I’ve finally got around to do part 2. Hope you liked the pictures.
BA8132
Nice – London Gatwic
G-GBTA Boeing 737-400
Seat Number = 8F
Sched Dep. Time – 1035
Act Dep. Time – 1115
Sched Arr. Time – 1130
Act Arr. Time – 1204
So after a lovely 2 days in the wonderful town of Nice, It was time to return back home. Check In opened at 8.35 (standard 2 hours prior to departure) but we got there extra early to be one of the first in the queue so we could get good seats. By th time we had checked in though, there was a very long queue which struck to me as being unnecessary, because there were 4 desks in operation, but only 1 for the EURO TRAVELLER (economy) class, 1 for First Class and 2 fast bag drops (which were empty). Anyway, in the Departure area itself there is not a great deal to do and I believed that our flight would be ontime as the arrivals board showed our flight as being ontime. After refreshing myself with a drink though it had changed to a 25 minute delay, as indicated by “Retard a 11h00” which = delayed to 11:00. Not too bad though. There wasn’t much going on in departure bit A, so we went through to where our flight was departing from, area B, but that was even worse. It had a newsagent and a cafe and you couldn’t go back into departure area A either due to security.
Time dragged and by 10:25 there was no sign of the plane. I then heard a lot of noise only to discover the Aer Lingus flight had arrived from Dublin. Also departing were 2 Jet2 flights, 1 BMI to heathrow and the Dublin flight. Eventually ours turned up and seemed to take a very long time to turnaround.
We boarded through gate B40 and walking down the airbridge a BA 767-300 from LHR taxied past, which was very nice to see a big plane at Nice. I saw the pilots preparing all their paperwork as we stepped onboard -TA and walked through FIRST CLASS to economy.
After one of those awkward moments telling someone that they are sat in your seat, I sat down by the window and just saw the fueller drive off. The seatbelt signs then lit on as the last few of the 147 onboard stepped on. This aircraft was in reasonably decent condition but the wings again seemed to be rather dirty.
The captain then introduced himself, in French and English, and explained the delay was due to dense fog at Gatwick earlier which resulted in them being sat on the ground for 50 minutes – must have been quite thick then. This was re-affirmed by my mum who was coming home on the same day as us from Alicante of GB Airways whose flight was also 15 mins. late due to fog. Back to the flight then, and the Air conditioning was switched off as we started a swift pushback and engines started – 2 first then number 1 as safety demo done.
An expeditious taxi followed past the private jet apron before we held at the threshold for 04L. I thought this was rather odd at first as they never really depart from 04L, but then I saw a light in the distance and this was the Swiss A320 in the picture. That out of the way we taxied to 04R and lined up straight away. A brief wait then happened before we started the takeoff. I just love that noise that those 737s make! I was sat parallel to it as well so I had a brilliant position for noise and pictures.
After takeoff we turned, as standard, to the right 100 degrees before climbing right again back over the airport. We were barely at I’d say 3000ft when the seat belt signs went off and I was quite surprised at how quickly they had gone off, but the conditions were excellent. We continued the climb up to FL340 for the journey to Gatwick. On the climb, we were served an ALL DAY DELI pack complete with slice of pizza which wasn’t bad, but a funny choice on a plane. Drinks followed and the usual duty free stuff which no-one bought and then we started our steep descent into the clouds. I had no idea where abouts we were, although I was looking for a hole in the clouds to try and see my local town.
Very quickly we seemed to be on finals for 26L, passing the M23 motorway and then past the car parks and then over the threshold, filming a video of the landing on my camera. An Air Transat A310, 2 Easyjet and a BA 737 were ready to take off I think. We vacated quickly and the BA 737 departed smartly before an easyJet A319 touched down.
We taxied onto stand 553 (correct me if anyone knows) which was one right next to the Pier 6 thing. Engines were shut down and the pilot then requested that any passengers who had connecting services to catch should get off first, including those going to Edinburgh, which was the planes’ next flight (surely they could have stayed on?!?). We all then got off and continued to baggage reclaim and ended a very good trip – so much so that I will return again in August with BA again!
SCORES
Punctuality: 6.5/10 🙁
Service: 9/10 🙂
Meals: 9/10 🙂
Comfort & Cabin Quality: 9.5/10 😀
OVERALL = 85% (very good) 🙂
I highly recommend BA over easyJet, who arent bad but the price difference between the 2 now is negligable on most routes and you get full service on BA.
Hope you enjoyed
Tom
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