Flight report – Brit Air

15-9-03 AF3413 F-GRJI CRJ Gatwick-Bordeaux
22-9-03 AF3412 F-GRJI CRJ Bordeaux-Gatwick

My first holiday in 5 years! I took my wife and younger son down to my brothers home on the Dordogne between Bordeaux and Bergerac. The tickets were available for this flight through both the Flybe and the AirFrance websites although the middle of the day flights that we took were £90 cheaper on Air France than Flybe! The full fare Air France price was the same as the discounted ‘Hot Line’ staff ticket I could get on BA through my brother (which incidentally was unavailable for the days we wanted to travel).

The day started very well with my 2 year old boy standing at the front of the driverless monorail from the South to the North terminals. Check in and processing at the North terminal was far smoother than any positioning flight I have done with BA recently. The outbound flight was delayed by 15 minutes for a ‘wheelchair’ passenger who miraculously recovered to dart up the steep aircraft steps with real vigour. If it wasn’t for this passenger we would have been able to depart on time and I am convinced she was one of the current breed of older people who believe that getting assistance gives them priority. You may think I’m being harsh but you’d be amazed how many ‘miracles’ occur onboard where people who need assistance getting on can suddenly walk like an athlete when they realise they’ll be the last ones off! Respect to the genuine cases but shame on the people who milk the system. The consequence of this was that the rest of us had to sit for 15 minutes in a cramped space with no air conditioning on a hot day. Once we were airborne my son was suffering the effects of being overheated and had a screaming fit which is totally out of his character. It took most of the flight to get him to calm down and is not the way I’d like him to remember his first flight. The single cabin attendant was understandably too busy with a full load of passengers to give us much attention but we were greatly assisted by a kind lady passenger (not the pseudo-wheelchair one!). It is deeply annoying to be in a cabin where there is a screaming child but I can guarantee it is nothing like the stress you feel when that child is yours.

The rest of the flight went smoothly as did the baggage reclaim and our holiday in France although we were very anxious about the return flight being a repeat of the outbound.

The return flight was fortunately a huge success as we were able to counter any possible problems by learning from our outbound experience. We made sure we were the last to board the plane, dressed him very lightly (even though it was a cool day), dosed him up with Calpol and fanned him like crazy with the safety card! He enjoyed looking out the window and wearing out the window blind mechanism!

The service on Brit Air was absolutely fine, just what you would expect on a regional flight with the snack and drink paid for in the ticket price. This was the first time I had been on a CRJ and had great hopes for it. I had always thought it to be a slightly better experience than the ERJ but came away feeling the opposite. I think the principle reason for this is that the feeling inside the cabin is more claustraphobic due to the particularly small size of the windows and relatively low number of them. The windows are also mounted very low down so you have to bend down to look out (and I’m just a normal 5’10”).

Would I fly them again? Yes, no problem.