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Hello all, welcome to the second part of a five part series covering my trip to the USA in April 2013. This part will cover my journey back from Paris to London Heathrow, and then onwards to Washington. For those that might have missed it, the first part of the series can be found here:
USA 2013 Pt 1: The Beginning BA LHR-ORY (by jwhite9185 Apr 20 2013 in Trip Reports)
And the related videos for this part:
Departure from CDG: http://youtu.be/k2nsqp0cQZk
Arrival at LHR: http://youtu.be/QKUSwLRG3pQ
Departure from LHR: http://youtu.be/fa0DM_nAeBM
Arrival into IAD: http://youtu.be/EMevnDwUdL4
A few days before departure, the seat map for the first sector opened right up and I managed to bag seat 5A, therefore having the middle seat free.
However a day later I was unexpectedly moved back to 7A, and the middle seat was no longer blocked, despite being the first row behind Club. Oh well. Of interest, the BA website said the aircraft type was the scheduled A319, despite it being a seatmap for an A320.
The onward sector to Washington remained pretty full throughout:
My morning started at 5am. I checked out of the hotel and headed over to the CDGVAL to terminal 2, arriving a few moments later.
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Upon arrival, it was a pretty long walk over to the BA check in desks that were hidden in a basement.
When I got there, I was met with a pretty long queue however my BA status meant I could bypass this and head for the Club Europe check in where there wasn't anybody waiting at all. There were a few problems upon checking in - first off, they said my API hadn't been completed - which it had, and then when presenting my visa card for verification, they said this wasn't the card used for payment... Yeah because the card I had used for payment had expired. Eventually everything was sorted, although I was a little upset I didn't get given one of those transferring at T5 booklets!
After this it was through security. Reasonably busy, but not too slow. Basically the opposite experience of T5! As usual it was then straight into a duty free shop.
I wanted to buy a couple of bits, however I was told it was closed. In fact pretty much the whole terminal seemed closed.
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That’ll explain why this place is deserted!
The only place I could really find to grab anything to drink was a vending machine... So that had to do.
It was then a case of waiting around at gate A47 for boarding to commence. A few moments later the crew of four cabin and two flight turned up, but as there were no ground staff around, they were forced to wait too.
Unfortunately, the views weren't brilliant, so couldn't really see much of the movements outside.
Boarding eventually started at 07:00.
As I was heading down the jetway, I finally found a small window to see the landing gear doors – ‘YL meant I would be on one of the more recent additions to the BA fleet having joined just a few days over 22 months ago. Turned out this flight had been subbed for an A320 rather than the A319.
BA303
CDG-LHR
4th April 2013
A320-232 / G-EUYL
Seat: 7A / Euro Traveller
Scheduled: 07:30/07:40
Off Stand: 07:28
On Stand: 08:05
Once on board, I was welcomed back by name and I noticed I did actually have the first row behind club, however I did have two seat mates - so I guess on the odd occasion all three seats behind club are sold? Either way, the legroom in this row was very good – better than I had experienced in Club/Business on both BA and other airlines in fact.
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Albino El-Al next door
Shortly after the captain was on the PA saying boarding was complete well ahead of schedule and thanking everybody for arriving on time. It was now just a case of waiting for our slot to come around so we could push back. He also mentioned we would have to be de iced - a new experience for me! A flight time of 44 minutes was given so he was still hopeful of an on time arrival.
Push back was a couple of minutes ahead of schedule, however having to taxi to the furthest runway and then be de iced, despite being ready well ahead of schedule we didn't actually lift off until 08:00 – a thirty minute delay.
This one followed us pretty much all the way – despite being on tow.
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After ten or fifteen minutes or so, we entered the pit box to be de iced.
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And a further ten minutes or so later, we pulled away, the flaps were extended, flight controls tested and made our way to the runway. Luckily we were allowed an intersection departure rather than having to taxi right to the threshold, which would no doubt take even more time.
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Once we had departed, it was a few turns in the direction of the UK.
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Once through the cloud layer the breakfast service started. Quite a tasty salami and cheese roll and a cup of tea. I didn't actually ask for the OJ, but was handed it anyway. Nice and pro-active there.
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Not often you get two windows in economy on an A32X!
While breakfast was going down, descent started. The crew made the round clearing the cabin – one guy being very cheerful indeed – whistling away and humming to himself for pretty much the whole flight! This was handy as I knew when to hide my camera as I could hear him coming from a few rows back! Once over the UK there was quite a few cloud layers.
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This aircraft didn't seem to have any drop down screens, so no way of tracking our progress. The flight was your typical short Euro hop really – takeoff, thrown a meal and a drink, have the rubbish snatched away shortly after and then land. As the skies were overcast throughout, there weren’t even any decent views to be had. Pretty non descript flight really – much like my sector over to MUC last year.
Unsurprisingly, we were placed into a hold for around ten minutes or so. The flight crew also mentioned that it was pretty chilly down there.
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VS A330 also flying around in circles above us.
After a good few minutes in the hold above my house, we were ushered onto finals, although there wasn’t a huge amount to be seen. The cabin crew didn’t get the ‘seats for landing’ instruction until quite late into finals – pretty much as we passed Windsor actually.
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We landed on to 09L at around 08:00, arriving on to stand a few moments later.
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The AA 77W is a pretty common sight at LHR.
We then arrived on to stand and the normal stampede to exit began.
Once into the terminal, it was a case of following the signs to flight connections.
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I had my boarding pass scanned, welcomed back by name and asked how I was doing. I love how a little bit of status makes people so much nicer!
I was fine at that point, but then it was up to security. Now I'm not totally sure of the logic of making transfer passengers clear security again, but it was very slow, despite not being very busy. Very poor planning. Having spoken to my auntie who spent many years working for BAA over at T4 a week or so later, she said it was the same deal there too. Yet pretty much every other place I’ve transferred at I could just go straight to my next gate. I’m led to believe that even coming from another terminal at LHR avoids this extra security check. Very strange.
Soon after clearing security I paid another visit to the South end of the terminal
The problems getting out of Paris meant the aircrafts next mission had a 30 minute delay
Before long though, it was time to head over to gate B33 via the transit. I was glad about this as I’d not visited T5B before – at least while it was in operation!
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Nice choice of location for this one!
Once at the gate I would either be on G-BYGA or G-BNLM.
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As it turned out, it would be G-BYGA operating today's flight, one of the newer 747's in British Airways fleet, although I use that term loosely as the aircraft in question was delivered in 1998 wearing the Chelsea Rose world tail scheme.
Pre boarding was announced at 09:10, but that didn't stop a huge group trying their luck anyway.
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They were promptly told to sit back down again though. Boarding proper started at 09:20, although there wasn't any pre boarding for World Traveller Plus - one major difference from VS. It was finally my turn at 09:30 for my first BA longhaul flight for sixteen years.
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Sultanils