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jasepl · Member Joined: 26 Jul 2008 Posts: 4257 Location: bund-bay

I Background

I needed to go to Nantes again, and having done this trip on AF so many times (with the only recent exception being a trip on LX late last year), I was in the mood for something different. AF, of course, are always the most convenient, but I was bored of them. There was also a family gathering back in the old stomping grounds of Aix-en-Provence – it is typically planned for early in the summer, before it gets too hot.

Many of us hadn't been able to make it in recent years and there had been a few marriages and births in the last couple of years and it had been a while since we all got together, so everyone decided we were going to try our best to make it this year.

My cousin Mariette (I'm sure many will remember her as the one who bitched and bitched about Jet Airways' Hong Kong flights and dumped them for Cathay the minute CX changed their schedules) came up with a plan to bring her new boyfriend to see Bombay and then for us to go to France. God only knows why, because there's nothing to see in Bombay.

After Nimish raved about Austrian Airlines, I was quite looking forward to trying them out – a 767, coupled with a relatively drama-free Vienna Airport is just what I like. Unfortunately, OS don't fly every day and connections at VIE didn't all work out very well, so I had to drop that idea for now.

I looked at other options, including Jet, which would have worked doing BOM-BRU-MRS-BRU-BOM. But for some reason, they were just unable to price out anything other than an obscene fare (is this a recurring thing with SN codeshares, or just my luck?).

We ended up picking BA, which turned out to be a good choice:

flights at civilised times
a chance to fly the 747 again (which is now an increasingly rare opportunity)
and the Hong Kong wallahs got their precious oneworld points

One big pain with BA is that they use Heathrow and Gatwick as completely separate hubs, with very little overlap between the two. I wish they served all destinations from Heathrow, and used Gatwick to fly additional flights to a handful of places that were already served from LHR (eg: AMS, CDG, HEL, MAD, JFK, BOS, ORD, HKG etc).

So, because of all this silliness, the Marseille flight is to LGW and no way was I doing the bus connection between airports, so we booked NCE-LHR. It's about 1h40 driving from Aix to Nice, so not terribly awful. I mean it can take that long to get from home to Sahar, so I really mustn't complain (though, of course, I will).

I also used up a bunch of AF points to book the European segments (buying one-ways on AF is obscenely expensive).

Mariette and her toy (he's eight years younger than her, so definitely a toy) would fly HKG-BOM on CX and she was going to spend a few days here showing him around.

By the way, The Toy turned out to be a lovely man. But I just can't bring myself to deal with the Aussie accent – it just grates on my ears and drives me crackers. The whole time he talked, all I could think was "shut up shut up shot up". Shallow I know, but it is what it is.

The three of us planned to fly to London and stay the night with some friends I hadn't seen in years. Then go to Nantes for a few days and finally fly to Marseille (Aix is 15 minutes away). Since my mother wasn't needed for the first bit of the trip, she came directly to Aix on the same day that we did. After a few days of family bonding, mom and I returned home, routing NCE-LHR-BOM.

This was turning out to be a 9-day trip, which is longer than any trip I've done in a while. And though there were several flights and a fair bit of travel overall, it was never more than one flight without an overnight somewhere, so it was manageable.

My final itinerary was:

Bombay – Heathrow on BA
London City – Nantes on AF
Nantes – Marseille on AF
Nice – Heathrow - Bombay on BA

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jasepl · Member Joined: 26 Jul 2008 Posts: 4257 Location: bund-bay

II Bombay – London Heathrow

Starting from a couple of weeks before departure, BA started sending out reminder emails. There was a booking confirmation email. That was followed by a a services email – highlighting features and amenities on board, content of IFE programming, lounge details, check-in times etc. Next was an email 36 hours before departure, as a reminder that online check-in would open in 12 hours' time. All also had links to various sections of BA's website.

Of course they also contained the usual selling ploys (pay and upgrade, pay in advance for excess baggage, pay to choose your seat in advance…).

Then 24 hours before departure, there was another email to say that online check-in was open.

Unfortunately, I was out and our ever-dependable mobile network wasn't cooperating, so I finally checked in when I got back home at 6 pm.

My boarding pass had VIP printed under my name (RPTD GN VIP). Which was weird, because I'm hardly one. And even though I checked in 5 hours after OLCI opened, I was #14 in the sequence on the BP. Is it that not many passengers use OLCI from India or pay to choose their seat in advance?

