Airliners-India

Megatop · Member Joined: 14 Feb 2007 Posts: 257 Location: Bangalore

a rather consolidated TR sans the pics.

i have cropped all the givens & penned the striking features.

BA 118
BLR-LHR World Traveller
STD 07:00
ATD 07:10
STA 12:30
ATA 12:25
Load 100%

checked in online & had my boarding card ready before departure which allowed me to enter BLR at a leisurely 5:30 am. the crowds had checked in by then & being non-rush hour, the environs looked relaxed. found the BA agents on ground a tad courteous, one lady escorted my luggage at the fast bag drop counter without me queueing in. post immigration, a bottle of water with a copy of the deccan herald was handed out.

boarding announcements were made in english followed by the local vernacular. as usual, boarding was a frenzy with even the expats now having learnt the art of elbowing others out. our 744 had the new club world & from what i heard, BLR would get the new cabin daily eff jan 08.

a rather strange configuration of first, world traveller plus, then club world & economy. i asked the purser the reason for the change, she politely confessed, premium economy pax expected a better differential in being treated compared to cattle class. the only benefit of BA's premium economy is the additional space; no special food, no miles..

i cud profile the pax as roughly around 60% expat, 10% black & the rest indian/NRI.

amenity kits, menus, IFE instructions were handed out before the rotation. again the welcome statement was made onboard in english & local lingua, surprisingly no hindi.

we started our pushback at 7:10 & with no one in front, quickly hit the takeoff roll. the RRs spooled up & i could feel the fully loaded 744 picking up speed, it was very exciting having seated in 35K close enough to the RR's whining. the roll was brisk, off the water soaked runway under the gentle sun & the heavy precipitation over the wings. we took off towards the west & a right turn before doing a straight line over the coast.

the cabin was clean, fresh & bright, brimming with sunshine; contrast to the LH & AF flts. economy passengers get towelletes like cathay. i missed the warm ones SQ provides. also, BA's seat pitch at 31" is a big eyesore.

BA's BLR flights have 4-5 cabin crew of Indian origin whilst the norm is 2-3 with others. the Indian crew spoke kannada fluently & the indian pax were more than delighted, some even resorted to a banter, the FAs obliged.

the drinks service started once we reached the cruising altitude. a choice of apple, orange, cola & alcohol. chose the apple.

a hour into the flight, i cud smell the food being warmed up. being a morning departure, i did manage to build appetite for breakfast.

2 choices: a south indian hot & a continental cold (looked more british). had upma, vada with chutney & spicy lentil gravy, roll with butter, fresh fruit & muffins followed by coffee or english tea. FAs never rushed up.

when breakfast ended, we were close to the gulf coast & i took to the ife; i found it somewhat lacklustre & instead considered the inflight mag highlife more promising. a mid flight snack - a bland hard cold wrap 'all day deli' was served upon request. i desisted from having it as the wrap din't look edible. caught up on some sleep instead before the IF purser woke me up for lunch before landing.

we had 1.5 hrs into the flight. BA have a hindu meal & a vegan vegetarian meal as its options on India flights. being special meals, they are served before everybody else. for lunch i had puri with mutter panner, saffron pilaf, strawberry yogurt, tomato raita & gulab jamun.

both meals were authentic & satisfying. catering was done by the ashok & the oberoi services at BLR.

with tables cleared, the captain announced the decent & soon we were at the short finals to heathrow. a normal touchdown & a 15 min wait to T4. heathrow is a big disgrace to BA, London & the UK. immigration took quite a while.

in all, a very pleasant flight. barring the seat pitch, baggage, heathrow & no miles, i vote BA as the best to EU from BLR. ahead of both LH & AF in going the extra mile. extra polished & non grumpy FAs who seldom said 'nein' for anything.

all the hubbub of BA being india-centric, india-focussed never seemed a rhetoric on this flight. i look forward to flying them again & would recommend them to anyone on this sector.

also makes me wonder with BA's strong positioning in BLR & the upcoming kingfisher onslaught, jet would be a marginal me-too player in BLR skies as i have seen the missing 'wow' factor in any of jet's flights (btw, i have flown jet).

rutvij · Posted: Sun Nov 04, 2007 12:26 pm Post subject:

NiCe, Short and Sweet TR. BTW, How is the First Class & the NEW Club World like???

