Round The World and other travels
A frequent flyer's collection of trip diaries
This is: Vietnam 2010
Flight Log 10: BD62
London Heathrow (LHR) - Edinburgh (EDI)
Just as with the first flight of the trip some two weeks previously, I was now ending this particular jaunt in seat 5A on one of bmi's all-Economy A319s. This time however, as the flight partially replaced a booked Business Class sector on Lufthansa, I was in the Economy Flexible section of the cabin, which on this occasion occupied the first six rows. Despite now feeling very tired indeed, I was sufficiently attentive to note that the cabin was well presented. Doors were closed at 1845 and it looked to be a lightly loaded flight: in particular, 5B/C were both empty, which was welcome news. We had been looking good for an on-time departure until the Captain came on the blower to announce that, due to a backlog caused by adverse weather earlier in the day, we were now subject to a delay of between 20 and 30 minutes. As we had a long taxi to the runway, however, he had requested a reasonably early pushback.
In the event, this came at four minutes past the hour. The taxi was via the north and west sides of the airport, and we finally made it into the air at 1921, from Runway 09R. As we climbed out, I caught my first sight of the shell of the new Terminal 2, for a short time known officially as 'Heathrow East' and very unofficially still called 'Star City' by this regular traveller.
Once the seat belt signs had been switched off, the senior cabin crew member attended to the front section of the cabin. I had a tuna and sweetcorn sandwich, a large cup of coffee and a small pack of Pringles, all of which were complimentary in the 'Flexible' zone. In a move that I didn't recall seeing since Business Class was abolished on the route, a second round of drinks was offered and I took the opportunity to rehydrate with some mineral water.
As we got closer to Edinburgh, it soon became apparent that we were making the relatively boring West Lothian approach. I struggled to see what the ground conditions, bearing a heavy responsibility for the disruption of my plans, were actually like. The first real sign came when we touched down smoothly at 2015 and then, most unusually, took the entire length of the runway to slow down. It seemed clear that ice was a risk and that the pilot was doing everything he could to avoid unnecessary braking.
It had all been rather different to how it was supposed to have worked, but at last I was back at my home airport!
Date: Sun 28 Nov 2010
Aircraft: Airbus A319
Scheduled dep: 1850
Actual departure: 1904
Scheduled arrival: 2020
Actual arrival: 2022
Cabin: Economy Flex
Seat: 5A
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