[cwoodward]

Difficult to argue with that SimonS1.

[sparkyflier]

CW – it was simply an observation and am happy to move on from that and besides I am sure we have better things to do with our time than trawl through old posts from way back!

SimonS1 and CW – agree too. Also I think when we are about to board we want to see the livery of the airline we are flying in order to get a measure of that brand and its service style. And to not see a livery we recognise does give a sense of disappointment at the least, and maybe in some cases anxiety.

Superchris – what a fun “song contest” that will be. Quite an extravaganza! Sadly it seems your plane will not be “flying the flag (for you)”

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cwoodward

[FrDougal]

BA itself has aircraft considerably older than this A321 including B777s.

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superchris

[cwoodward]

That is of course correct, as far as it goes FrD
However there are major and important difference in that the history of the BA fleet is known, documented and one can I believe have confidence that they have been properly maintained with particular attention paid to the aging airframes.

This is often not the case with old, warn second and third level much leased aircraft with largely unknown service histories as is the case with the old DAT banger being offered by BA and which can be reasonably sure is based on its cheap lease cost.
I would not set foot on it and believe that BA could and should do better by their customers.

For the reasons above (as I have already mentioned) I would be not unhappy to fly an older BA, Cathay, SIA etc aircraft – and with Cathay I often fly their older A330s short haul to Manila.

[Simon58]

31 March saw the last of the Finnair A320 based in LHR operating select scheduled flights for BA. I flew on AY A320 between LHR & WAW and LHR & MAD. I was told BA wanted to extend the lease of these aircraft but AY needed them back in their fleet for Summer 2024 season. I guess that this is why BA now lease in A320 from DAT to overcome their aircraft shortage.

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superchris

[cwoodward]

There are other newer aircraft available from better known operators and I am convinced that this is about (risky) cost cutting but each to their own.

[AndrewinHK]

Cwoodward you have absolutely no evidence to back the risk or cost claim up, you’re digging your feet in on this one, it’s 1 aircraft from DAT on a short wet lease at a time when 321 leases are tough to come by, from a previous operator with no serious incidents and now with a European lessor with no record of incidents.

[scotscrew]

I experienced this DAT aircraft in early April to Malaga. I think the wet lease was very new so maybe there were some logistical problems. The first thing was that the aircraft was on the C gates. A bit of a nuisance for a shorthaul flight, but not the end of the world. Boarding was fine although the ground staff were going through the queue pulling out families with children of maybe around 12 and boarding them before the group one passengers. I’m not sure if that is policy, infants and young children yes but I felt it maybe was a personal decision of the ground staff rather than policy.The aircraft was painted white and the interior was reasonably well presented. The crew were fairly friendly and there seemed to be a lot of them. I was seated in row 12 which was the last row of “business” It wasn’t shown as Club Europe on my boarding pass. There was no curtain but the configuration on the aircraft meant that up to row 9 ( I think ) was a separate cabin. Still no curtain. Take off was interesting with a very strange noise on rotation. Never heard this on an airbus before. After take off there was an announcement from the In Flight Manager but I couldn’t really hear or understand it. The crew from euro traveller or “econmony” quickly got out with the carts with the bottles of water and snacks. Nothing in Club. It soon became apparent that the announcement was telling passengers that there was no catering in club nor Highlife Shop. It took an hour after take off for the two crew in club to get to me. and I had a drink from the bar. No bottle of water for club. I had seen the catering truck at the aircraft side before boarding so not sure why there was none. Maybe the equipment brought to the aircraft wasn’t compatible There was a toilet just forward of door two and of course on the A321, at the exit, there are only 2 seats so it wasn’t used for “business”. With no curtain there was a constant stream of economy passengers using this toilet and sitting in the empty seats at the exit while they were waiting. The only way the crew knew where club ended was the headrest covers. The crew then came round with a basket of snacks like popcorn etc I was missed out twice so only had the nuts with the drink from the bar. The In Flight Manager had detached himself from the service and was flapping about talking to some passengers. Opposite the toilet at door 2L there was a small galley. The economy crew soon congregated there. Meanwhile there was still a lot of club passengers with empty glasses, cans and bottles. I had to ring the call bell for another drink, given that there was no catering maybe the crew should have been more proactive on the drinks front. The aircraft landed safely.

After landing I received an email from BA customer relations apologising for the lack of catering in club and telling me that if I had purchased anything from the Highlife Shop it would be automatically be refunded. There was no Highlife Shop. This really annoyed me because they should have known that.

So my experience of the DAT wet lease , in my opinion, was a disaster. Let,s hope it was just teething troubles.

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superchris

[cwoodward]

I don’t disagree Andrew however I would not take the risk and believe that BA is under performing by offering this aircraft.
That has always been my point when I raised the subject that I suspected would draw comments and perhaps highlight the fact that top airlines do do rather better by their customers.
Digging my feet in – why not defend my reasoning for raising the subject ?

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AndrewinHK

[Rferguson2]

Scotscrew sounds like an interesting config for an A321…a toilet and small galley at doors two. Managed to find a seat map on seatmaps.com for a Sichuan Airlines A321, have never seen such a configuration on the same type. Looks like the original configuration was two rows of 2 x 2 business class with economy behind. I guess they are now configured economy tip to tail?

Bad on BA’s part about the lack of catering. You would think BA would have sent a text in advance allowing people to at least grab something from an airport outlet if they wanted. Although, if you say there was a catering truck positioned at the aircraft perhaps it was a very last minute issue. You would have thought they’d trialled all this stuff in advance of actually dispatching an aircraft.

[ASK1945]

Scotcrew: so sorry to read your comments (above). If it was me, I would be demanding recompense from BA – probably worth 50k Avios or more.

As for “Boarding was fine although the ground staff were going through the queue pulling out families with children of maybe around 12 and boarding them before the group one passengers. I’m not sure if that is policy, infants and young children yes but I felt it maybe was a personal decision of the ground staff rather than policy”, I have experienced this frequently on BA and am not at all phased by it. Each to his own.

PS: I hope you are not offended by this comment – but your post would have been much easier to read if you had split your big paragraph into several smaller ones relating to different points.

[scotscrew]

Actually I am quite offended. These kind of comments would make me reluctant to contribute in the future.

[scotscrew]

The aircraft exit signs were in English and Chinese so it maybe was with Sichuan from the factory.

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AndrewinHK

[ASK1945]

scotcrew wrote: “Actually I am quite offended. These kind of comments would make me reluctant to contribute in the future”.

I am sorry about this. I was trying to be helpful for your future contributions.

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cwoodward

[cwoodward]

This A321 was made in USA in September 1998

[Author]

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