Megatop · Member Joined: 14 Feb 2007 Posts: 257 Location: Bangalore

first & club world are the staple lie flat seats, beds, lcd tv, elaborate dining options, space, better amenity kits, et al..

iven't prodded much over BA's F/J/Y+ as i dont get to fly them.

Rolling Eyes

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

Really nice TR Megatop, in fact it was better than nice.
Rather brave of you to show up 1.5 hours before departure at BLR i might add Smile

Pics would be a plus, but a nice report anyway.
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Megatop · Member Joined: 14 Feb 2007 Posts: 257 Location: Bangalore

stealth & rutvij,

i forgot my cam in the melee, i planned to post a complete TR, but of no avail.
let me do it on my next trip to SIN on SQ later in the year.

i never wanted to be adventurous with my dep, but i was exhausted the previous day, so couldn't help but make it atleast by that time.

thx for reading.

Nimish · Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2007 1:03 pm Post subject: Re: BLR-LHR British Airways 744

malQ · Posted: Sun Nov 11, 2007 7:28 pm Post subject:

Author writes:- cud profile the pax as roughly around 60% expat, 10% black & the rest indian/NRI.

What does 10% black mean?

Megatop · Member Joined: 14 Feb 2007 Posts: 257 Location: Bangalore

blacks infer dark skinned people originating from africa, EU or North America. their european hinterland being France & UK, Illinois, Michigan, Texas & NY in NA & whole of africa plus parts of middle east.

hope this suffices.

malQ · Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 6:30 pm Post subject:

Megatop · Member Joined: 14 Feb 2007 Posts: 257 Location: Bangalore

plain + simple,

the 10% was told to me at the fast bag drop counter, not my version. i did see them in the cabin though.

why would "various isolated populations in Southeast Asia sometimes classified as black include the Austronesians and Papuans, the Andamanese islanders, the Semang people of the Malay peninsula, the Aeta people of Luzon, and some other small populations of indigenous peoples" board a flight from BLR?

even if they did, they would in negligible numbers.

i suppose this forum is to share what u can present to the best of your knowledge. would u vouch for a trivial issue as the pax profile or their percentages, origin & what not?

if so, then i better add a disclaimer as my signature in me being non-committal to any issue including race, gender, food preferences & a whole plethora of human behavior & their nuances!

malQ · Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 12:52 pm Post subject:

I don't know if this is trivial, but it certainly may be racial, since in one line you say 60% ex-pats and 10% blacks. So all exppats as per you are "not black", right? brilliant.

Now my observations here are:-

a) Would the "blacks" as per your description be part of ex-pats? or are they, because they are "black", not ex-pats?

b) If the BA baggage fast drop agent told you that 10% of the pax were "blacks", then I do think that agent needs to be reported, complained against, and then be made to undergo some sensitisation courses.

c) Many of my friends from various parts of India, Punjab through Kerala and Maharashtra through Bengal, are certainly "black" people. Matter of fact, one of the Ambassadors from an African country (Angola) previously posted in Delhi and then subsequently to Singapore, black as the night and with curly hair, traced his ancestors to Mangalore-Karwar area.

So where do they fit in your three main groups:- ex-pats, blacks or Indians/NRIs?

Point I am making is that for you to select one group of passengers by their skin colour and place them in a separate group is absolutely incorrect. It may appear trivial to you but please place your kind non-black self in the shoes of someone who is black in India?

Megatop · Member Joined: 14 Feb 2007 Posts: 257 Location: Bangalore

i've better stuff to think about.

malq, are u cynical? why break urself over the pax profile on a certain BA flight? i wonder what u wud have done if u were an indian crew member on an intl airline with all the racist attacks every time u fly.

anyways, i don't care what u feel, its my thread & i shall ignore all that is irrelevant.

to me, tan is tan, color never is at the core of a person's characteristics, just like being short or tall. i've never been judgmental of a person by his appearance.

if u still insist, go ahead & start an agitation. open a thread & find no takers for all ur crap.

