BA8476 NCE-LCY 17 OCT 12 (CLUB EUROPE)

Haven't written a trip report in ages, but thought I would do one for this trip as I wasn't really sure what to expect on the BA Cityflyer Embraer and thought this might help others. Originally had intended to book NCE-LHR but I left it too late and there were no more reward seats left for the LHR flights, so I took the opportunity to fly in to LCY.

Had a lovely birthday trip to Monaco and headed back to the airport to return the rental car having already checked in online with BA. The toll on the Autoroute between Monaco and Nice is approx €3.50-4.00.

Got lost in the maze of airport roads trying to find the petrol station and finally gassed up the hire car and dropped off to Avis. The guy was more interested in checking the mileage and fuel indicator, didn't even make a cursory inspection of the car body!

Car rental return is located at T2 and BA at T1, so had to use a transfer bus to move us around. Got onto a waiting bus but had to wait for it to fill up before the driver left. Long walk from the bus to the BA area, and used the self-service machine to print our boarding passes, not wishing to draw attention to the size of our hand luggage...

The machine didn't like my BAEC card but managed to access my booking with the PNR. As I had already checked in online, reprinting my boarding pass was quick and easy with no other information needing to be entered.

Headed for security and we were unpacking our luggage onto the conveyor belt within about 5 minutes. My wife is 28 weeks pregnant and the security screener needed her to remove her boots for scanning; I was very impressed that not only did the security lady offer her plastic overshoes for her feet but also helped her to get her boots off! If only the TSA were this helpful...!

Once airside, the terminal is split into an A-gates side and B-gates on the other side of a passport check. One thing I would point out is the poor signage in regards to the lounges. Perhaps if I had checked in at a desk, they would have directed me accordingly.

When we found the lounge on the B-gates side of the terminal, we were welcomed and grabbed some drinks and snacks. Biscuits and light bites were available at breakfast time, around lunchtime they put some sandwiches out and there was a sign indicating that champagne was available on request but I stuck to the soft drinks!

The LHR flight that was due to leave just before ours was delayed by an hour or so, made us glad that we had ended up choosing LCY! Boarding was called promptly before scheduled departure, no priority boarding, just a free-for-all. 10 rows of 4 Club, so a relatively large Club cabin. The front of the cabin was like:

--WC Galley
|door
|
-----bulkhead-
1A 1B
2A 2B 2C 2D
3A 3B 3C 3D

No row 1 on the starboard side, massive legroom for row 2! Unfortunately we weren't allowed this as it was classed as exit row, even though the aircraft door is on the other side of the bulkhead with the flight attendant in the way...?!

Anyway, seemed like there were just two FAs on the flight, one stationed in front of us and one at the rear of the a/c. They did the Club service together, taking drinks and meal orders at the seat and serving by hand - no cart used. Had the small bottle of Pommery and followed it up with black coffee (had to drive on arrival). Had the chicken Caesar salad which was quite nice and bread was freely available.

Quite a turbulent flight through the patchy cloud and steep descent into the airport which made my wife feel quite ill - she was glad to get out of the plane onto the stairs and across the tarmac to the terminal. We were parked right at the far end and had a long walk to passport control. No need to wait for baggage, proceeding directly through customs and to the car hire centre. After the Europcar agent's attempts to upsell everything, we were on the move to locate our car and make a speedy exit.

Overall, a pretty good flight - wouldn't mind doing it again although I know the wife won't want to land at LCY again!

Thanks for the TR. I keep looking to fly out of LCY as I live in North London and often fly into NCE so found it very interesting. I hate bad landings so hopefully your experience is not the norm.

Thanks for the TR Mr.T. The great thing about LCY is that it's not a lot of stress to get from the away from the airport.

Jacki, I've done CDG-LCY a few years ago and remember the flight and landing being very smooth. It's a bit noisy though.

Very interesting TR, thanks for posting.

Used to do the NCE flight a lot growing up - parent's ideal of a holiday was always going to the same place

Cannot deny it was fun, but always flew out of LGW Really keen to try LCY out