BA269 (LHR-LAX) returning to LHR...
Apr 25, 2018, 3:47 am
#16
Join Date: Jul 2009
Programs: BAEC Silver, IHG Diamond
Posts: 7,765
They did that flight from SIN a while ago with no toilets / water didn't they?
Apr 25, 2018, 4:51 am
#23
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: LCY
Posts: 1,222
Apr 25, 2018, 5:05 am
#24
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: AMS
Programs: BAEC Silver, Flying Blue Gold, TK M&S Nobody
Posts: 2,471
Are there even any A380s parked at LHR overnight to fill in?
Flightradar seems to be in a tangle too, since it's claiming that G-XLEB both turned round over the Atlantic and operated LAX-LHR yesterday, landing at 0951 this morning:
https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/g-xleb
Flightradar seems to be in a tangle too, since it's claiming that G-XLEB both turned round over the Atlantic and operated LAX-LHR yesterday, landing at 0951 this morning:
https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/g-xleb
Apr 25, 2018, 6:09 am
#25
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Herts, UK
Programs: BAEC GGL, HH Diamond.
Posts: 3,177
Are there even any A380s parked at LHR overnight to fill in
https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/g-xleb
https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/g-xleb
Apr 25, 2018, 6:53 am
#26
Join Date: Dec 2014
Location: UK
Programs: BA
Posts: 174
Even if they had the aircraft it then possibly has to be cleaned, and catered. I doubt any of these have more than skeleton crews on that time of night. Then you give passengers food vouchers as they would get normally during a delay, where would they spend them as all the catering outlets are likely to be shut? Seems like BA did the best thing in the circumstance and put people in hotels and delayed to the next morning.
Apr 27, 2018, 10:03 am
#27
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: London
Programs: Mucci. Nothing else matters.
Posts: 38,644
May 3, 2018, 3:11 pm
#28
Join Date: Apr 2018
Posts: 8
I will try to resume a little bit my journey with BA269 that diverted back to LHR on 24th April.
We started our trip to Los Angeles in Denmark and everything was very nice all way to London. It was our first time transiting LHR but I must say it was very smooth and everything is well explained. We parked at the A gates and the flight would depart from the C gates.
During the waiting for the boarding, the airport crew told us multiple times to sit down because the boarding would be a little bit delayed because the plane was late from maintenance (G-XLEG). After 1 hour extra waiting we finally boarded the aircraft. In the plane, after the complete boarding, the captain told us multiple times that there was a issues with the water pressure and the engineers were on the plane trying to fix the problem. It took almost 1 hour until the aircraft pushed back and departed from LHR.
After 2 hours and 30 minutes the captain explained that there was a problem again with the water pressure and they will have to restart the whole system to see if it works. After 15 more minutes, the captain announced that because of the problem on board with the water pressure he decided to divert back to London claiming hygiene and safety issues.
After some more minutes the plane made a U turn and we were headed back to London. We dumped some fuel and then descended to use more fuel to be less heavy on landing. Back to London everything went very smooth for me and my family, but I thing that I am one of the few who was quite happy with the experience, not that we had to turn back, but with how everything worked until we were at the hotel in bed.
We sat very long back in the lower deck and because of that we were the last 3 people disembarking the plane. We had to go back to terminal A and everybody were waiting for the "train". As there was almost 400 people trying to get on that "train" we decided to take the walkway all the way to customs. Best decision ever. We arrived at customs 20 seconds before 400 people were coming up from the station. We did customs and after that we headed to BA desk for more information. They asked if we wanted to pick up our in-checked bags, but we decided to let them there as we didn't have important stuff inside.
At the BA desk everything was prepared, hotel vouchers, shuttle, breakfast voucher etc. As we were one of the first people being there everything went very smooth and quick. We got all the vouchers, some extra information about our next flight and then we headed out of the airport to take a bus. We got a room at Premier Inn on Bath Road. We checked in and I started with the calls to the US to change my bookings on everything.
In the morning we started our day with a delicious breakfast and at 11:00 we went outside to take the shuttle to Terminal 5. Then we had to check in again. We took the new boarding cards ( same boarding cards as the day before, even the day was the same and they wrote over with a pen new day and new time... quite strange) and 3 food vouchers a 10 pounds each and we headed again terminal 5C. This time we boarded on time but we departed 50 minutes late. The flight was called BA269A and had departure time 14:45
On board we got the same seats and almost everybody from the day before flight were there. I talked with the people in front of me and they experienced the opposite. Bad hotel, disgusting breakfast and no shuttle buss back to the terminal. They arrived at the hotel at about 2.40 and we arrived at 00.50 more or less so I believe that my walk made a huge difference
That is all, I thing
Sorry for my english
We started our trip to Los Angeles in Denmark and everything was very nice all way to London. It was our first time transiting LHR but I must say it was very smooth and everything is well explained. We parked at the A gates and the flight would depart from the C gates.
During the waiting for the boarding, the airport crew told us multiple times to sit down because the boarding would be a little bit delayed because the plane was late from maintenance (G-XLEG). After 1 hour extra waiting we finally boarded the aircraft. In the plane, after the complete boarding, the captain told us multiple times that there was a issues with the water pressure and the engineers were on the plane trying to fix the problem. It took almost 1 hour until the aircraft pushed back and departed from LHR.
After 2 hours and 30 minutes the captain explained that there was a problem again with the water pressure and they will have to restart the whole system to see if it works. After 15 more minutes, the captain announced that because of the problem on board with the water pressure he decided to divert back to London claiming hygiene and safety issues.
After some more minutes the plane made a U turn and we were headed back to London. We dumped some fuel and then descended to use more fuel to be less heavy on landing. Back to London everything went very smooth for me and my family, but I thing that I am one of the few who was quite happy with the experience, not that we had to turn back, but with how everything worked until we were at the hotel in bed.
We sat very long back in the lower deck and because of that we were the last 3 people disembarking the plane. We had to go back to terminal A and everybody were waiting for the "train". As there was almost 400 people trying to get on that "train" we decided to take the walkway all the way to customs. Best decision ever. We arrived at customs 20 seconds before 400 people were coming up from the station. We did customs and after that we headed to BA desk for more information. They asked if we wanted to pick up our in-checked bags, but we decided to let them there as we didn't have important stuff inside.
At the BA desk everything was prepared, hotel vouchers, shuttle, breakfast voucher etc. As we were one of the first people being there everything went very smooth and quick. We got all the vouchers, some extra information about our next flight and then we headed out of the airport to take a bus. We got a room at Premier Inn on Bath Road. We checked in and I started with the calls to the US to change my bookings on everything.
In the morning we started our day with a delicious breakfast and at 11:00 we went outside to take the shuttle to Terminal 5. Then we had to check in again. We took the new boarding cards ( same boarding cards as the day before, even the day was the same and they wrote over with a pen new day and new time... quite strange) and 3 food vouchers a 10 pounds each and we headed again terminal 5C. This time we boarded on time but we departed 50 minutes late. The flight was called BA269A and had departure time 14:45
On board we got the same seats and almost everybody from the day before flight were there. I talked with the people in front of me and they experienced the opposite. Bad hotel, disgusting breakfast and no shuttle buss back to the terminal. They arrived at the hotel at about 2.40 and we arrived at 00.50 more or less so I believe that my walk made a huge difference
That is all, I thing
Sorry for my english
May 3, 2018, 3:23 pm
#30
Join Date: Aug 2013
Posts: 8,770
It sounds like you very lucky, but also somewhat made your own luck by choosing to take the walkway. Bravo!
Enjoy the rest of your time in LA. Hopefully you'll get that nice EU261 comp swiftly too.