Priority boarding had become meaningless

[Lootman]

BA's punctuality problem is really a Heathrow problem, as BA barely operates from any other UK airport - Gatwick and Manchester only I believe.

Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Inverness...

And also Leeds Bradford, Newcastle and Belfast apparently.

Yes but those are all flights to/from Heathrow for connection purposes mainly.

You cannot fly to outside the UK from those airports on BA, as far as I know. That is what I meant. Everything funnels through Heathrow.

[swill453]

Yes but those are all flights to/from Heathrow for connection purposes mainly.

You cannot fly to outside the UK from those airports on BA, as far as I know. That is what I meant. Everything funnels through Heathrow.

Not true as far as I can see. A moment's googling finds BA fly direct Edinburgh to Florence. I imagine there's more.

Scott.

[Lootman]

Yes but those are all flights to/from Heathrow for connection purposes mainly.

You cannot fly to outside the UK from those airports on BA, as far as I know. That is what I meant. Everything funnels through Heathrow.

Not true as far as I can see. A moment's googling finds BA fly direct Edinburgh to Florence. I imagine there's more.

Maybe but I don't think you will find many. It has long been BA's strategy to concentrate on its Heathrow hub rather than establish hubs in the provinces.

Gatwick has a fair number of overseas BA flights but they are mostly leisure destinations like Orlando, served by older planes like its 777-200 with no first class cabin.

Manchester has a few I believe, and Edinburgh would make sense as well. But it is mostly foreign airlines serving provincial UK airports and BA seems to have mostly ceded that business to KLM, Emirates etc.

[richfool]

BA also fly internationally from Southampton to many European destinations.

https://www.google.com/search?q=BA+inte ... nt=gws-wiz

and

https://mediacentre.britishairways.com/ ... 86/0/12661

This is a bit like: "What have the Romans ever done for us?" ...... Well, .....

[Lootman]

BA also fly internationally from Southampton to many European destinations.

Yes but those flights are actually the Cityflyer subsidiary, and not mainline jets.

By that token there are various BA flights from London City airport. Although the prestigious all business class BA1/2 from LCY to New York was a victim of the pandemic.

[absolutezero]

My bag and seat dimensions are still the same and the bag IS within the dimensions posted online - just doesn't fit in the metal box.

They now define a "small cabin bag" (45 x 36 x 20 cm) which is free and a "large cabin bag" (56 x 45 x 25 cm) which is chargeable. As far as I recall it's the smaller one which is a new introduction.

The Ryanair free one is even smaller, 40 x 25 x 20 cm.

Scott.

Mine IS a "small cabin bag"!

[Eboli]

AF62 mentioned:

The fastest boarding I have ever experienced was in Greece some years ago.

Snap! Though mine proved much more worrying in retrospect.

I was flying on the last flight to Athens from Mykonos on an Olympic 20-seater and was cuting it fine timewise. As I arrived to an almost empty airport entrance hall I heard a last call announced for the flight through Gate B. So I went to Gate B and it was empty - not even a discarded Metaxa bottle to be seen. But I then saw the plane on the tarmac and, as the gate was open, ran over to the steps to the rear door, which was open, clambered on board, and thought I might be in some Stephen King novel when confronted with an empty plane and cigarette smoke drifting out of the front cabin. I was just debating what to do when a Stewardess appeared from said front cabin, who said "You! Already? Sit down and I bring Ouzo, orange juice and water." So I sat down and as I did so the cabin filled with passengers. I later discovered they has been bused over from Gate D on a 25 metre trip. Thankfully the Ouzo, orange juice and the water came in difference plastic cups...

Oh, and I agree with Lootman about lie-flat seats and the sanctuary of lounges: though the latter vary enormously from the sumptuous firsts of Quantas in Sydney and Emirates in Dubai, both of which are simply stunning and should be enjoyed at least once. My favourite lounge is still the Turkish business in Istanbul and it's enormous Scalextric circuit which instantly took at least 65 years off my age when I seized the controls to race against an equally grey-haired Turkish businessman.

Eb.

[stevensfo]

I usually fly Easyjet to/from Luton and have become used to Priority being included in the fee for choosing a seat with extra legroom. So I was a bit confused last week when flying Ryanair to Stansted (in an effort to avoid Luton) when I found that Priority was not included, even though I'd paid for the seat, check-in luggage and an exorbitant amount for a musical instrument. The Ryanair website is bizarre! In the event, the queue for Priority was the same, if not longer, than non-priority.

Having taken a much earlier train just in case, I was at the airport 3 hours before the flight and made my way to the 'Escape Lounge', clutching my Priority Pass card. My heart sank as I saw the signs 'Full to capacity' on the way down the steps, but decided to try anyway and asked very politely. They obviously saw the look in my eyes and let me in. Obviously not on a par with other lounges, after a few glasses of wine in my comfy armchair, I couldn't have cared less.

Steve

[swill453]

I usually fly Easyjet to/from Luton and have become used to Priority being included in the fee for choosing a seat with extra legroom. So I was a bit confused last week when flying Ryanair to Stansted (in an effort to avoid Luton) when I found that Priority was not included, even though I'd paid for the seat, check-in luggage and an exorbitant amount for a musical instrument. The Ryanair website is bizarre!

