Round The World and other travels

Flight Log 9: BA813

Copenhagen (CPH) - London Heathrow (LHR)

It was clear from outset that this was a busy flight, but our vigilance had enabled us to secure 6A/C. On this flight, these were the coveted A/C seats in the front row of the Economy cabin which, on a BA narrow-body aircraft with conventional seating, must for safety reasons be converted to Club Europe format. (This is to prevent the possibility of a trolley being pushed through the curtain and hitting the passenger in the 'C' seat.) We got ourselves settled and, not entirely unexpectedly, the captain came on the blower with some bad news. We had heard that the UK was due to experience strong winds and we both knew from years of experience that whenever the weather gave a slight cough, London Heathrow tended to catch a full-blown bout of flu. In this case, the crew had been informed upon arrival into Copenhagen that the delay would be 1hr 15mins, but this had already come down to 45 minutes. In the hope that the trend might continue, the captain had taken the decision to authorise boarding so that we would be ready to take advantage of any further improvement. Sod's Law, of course, dictated that since we were ready and waiting for news of a further improvement, such news would never actually come through. The safety briefing was given, the jetty was retracted and doors were placed in flight mode. Meanwhile, we waited ... and waited.

The seat belt signs finally came on at 1145 and we pushed back in the pouring rain three minutes later. At one minute past noon, we finally made it into the air from Runway 22R. After a couple of weeks of blissful indulgence flying around Asia in the luxury of First Class and Business Class, it was down to earth with a bump when cabin service got underway, as we experienced the realities of short-haul Economy catering in Europe. I had a tomato juice and a cold Chicken Caesar wrap. We met the European mainland just north of Kiel, crossed Schleswig-Holstein, proceeded along the German North Sea coast to Wilhelmshaven, and then onwards to Amsterdam.

On reaching the UK, we executed a single loop well to the east of London, then several more just north-east of London City Airport. When we finally broke out of the holding pattern, we at first appeared to be heading westwards for a U-turn and an easterly landing via Windsor Castle. In the event, however, the U-turn came early and we headed eastwards across North London to execute a second U-turn that got us lined up with 27R. We touched down at 1301 local time and parked at the southern end of Terminal 5 six minutes later.

Not for the first time, sadly, this was one of those flights that would make anyone who had a realistic choice of alternative hubs seriously question their motives for choosing to connect via Heathrow.

Date: Sun 25 Nov 2012

Aircraft: Airbus A320

Scheduled dep: 1105

Actual departure: 1148

Scheduled arrival: 1205

Actual arrival: 1307

Cabin: Euro Traveller (Economy)

Seat: 6A

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