Round The World and other travels

A frequent flyer's collection of trip diaries

August 2005 : Flight Log : OK669

Edinburgh (EDI) - Prague (PRG)

Well, this was unexpected ... at least up to the previous afternoon! I had booked with BA to travel EDI-LHR on the Friday evening, then LHR-PRG on Saturday morning in Club Europe, courtesy of the recent I-class sale   With the well publicised difficulties surrounding the Gate Gourmet dispute, aggravated by illegal secondary action from some of its own ground staff at LHR, BA had ended up cancelling my EDI-LHR flight. I used the advertised "commercial policy" to re-book a one-way ticket with an alternative carrier and thereby found myself sampling Czech Airlines' Business Class product on their direct EDI-PRG service.

Before heading for the gate, I visited the familiar territory of the BA Terraces Lounge - the first time I had invoked my right to do so as a Gold Card holder when not flying BA. It did feel just a little bit strange. Then, simply because I could, I also took the opportunity to sample the Servisair lounge - so that's another one chalked up

Soon enough, I was settling into 3A on the 737-500. There were only two rows of Business Class, in 2+2 seat formation , Row 1 being occupied by the wardrobes! There were only two other Business Class passengers, initially in 2A and 2C, although 2C decided to relocate to 3D. Prior to departure, there was a hot towels service - they had a nice lemon scent! - and a glass of orange juice was served. We pushed back at 0712 and took off at 0720 on the westerly runway. The safety demo had been given in both Czech and English.

Having expected a Germanic breakfast offering of cold meats and cheeses, I was really quite taken aback to be presented with a British fry-up, complete with a truly evil-looking half-slice of black pudding   (I ate it anyway!) The rest of the meal consisted of bacon, scrambled egg and tomato, accompanied by a roll, a pot of yoghurt and a blueberry muffin. I drank apple juice and coffee.

The seatbelt signs were on and off for a good part of the journey : it certainly wasn't the smoothest of rides. My knowledge of the Czech language is indistinguishably close to zero, but as I stared at the magazine rack, I began to work out that plurals must be formed using the letter "y". Seeing the word 'Notebooky' above an article about laptops amused me, for some unfathomable reason.

The bumpy ride came to an end at 1016 as we touched down at Prague and a very short taxi had us on our remote stand by 1020. At the risk of being extremely silly, my first experience of OK had been - you guessed it - really quite OK.



Date: Sat 13 Aug 2005
Aircraft : B737-500
Scheduled dep : 0705
Actual departure : 0712
Scheduled arrival : 1030
Actual arrival : 1020
Cabin : Business Class
Seat : 3A



Flight History 2005