Review of British Airways flight from Toulouse to London in Business

Introduction

Hello and welcome to another short series of flight reviews.

Having just gotten to Europe 10 days earlier, we were off again for a long-weekend. We flew into London Heathrow, but spent most of our time exploring Bath and the English countryside. 

As mentioned in the previous review--where we experienced a short ATC delay on a clear sunny day–despite it being so early in the season, it had already been a very busy summer for air traffic over Europe, with the airspace becoming more and more congested every year. The smell of ATC strikes was in the air.

Lo' and behold…a French air traffic controller strike was announced a few days before our trip for the days we would be flying. Yay! How exciting for us 🎉

A significant percentage of flights to, from, and within France had been cancelled, and many more were hugely delayed. 

We were due to fly on Friday, July 4th, the second day of the strike–let's see how things go, shall we?

Routing

Check-in & Lounge

Because our flight was scheduled for 7:30AM and we live about two hours away from Toulouse Airport (at least part of the year), we stayed at the Pullman Toulouse Aéroport the evening before to avoid having to get up and drive in the middle of the night. It was a good value at only 118 EUR for the night–barely more than the Ibis across the street, and much nicer! It was great being just a few hundred metres from the terminal in the morning. 

During online check-in the evening prior, the Club Europe cabin looked to be about half empty. 

As a neurotic AvGeek, of course I'd obsessively checked FlightRadar24 the evening prior to track the inbound flight from London that would be taking out our flight the next morning. Though it was a few hours late getting in, I was pleasantly surprised in the morning to see our flight was showing on time!

We only left the Pullman slightly before 6AM and it took us all of 3 minutes to drive to the terminal parking structure.

The sun was just starting to peak above the horizon as we arrived at Toulouse-Blagnac concourse D. 

We had access to the priority security lane, which had no one in it compared to what looked to be a much longer wait at regular security. Note that at TLS, large electronics and approved liquids under 100ml must still be removed from hand luggage at security screening, unlike some larger airports with newer equipment. 

Once airside, we headed straight for the lounge. 

the "La Croix du Sud" Lounge is the only lounge at TLS and can get crowded at busy times. 

There are two levels so there always seems to be space even at peak times.

On this particular morning it was rather empty. I suspect the strike and all the cancellations had something to do with that. 

There isn't an extraordinary selection of food options here–just some pastries and snacks in the morning, and two hot options of scrambled eggs and sausage. 

Woohoo, still showing on time!

The whole timeline feature in the BA app is aesthetically pretty, but pretty useless as it doesn't even show simple information like the boarding gate and boarding time, hah! Very on-brand for the BA App and their I.T. in general…pretty, but unusable. 

Boarding time doesn't even show on mobile boarding passes, you have to click on the info icon to see it. 

We left the lounge about 10 minutes before boarding as it's a bit of a walk since BA operate from the non-Schengen gates on the far end of the terminal and you have to go through passport control on the way. 

Passport control was quick as there seemed not to be any other non-Schengen flights departing around the same time. 

Nice view of our aircraft on the way to the gate. 

Shortly after arriving at the gate, boarding began with Group 1–there were apparently no Group 0 fancy-pants on this flight. 

Saw this Alba Star 737-800 on the way down the jet bridge–that's an airline you don't see every day. I assume it's a lease or charter flight. 

Like most other A319s, this one had the Collins Pinnacle seats that BA have had on the short-haul fleet for the past decade. As mentioned in my previous review featuring the new short-haul cabins, I think these cabins have held up very well over time and still look mostly new despite their age. To my knowledge, there are no plans to retrofit the new cabins on to any A319s (or any other A320CEO family aircraft, I believe)

Due to the placement of safety equipment in the overhead locker above our seats, there was no room for our cabin baggage, so we had to put everything a few rows back, which was quite annoying, especially since there's no underseat storage in the first row. 

There are definitely some inconveniences about sitting in the bulkhead row, but this legroom sure beats the tight 30" pitch in the other rows. 

