Was the inbound LHR-ABZ full also?

Yes LHR to ABZ was completely full. When we went to board they said that we weren’t on the list of passengers as Iberia in Barcelona said that we wouldn’t make the flight. Our original seats were allocated to three standby passengers, so it was just shear luck that there were three other spare seats that we could get. Otherwise, we would have had to wait until the next morning.
***UPDATE*** We got our luggage this morning at 09:30.

Tom, your purser on the LHR ABZ sector, Celcily, is a friend of mine. She’ll be delighted by your comments I’m sure. Glad you enjoyed your BA flights.

1L.

Sure did enjoy my BA flights. As a national carrier, BA are still the best in my opinion.
Have you ever operated into Aberdeen?

The return flight.

Well, after a fantastic fortnight in the scorching heat on the Costa Del Sol, it was time to go back home. Our routing
home was the same as the outbound: Malaga to Barcelona, Barcelona to London Heathrow and London Heathrow to Aberdeen.
My sister was doing the same route with her boyfriend on the same day except they were leaving Malaga at 09:15, and me and
my parents at 13:45.
Well we arrived at Malaga at 10:55, as we had to be out of the villa for 10:00. The queue for car hire return was very long
as, there is some building works at malaga presently. This meant that from the car hire returns level in the multi-storey
car park, everybody returning cars had to use one of the two lifts to reach the departures level, or climb up 6 flights of
stairs. One of the lifts wasn’t working either so we decided to use the stairs.
There was 6 check-in desks allocated for Iberia economy class for all flights so the queue should have gone down fairly
quickly. It took us 15 minutes to check-in.
Through into the departures area there is a glass fronted wall where you can see some of the apron. Upstairs there are some
shops, and a restaurant. For the flights we were allocated (again in order of flight): 28A 28B and 28C, 17A 17B and 17C,
and lastly 5A 5B and 5C (which were changed to 11D 12D and 16F.

Flight one: Malaga (AGP) to Barcelona (BCN)
Aircraft: A321 (EC-ILO) Iberia http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0785122/M/
Boarding of the aircraft was to be via a bus from gate B23 which is in the far corner of one of the piers.
Boarding began at 13:15, 30 minutes before our scheduled departure time. At London Heathrow (LHR) they called us to board
by seat row number. Here, it was just a board when you want. I was quite surprised to see that the Barcelona flight that
I was on, was been operated by an A321, whereas the Madrid was an A320. Just before boarding the aircraft, I saw our friends
Jet2 B757 take-off back to Leeds Bradford.
We boarded the bus, one of three, and boarded via the rear airstairs. 28A/B/C are quite near the rear of the plane so we
were sat down fairly quickly. The crew on this plane looked more professional that the outbound flight. They all looked
smarter in their uniforms, and spoke alot better English, even announcing the safety proceedure in both Spanish and English.
We didn’t need pushing back from the stand, as it was a remote stand and just taxied straight to the runway, of which it
was Runway 14 that was been used for take-off/landings today. In front of us was one aircraft: a Swiss A321. Then a Ryanair
B737-800 landed before we lined up. Behind were two business jets. While speeding down the runway the plane seemed to “sway”
from side to side.
Take-off was over the sea, before banking to the left and flying up the East of Spain. During the approach, we seemed to hug
the coast for a while, before turning out over the sea, to finish our decent. We landed on runway 07R. There was alot of
building works going on. Is a new terminal been constructed at Barcelona?
Arrival was 10 minutes ahead of schedule at 15:05. We disembarked via an airbridge, before a long hike to the next gate,
of which we had 1 hour 25minutes before our flight to London Heathrow (LHR).

Barcelona El Prat airport was very impressive, in terms of shopping and how modern it was. A long walkway seemed to
connect different gate areas, with 10 gates in clusters.

