BRU-LHR and LHR-GLA with BMI

danieln · Post by **danieln** » 02 Mar 2004, 09:47

Below a flight report of my latest trip to Glasgow. This is about the onward journey, the return report will follow later.

For the first leg of our trip on 26/2, we were booked on BMI-flight BD 140, which was supposed to leave Brussels at 7h30. As we first had to pick up our tickets, we were at the airport around 6h30.
Both the staff at the ticketing desk and at the check-in desk were extremely friendly and helpful. We asked for an exit seat and we were promised one.

Once at the gate, we were suprised to see an Airbus A321. There must have been an aircraft change as normally this flight is operated by an A320. Boarding started on time, but once on board, we saw that we did not have the promised exit seats. We were told by the captain that there would be a short delay due to de-icing of the aircraft. The Airbus A 321
(in old dark blue livery) departed 15 minutes late.

The friendly crew brought us a tasty cup of coffee and a delicious roasted panini with cheese and tomatoes.

As usual, when the plane approached London, there was a stunning view over the city. As we sat on the right side of the plane, we could clearly see the BA wheel, the Tower Bridge and Big Ben. The city looked quiet and peacuful, but it must have been very busy at this time of the day!

Landing at LHR was smooth, but once we arrived near the terminal, we were told that no gate was available. Due to this, there was a 10 minutes delay.

Our next leg would depart at 11h50, which gave us some 2,5 hours free time at Heathrow. What a pity it was only such a "short" time!!! As our next flight would depart at the domestic part of Terminal 1, we sat just opposite the runway!! What a nice place to sit down and just look around! My coffee has never tasted me better than now!

Boarding of our BD 004 flight to Glasgow started on time, and we were delighted to see the nice Star Alliance-painted A320 to be our bird. Again no exit seats. The aircraft departed 20 minutes late due to busy traffic at LHR.
There was no food served, but we we were free to have a coffee and some cookies.
Our flight arrived some 10 minutes late. No problem for us as we had no obligations.

Again this was a very nice BMI-experience!! I will post the report of the return flights in a couple of days, hopefully WITH pictures!

Post by **sn26567** » 02 Mar 2004, 11:06

Thanks for excellent report, danieln.

Nothing compares to full service airlines. BMI seems to be in the top league.

Comet · Post by **Comet** » 02 Mar 2004, 12:21

The A321 is a great aircraft, I would love to go one one. By the way, I think the old dark blue livery of BD was very smart, alot nicer than their current half blue and half white scheme.

danieln · Post by **danieln** » 02 Mar 2004, 13:01

Its IS a beautiful aircraft. Once you enter the cabin, the rear of the aircraft really seems very far away. One big tunnel.

Sabena_690 · Post by **Sabena_690** » 02 Mar 2004, 13:47

Thanks, very nice trip report!

How about the load factors?

Regards
Frederic

danieln · Post by **danieln** » 02 Mar 2004, 13:50

Both flights were approx. 80% filled. As usual a lot of business passengers.

JetB · Post by **JetB** » 02 Mar 2004, 15:39

Personally I always try to book the fastest way to a destination, in this case that would be Ryanair to Prestwick.

But I also understand that LHR is the place for spotting, and isn't a FR flight report always the same ?.

I have not much to say about BMI, just a nice airline. Maybe there FA's are a little snobbish / boring.

danieln · Post by **danieln** » 02 Mar 2004, 16:43

When I booked this trip I was very surprised to see that Ryanair is currently the only carrier with direct flights from Belgium to Glasgow. Starnge, as Glasgow is a town with more than 500.000 inhabitants.
If I am not wrong Sabena used to have 4 or 5 daily flights to this destination!

Post by **sn26567** » 02 Mar 2004, 16:56

danieln wrote:If I am not wrong Sabena used to have 4 or 5 daily flights to this destination!

Correct. Sabena started with a single F28 from BRU to Glasgow and Edinburgh, and finally had 3 or 4 Avros or even A319s and A320s to each of those two destinations.

BobClaes wrote:Personally I always try to book the fastest way to a destination, in this case that would be Ryanair to Prestwick.

Prestwick is as much Glasgow as Charleroi is Brussels.

Post by **luchtzak** » 02 Mar 2004, 18:15

Nice report Danieln!

AN124 · Post by **AN124** » 02 Mar 2004, 19:06

Great report.
I also flew the A320 series Airbusses sometimes.
Really nice planes to fly on.

Best Regards,
Yvo

OO-SBZ · Post by **OO-SBZ** » 02 Mar 2004, 20:48

Thanks for the report.

Do you remember the registrations of the BD Airbuses?

sn26567 wrote:
danieln wrote:If I am not wrong Sabena used to have 4 or 5 daily flights to this destination!
Correct. Sabena started with a single F28 from BRU to Glasgow and Edinburgh, and finally had 3 or 4 Avros or even A319s and A320s to each of those two destinations.

BobClaes wrote:Personally I always try to book the fastest way to a destination, in this case that would be Ryanair to Prestwick.
Prestwick is as much Glasgow as Charleroi is Brussels.

Waaw here is a new route opportunity for LU (Luchtzak Airlines)

After CRL-STN, CRL-LPL and MST-STN

CRL-EDI

However I think LU should wait some time before launching the route since LU would need an extra A/C.

Regards

BeN

Planning @ LU

Sabena_690 · Post by **Sabena_690** » 02 Mar 2004, 22:26

Do you remember the registrations of the BD Airbuses?

On 26/2, BD140 was G-MIDC and BD004 G-MIDW

Frederic

danieln · Post by **danieln** » 03 Mar 2004, 11:25

Can someone tell me how I can add photo's when writing a report?

Post by **sn26567** » 03 Mar 2004, 17:04

[quote="danieln"]Can someone tell me how I can add photo's when writing a report?[/quote]

If the photos are your own, you first need to upload them to http://coppermine.luchtzak.be (see modus operandi once you are on that site) or to your own website.

Once the photo has an URL, or if you use photos of airliners.net or anoter site, you can link to them in two ways:

Small photos:

Put the URL of the photo between [img]...[/img]

Large photos:

Put the URL of the photo between [url]...[/url]

Avro · Post by **Avro** » 04 Mar 2004, 17:34

Thanks for this nice report Danieln

Chris