SRQKEF From Iceland, joined Jun 2011, 692 posts, RR: 1 Posted (1 year 2 months 1 week 2 days 5 hours ago) and read 4703 times:
Going to Germany and Austria for football and skiing! Pt 2/2
Welcome again to my later part of these SA Linhas Aereas">TR series, which are my first TRs. The first one can be found here: [url=http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/trip_reports/read.main/210669/]Going to Germany and Austria for football and skiing! Pt 1[url] so if you missed it, you can get it here. Just to tell you one thing I forgot to mention, PlaneHunter’s reports were the inspiration for me to write my own. Photos aren’t many in these reports, but as my trips get more recent, more photos will come. Background
In December 2010, I started to look for ski trips in Europe in February 2011. After some looking around I found Kitzbuhel, Austria to be tempting. We (me and my family) booked a hotel in the Alps there and a MUC-LHR-KEF routing on BA 319 and FI 752. Before we booked the flights we decided to look for ways to get to Austria and we decided to do it split – me, my dad and my brother would fly on Friday to LHR, sleep there and take the early BA flight to FRA on the 767. We could book it as multicity on ba.com for around 170 GBP. We then bought tickets for Hoffenheim-FC Köln in the German Bundesliga. Meanwhile, my mom and sister would fly FI532 to MUC and we would meet there Saturday evening. We would then drive down to Kitzbuhel and spend 3 days there before going home on Thursday.
This report will cover flights from Munich to Keflavik via London Heathrow on BA and FI.
The trip
After some wonderful days of skiing in Kitzbuhel, Austria it was time to head home. After driving our rental car for 2 hours to get to Munich FJ Strauss Airport, I saw a welcomed sight ahead – a big LH 346 on the ramp!
I was getting excited for my first 319 flight – surprisingly, I never had experienced this common babybus until 2011 where I got 2 flights on it (the later one will follow in a later report…). We arrived at Terminal 1 and were through check in and security in less then 5 minutes – with 3 bags, that’s impressive! Well done BA and MUC!
After some minutes of waiting at the gate, an announcement came about a slight delay. Not welcomed at all as our time at LHR was relatively short, scheduled arrival at T5 11:20 and scheduled departure at T1 13:00 – 1 hr and 40 minutes. At last G-EUPY, a new reg for me of course, rolled into the gate. This aircraft was delivered to BA factory fresh in April 2001. I forgot this part in the earlier report, but both TF-FIP and G-BZHC were delivered factory fresh to the airlines, FIP in April 2000 and BZHC in June 1998. My seat, 6A was in Club config so the middle seat was blocked. Lucky me!
Later on, we had to wait more inside the aircraft while it was sitting at the gate. Reason: Slot problems at Heathrow. Not the first time!
Flight information
Date: 24. February 2011
Airline: British Airways (BA/BAW)
Flight # 949
Aircraft: Airbus 319-131
Registration: G-EUPY
From: Franz J. Strauss Airport, Munich, Germany (MUC/EDDM)
To: Heathrow Airport, London, UK (LHR/EGLL)
Seat: 6A (Club Europe, J seat – EuroTraveller, Y service)
STD/ATD: 1020/1047
STA/ATA: 1120/1134
Blocked time: 2 hrs 0 mins
Actual time: 1 hr 47 mins
Personal information My 3rd flight in 2011, 192nd overall
My 4th flight on BA, 1st on BA 32S, 1st on BA 319
My 19th flight on 32S, 1st on 319, 1st on G-EUPY
My 30th airport
D-ABAD, an AB 738, resting aside us
D-AICD, a DE 320, seen after the 738 pushed back
We finally pushed back and headed for the active runway. After waiting for 2 LH 320 fellas, 1 taking off and 1 landing, we rolled onto the runway and took off.
After ordering chips & Coke on the first flight, I chose Sprite & cookie on this one. Sprite tasted good as expected, in this disturbing 0.1L can though. The cookie was fine but a bit to sweet for my liking.
The flight ran through without anything happening and soon descend was commanded. We landed on runway 9L and had a very short taxi to our gate, next to a BA 777 G-VIIC wearing the ‘KEEPING THE FLAG FLYING’ slogan.
As the time for us was tight, we had to run. We decided to let my mom along with my younger brother and sister go straight to T1 and along to the plan while me and my dad would get the bags and take the night flight if necessary. As he still worked for FI there as the last 18 years (and still has connections even if he started working personal last April) he got a message from his co-worker that the inbound flight was late so we got some breathing space.
But at 12:15, way after our arrival, the bags still weren’t there. We were starting to get worried, and at 12:30 still nothing had happened. Finally at 12:40 the bags started arriving and at 12:53, 1:33 after scheduled arrival, we could finally catch the train to T1. Not good BA and T5!
