plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose (hand baggage/security)
 

My first flight on Ba from London since January. I'd rediscovered the joy of flying on AY, QR, US. U2 and LH.

However today I'm flying to TLV with a colleague who wanted to go Ba for some reason. Door still hasn't closed and he's saying "why aren't we on easyjet".

First there's the fact I had to get the train down to London last night, as there's no late night or early morning flights to LHR from MAN. Then the buckle and dining of charging £5 to get to the terminal from the airport hotel

Security was a laugh, 20 minutes for my college he to get through fast track. I was a few minutes behind and e warned me, used "slow" track and was through in a minute.

Boarding was actually ok, we timed it well, and I settled into 20c. My non gold colleague wasn't so lucky and is squished in a torture seat on the rubbish mid haul.

40 minutes later and they're still trying to stow enormous bags. Rather than chastising people for bringing large bags, the crew are making those of us who checked out small cabin-legal bags for daring to stow tiny laptop bags in the overhead lockers.

The safety video is running, and I've just realised not a single screen in the exit row is out. As I'm int he aisle I was watching 19C until the crew member blocked my view.

I'm not looking forward to the 150 people sharing two toilets at the back of the cabin for the next 5 hours either.

Nice to verify that my choice to pretty much abandon Ba still holds out. Over priced, over crowded, terrible airport.

What's the current excuse? Lack of runway? Understaffed? Competition from the Me3? The only thing BA seems to have going for it is the IFE, which is above average in my experience.

Guessing this is "nickle and diming" and that you've been a victim of autocorrect as well as BA in this instance.

It does annoy me when the people bringing relatively small amounts on board are forced to put them under the seat to accommodate those who are 'stretching' the rules. All because the staff don't seem to want to say 'no' to anybody.

On the bright side; it is Friday :)

If there's a yellow bag tag on your item then you are required to pop it under the seat in front of you, I don't see the reason to moan about it.

(BTW I do travel with a backpack containing my laptop and many other things, and always store it under the seat.)

It's good to see you back here from time to time. However!

Most days BA operate 3 services a day to TLV. The morning flight indeed does not work well from MAN, but there is a 16:30 and a 22:30 which both fit in well. Connections are available. U2 from Luton (very handy for MAN, not that U2 does connecting flights) operates just 1 or 2 services a day, and the early one leaves a full hour before the LHR service! LGW has some services, but it's not daily. Still no Manchester connections.

I take you haven't actually tried U2 from either location (and I have from both) since their baggage issues on this "unique" route are just as bad if not worse, furthermore they cram up to 186 people into an A320, which is a significantly less comfortable prospect than BA's A321 plus services. Even on the G-GAT A320s BA cannot put more than 171 on the aircraft, and they don't send them to TLV anyway.

As for the Hoppa bus fees, I agree with you, but they are easily avoided with careful hotel selection.

So by all means pay less to go out of LTN for a more cramped, less baggage room experience, out of airport whose security processes make LHR look slick and with zip connections. But you do get what you pay for.

And what percentage of passengers do you think make it from the check in to the plane with the yellow tag intact ;)

Because 20C is an exit row and so all bags need to be in the overhead?

It's literally impossible for South Fast Track to take 20 minutes, the queuing area isn't big enough, it'd have to be snaking out beyond Club Check-In

All planes have undesirable seats, that's not exactly a specific airline's fault.

I thought his point was that he only had the small laptop bag and should not have been forced to put his one and only bag under the seat.

Indeed, and it's a point I agree with. I routinely check in a bag that would otherwise still be within limits for taking on board, and limit myself to a small laptop bag.

I don't then expect to have this taking up what little room there is around my feet, just so someone else can benefit.

Thought I'd walked into the AF forum by mistake :)

Not so. I have queued for 20 mins in South Fast Track with only five people ahead of me. One channel was closed and in the open channel the security team played a jolly game of musical chairs.

OK I concede that one may be unlucky enough to have something like this occur :D But in normal operation it really can't take longer than 5-10minutes, else you'd notice there being something wrong.

Though maybe there's no such thing as 'normal' with HAL! :rolleyes:

Veux-tu rire? They are far less punctilious about orthography over there.

67 minutes later.

As the thread title states, plus ça change :D

Quite, you can always spot a real French by the lack of attention he pays to grammar, gender and accents. I think they only use them to make it more difficult for foreigners to learn. ;) :D