For the first time this year I was flying again last weekend. I was flying on board British Airways again, from London Heathrow to Berlin Tegel and back again on board BA's fleet of A320 aircraft. For the outbound flight, we were leaving relatively early flying from London Heathrow's Terminal 5, the home of British Airways and still despite all my travelling, still is one of the best terminals in the world in my opinion due to its light and airy interior, and also it's sheer scale which compared to some other airports that I flew to last year, I prefer due to the fact that they seem to build up a flight more and make it seem like a bigger occasion.
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| Heathrow Terminal 5 on the morning of my flight |
After checking in using the self service machines, and not needing to go to bag drop due to us travelling using hand baggage only, I went back outside and standing at the end of the passenger drop off zone, was able to spend about half an hour doing some plane spotting before we needed to go through security. The weather was absolutely excellent for this and the clear winter weather meant that there was no difficulty in getting clear sharp images. What was also great was that some of the aircraft departing from here took a left turn to their destination, meaning that they were easier to photograph for much longer after their departure.
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| Ethiopian A350 departing Heathrow |
I'd also like to add just how much I love the Oman air livery. The colours on their planes really standout and their design is also unique and interesting and it would have definitely made my blog from a few weeks ago of airline liveries that I love.
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| Oman Air 787 |
However in order to catch my flight after a short time I had to head through security, which in my opinion took longer than I am used to, with what felt like relatively few of the lanes open, combined with the fact that anyone going through seemed to take forever to pack up their bags to go through, lead to a frustratingly slow moving queue. However after this wait we made it through, and then proceeded to go and buy some lunch to take on the plane with us, due to the fact that our flight would not be arriving in Berlin until late lunchtime, and also as BA Buy on Board is a lot more expensive compared with prices on the ground. By this point our gate was on the board so we headed there, and found it tucked away in a corner of T5 behind world duty free.
We did not have to wait too long to board, a process that was actually relatively quick despite the reasonably full flight, perhaps in part due to the fact that most passengers were happy to sit and wait rather than queueing up, which makes group boarding a lot more effective, whilst also meaning that the passengers filtered through onto the plane over a longer time. Boarding was completed about 10 minutes before our scheduled departure time, however as it can be expected at London airports, our plane pushed back about 15 minutes behind schedule. Following this we then had about a 15 minutes long taxi down to the other end of Heathrow. Fortunately however once we got here, it was only a short wait before we turned onto the runway and took off.
The flight itself I can't really say much about. The British Airways product on their short haul flights is about all you could ask for really. The cabin felt clean and modern, and for the whole of the flight I had no issues with comfort or room. The mood lighting on the plane felt quite nice. As for any improvements to the cabin I can't really think of any for the economy class. I spent the whole flight catching up on some TV that I had downloaded prior to departure, which took up all of my flight. Looking out of the window it was a thankfully clear day, so you could see all the land below, the highlights being spotting what I believe was Hannover airport and also overflying two aircraft at close proximity, a really interesting experience to see which normally takes a bit of luck without in flight WiFi. The flight itself was a lot shorter than I was expecting and soon we were approaching Berlin Tegel airport.
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| Cabin on our flight on the way out |
The landing itself was as smooth as about possible. From the window at the end of the runway, you could see two Germania aircraft parked up with covered engines, a gentle reminder of what this airline was, and what used to operate from this airport. Taxiing off the end of the runway, we had a short stop whilst we waited for another aircraft to take off before we were taxiing to our gate, a short trip, and within about 10 minutes of landing we were hooked up to the air bridge. The most interesting part of Berlin Tegel airport for me was the way that every facility is incorporated into the gate, meaning that within about 10m of the end of the air bridge was the passport control facilities, which whilst convenient and a lot shorter walk than any over airport I'd been to before, was also highly impractical, as the queues for this were left all the way down the air bridge, almost back into the aircraft itself.
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| Onur Air A320 parked on the gate next to ours at Berlin Tegel |
Once through this a feature that I was much more if a fan of was the fact that right here was the baggage reclaim, only serving this gate, which I think is a lot more useful to a passenger than the large baggage reclaim halls that occupy most airports. However I did not have the chance to experience this as we were travelling hand baggage only so we just walked straight out into the rest of the airport.
By Wednesday evening it was time to fly back again to Heathrow. Catching the bus from the city centre the journey was quite quick apart from the short approach to the airport where we experienced the only traffic that I had seen during my entire time in Berlin.