Yes you seem to get priority boarding if you pay to take a second (larger) carry-on bag, but not if you pay to check baggage into the hold.

Scott.

[bungeejumper]

The race to the bottom in air travel means that it's one of the few aspects of modern life that has become ever increasingly uncomfortable. Most things over the last 50 years have improved somewhat. Air travel has never been as horrible an experience as it is today. Ryan Air? I would rather walk.

Time for an old favourite, methinks. Especially the bit about disembarkation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVASZ2lCY5Y

BJ

[DiamondEcho]

If you live in London, only use Heathrow, and have BA Gold status, then flying BA is still a good experience, especially long haul. But in my view it is no longer competitive and I mostly use them these days when there is not a better alternative.

Agreed, it's quite shocking how far BA have gone down-market. Whereas they used to compete on quality (esp. vs Virgin) for the high-end, they now seem to hope to compete on price vs the budget carriers. So they crater expectations and the experience if you're not up to date on how bad they have become.

[TaurusTheBull]

Hi,

I fly as cheaply as I can, and so have no truck with airline snobs and whingers.

The bargains are still out there. For example, in June I flew from Gatwick to Podgorice in Montenegro for £12 on Wizz Air, which I prefer to Ryanair and Easyjet. If it's 30 minutes late, who cares?

I take a backpack that can be shrunk to meet the under-seat requirements by wearing my jacket, filling the pockets etc. I get round the (usual) middle seat 'random' allocation by boarding last and taking my seat choice. Simples!

Long distance bargains are proving more challenging to find these days, though a couple of months ago I booked Athens-Singapore-Krabi for next month, on Scoot, for £157, and a similar price back 3 months later. Their mooted flights from Gatwick to Bangkok don't seem to have materialised...

Taurus

[scrumpyjack]

AF62 mentioned:

The fastest boarding I have ever experienced was in Greece some years ago.

Snap! Though mine proved much more worrying in retrospect.

I was flying on the last flight to Athens from Mykonos on an Olympic 20-seater and was cuting it fine timewise. As I arrived to an almost empty airport entrance hall I heard a last call announced for the flight through Gate B. So I went to Gate B and it was empty - not even a discarded Metaxa bottle to be seen. But I then saw the plane on the tarmac and, as the gate was open, ran over to the steps to the rear door, which was open, clambered on board, and thought I might be in some Stephen King novel when confronted with an empty plane and cigarette smoke drifting out of the front cabin. I was just debating what to do when a Stewardess appeared from said front cabin, who said "You! Already? Sit down and I bring Ouzo, orange juice and water." So I sat down and as I did so the cabin filled with passengers. I later discovered they has been bused over from Gate D on a 25 metre trip. Thankfully the Ouzo, orange juice and the water came in difference plastic cups...

Oh, and I agree with Lootman about lie-flat seats and the sanctuary of lounges: though the latter vary enormously from the sumptuous firsts of Quantas in Sydney and Emirates in Dubai, both of which are simply stunning and should be enjoyed at least once. My favourite lounge is still the Turkish business in Istanbul and it's enormous Scalextric circuit which instantly took at least 65 years off my age when I seized the controls to race against an equally grey-haired Turkish businessman.

Eb.

I had a similarly slightly worrying flight on what billed itself as the world's smallest international airline - Chalk International. I was flying from Nassau to Miami in 1974. The flight went from Nassau harbour. We walked from the terminal to the plane, which was a flying boat of WW2 vintage - reminded me of a John Wayne pacific war movie! The pilot said - we'll board in a moment folks. He then climbed onto the wing with a wooden stick and put it in the tank to check we had enough fuel. We all then climbed on board, the engines started and we trundled into the water. Full throttle, incredible vibration and noise and after a long ride across the harbour it lifted off. We flew at about 3,000 ft the whole way so beautiful views then abruptly landed (or watered?) on an intra coastal canal. What fun!

[Spet0789]

BA's punctuality problem is really a Heathrow problem, as BA barely operates from any other UK airport - Gatwick and Manchester only I believe.

Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Inverness...

And also Leeds Bradford, Newcastle and Belfast apparently.

Scott.

And London City (my choice for short-haul although it does depend where in/around London you live).

[richfool]

Southampton airport have advised me that BA will commence flights to Faro from late April. I am watching how that unfolds.

[bluedonkey]

My wife and I usually fly BA economy around Europe. The seating is usually 3 across, so window/middle/aisle. For seat allocation, we have started choosing a window and aisle seat. Usually no one is booked in the middle seat, so we end up with three seats for the price of two.

[richfool]

My wife and I usually fly BA economy around Europe. The seating is usually 3 across, so window/middle/aisle. For seat allocation, we have started choosing a window and aisle seat. Usually no one is booked in the middle seat, so we end up with three seats for the price of two.

I had wondered about that scenario. Maybe a bit more risk on Ryanair flights.

I'm currently contemplating a flight to Malaga, but am put off because it's Ryanair. Our luggage is all 5cms too deep, so it would mean buying more luggage.