On the day of the flight, we set off from home just after 10 and got to the airport at 11.30, in plenty of time for a 13.15 departure. What a perfectly civilised timing, instead of the nasty o'clock schedules that many other flights follow. The only thing better would have been an earlier departure, maybe 10ish or even earlier.

By the way, why do they have Drukair listed on the blue signboards as you go up the bridge to departures? They've never flown to Bombay, as far as I know.

The departures drop-off area is usually one big mess at nighttime – like Juhu Beach on a Sunday evening with cars and people. In the morning, however, it was empty. What a contrast and what bliss.

We walked right in; no queue for entry. I didn't really look around, so I don't know if the BA folks wait outside to escort premium passengers for the day flight like they do for the night flight. Inside, the entire check-in zone was nearly empty too.

BA have three premium counters, so check-in should usually be relatively smooth and quick. I remember from back in the day when their lounge was landside, just behind check-in; back then, First and Gold passengers could go sit in the lounge and a girlie with a laptop would take care of everything in the lounge itself until the flight was ready for boarding. I'm not sure if they have that anymore?

There was a free desk and having OLCI'd and entered all of the passport information already, we were done in no time at all.

As seemed to be the theme, immigration was empty. By the way, why are our immigration officials concerned whether or not someone has a visa for the destination? It's typically the airline's business, since they're the ones who face penalties, not the immigration department/.

Security too was totally empty. Of course, I had to have the idiot in front of me who didn't seem to know laptops and liquids out, belts off, phones in tray etc. It clearly wasn't the idiot's first time travelling, because he was waving a fat wad of four passports stapled together. Are we supposed to be impressed?

Turns out The Toy had two lighters in his bag. Security apparently saw both on the x-ray, but found only one while rummaging through his bag and gave up the search. Lovely. Of course, a register was produced, and a whole entry had to be made, manually, in said register, complete with name of passenger, flight, seat etc etc. And then he had to sign it. What on earth is the point of all of that?

Even with all this excitement, it took under 20 minutes from the car down to departures level.

As upstairs, the downstairs departures area was deserted. I must say, in spite of the recent makeover, the terminal is still nasty. Even at noon, it feels dark, dingy, dank and dirty. And there was no ac in the concourse for some reason. Clearly it was working, because it was on in the lounge.

Speaking of the lounge, I didn't plan on going. I just wanted to go to the gate and wait. But everyone was hungry and none of us had enough cash on us. Turns out there is no ATM at the departures level. What's up with that? So we ended up in BA's Galleries Lounge (smart as we are, we didn't think of just using euros).

First thing, BA's lounge is enormous! It certainly seems much bigger than the LH one from what I remember of it. And it was definitely far less crowded. It had:

Different kinds of seating, including overstuffed sofas and a full long dining table.
English, Hindi, French, German, Spanish newspapers and magazines
A whole Internet section
Plus wi-fi if you want to use your own
Toilets and showers
Hot food section:
-- Samosas and bhajias
-- Veggie and chicken quesadillas
-- Cheese, chicken and salmon finger sandwiches
-- Roast chicken au jus
-- Biryani with dal and raita
-- Chutney, kachumber etc
Full bar setup, including cold beverages and still & sparkling water
Packaged nuts and chips, plus cereal and fruit
Coffee / tea / biscuit counter

And boarding was from Gate 10, which is right across from the lounge. Couldn't be easier.

Fed and satisfied, we left the lounge a little early since the two Chinese wanted to go off and smoke. I, since I've given up, sat at the gate. They came back right when boarding was called for F and J and a whole bunch of people got up.

It seemed there were nearly as many special service personnel (all Catholic it seems: Samantha, Gina, Vivita etc) escorting passengers to their seats! Many Club passengers had escorts too - could it be that they were Golds and thus entitled, or were we cheated of our right to have an escort? Especially if they printed VIP on my boarding pass! Haha!

I find the whole escort thing rather silly. Getting you into the airport, through check-in and past immigration / security at busy times is one thing. But why on earth does anyone need an escort to their seat, when boarding procedures are basically the same everywhere?

We got on the plane, went straight upstairs and settled in our seats. The headrest covering for my seat was stained. Eww.

Amenity kits and bottles of water were already positioned. Shades were down, and aircraft was nice and cool even though it was miserable outside by now no doubt.

The upstairs Club cabin was nearly full; no clue about what was going on downstairs, in any cabin.

