BA868 LHR-BUD 26 Jun 2006 (Economy)
Posted: 28 Jun 2006, 15:57Check In - Excellent (No human contact)
Security and Customs - Good
Seat - Poor
In flight food and drink - Poor
In flight entertainment -Poor - none
Cabin Crew - Average
Equipment - B757
Delay - 10 minutes congested gate area
Check in - Eticket so I just put my Blue Exec Club card in the machine and it spits out my ticket.
At the airport I skulked in the Servis Air Lounge to try to avoid my BA Executive Club Blueness but theres no hiding from it in flight.
The Servis Air lounge was nice however.
You'll find it upstairs above a bar near the BA lounge and Vodafone phone stall in the terminal. It requires a Priority Pass card which I have courtesy of American Express or an invitation from an airline that pays.
A good selection of wines including sparking cava and an Ernest and Julio Gallo Red which wasnt the usual unspeakably bad stuff. Nice crisps too. Nothing much else except long life muffins which I passed on this time.
Departure
34F on a BA 757 from LHR to BUD. Not a good start. 34 is the last row. There is no reclining seat beause of the galley bulkhead behind. The legroom sucks and its in the back cabin that seems to have been forgotten in the rush to add leather seats to theBA fleet.
Last to get the food too. So Im hungry as I write this and there was no chicken left - just a cheese roll.
For all that the crew are trying quite hard to make up for the full flight and the worst seat and gave me a double Gin and Tonic with my coffee. Better late than never I suppose.
Clear skies though and little or no turbulence. I had no idea of the weather in Budapest when I left and chose to pack and absolute minimum - not even a coat or sweater. I ws quite relieved when the pilot said it was going to be over 30 degrees.
Spoke too soon about the turbulence Very turbulent now!
Arrival
Last off. I had the last seat so it took about 15 minutes for the gangway to clear.
Overall
The plane itself is quite old. The last 757's were made some years ago now and the plaque inside the door says 'Renton, Washington' a Boeing narrow body plant near Seattle which now only produces 737 aircraft.
So I am guessing this airplane is about ten years old.
One more reason not to hurry back to BA. A completely underwhelming flight