ScruttonStreet

We have just come back from a family holiday in India and flew home from Mumbai in CW. I have to say the departure experience for anyone in the premium classes was very good.

- Greeted when taxi pulled up by BA rep who confirmed we were in CW and walked us to separate entrance to terminal. No queue

- Once inside, escorted to screened-off seating area where another BA rep offered us water and took our passports/luggage away and checked us in/handed us our boarding passes

- Short walk to dedicated security lane (no queue)

- Short walk to separate emigration channel (no queue)

- Walk to (contract) lounge offering apron views and good selection of western/Indian hot food

- Personally approached by BA rep to tell us plane ready for boarding

- Separate entrance onto the plane for First/CW passengers


All in all a pretty impressive departure experience. Do any other BA destinations offer anything similar?

chris1979

BGI has a 'first class' "terminal". I am using " as it's nothing like the FRA LH FCT but more of a small building with a waiting room - but the experience is not too dissimilar from the one you describe.

Gomac

I never got any of this when traveling from BOM in CW last January

GateLouse2

I have been fortunate enough to make First departures from both BOM and BGI (the latter 20+ times, mainly as a result of Opups). They are very different experiences, at BOM you normally get escorted to the head of any queue when departing in F and sometimes all the way through to the lounge. At BGI BA use the separate private jet/aviation terminal away from the main terminal. Although the facilities within the private terminal are ordinary, you do get individual check in, security and border control. The highpoint is the minibus taking you to the foot of the front steps up to the F cabin (as other passengers walk across the tarmac behind you!)

Lewis King

This is great to hear, I'm traveling back from BOM in CW in November.

srbrenna

BOM was pretty seamless. I was travelling in F and there is a separate entrance on the left of the terminal. As the OP says you basically sit down and everything is done for you. I thought the lounge was great as well!

jp-mco

They have a pretty good setup at MLE. Club World check-in is a separate area with seats where all formalities are handled for you before you are presented with your boarding pass. I think it would normally be handled by a BA member of staff but as we had been staying at O&O their staff wanted to do all this for us before saying a final goodbye as they handed us our boarding passes.

A contract lounge with pretty decent food and very friendly staff (no alcohol though).

allturnleft

Agree re BOM took me totally by surprise; you are literally sat down in very trendy booths and check in us done for you; i guess if you missed it your taxi didnt drop you at the right entrance

ScruttonStreet

Yes, although in our case we were dropped off at the normal entrance (where there was a queue of about 80 people trying to get in) and before we had even got out of the taxi a chap with a BA sash had asked us what class we were travelling in. As soon as we said CW he brought over two trolleys, loaded them up with our suitcases and whisked us off to the other entrance where there was no one in the queue.

Is DEL the same?

Alwaysfly

Mumbai has always had a form of "meet & greet" for F, J and Golds usually kerbside but not always, as with the crowds you can miss the greeters. They tend to look out for hotel cars as most of the 5* hotels have limo service. Not experienced this at Delhi but I haven't been through there for about a year or so. Also been met kerbside at BLR on departure

Virazuno

I have had someone in a BA high-vis jacket/sash/other identifier meet me outside at DEL, BOM, and MAA. Never done BLR so can't comment. Usually as you walk up, they ask class of travel and/or status (I got the expedited service even as a Bronze...).

If you're not dropped off around about where they are, they won't see you! So if it's busy, it's worth looking for the BA bod who will definitely make things a bit easier.

I expect this whole thing exists because of competition. 9Ws ground handling at most of their hubs in India is excellent, particularly for premium travellers. The 9W F experience knocks BAs socks off - transfers are by private car, akin to LH, AF etc. Even AIs F ground handling at DEL is superb (http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.c...erience-delhi/)