When I booked this holiday to Europe, I decided to use British Airways not only to get me from the continent to the UK, but also to shuttle myself around the UK. Now that I am sixty-plus, my knees and my back act up and trying to lug heavy baggage up and down the numerous stairs that you encounter at train stations in the UK is no longer for me.
And so I took the plane. When I investigated the price, I discovered that I could get three trips on British Airways, flying business class, for a very reasonable price. And so I went for it.
Those of you used to flying business class on other airlines will be disappointed by British Airway’s version. First of all, the seats do not recline, so there is no lying down allowed as there is on (I think) every other airline’s version of business class. Instead what you have is the usual configuration of three seats, with a tray thingy in the middle seat. This means that while you are not exactly rubbing elbows with anyone else, still the seat you are in is small. But one advantage is that if your seat-mate doesn’t have a lot of baggage, you can use both the underseat space of the seat in front of you, and that of the unused middle seat.
My first trip on British Airways was on the fight from Luxembourg to Manchester via London Heathrow. (I was visiting my sister during the Easter weekend.) We took off during pouring rain, and went up, up, and up. It was lovely to see the Luxembourgish countryside (it really is a very pretty place.) But soon enough, we were up among the clouds and you couldn’t see anything.
At that moment, lunch started. I had lunch which included “chicken salad” which in this case meant slices of chicken on salad dressing. It was served with a delcious chocolate mousse with raspberry topping. And I ordered my usual small bottle of wine. Imagine my surprise when I hadn’t even started on my mousse to be told we were landing! I regretfully gave the last third of the wine to my waiter (are you sure?) as I didn’t want to gulp it down and be drunk as I was trying to navigate my way around Heathrow. But I couldn’t help noticing that he allowed the other business class passengers to hold onto their full glasses of wine! By then, we had to prepare for landing. We flew over a huge estuary in—Belgium? (Or was it the Seine estuary in France?) Then we went over the blue, blue sea. (The sky had cleared by this time.) Then we were flying over England, and it took so cute with its tidy fields. This being Heathrow, we had to go into our usual downward spiral, and I was able to see Canary Wharf and the Millenium Dome.
And then we were down.
I got off the plane and followed the purple signs to Connecting Flights, and was so grateful to see that a bus had been prepared to take us from Terminal 3 (where we’d landed) to Terminal 5 (where the Manchester flight awaited, so that I wouldn’t have to walk.
The Manchester flight was supposed to take off at 2:30, but of course it was late. Finally, we boarded the plane and it took off at 3pm. This time, I was sitting in Business class in seat 4A, and there was a chap sitting “next” to me in seat 4C. Of course, by “next to” I mean the tray thingy was in the way in seat 4B.
As before, no sooner had we climbed up into the clouds, than the food service started. This time, they were offering afternoon tea. I accepted, but when the flight attendant offered me a scone, I declined. (I have to watch my carb intake.) This meant that I had to stare at the jam and clotted cream sitting there sadly on the plate in front of me, bereft of the scone which I had declined, for as long as I was eating. Instead, I had smoked salmon, a savory bun with something appetizing in it and something else I can’t remember. There was also a small piece of carrot cake with icing on it.
Of course, this being tea, and it being full of British passengers (Business Class was full on this flight) it was very amusing to see the flight attendants dealing with everyone’s orders for coffee and tea.
British people are really not like Americans when it comes to ordering food and drink. Usually, they request something in simple terms, except when it comes to ordering their favorite beverage, tea. Then they are as specific as Americans are with their ice creams and espresso drinks. So the flight attendants have to remember whether the person wants milk or not, sugar or not, and how many sugars.
As I never drink hot liquids on a plane (you never know when turbulence is going to hit) I decided not to bother the flight attendants with anything to drink. Instead I sipped the still water from the bottle I’d been forced to buy at Heathrow, as they’d confiscated the bottle I’d bought in the Luxembourg airport. The chap next to me said he was going to have to burn his tongue to gulp his tea down, because just as he finally got his tea and was in the process of lifitng the cup to his lips, inevitably, the pilot said we were going to land. Some people didn’t get a drink at all, and the flight attendants apologized profusely.
Meanwhile, I peered out of the window, admiring the Pennines as we swooped over them. Then the message came on for the flight attendants to take seats. However, the British Afternoon Tea had not yet been completely cleaned away, and I noticed that the flight attendants didn’t sit down until they’d completed this task. I really have never seen this on an American airline. But then Americans tend to everything much more by the book than their British counterparts. However, we managed to land in Manchester with everything cleared away.
My last flight with British Airways (also Business Class), took place a few days later when I flew from Manchester to London Heathrow. This early morning flight (the plane left at 8:40 am) was absolutely packed. Later, I discoved that most of those passengers were connecting to different flights at Heathrow.
We left on time and ascended into the air, and I enjoyed my favorite occupation of staring out the window at the beautiful green land that is England on a glorious spring day. Meanwhile, the flight attendants jumped to their feet and started serving breakfast. I declined breakfast, and was thinking about ordering a tomato juice but—
You see, they had two flight attendants in Business Class. A cheerful young man who was serving up the food. And an older woman whose job was to manage all the teas and coffees. For some reason, the pots of water were not in the galley, and had to be handed back. So the people having breakfast in Business, were chomping on their omelettes and savory buns without the benefit of their morning tea. (In fact, one gentleman across from me gently reprimanded the flight attendant that his wife and himself had not yet had their tea.) Just as the female flight attendant moved forward to serve the tea, her pots of water finally in place, a message came on from the pilot informing everyone that we were going to be landing in 20 minutes! At that point, I abandoned any notion of having any tomato juice, and confined myself to sipping the water I’d bought at W.H. Smith.
Again, the flight attendants had a very relaxed manner to serving the food and drink that the business class passengers wanted. Just after that announcement, I noticed another female flight attendant, who had come forward to help the first one (who’d had the slow start), pouring out a couple of glasses of champagne for two passengers across from me. In front of them, another passenger nursed her tea until a few minutes before we landed. Five minutes before we landed, the pilot asked all the flight attendants to sit down, and they were still busy a couple of minutes later. But as before, eventually, everything was done, everyone was in their place, before we landed safely.
Phew!
Do you have any amusing stories you’d like to share about the food and drink service on other airlines? Or any entertaining stories about traveling you’d like to share? If so, drop me a line here.