There were two crew serving the upper deck: an older Englishwoman (I nicknamed her Chunky) and a thirty-ish Indian guy (I appropriately nicknamed him Hunky).

Hunky and Chunky both came and introduced themselves and shook my hand. Presumably because BA decided I was a VIP. Even weirder.

Only water and orange juice were served on the ground, though I heard someone ask for champagne. Not sure how successful they were though.

Newspapers came next: same selection as in the lounge. Followed by menus and taking down orders:

Beverages

Code:

Wine
~ Champagne
-- Lanson Black Label Brut
-- Ayala Brut Majeur
~ White
-- Chablis 2009, Domaine Sainte-Claire, Bordeaux, France
-- Glen Carlou Chardonnay 2009, Paarl, South Africa
~ Red
-- Château Landat 2005, Haut-Médoc, Bordeaux, France
-- La Puerta Malbec Reserva 2008, Famatima Valley, Argentina

Lunch

Code:

Starters
~ Lemongrass-marinated chicken
-- Thai coconut dressing
-- som yum papaya salad
~ Cream cheese in cucumber
-- melon balls, asparagus, vegetable skewer
-- plum and apple salsa
-- idli chaat in red cabbage

Salad
~ Fresh seasonal salad
-- vinaigrette

Mains
~ Garlic-crusted tiger prawns
-- lemon-herb sauce
-- bok-choy and vegetable bâtons
-- parsley, saffron and chilli potatoes
~ Grilled breast of chicken
-- chive sauce
-- oven-roasted potatoes
-- seasonal vegetables
~ Khatta-meetha paneer    ~ Sweet and sour soft cheese
-- khumb makkai palak    -- mushrooms and corn in spinach
-- sofiyani pulao          -- spiced basmati rice
~ Chilled main course ham salad

Dessert
~ Belgian chocolate mousse
~ Selected cheese with biscuits
-- Celery, carrots and grapes
~ A selection of fruit

Then the usual announcements were made, the cabin was readied for departure and we were off.

They soon stared on lunch.

First a drinks service, featuring a decent selection of beverages
But very economy class nuts still in their packaging

I got a sparkling water (to go with my big packaged nuts!).

Lunch was served on a tray. Ugh.
At least the butter was served as it should be served - in a ramekin and soft enough for spreading. Add one point for BA.
I wasn't very hungry, so I decided to just get the salad. Which was absolutely vile. Wilted lettuce, vinegary artichokes that seemed they were pickled instead of marinated. The dressing was brilliant though; a spicy-lemony-soya saucey taste I've never tasted before.
The Toy had had the ham salad, and I took a couple of bites. It tasted slightly better than it looked.
Dessert tasted pretty good, but the apricot coulis was definitely not a coulis; it seemed more like watered-down jam. Yuck.
The dessert dish was unclean. Whether that was a result of not being washed properly or from plating I don't know.
The tray also featured the revolting "after mint" (who invented that term? It's everywhere now and has no link with the contents of the sachet). The packaging instantly reminded me of Jet (same supplier?). And one could smell the stench of the attar or whatever from a metre away. Vomit.
There was a drinks round again before they cleared up.

Overall a piss-poor, totally vomit-worthy meal.

Meal done, it was time to explore the IFE, which featured an okay-sized screen, average controls and a good selection of programming, in a variety of languages.

Just before arrival, they did a couple of drinks rounds and a snack service.

Refreshments

Code:

Snacks
~ An individual selection of sandwiches featuring
-- goat's cheese
-- smoked chicken
-- tomato with egg
-- shrimp with chive cream cheese
~ Garden vegetable patty in a baguette
-- tomato, lettuce
-- mint chutney

Dessert
~ Chocolate torte
-- summer berries
-- crème fraiche

I got the baguette, dessert and coffee. Average, average and average. All again served on a plastic tray, of course.

Amazingly, we were in holding for barely any time before being cleared to land. On arrival, the usual announcements in English and Hindi. The English one was the usual but the Hindi announcement went on and on and on and on and on. All using words that most people have never even heard. Why do airlines do this? The only airline I have been on where the Hindi announcements were clear and simple was Swiss.

We emerged into Terminal Five, which is shiny and new and all, but it's got too many escalators and walkways and lifts and trains and other general annoyances to be called a triumph. A real missed opportunity for something so modern and built from scratch.