We arrived at the check-in counter at 13:03, 3 minutes after scheduled departure. Luckily, my dad knows the LHR FI station manager and called her to keep the check-in agents there. We were checked in and ran to security which was way to slow. We arrived at the gate at 13:30 and were let in as the last passengers. That was close!
The aircraft was TF-FIJ, a 757-200 delivered to Britannia in 1991. It went to FI in 1993 and was leased to Kabo Air for 5 months in winter 2009/10 before coming back to Icelandair.
Flight information
Date: 24. February 2011
Airline: Icelandair (FI/ICE)
Flight # 451
Aircraft: Boeing 757-208/W
Registration: TF-FIJ
From: Heathrow Airport, London, UK (LHR/EGLL)
To: Keflavik airport, Keflavik, Iceland, (KEF/BIKF)
Seat: 34A (Economy Class, Y)
STD/ATD: 13:00/13:34
STA/ATA: 16:00/16:27
Blocked time: 3 hrs 0 mins
Actual time: 2 hrs 53 mins
Flight information My 4th flight in 2011, 193rd flight overall
My 118th flight on FI, 114th on FI 757, 104th on FI 752, 32nd on FI 75W
My 118th flight on 757, 108th on 752, 32nd on 75W, 11th on TF-FIJ
As we arrived very late at the counter in LHR, we didn’t expect the bags to come but surprisingly they made it. Good work FI and LHR!
Thoughts
BA had a fine flight but these slots at Heathrow are driving me crasy! I was very, very mad at them on the ground in London for taking more than an hour to deliver the bags! FI were delayed, but that was good for me. The flight was fine as usually.
planejamie From United Kingdom, joined Sep 2011, 572 posts, RR: 0 Reply 4, posted (1 year 2 months 1 week 1 day 3 hours ago) and read 3522 times:
Awesome! Glad you had a great flights on two of my favourite airlines BA and FI! Shame about the bags with T5 though... I still think there are one or two hiccups with the whole Terminal 5 Baggage system as this seems to be a reoccurring theme in trip reports...
SRQKEF From Iceland, joined Jun 2011, 692 posts, RR: 1 Reply 7, posted (1 year 2 months 5 days 21 hours ago) and read 3061 times:
Quoting signol (Reply 6): nice final report of your mini-series.
Hi signol, thanks!
Quoting signol (Reply 6): Shame about the delayed luggage. My only time arriving into T5 with luggage was from JFK, and the bags were already going round when we got there.
Yeah, my dad told me it had also been like that on his flight to LHR from PHX and from GVA, although he was in J then.
Quoting signol (Reply 6): Was the FI fligth delayed enough to get you on board, or was it your dad's connections
We technically could've made it, but his coonections helped a bti
Quoting signol (Reply 6): Looking forward to some more reports
Report coming up soon on my trip to/from Florida in Apr 2011, already started writing
PlaneHunter From Germany, joined Mar 2006, 6190 posts, RR: 79 Reply 9, posted (1 year 2 months 3 days 11 hours ago) and read 2774 times:
Hi Sveinn,
interesting second part of your journey!
Quoting SRQKEF (Thread starter): Just to tell you one thing I forgot to mention, PlaneHunter’s reports were the inspiration for me to write my own.
I'm happy to hear that!
Quoting SRQKEF (Thread starter): We arrived at Terminal 1 and were through check in and security in less then 5 minutes – with 3 bags, that’s impressive! Well done BA and MUC!
Don't expect that during peak times!
Quoting SRQKEF (Thread starter): At last G-EUPY, a new reg for me of course, rolled into the gate.
I also flew MUC-LHR on G-EUPY three years ago.
Quoting SRQKEF (Thread starter): But at 12:15, way after our arrival, the bags still weren’t there. We were starting to get worried, and at 12:30 still nothing had happened. Finally at 12:40 the bags started arriving and at 12:53, 1:33 after scheduled arrival, we could finally catch the train to T1. Not good BA and T5!
We arrived at the check-in counter at 13:03, 3 minutes after scheduled departure. Luckily, my dad knows the LHR FI station manager and called her to keep the check-in agents there. We were checked in and ran to security which was way to slow. We arrived at the gate at 13:30 and were let in as the last passengers. That was close!
Yeah, I've actually never missed a flight but I've got through security less then 15 minutes before scheduled departure time at least 8 times, if not more. Once, I was trying to catch a Thomson flight from LGW to LPA after arriving in London on FI into Heathrow. The bus took 45 minutes and picked us up at Heathrow 1h15min before departure from Gatwick. So we had 30 minutes to run to the check in area, check in, get thru security and run to the gate with 3 adults, 5 children and 5 bags. Somehow we made it! That was also my one and only 762 flight.
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From Iceland, joined Jun 2011, 692 posts, 
Background
The flight was fine as usually.
From United States of America, joined Sep 2007, 956 posts, 
From United Kingdom, joined Sep 2011, 572 posts, 
From Germany, joined Mar 2006, 6190 posts, 
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