Jaysit · Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 4346

COUGAR · Member Joined: 01 Jan 2007 Posts: 986 Location: Bangalore

^ ^ ^
Yeah also the love for "white" skin. And the Americans of Indian origin are probably the worst of the lot....

We see so many of them, posing for photographs with colored hair and pancaked faces, and tees rolled up to show non-existent arms: just like their white counterparts in their adopted country might do...
_________________
http://www.cougar-rides.com
<B>Live to Ride - Ride to Live</B>

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SS · Member Joined: 20 Jul 2007 Posts: 50

Very aptly summarized there Megatop - I would love to fly BA but for the main disadvantage of no miles (hence no status). I don't even care about the no miles part - it's the no-status part (you can never hope for any stauts if you fly Y) which makes me avoid BA Smile

.

Nimish - Do not understand the no miles (hence no status) part? You can always pay like $20-$50 extra and get into the ticket class level that earns miles. I did that with a ticket a while back - cost me $50, but earned 20K miles, with the 100% status bonus - that was a steal.

Karan69 · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 1334

Great report mate, good to see a BA TR originating in India, thanks for sharing

Megatop · Member Joined: 14 Feb 2007 Posts: 257 Location: Bangalore

SS · Member Joined: 20 Jul 2007 Posts: 50

Check out track logs of landing into BLR and entering Indian airspace from the Arabian sea. Cool swing entry from the east.

Recorded from my GPS on window LHR-BLR BA 119.

Note: The map is an embedded link to google maps - you may have to use the zoom & mouse hold-n-pan controls to see the rest of the track.

http://utrack.crempa.net/report/saved_report.php?ident=721bae9a362108468214e9b2a7feb472&lang=en

http://utrack.crempa.net/report/saved_report.php?ident=28390cfb6c914f4b3f13034ed2cb4c9f&lang=en

PM me if the links do not work.

Nimish · Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2007 4:05 pm Post subject: Re: BLR-LHR British Airways 744

SS · Member Joined: 20 Jul 2007 Posts: 50

Thanks. Here are some more from my return flight.

BA36 takeoff from MAA

http://utrack.crempa.net/report/saved_report.php?ident=0f3a0b97206cfae04826e8bc8e7f128e&lang=en

BA36 turn over BOM to a more northerly path

http://utrack.crempa.net/report/saved_report.php?ident=2ba0f3568c95251f9c685ab6f2b9f4f7&lang=en

Not sure how to post pictures here, have some from the F cabin on BA119, food & all.

Nimish · Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 9:22 am Post subject:

Excellent GPS reports - tempts me to buy a GPS thingy myself but I shall hold on for a while Wink

Go to imageshack.us or any other such photo hosting site, and add the photos there and provide the link here by clicking on the Img button above the posting window.

Nimish · Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 9:34 am Post subject:

Here's the MAA image:

And the BOM image:

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

SS · Member Joined: 20 Jul 2007 Posts: 50

Some pics:

LHR Terminal 4 Gate 9, just 'bout to board

Pre-flight OJ and nuts....

Vino & Zuppa...

F does looking claustrophobic on the B774 Sad

Chilean Sea Bass

Johnnie W Blue & dessert....

Just zipped past Dubai

50 mi lateral & 7.4 mi above MSL * 556 mph from Goa....

Nimish · Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 12:39 pm Post subject:

Hi SS - is is possible to resize the pics before posting them, they're coming out far too large right now!

blrsea · Member Joined: 25 Mar 2007 Posts: 182

Megatop · Member Joined: 14 Feb 2007 Posts: 257 Location: Bangalore

Nimish · Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 5:22 pm Post subject: Re: BLR-LHR British Airways 744

Nimish · Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 5:28 pm Post subject: Re: BLR-LHR British Airways 744

Megatop · Member Joined: 14 Feb 2007 Posts: 257 Location: Bangalore

Nimish · Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 5:47 pm Post subject: Re: BLR-LHR British Airways 744