PlaneSpeaking

I just left the below on Head For Points in reply to someone who was specifically asking about PFO on Aug 5 so forgive me if my copy and paste isn’t completely relevant but I hope it helps some of you.

We arrived PFO Saturday Aug 1 and all 3 flights to LCA and the 1 to PFO were pretty much full. This was the first flight out to PFO from LHR!

We were unsure about the COVID testing and decided the private tests in London were silly expensive and no guarantee of getting them back in time (the family of four next to us in seats 1df/2df paid £150 each for private tests - ouch).

We contacted the Chessington (Surrey) drive-in test site on Wednesday, said we have no symptoms and are not essential workers and they said come on down! The test took 10 mins and we had our negative result within 12 hours by text and email - amazing. Even if you can’t do this, PFO will test on arrival at €60 each “if your home country can’t offer tests” but we didn’t want the faff, or the risk. Also, and although they board from the back to the front at LHR, we were 1A and 1C so first off at PFO which was a blessing. When we were collecting our luggage, we could see the immigration queue still snaking back so best just to prep everything in advance.

The Flightpass site was an absolute pain as it still thought the UK was on the naughty list until 00:01 on Aug 1, and then it opened up. It was so stressful trying to get through to the Flightpass helpline on Jul 31 - utterly utterly impossible and in the end, I called the High Commission in London and they said it’s a known issue and just wait until midnight which we did and everything worked but why not put a message on the site?! Ah, Cyprus!

We had no problems on arrival BUT YOU MUST MUST MUST print everything even if you have Flightpass. So, not just the Flightpass itself but also the confirmation of the booking time and date for the test (so they can see it was within 72 hours), the little cards they give you at the test site to say you’ve had the test and, of course, the results email too.

PFO immigration looked at everything very very seriously and kept the test result email but gave everything else back and we sailed through. This was an NHS test and accepted without question with no laboratory name, time or date - just an email with the date Jul 30 saying we were negative at the time our test was taken which is why I suggest it’s so important to take the booking-in confirmation email as well.

Our flight was almost full and looking at the 3 LCA flights on Aug 1 on Expert Flyer, they looked full too - amazing.

To the flight itself, this was the first flight for both the CSD and his colleague, just back from furlough. They were beyond superb which was even more commendable given that they might lose their jobs on Friday. I doubt it though as they were typical BA crew - cheerful, fun and so eager to make sure we had a fantastic flight, which we did.

The catering however... this was pitiful with a veg or non-veg sandwich option. The non-veg was chicken and the veg? Neither we nor the crew had any idea (there was nothing written on the box) and all we could see was something bright purple, nice!

Admittedly, there was a very very small but tasty starter of something salady and the Do&Co chocolate mousse but a 1x round sandwich (not 2 rounds) was a massive “we’re using this as an excuse to cut costs“ and will use “health, safety and Covid” as the excuse. It was genuinely pathetic - other airlines can and do deliver the premium experience so why not BA? They say it minimises contact but what’s the difference between chucking a load of cold sandwiches at us from the same trolley from which they’d retrieve and chuck a load of hot meals at us?

Of course, this didn’t really matter as the crew were so great but do fill yourselves up in the lounge, which was astonishingly good by the way with the new QR code ordering system and which I think they should retain once all of this horrid situation has been and gone. It was breakfast time for us and lots of choices (pulled pork gone though) but full English, kippers, smoked salmon and scrambled eggs or build your own English - really good (no fried eggs though as I think this would slow things down). However, one has no idea whether the champagne choices (Brut or Rose) are Feuillatte, Monopol or Aldi and outrageously, there is NO Johnny Walker Blue! Despite this, it was actually a really pleasant experience but the much lauded card system of “occupied” or “clean me” for the seats was not apparent anywhere and strangely, very very few sanitising stations with zero in the first security wing. Why? Do bring your own...

Boarding was slightly hilarious by row number from the rear meaning they still board from the front via the air bridge - rear rows first (and priority boarding is no more) so we were last on but realised some in Club had cheated and got on with economy. We were expecting to have a major argument about overhead storage but the crew had been good and there was only safety equipment over row 1 and the other passengers had behaved too but given that these were LHR aircraft (ours was 1-year old), there’s a wardrobe so we were ready to deposit in there if necessary but not needed.

Lastly, we were surprised to see the antimacassars in-situ (did they replace these for the return PFO-LHR - I doubt it) but the bird did look clean but do take your own wipes. The tiny tiny wipe they give you on boarding is laughably small and every kid touched the conveniently placed arms of 1C and 1D as they snaked down the aisle to their seats.

I hope this helps - we normally come here in Apr, Jun, Oct and Dec (those plans went out the window!) believing Aug to be as bad as DXB but actually, it’s not really that much different to Jul and really rather lovely.

Best,
PlaneSpeaking