Fast Track immigration was unavailable – apparently it's open only until 2 pm. But lines weren't too bad and we were through in a few minutes. Baggage took another 10 minutes to be delivered. I've never found BA to be the best at quick baggage delivery, at least at Heathrow. But priority was more or less enforced.

Overall, the flight was just about above average. While catering quality and presentation was an absolute disgrace, the airport experience in Bombay was great. BA's planes are ageing, but the cabins have been spruced up regularly and are holding up well. And Hunky and Chunky did a brilliant job.

Note: Clearly, not all pictures are mine!
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sumantra · Member Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 4685 Location: New Delhi

Jason, thanks for yet another nice trip report. Your writing style is enviable - the humour and detailed vivid descriptions make it a treat to read. Looking forward to the next part,
Sumantra.

avbuff · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 5031

Good start jasepl, give us more !!!!

As for BA, I'm not surprised with the experience.

Nimish · Posted: Mon Jul 04, 2011 10:40 pm Post subject:

Thanks for posting - would be great if could post slightly bigger pictures and bigger fonts for the subsequent ones Smile

.

I'm pretty surprised that the catering on BA was so bad - I would have that expected much better - given their focus on the soft product being as high as it's supposed to be. Plus their food in Y has always been great (from memory) and they've had good desi options as well.

At this stage I'm curious to find out if you'd rate the *A in flight catering better - the LH/ LX/ OS trio?

If only 9W would get their act together on pricing on code share sectors, they'd have had another high-yielding J customer, but nay, that was not meant to be!

Your description of your future brother-in-law (lol) was really funny! I don't mind the ozzie accent quite that much, actually find it better than say the HKG/ SIN wallahs with their lahs being thrown around liberally.

I think BA have done a splendid job on the whole MMB self-service thing - they kind of pioneered it (if I remember right), and the reminders/ emails etc just add to the overall ease of use. And no, a lot of folks don't use the OLCI option for I would guess multiple reasons:

* No FFP/ interest
* Booked by travel agent, their emails are not entered in the PNR, it's the agencies email address
* Generally ignorant of the benefits of OLCI

The BA lounge sounds really nice, the LH/ *A lounge is pretty crappy in comparison (or perhaps it was the mid-night mayhem that ticked me off?).

Personally I love the after-mint Very Happy

. I could eat a whole bunch of those, vile attar smell or not! The product pictured even has the 9W font, just the 9W name is missing.

Waiting for the rest of the saga!
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jasepl · Member Joined: 26 Jul 2008 Posts: 4257 Location: bund-bay

Thanks all. sumantra, it's coming along slowly I know, but I'll get to the conclusion soon enough!

Ojas - do you mean you're not surprised in a bad way or a good way? BA have never been renowned for their catering, but except that and the unclean seat covering, everything else was spot on.

Nimish - I'll fix the text size, no problem. The pics are thumbnails though, so just click on them to get a bigger size. I thought they'd look better this way, rather than taking up to much space.

As for the catering, I can only make a recent compare with Swiss and I think Swiss were better. OS are supposed to be brilliant, though I haven't experienced it firsthand. LH, from what I recall, is just dull everything, catering included.

Oh and you can keep those mints. Nasty stuff.
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jasepl · Member Joined: 26 Jul 2008 Posts: 4257 Location: bund-bay

III. London City – Nantes and Nantes – Marseilles

Okay, so these next two flights were bog standard Euro flights on AF subsidiaries, that barely lasted an hour each, so I won't get into too much boring detail.

Also, a lot of the pictures in this section aren't mine, but they should convey the message.

Except to say that I was always in love with London City Airport and I've decided I love it even more.

The next day, our flight was at 17.00 in the afternoon. LCY being the delightful airport that it is, we got there at about 16.20 and were in plenty of time.

They've built a short runway in the middle of the Thames river plus a small terminal to go with. It's right in the Docklands and so it is totally business oriented, with plenty of flights nearby European cities and BA's JFK flights. They tell you you need to get to the airport only 20 minutes before departure. There is an increasing leisure focus (Spain in the Summer and Switzerland in the winter) but that's mostly at week-ends. It's brilliant how efficient the whole operation is.

Like I said, LCY is a delight. The best little airport in the world after Baroda. And that's only because it took five minutes to clear security at LCY, whilst at BDQ it usually takes three minutes.

