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My first BA flight out of BHX for 20 years...
Booked a last minute CE flight to PMI this weekend, for a week away with the family, and it struck me that it’ll be the first BA flight I’ve taken from BHX in 20 years! I used to work in BCN in the late 90s, so spent lots of time flying from & to there, but since BA left BHX (when was that?!) I seem to have lived at Heathrow, especially T5 more recently. I understand as a Gold / Amex Platinum I have the choice of a couple of lounges, so looking forward to seeing how the old place looks these days. Oh, and we’re flying on an Embraer E190SR, so it’ll make a change from the normal CE A320’s I fly on 90% of the time. I got the row 2 “ridiculous leg room” seats (as described elsewhere!) so should be a comfy flight. |
Have a good trip. I remember the 1-11s..... EMB has plenty of room.! |
I'm thinking of picking up a reasonable AGP CE fare from BHX this summer, so any feedback or tips on what a BA flyer should choose to do in the airport would be appreciated once you report back! ^
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Two pp lounges in BHX, Number 1 and Aspire. Food seems better (existant) in Number 1 but bar staffed by wandering people so can wait a while before someone turns up. Aspire is self pour and nice view. If I am flying a bob airline I pick up a £1 chicken mayo sandwich from post departures Boots. Sometimes discounted to 25p!
If status only/club I think they will direct you to Number 1 lounge. |
BA from BHX is bringing up memories of flights to BFS (Belfast International) on BAC 1-11s, 737s and latterly I am sure I recall a Canadair too (and the brief period when they shared the Eurohub with Debonair). I was on a 737 on Christmas Eve from BFS with three of us on it and the cabin crew making Christmas-related announcements through the flight 'those on the left may get a glimpse of Father Christmas going past in his sleigh etc. etc.
BA left BHX in 2007 (I think!) when BA Connect was sold to FlyBe, my last flight out was an ERJ to Paris CDG, the only time I got to go to the BA Lounge there and I remember being impressed (but this was in the days when pretty much my only experience of a lounge was the AA Admirals Club at Boston, which was not a great comparison......plus on the day I flew to CDG I had had a pretty liquid lunch too.....). Going back further, the original BHX terminal in the 1980s with the aeroplane hanging above the check-in desks and the advert of huge eyes looking at the BA check-ins with 'Its easy to see who Birmingham's favourite Airline is'. There was also the Sbarro pizza stand at 99p/slice...but I will stop the reminiscences there! Apologies for going way off topic! |
Now that we are going on about BHX in the old days, I remember a return flight many years ago doing CPH–BHX–CDG. It was a Maersk Air UK-operated BAC 1-11 on the first leg and a TAT-operated Fokker 100 on the second leg – both BA franchises. Might even have been an F70 outbound.
Connection time at BHX was only 15 minutes one way and 25 the other but our TA assured me that this would not be a problem. And to my amazement – time from exiting incoming flight to standing at the outbound gate was less than 10 minutes including a bag scan at BHX flight connections. You try and tell the young people today that, they won't believe you! :-) |
Originally Posted by jfallesen
(Post 29919792)
You try and tell the young people today that, they won't believe you! :-)
My earliest memory of Birmingham airport is having a 10 minute drive up to the old (Elmdon) airport on a Sunday afternoon to look at the planes! Obviously I was very easily pleased in those days (or my dad just liked it because it was free!). |
Originally Posted by Foltan
(Post 29919418)
I'm thinking of picking up a reasonable AGP CE fare from BHX this summer, so any feedback or tips on what a BA flyer should choose to do in the airport would be appreciated once you report back! ^
The Aspire lounge was easy to find (on the left as you leave duty free), and was quite a pleasant surprise. Larger than I thought it would be, lots of seating, and a half decent self service hot breakfast, consisting of bacon, scrambled eggs, sausages, beans etc, along with cereal, pastries, croissants etc. There were also fridges full of beer, and bottles of spirits on optics. We didn’t venture into the No 1 Lounge, but were glad of the lounge access. As we were walking to the gate, it didn’t look like there was much in the way of general seating. |
Thank you very much! Got CE out of BHX + the train from Euston for less than Y out of London so figured I'd give it a whirl as I'm near to Euston anyway.
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My first recollection was of the old Elmdon Terminal, jet setting off to ..Guernsey on a BAE Viscount.
You entered the terminal, went right for the checkin desks, then just wandered over to the departure area for boarding, no stupid security and the likes. |
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