulkhead on G-GATU, so we had loads of legroom and a panoramic view of the the jump-seats, Galley, and the ‘Doors to Manual’ bit. This doesn’t bother us at all, although some here find that unpleasant.
And we were fed … some sort of “Chicken Ding” microwave meal, which claimed to be ’Thai Chicken Curry’. It was edible, if unmemorable.
And eventually we arrived on the lovely, crazy, Island of Malta at some ungodly hour in the dark. Obviously first off the aircraft, a quick totter across the service road to Immigration [instant] and Reclaim [slow] before linking up with our limo driver for the 15-minute run into Valletta. The Owner had patiently awaited our arrival, and we were quickly installed in our familiar suite. Unpack and collapse!