Originally Posted by upfront777

Maybe this belongs in trip reports alas, our BA239 on the 23rd had a rather unique start IMHO- aside from the long haul bus ride to the stand (I don't think it could have been any further out). Seated in row 10 the eau de toilet was stunning upon embarking. But the fun really started when the nice first officer came on to apologize for the slight delay whilst we waited for final sign off from engineering-- oh and that when we did get under way we'd have a nice long taxi around the airport. And then he closed with the clincher- We'd be having a slightly different departure with a 10 minute maintenance procedure after lift off to leave the gear extended and that we could all expect more noise and vibration than usual. I dare say the warning was both helpful AND alarming and our climb out was indeed noisy and watching on the flight map we bounced and vibrated up to just over 300 knots and 12000' (i need to check the photo I took) before the gear came up. Being a part of a maintenance procedure was definitely a first for me and my other half in our many many thousands of miles of air travel, as well as for the inflight crew we were with. Alas, perhaps this is SOP for the 787's these days?!! Upon landing there was an extra BA 777 parked in the holding area- perhaps the 212/213 with cancellations?