This A319 is equipped with both Wi-Fi and in-seat power. There are a handful of A319s out there without in-seat power or Wi-Fi that won't be outfitted due to their upcoming retirement–all other BA short-haul subfleets have power and Wi-Fi on every aircraft. 

Each seat in Club Europe has access to a combination USB-A and 110v universal power unit under the seats. Seats behind the overwing exit row only have USB ports.  

The Flight

Boarding wrapped up a few minutes early–the crew announced they expected an on-time arrival into Heathrow with no significant delays en route despite the ATC strike. Amazing!

We were even showing arriving a few minutes ahead of schedule. 

We pushed back from the gate right on time.

That is an adorably tiny pushback tractor!

Always love the views of the Airbus facilities with the gigantic Beluga XL fleet…

…and such a variety of new birds fresh out of the factory almost ready for delivery.

It seems we were the only departure at that time so taxi was quick and we were off! In a way, all of the preemptive cancellations by other airlines for the strike cleared the way for us to be on time as one of the few flights operating. Being on an early morning flight also helped. 

More views of Airbus facilities on the climb out. 

The Wi-Fi was available once the aircraft climbed over 10,000 ft. 

Members of the BA Club have access to free messaging. 

For non-members, messaging plans are available from £1.99

Full streaming-capable internet access is available for £4.99 for 1-hour or £6.99 for the full flight. Considering the flight time is barely 1h30m of which 15-20 minutes of that is climb or descent with no Wi-Fi, the 1h option would make the most sense for this flight if you needed it. 

I was fine with just my free messaging for such a short flight. Aside from messaging, you can check e-mail and do some very light browsing on the free messaging plan. 

The in-seat power is always off for taxi, takeoff, and landing and is turned on at the same time as the Wi-Fi, usually. 

There is no in-flight entertainment on the short-haul fleet, though I would love to see BA introduce streaming IFE as it's become more common throughout the world on short-haul fleets, and even many low-cost carriers are offering it.

There is at least a digital version of BA's in-flight magazine available in the Wi-Fi portal. 

In addition to the magazine, in the Wi-Fi portal there is also some information about BA and a weather forecast for the destination

So make sure to bring or load a good book and some content when flying BA narrowbodies. 

The meal service began shortly after levelling out. We got first choice meals in the first row so I went for the full English breakfast as I hadn't really eaten in the lounge. The other option was a Spinach quiche, if I recall correctly.

It wasn't quite a full English as it was missing black pudding, but it was decent as usual. Again, the trays are very small and all items barely fit. 

Cabin crew were efficient–almost rushed despite the light load. They managed to do several drink refills; It helps that Club was half empty this morning. 

We left behind the Continent near the Bay of Mont Saint Michel. If you haven't been, I highly recommend it! In addition to the beauty of Mont St. Michel itself–the beaches in this area are great and so much less crowded than the Mediterranean beaches. Yes, the water is definitely cooler, but quite pleasant. We spent a week's holiday there in August 2023 and the water was 22.5C/72F, just perfect considering the air temperature was about 26C/78F.

It was a very quick flight, crossing the Channel in no time. We were already on descent by the time we reached the shores of Britain. 

I think we did only one quick holding circle over the east of London with views of the Thames Estuary. 

And once again on approach we were treated to fantastic views of central London!

The City, The Shard, Tower Bridge, and the Tower of London

Look kids, Big Ben, Parliament… (and Westminster Abbey, and the London Eye, and many other landmarks). 

Close up view of Buckingham Palace. 

Hyde Park

Osterly Park and House

The Toulouse flight is one of the few BA flights that operates from Terminal 3 rather than Terminal 5. 

We arrived at the gate a few minutes ahead of schedule–amazing for a second day of ATC strikes!

Being in row 1 we were first off and through the E-gates in minutes.

Then it was straight out to the car park to collect our rental for the weekend. 

Love the huge Emirates A380 model on exiting Heathrow–great advertisement for them.