Flight two: Barcelona (BCN) to London Heathrow (LHR)
Aircraft: A320 (EC-HQK) Iberia http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0398654/M/
IB4176
Boarding commenced at 16:10 for LHR. We were at the front of the queue. However, our boarding passes, that Iberia had given
us in Malaga (AGP) wouldn’t go through the machines at first. Apparently this was because of a computer failure, but other
people’s passes were going through fine. The man behind the desk, said that he would offload then re-check us in.
So off we went through onto the plane, and into our seats.
The seats are comfortable, even though it is upholstery rather than leather. Also on this flight it was the saem crew as the
flight from Malaga (AGP), even though it was a totally different aircraft. Once everyone had boarded, we had to wait 5 minutes
as another A320 of Iberia, aswell as a B757 of Iberia were also pushing back. Taxi to the runway (take-off was using 07L)
was fairly quick. The two aircraft (mentioned above) took off before us, aswell as a skyEurope B737. After us there were 3
planes waiting to depart: an Easyjet B737, a Flyglobespan B737 and an MD88. Take off was fairly speedy. A left turn after take off
took us over the suburbs of Barcelona, before heading over the Pyrennes, where we endured some mild turbulence. After that, it
was a smooth flight all the way up to London. We past Jersey, then over the English Channel, then we circled twice, around the
south of Heathrow, before initating our final approach. Landing was very smooth, 5 minutes earlyand on runway 9L.
We used nearly the whole runway
to stop, using minimum reverse thrust. We taxied into Terminal two, and parked next to a Bae146 of Eurowings.
Transit through the airport was smooth and uneventful. No queues at all for the passport control. We went down in the WH
Smith where I bought the latest edition of Airliner World, before proceeding to gate 5, and Costa where I had the nicest
Cheest and TOmato toastie ever.

Flight three: London Heathrow (LHR) gate 78 to Aberdeen (Dyce) (ABZ)
Aircraft: A319 (G-EUPL) British Airways http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0199165/M/
BA1318
Boarding for this flight was delayed by approxiametely 20 minutes because the captain was operating a flight to and from Norway
which was late arriving back in London, meaning he was late getting on the Aberdeen bound plane. When we went to board at the
gate, the woman said that, in Barcelona, Iberia took us off the Aberdeen flight, because they said that we wouldn’t make our
connecting flight to Aberdeen, which was a load of rubbish. We had 1 hour 50 minutes between the two flights. They said that
our three original seats: 5A 5B and 5C, had been reallocated to other passengers, and so therefore, we would have to be
split up to 11D 12D and 16F. They assured us that we would receive our luggage in Aberdeen as they were definately on the
flight. So we boarded, to be greeted by a very happy purser called Cecily. She spoke to us, asked us about our holiday, and you
could tell that she thoroughly enjoyed her job. We waited for pushback, but were told we ahd to wait for a B757 of BA, that was
going to Manchester to push back first. From pushing back at the gate at 19:55, we weren’t airbourne until 20:35.
We turned left after lifting off from runway 9R, then the drop down screens, opened and showed us our routing, outside
temperature, speed, altitude and time. Our crusing height was 38,000ft. We received a complimentary drink from the bar,
then enjoyed a chicken salad thing, with a trifle to follow. And tea or Coffee. We flew over Newcastle, and I saw my fathers
office, before crossing the mouth of the firth of forth, and began our decent west of Aberdeen. We banked right, and landed
smoothly on runway 16 at 21:40, 30 minutes late.
Upon reaching the baggage reclaim however, an announcement came over to go to BA customer services. They told us that 3 out
of 4 of our bags had been seen in London, and we wouldn’t be receiving them til today.
Overall I enjoyed my holiday and flights, and wouldn’t hestitate to fly with Iberia again. However, I still think BA are the
best.
***UPDATE*** One of our 4 bags arrived in our house at 19:30 this evening, having earlier arrived on BA1306 from LHR.
The other 3 bags are been delivered in the morning (monday) between 9 and 11.
**This reason I mentioned my sisters flights, in the first post, was because she was doing in the same routing as us, except
4 hours 30minutes before us. However, as her flights were booked a 2 bookings: (1) ABZ-LHR-ABZ (2) LHR-BCN-AGP-BCN-LHR, they
wouldn’t allow her to check her bags in all the way to Aberdeen, even though she was allowed on the outbound.
She arrived in London Heathrow ontime, but had to wait 1 hour 30minutes for her luggage, subsequently missing her Aberdeen
(ABZ) connection. She was then put on standby for the next Aberdeen (ABZ) flight but wouldn’t make that either as
she was still waiting for her luggage. Therefore, BA put her and her boyfriend on a coach to London Gatwick (LGW) and
flew them LGW-ABZ, arriving at 22:15 as that flight was late 50minutes, so that meant we arrived home before her.