Bombay totally needs something like that. The Naval Dockyard is ideal – 10-15 minutes from Colaba and Fort, secure and with space to spare. Perfect for daytrips on baby aircraft to places like Ahmedabad, Aurangabad, Bangalore, Baroda, Hyderabad, Goa, Nagpur and even Delhi. Hell, if they come up with something like that, it could even result in flights to places like Daman, Nasik, Poona, Silvassa and Vapi.

The LCY-NTE route is operated by VLM, a Belgian airline, for CityJet, which is Air France's Irish subsidiary, based at London City Airport.

How's that for European union?

Since the runway is so short, the size of the planes is restricted. The few times I've flown through LCY, it's always been on a, Avro or a BAe. But this time, we were on one of the little Fokkers. I don't recall if I've ever flown one of those before. Certainly I hadn't flown on a pankha-wala plane since the Vayudoot days!

Here's the typical lineup of the baby planes at LCY:

And the plane that took us to Nantes (not our exact plane, but her sister). I Googled the picture and the search resulted in a plane called “Ville de Nantes”!

Of course, a weekday flight from LCY meant we were more or less the only ones in any sort of colour. Almost everyone else on board seemed to be in a black suit, carrying black bags, talking on black phones and furiously typing on black Blackberries.

I basically slept the whole time (I have this problem where I start feeling sleepy almost as soon as my bum touches the airplane seat; unfortunately the dopiness doesn't last more than an hour or so).

Anyway, the flight has two classes: Premium Economy and Economy. Premium apparently gets a full service: newspapers, magazines, full meal, wine etc etc. We were in regular Economy, but sill there was a basic beverage run and a sandwich + chocolate offered. Not bad.

Nantes is a typical provincial airport. It can get quite busy, but is generally a painless experience.

After three days in Nantes, it was time to head to Marseilles. The taxi dropped us off at the terminal at 9.30, just over an hour before departure.

This flight was operated by BritAir, another of AF's regional subsidiaries, and was flown on a CRJ.

Though this flight is longer and on a bigger aircraft than the LCY flight, this one is domestic, so the meal service is rather basic: beverages and biscuits.

Another uneventful flight later we landed in Marseille and were home 40 minutes after touchdown.
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avbuff · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 5031

HAWK21M · Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2011 3:46 pm Post subject:

jasepl · Member Joined: 26 Jul 2008 Posts: 4257 Location: bund-bay

IV. Nice – London Heathrow - Bombay

We took an earlier NCE-LHR flight instead of the one that would connect best to the BOM flight, because my mother wanted to meet up with some aunt / cousin / whoever (I can't figure out exactly what the connection is; it's quite convoluted). But one thing's for sure: every self-respecting Gujjuben must have at least a dozen relatives living in Britain, ten of whom live around London (just not in London).

Whilst the flight was largely uneventful, Nice Airport, and the general atmosphere on the flight are awful. And that's because it's filled with DYKWIA types. You just get a feeling that the Nice flight is full of them.

It was a standard Euro-config 320 flight. I thought BA were to convert their Club Europe seating into a 2-2 configuration (like the Indian and America carriers have). Turns out what they did was they widened the aisle and window seats and make the middle seat narrower. I don't really see the point. And that configuration is for the first few rows only. If there are more Club passengers, they are seated in subsequent rows, with the old narrow seats, except that the middle seat is left empty. I think there might be adjustable armrests too. Or maybe I didn't pay enough attention to figure out exactly what their story was.

Cabin announcements were in English et en Francais aussi. The crew also spoke Spanish, German, Portuguese and Japanese. And the safety video (on drop-down overhead screens) was in English, with French subtitles.

The same screen shows the map and some video that I didn't pay attention to because, as usual, I slept and before I knew it we were preparing to land.

There was a full meal and beverage service though, which typically looks like this (not my pics):

We landed on time, at the A gates mercifully, and with no luggage to recover, we were through fairly quickly.

A shot of Hounslow (one of the extensions of Baroda in Britain); I'm convinced every Gujju on earth has at least one relative living here:

Turns out Auntie & Uncle Whatstheirname had decided they would take us to an Indian restaurant, which I flat out refused to do. We were going home in a few hours anyway and would soon get as much dal-bhat as we desired. What I really wanted to eat was a big fat steak, preferably still mooing! So we went to Gaucho Grill – an Argentinian steakhouse, with a convenient new location in Richmond.

