Review of British Airways flight from Warsaw to London in Economy

Introduction

Hello travellers,

and A VERY WARM WELCOME (as befits British Airways) to this trip report of my flight from Warsaw to London in September 2019. This was my third flight with BA, although the previous ones operated to/from terminal 3 at Heathrow, so I was waiting for this one with curiosity as well. Unfortunately, when booking, I realised the flight was going to be operated by A319 and all BAs smaller airbuses are quite old… but I thought - at least that's the chance to still have an aircraft with the overhead monitors which I know are being gradually removed by BA in their newer aircrafts.

Flight was booked via ba.com - the website is very clear and well designed in my opinion, yet the responsiveness of some subpages could be better. I opted for the "Economy plus" fare to be able to take a checked in bag and pick a seat 48 hours before departure, however as you'll see later the choice, even 48 course prior to departure was quite limited.

Anyway, I don't want to ramble on :)
Enjoy your reading! Plus there is a little bonus at the end from one of the most beautiful UK cities I have been to!

Flight details & at the airport

Flight number: BA847
Route: Warsaw Chopin - London Heathrow (T5)
Flight date: 21st September 2019 (1150-1335)
Scheduled flight time: 2:45
Aircraft model: Airbus A319-100
Seating configuration: CY132 (Pinnacle seats throughout)
Aircraft registration: G-EUOA
Aircraft age (at time of flight): 18.3 years
Seat number: 23A
Departure gate: 20N (jet bridge)
Arrival gate: A13/A14 (jet bridge, main terminal)

My boarding pass for this flight. As you can see from the stickers, I had quite a lot of luggage this time - I checked in both my big suitcase and the cabin wheelie bag. Together - 36 kgs.

I booked this flight in the so called "Economy plus fare" which allowed me to check in a 23 kgs luggage and reserve my seat 48 hrs in advance. However, for a reason not know to me, BA offered me a very limited choice of a very few seats in the back of the airplane. I eventually opted for 23A, which is said to have a very good window view. At least in British Airways' A319s all the seats are the older generation Pinnacle ones and not the "ultraslimline" new Recaro - or "ironing boards" as some people put it.

At WAW, British Airways tend to always use the same check in counters in zone B, next to Emirates/Qatar check in. I arrived at the airport around 1.5 hours before departure and the queue for bag drop was immense (35 mins waiting) with 3 check in counters open (including 1 for Club Europe). Interestingly, the line to Club Europe's counter was longer than the one to Economy. Ridiculous! But finally I managed to get my bags checked in by a friendly member of staff from Warsaw. What I really like about BA is that they allow up to 23 kgs in the cabin wheelie bag which always seems useful to me as I put some heavy items there. To remove hassle from this rather heavy little bag, I sent it to hold and only kept my backpack with me. Once after check in I swiftly passed through security and proceeded to my gate 20N.

Boarding

Our aircraft, G-EUOA arrived from Heathrow 15 mins late. So I assumed we'll land at Heathrow a bit late as well - which I didn't want to happen, as I had a bus ticket to Bristol just an hour after the scheduled arrival time. However as will turn out later, the flight will land before schedule and the bus will be 1 hour late. Ironically… :)

Here's our oldie but goodie A319. Next to it, LOT's Embraer ERJ-195 (SP-LNG).

Boarding was a bit chaotic and people started standing up and gathering in front of the gate even before the boarding was announced. This is unfortunately quite often the case in Poland. However, the boarding procedure was respected and they boarded Club Europe and all high-status Executive club passengers first. I was in group 4, one of the last to board but as I only had backpack, I didn't worry about having no space to put my hand luggage to.
 
Once on board, I could hear from the crew the usual but still nice, "Good morning and a very warm welcome on this British Airways flight". 

Me at seat 23A. Promise my face is not so blue in reality.
Notice there are no windows for seats 25AB. 

It turned out, even the plane was nearly full this Saturday morning, I had a free seat next to me (yeah!) and the lady seating at 23C was very nice. I have to say, 23A is a great seat after all - very good window alignment & there are individual air vents above the seats in this row (I know they are missing in some rows in A319). However the legroom is not quite as good as you'd expect - but from my experience the legroom in BA generally decreases towards the back of the airplane. The proximity of lavatory was not bothersome, to me, at least.

Inflight & food on board

Once at cruising altitude, the crew started the paid onboard service. I have to say, they were very professional and extremely kind, as is nearly always the case with British Airways. I could even observe how they react in two sort of "emergency" situations on this flight. First the fire alarm in the rear toilet (just next to my seat) went off somewhere over The Netherlands. Then there was a passenger choking on board and I could see them being very helpful. Actually in my opinion, BA's crew is something that makes them stand out among other European carriers. I also appreciate that the captain gave useful announcements before takeoff and once we've started descending. They informed about any turbulence which might occur en route, waiting time for landing at Heathrow which is always good to know. And this is something that from my experience, lots of other airlines neglect - the contact of crew with passengers.

Somewhere above Germany. It's great that those older narrow body jets from BA still have the overhead monitors with airshow. This definitely is a form of entertainment, at least to me :) and helps follow the route. Sorry for no overall photo of cabin.

My lunch on that flight: Roast chicken & bacon sandwich from Marks and Spencer, an apple juice and Love shortie for dessert. Very tasty. Altogether 1290 Avios. Although people may argue, that food on board BA is no longer free (and I also think it's a pity and would be nice to get at least a small refreshment), frequent flyers can pay for snack & drinks with Avios. Personally, I have never paid for food in BA… well, only with Avios. The food & beverages quality was very good.
You can access M&S onboard menu here

Landing into heathrow

Another announcement from captain a few minutes before landing - no waiting at Heathrow today!

As you can see, quite an unusual approach into Heathrow today. But thanks to that (and wonderful sunny weather in England), I could both see the city of London and the Windsor castle.

There it is! Windsor Castle from above.

And already on the ground, arrived 10 mins ahead of schedule. We're taxing back to terminal 5A, passing by T5C. We docked onto A13/A14 which is a jet bridge gate and very well, centrally localised. No surprise, as the next destination of this A319, G-EUOA was Nice, one of the BA's "better" destinations. Having flown quite a lot with British Airways recently, I have a feeling like they sort destinations for the "better" and "worse" ones and so they assign them gates in different parts of the terminal. Warsaw tends to always get a gate in a "poorer" part of T5. But maybe this is only my observation…

Immigration and bag reclaim went really smoothly today, no waiting anywhere. However, I found that my bus to Bristol is delayed by 1 hour so I had a little bit of time to spare. I decided to explore T5, as it was my first time there.

Terminal 5 departure hall. Warm welcome from British Airways, of course. Quite empty, as you can see, though.

Finally my bus to Bristol arrived and I could begin my onward journey. Thank you for joining me in this report and leave your comments below, should you wish to do so.

I have a little tourism bonus from Bristol, a charming city, below.

Matthevv