Round The World and other travels

A frequent flyer's collection of trip diaries

This is: Shanghaied in Tuscany!

Flight Log 9 : BA2938

London Gatwick (LGW) - Edinburgh (EDI)

With pre-boarding announced at the gate for Gold and Silver cardholders (full marks, BA Gatwick!), I had no problems stowing my things and getting comfortable in 1F. Although we appeared to be ready for the off at 1155, it was in fact five minutes past noon before we pushed back. Sadly, it then took us a further 27 minutes to get airborne on Runway 08R, demonstrating the difficulties caused by single-runway operation at this very busy airport.

When cabin service started, I asked for an apple juice and was disappointed to hear that it had been replaced by cranberry. I settled instead for an orange juice and some coffee. Fully expecting the dreaded 'birdseed', I was pleasantly surprised to get a nice cookie instead. Clearly the coffee, rather than the orange juice, had influenced the crew member. Either that or she had read my flight log for the outbound.

Time passed quickly and, as we made our approach into Edinburgh, there was a spectacular last-minute change in the weather. Crossing the East Lothian coast, we had sunshine and fluffy white clouds. On final approach, we had gloomy, grey murk. Such is the Scottish weather.

With no possibility of recovering from the time lost on the ground at Gatwick, we touched down at 1331 and arrived at Gate 19 five minutes later. The gate allocation meant no jetty and a long walk, but that was simply a consequence of the reconstruction work going on inside the main terminal.


Date: Wed 14 Oct 2009
Aircraft : Boeing 737-400
Scheduled dep : 1200
Actual departure : 1205
Scheduled arrival : 1325
Actual arrival : 1336
Cabin : Economy
Seat : 1F

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