Once at the airport I got to see some of the quirky features of Tegel airport that are unique to it due to its age and also its lack up recent upgrades due to the upcoming opening of Berlin's new airport, although this has been delayed numerous times with the original opening date of 2012 being missed by 7 years by now. The best of these features were the old fashioned departure and arrival screens, which I really enjoyed seeing due to them being so unique. However some of the other features I was not such a fan of. The first of these was the security screening process. Due to Tegel's design, none of the gates are linked together, meaning that each gate has its own security section. This leads to inevitable back-logs as all the passengers for the flight, arriving at similar times to each other, are forced to queue up. The cramped conditions also leave for very little room to repack bags in, which further slows down the process. Furthermore the air side area is limited to the small section around the gate, meaning that the only facilities are two small shops, leaving little to do apart from sitting around and waiting.
After the wait for our flight our plane arrived on time from Heathrow and boarding soon started afterwards. A relatively new feature of the BA boarding process is their introduction of grouped boarding. Originally I was not a fan of it, as the groups were not really differentiated between leading to seemingly no benefit of the system. However on this trip I felt it was a noticeable improvement with passengers seemingly being more willing to wait for their group to be called, which sped up getting onto the plane and also the space inside once on board. So after boarding I settled in my window seat near the back, where the space around us was relatively empty, with a large proportion of the seats free. Boarding felt like it was completed about 15 minutes ahead of schedule, however at about our scheduled push back time, about another 15 passengers came on board, meaning that we pushed back a little behind schedule.
Take-off was pretty smooth and we were soon climbing away from Berlin. The sky bellow us was clear, which meant that you could easily see the land bellow, which for me is a highlight of night flying, as the city and town lights make a much better and more distinctive view than during day flying. The flight back was uneventful like the flight out, and we were soon approaching Heathrow on what is one of my favourite approach paths in the world, with London due to its sheer size being so impressive to fly over, especially at night time when it is all lit up.
The landing itself was smooth and after a short taxi we were at the A gates at Terminal 5, where we were able to get off the plane quite quickly and make the short walk to passport control where again there were very little queues, meaning we were able to make it down to the underground station at Terminal 5 within about 45 minutes of landing.
If you want to read more of my reviews from British Airway's european economy class, be sure to read my Berlin trip report as well as my trip from Christmas to Jersey.
By Wednesday evening it was time to fly back again to Heathrow. Catching the bus from the city centre the journey was quite quick apart from the short approach to the airport where we experienced the only traffic that I had seen during my entire time in Berlin.
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| Departure boards at Berlin Tegel |
Once at the airport I got to see some of the quirky features of Tegel airport that are unique to it due to its age and also its lack up recent upgrades due to the upcoming opening of Berlin's new airport, although this has been delayed numerous times with the original opening date of 2012 being missed by 7 years by now. The best of these features were the old fashioned departure and arrival screens, which I really enjoyed seeing due to them being so unique. However some of the other features I was not such a fan of. The first of these was the security screening process. Due to Tegel's design, none of the gates are linked together, meaning that each gate has its own security section. This leads to inevitable back-logs as all the passengers for the flight, arriving at similar times to each other, are forced to queue up. The cramped conditions also leave for very little room to repack bags in, which further slows down the process. Furthermore the air side area is limited to the small section around the gate, meaning that the only facilities are two small shops, leaving little to do apart from sitting around and waiting.
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| Our plane back to Heathrow |
After the wait for our flight our plane arrived on time from Heathrow and boarding soon started afterwards. A relatively new feature of the BA boarding process is their introduction of grouped boarding. Originally I was not a fan of it, as the groups were not really differentiated between leading to seemingly no benefit of the system. However on this trip I felt it was a noticeable improvement with passengers seemingly being more willing to wait for their group to be called, which sped up getting onto the plane and also the space inside once on board. So after boarding I settled in my window seat near the back, where the space around us was relatively empty, with a large proportion of the seats free. Boarding felt like it was completed about 15 minutes ahead of schedule, however at about our scheduled push back time, about another 15 passengers came on board, meaning that we pushed back a little behind schedule.
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| Cabin on the flight back to Heathrow |
Take-off was pretty smooth and we were soon climbing away from Berlin. The sky bellow us was clear, which meant that you could easily see the land bellow, which for me is a highlight of night flying, as the city and town lights make a much better and more distinctive view than during day flying. The flight back was uneventful like the flight out, and we were soon approaching Heathrow on what is one of my favourite approach paths in the world, with London due to its sheer size being so impressive to fly over, especially at night time when it is all lit up.
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| Flying over London |
The landing itself was smooth and after a short taxi we were at the A gates at Terminal 5, where we were able to get off the plane quite quickly and make the short walk to passport control where again there were very little queues, meaning we were able to make it down to the underground station at Terminal 5 within about 45 minutes of landing.
If you want to read more of my reviews from British Airway's european economy class, be sure to read my Berlin trip report as well as my trip from Christmas to Jersey.
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