Dinner done and they dropped us off at Heathrow. For such a heavy O&D airport, LHR is remarkably tranquil from the outside. Whilst it is undoubtedly very very busy during the morning push, at around 8 pm, the upstairs landside was a picture of calmness.

Past security though, it was full and busy. And far too big and shopping-centrey. The bloody "transit" takes for bloody ever and BAA haven't let go of their habit of flashing "Boarding" and "Gate Closing" well before any such thing is happening.

We had a good 90 minutes before our flight and the gate hadn't even been posted yet, so off to the lounge.

BA's Galleries Club Lounge at T5 was just voted as the world's best by Skytrax (for whatever those rankings are worth), and this is one of the few instances where I can totally agree with the ranking.

Whilst you don't get the show that some of the newer, brasher Asian airlines put on, you can undoubtedly tell it means business. Show is not BA's style, and I prefer their understatement to the in-your-face approach taken by others. It's a classic Mukesh Ambani vs Ratan Tata situation: both have more money than we can count, only one is vulgar the other refined.

The lounge has it all, whether you're interested in sitting, dining, getting a massage, drinking, getting a pedicure, lounging, showering, snacking, working, surfing distracting the kids or napping. There's even a "Cinema" area.

This summary is taken from the FT guide:

It was all moodlit and serene when were there and I didn't want to upset the ambience with rude camera flashes, so I'm including a few stock pictures taken by others to go with a couple of mine. Just to give an idea.

By the way, it seems like the lounge is bigger than the whole of LCY airport!

At some point they assigned the gate for our flight and I saw it was from 5B – oh bloody crap. That means more bloody lifts and more bloody escalators and the even bloodier "transit". Oh well.

Boarding was the usual scrimmage, not unlike a rugby match, but they were pretty good about enforcing the Fast Track line. Interesting mix of people: lots of Brits & Europeans, a lot of Indian Indians and a big contingent of folks (of both Indian and phoren origin) clearly connecting from North American flights

We were pointed to the stairs and made our way to our seats. Turns out Hunky was back! This time accompanied by a younger and very good looking British female. My brain was about to stop functioning, so I boringly nicknamed her Pretty.

Amenity kits, pillow, blanket and bottle of water were already in the seats. The usual cabin prep and takeoff procedures followed. Crew on board could speak English, Hindi, Gujarati, French, German and Spanish.

Some of the Americans I mentioned earlier were also in the upstairs cabin and the expected loud chatter could clearly be heard above all of the ambient noise. Of course, said chatter included the usual American moaning and groaning about how nothing works outside America, and so forth. If London and BA bothered them so much, I can only imagine the bitchfest once they land in India!

The drinks cart rolled past and I got a sparkling water. I don't really drink at all anymore, but decided to reward myself with a glass of wine. I hadn't looked at the menu yet, so I just asked him:
Me: "Which wines do you have tonight"
Hunky: "Red wine and white wine sir"
Umm… okay. Wow. I asked for the bottles and picked the Malbec, which was pretty good.

By the end of it, I had managed to fit quite a collection of beverages on the little drinks table:

Still served with Y-esque packaged nuts.

I wasn't hungry after all the verboten meat I had consumed earlier, but I had to get something to be able to take picures. Tonight's choices were:

Nimish · Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2011 6:55 pm Post subject:

*A tags bags as Priority - for *A Gold pax, or J or F pax. Hence I think all 3 get the same priority in baggage handling (I don't think they segregate the F pax vs. J pax vs. Y + *G). I love that with *A, since my stingy company(ies) all fly me only Y, and at least I can be the first off the plane and off to the cab due to loyalty to *A.
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We miss you Nalini!

jasepl · Member Joined: 26 Jul 2008 Posts: 4257 Location: bund-bay

V. Conclusion

BA may not carry the same weight as they used to do and certainly many of the newer airlines have far more bling and show and gadgetry on display, but they continue to have a solid product; one they keep adjusting, upgrading and “enhancing”.

Of course, the catering on the outbound was down there amongst the worst I have encountered in recent times. On the inbound, they redeemed themselves somewhat, but still have a long way to go. Packaged nuts, plastic trays, unclean porcelain, wilted produce… The list is long.

