BA676 Good food, shame about the delays

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  • Anonymous
    Guest

    ViajeroUK
    Participant

    Booked using Avios/AX 2-4-1 in CE, plenty of seat availability on the three flights the day (24 Sept) we wanted to travel, so chose BA676 as it operated with a B767, the other two with A320.

    Checked in at a kiosk, then joined a queue for bag drop in Zone H, waited more than twenty minutes, only to be advised at the desk that our flight would be two hours late departing, reason?, unknown.

    At least we could relax in Galleries South, good choice of breakfast food, tables were being cleared almost continuously, but, no one seemed to have been tasked with replenishing cups and mugs at the drinks dispensers.
    Departure display showed ‘our’ departure time fluctuate a few times before settling at 13.15, two and three quarter hours behind schedule.
    At least it gave us chance to sample the hot lunch offerings which appeared at midday. Choice of dishes including sweet potato and lentil curry, which was very good, tasty and not over spicy.
    At 12.30 no gate was showing for our flight, so checked with desk, they didn’t know but did know that the inbound flight with what was to be our aircraft had arrived, good news at last. Five minutes later the gate was displayed, so off we went to A5, other end of the terminal.

    Not much activity there, but boarding got under way about 12.50, and we were soon ready to go. No such luck, Captain announced that due to the south runway being closed for a while that morning there was a backlog of flights waiting, and he expected a wait of approx 45 minutes. Engines started at 2.00pm, push back, and taxi to the east end of airport, airborne at 2.30pm.

    Captain advised that reason for initial lateness was that our original aircraft had developed a fault on it’s inbound flight, so we had to wait for the next inbound 767, which had arrived from Edinburgh.

    Cabin crew were soon doing a drinks run, then menus, choice of beef fillet or stuffed chicken breast, i chose the beef, my wife the chicken and both were excellent, almost on a par with CW main course. There was a choice of two white wines, but although offered a choice of red, only one was available.

    Seating was very cramped (Latest enhancement)? and in fact leg room much worse than on a Turkish A320 in Y that we travelled on the following day.
    Final disappointment of the day, no gate available at Istanbul, so remote stand with bus transfer to the terminal. At least we were handed fast track immigration cards as we exited the aircraft.

    In this case part of the delay (less than three hours) was down to BA, the rest was down to ATC so as far as I know we don’t qualify for any compensation. Luckily we had booked an onward flight with TK for the following day, just in case, and it turned out to be .a good decision.

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