Apr 09, 2009 10:58 PM
6700 Views
Booked BA for travel from VAncouver to New Delhi. didnt give it much thought before booking as it was pretty cheap and fit my schedule perfectly. After booking the flight, did some research and stumbled on a lot of bad reviews on BA, specially their baggage losing track. So was a bit worried, got a little paranoid and did a lot of unnecessary labelling of bags, to avoid losing them. BA proved me wrong.
checked in online and picked up some pretty decent seats ( the 2 seat rows in the back are way more comfortable and accessible than rows of 3's). Check in staff at Vancouver very friendly, a few pounds overweight bags didnt seem to mind them. Flight on schedule. Funny story, at vancouver airport, most of the flight was indian travelers and BA does priority checkin for couples with small children and older folks, then they board others according to last rows boarding first, which makes a lot of sense. But no, the way we indians are, we cant understand the concept of a queue.
After priority boarding, the flight attendant calls for passengers in the last 4 rows, and everybody makes aline. I thought it was funny when the attendant literally screamed at the passengers to sit down untill their row number is called (after a number of failed attempts to do so). Seemed to work like a charm, and boarding was fast. Flight on time, served food right away, free drinks, nice stewardesses. Got to Heathrow and T5 is no mess that I heard it was, one of the nicest airports I have ever seen. Good food choice, duty free, and thoughtful placement of lounge chairs for those who want a quick nap. Boarding at T5 for the onward flight to delhi was again a mess, same concept was used, to board back rows first and the same ever defying act by all indian passengers to board before anyone else, lots of pushing and nudging, FA's were unable to control so went along with the flow.
Boarding was a mess, standing in the aisle for 20 mins while people running around throwing their bags in random overheard compartments, one guy blocked the aisle while his wife was getting comfortable, putting her stuff in the overhead storage, taking her shoes off, trying to decide on the window or the aisle seat. Really frustrating. Somehow the flight left on time and prompt food and drink service and got to Delhi on time. The BA check in staff at delhi has some really nice folks working, although some a bit lazy too. one of the bags was overweight, so had to pay for it.
Pointed to another counter where they take payments, but no-one on the counter yet, so waited there for good 40 mins, still nobody there to accept payments and issue the withheld boarding passes. A helpful guy in the staff tracked down the woman who was to accept the payment, she was just lounging around in the departure lounge, asked her if she could get on the counter and help people who were waiting to pay and she flat out shoots him down, "Im on my break". The guy tried to reason that passengers are waiting and they have a flight to catch, but no, she insisted she finsih her break. Poor guy, appreciated his help. Another smooth connection at T5, had a few drinks and pretty much snoozed all the way.
Good choice of IFE (VOD) movies
