I’ve just flown back to London on BA154 operated by Air Belgium. They were only covering the route for 3 days and tonight’s flight from London onwards is due to be BA Dreamliner again. The Air Belgium plane (OO-ABB) is now back in Brussels

Overall flight was fine, seats were a little tight for width but shoulder width was ok and legroom was fine (economy)

You could tell the crew weren’t used to working together or in harmony though. During service they were having to confer between them how certain things should be served and did generally look a bit lost

They initially came round the cabin on a water or juice run about 30 mins after take off. I asked for alcohol but was scorned that ‘this is a morning service sir’.

When she seen my displeasure at her answer, she said she’d ask if the alcohol cart could be opened and would bring some with the food service

When food was served up (BA carts, BA trays/hot food), they were again offering juice or water. I could see the white wine that I’d requested on the earlier run so I asked for that but she had to go and check with another staff member whether she could give it to me and how it should be served. She was told it was my wine and just to give me the bottle and a glass which she did

The staff were definitely not used to the carts/trays and one especially was struggling to control it. When she pulled out a tray with the usual BA temperature check tab thingiemajigger on top, she was very confused and didn’t know what to do so just sidelined it to the top of the cart. A few passengers in front of me asked for sugar but the crew didn’t know where it would be and said they’d have a look. The passengers then discovered the sugar was already on their meal tray

During the flight the seatbelt signs were put on, during the check to ensure everyone was belted up, the sign went off again so the CC retreated back to the galley. Just as people started going to the toilet/moving around, the captain then put the sign back on, literally only a minute after he’d turned it off (with no turbulence evident, or forthcoming). It caused a bit of confusion and the CC didn’t bother doing another cabin sweep

The IFE system was quite old and poor. Not as bad as an old BA 747 I’ve been on previously but not too much better either. There was a choice of 42 movies I think it was but I didn’t bother with any of them

Unfortunately overall it wasn’t a pleasant flight for me due to a nearby passengers poor hygiene, but that’s the joys of public travel

My biggest bug bear with the Dreamliner is the lack of individual air jets at each seat and the IFE units under the seats of aisle seats which limits leg room

Thankfully the Air Belgium A340-313 didn’t have the boxes and had air jets so I was reasonably happy

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