On the other hand the lounges at both BOM and LHR, keeping in mind the purpose they serve. The upgraded AVOD IFE system is pretty good too; both the hardware and the choice of content. BA also go a long way in localising several aspects of their product and service: languages spoken by the crew, on-board announcements, IFE selection, menus and so forth.
And the crew: brilliant. The three I had aside, I’d rather have slightly older and sober crew than the clueless PYTs and fem-bots one finds on many of the Asian carriers. The PYTs – who often aren’t even all that pretty – just don’t work out, at least in the premium cabins, unless faced with horrific consequences (a la SQ and EK).

Whilst the BA of today aren’t about to win any awards for having the world’s best anything (except possibly the Heathrow lounge), I feel all the parts of their offering manage to come together as a very good whole. And they manage to do this on a regular basis.

There are several other airlines that excel in many things, but somehow never manage to get it all together.

In Sum

The Sublime:

BA's Galleries lounge at Heathrow
Hunky and Chunky and Pretty too

The Good:

BA's pre-departure emails and check-in convenience
The arrival and departure times
BA's Galleries lounge at Sahar
BA's Club World seat
Butter in a ramekin!
Real sparkling water!
IFE – AVOD, hardware and programming choice
Localisation of the service
BA’s arrivals lounge at Heathrow

The Bad:

BA's catering on the LHR-BOM
BA's nuts in a packet
Meals-on-a-tray

The Downright Nasty:

Sahar Airport
BA's catering on the BOM-LHR
The T5 transit / transfer experience

The Bizarre:

Sahar's immigration officials
The number of special services people at BOM and the actual nature of their job
Terminal 5, in general
Americans

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AKLDELNonstop · Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 1066 Location: Auckland

Nice report jasepl.

This is very useful to me as I am about to fly JFK-LHR next week on BA Club. Did you find the backwards seating weird? I am also hoping to use the sleeper service on JFK-LHR leg - hopefully client lets me get to the airport in time.

BTW very nicely written and great humor (note the amreekan spelling)!
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Geniuses are always misunderstood in their lifetimes.

jasepl · Member Joined: 26 Jul 2008 Posts: 4257 Location: bund-bay

jasepl · Member Joined: 26 Jul 2008 Posts: 4257 Location: bund-bay

Of course, I wasn't going to leave this to end just like that. London is the most important long-haul route from India and I did a quick compare of the two main carriers on the sector. All comparisons are like-for-like.

The weight and final score might seem odd or even unfair to some, it is partly a function of priorities. We all place our own emphasis on the importance of each aspects of the overall travel experience to us, and, to me, the ground service is much more important than the on-board experience.

On board, so long as the seat is acceptable, you settle in and everything else is secondary. However, on the ground is where we have to encounter most of the ever-increasing travel hassles, and that is where one appreciates the added conveniences the most, I find.

That said:

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four years free of jetya punti!

AKLDELNonstop · Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 1066 Location: Auckland

Yup managed to get an upper deck window on the outbound. Will post my thoughts after the flight.
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Geniuses are always misunderstood in their lifetimes.

Nimish · Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2011 9:27 am Post subject:

Good to see BA still maintain it's edge in your perspective! Quite an achievement considering that 9W has put in it's "best" on the LHR sector...
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We miss you Nalini!

sri_bom · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 2365 Location: Singapore

Great Report Jaspel I like your humours style of writing.

You may want to think of writing a book some day, I am sure you will sell a million copies easily.

Sri_Bom

jasepl · Member Joined: 26 Jul 2008 Posts: 4257 Location: bund-bay

AKLDELNonstop · Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 1066 Location: Auckland

So the backward facing seat felt a little weird during take off. You feel like you are falling backwards. But during flight you do not feel anything. I also got the feeling that the seats are a little flimsy that is if your neighbour moves even a little, you certainly feel it.

But overall was a good flight. I like the sleeper service concept. Dinner at the lounge and then sleep inflight.
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Geniuses are always misunderstood in their lifetimes.

Nimish · Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2011 10:54 am Post subject:

jasepl · Member Joined: 26 Jul 2008 Posts: 4257 Location: bund-bay

sumantra · Member Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 4685 Location: New Delhi

Jason, thanks for a very wholesome report, and all your prompt responses - all with neat pieces of information thrown in. And in your own inimitable style. You will certainly have a third buyer of your book!
Cheers, Sumantra.

jasepl · Member Joined: 26 Jul 2008 Posts: 4257 Location: bund-bay

stealthpilot · Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 2325 Location: BLR, DXB

Food is always the best part .... Now im hungry thanks a lot Cool

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