Before the flight/The airport:
We didn’t had any time to spare so after the passport check we rushed towards the security check located a floor above the passport control. The queues in front of the checks weren’t worth mentioning and only took about 15 minutes to clear. For all the shops, restaurants and gates you have to take the stairs or elevators down one level. It’s a massive floor with a high variety of shops and food on offer. Unfortunately we didn’t have any time to explore the terminal some more and we headed towards the train that connects terminal 5A with the B and C gates. There are a couple of elevators available that take you below the ground. When we arrived on the floor where the connecting trains depart, there was already one train waiting to depart so we jumped in and a minute later we left the train in terminal 5B. We watched on a screen and our departure gate would be B35 located almost in the middle on the upper floor or terminal 5B. I honestly didn’t expect this connection would be so easy to make as we arrived at the gate about 30-40 minutes after we left the flight from Amsterdam. Passengers were already boarding and there was a large group of passengers already waiting to board so I took the time to take some more photos.
33. My boarding pass for my second flight.
34. Also being prepared for her next flight is this BA G-BYGB, Boeing 747-436.
35. Enough seats available for all those long haul passengers.
The flight, Seat, Entertainment, Cabins and Crew:
36. After the queue of passengers was a bit shorter we also headed to the gate and joined the waiting. Departure gate would be B35 and all was going on time.
37. Another photo of the Queen of the Skies.
38. When walking to the back the Business Class was already quite full, I pre-booked seat 41A that is located on the left hand side behind the wing. Here is the legroom, it was reasonable. This aircraft was operated in a 3-4-3 seat layout in Economy, 2-4-2 in Economy plus, 2-4-2 (2-2 for upper deck) in Business and 1-2-1 in First Class.
39. My view for the upcoming 7:30 hours, with some change in scenery of course along the way.
40. The Boeing 747 are equipped with small IFE screens.
41. Amenities consisted of a head set, toothbrush, charity information, pillow and a blanked. As far as readable material concerned we again had the Business life, High life and the Shop to our disposal.
42. The controls for the IFE screens are situated in the armrest of your seat. I think it isn’t a very handy location to put it because when you rest your arm on the armrest you can touch the controls. I had it a couple of times and it can be quite annoying. You can’t take the controls out of the armrest.
43. Safety information on board this aircraft.
44. Crew was busy getting the cabin ready with closing the overhead bins and checking the seatbelts. And just 3 minutes behind our scheduled departure time we pushed back from the gate. When easterly operations are in force the main departure runway is 09R and that means that it was only a short taxi. Only two company Busses were in front of us.
45. Soon it was our turn to set take-off thrust, an Air Canada 773 was rolling towards the holding point of 09R behind us.
46. The thing I noticed during take-off that not only my screen was already displaying route/flight information, but other people were already watching movies on their IFE. On the flights I made so far the IFE was switched of during Departure and Landing, because of safety reasons.
47. During the take-off roll I made this shot of Terminal 5B and C, a lot of British Airways metal!
48. With the roar of the 4 RB211’s we lifted off the runway, here you can see two Airbus A380 one of Emirates and one Qantas jet.
49. We flew past the new Terminal 2 named The Queen’s Terminal. It will fully open on June 4th and will be the home to 23 Star Alliance member airlines as well as Aer Lingus, Virgin Atlantic Little Red and Germanwings. When fully operational the terminal will be used by 20 million passengers each year.
50. Another part of Terminal 2.
51. The departure continued with a sharp right turn and flaps were retracted.
52. When the fasten seatbelt sign was switched of the crew passed out the immigration forms.
53. The cockpit crew informed us that we had quite a southerly routing because of the winds were blowing from the USA towards Europe (like most of the time). To avoid a lot of headwind coming from the northern part of the Atlantic, routes towards the USA were flying a bit southerly. Our first cruising altitude was going to be 34.000ft/10.363m.
54. Heading for Cork.
55.
56. Overhead Cork.
57. This ship has an age of 15 years, I think the seats, windows and the sides of the cabin were well maintained. The only part that was dirty was the ceiling with a lot of dust.
58. The last sign of land for the upcoming 6 hours.
59. We climbed 1000ft to 35.000ft/10.668m.
60. Once over the Atlantic Ocean a meal was set up by the crew. The plate included a hot meal with egg, potatoes, a slice of tomato, mushrooms and beef. Cold meal consisted of a croissant, bread, fruits and a yogurt. Standard drinks were water and orange juice. I must say the meal was tasteful and was sufficient for the rest of the flight.
61. My girlfriend made a cabin shot from row 53 and further. Rows 53, 52 and 51 are 2 abreast at the window sides.
62. We even picked up a nice tail wind over the pond.
63. The overall routing.
64. Climbing to 36.000ft/10.972m.
65. Lots of clouds over the Atlantic.
66. Nope we didn’t make landfall at St. John’s.
67. We made landfall at Cape Cod Bay, were back in 2011 I spotted humpback whales from a boat.
68.
69. Once again a shot of the illogical place of the IFE control unit.
70. We started our descend above Long Island, cockpit informed us that we would land in a North-Westerly direction so that would be almost a straight in for runway 31L or R.
71. Further descend towards JFK was uneventful and we were lined up nicely for runway 31R.
72. Passing over Long Beach.
73. Flaring over the 10.000ft/3048m long runway 13L/31R.
74. Touchdown was smooth.
75. We vacated the runway and taxied only 5 minutes towards our arrival gate 4 located at Terminal 7 next to a B773 from ANA. And 5 minutes ahead of schedule we were on blocks.
76. We needed to wait for about 10 minutes at the gate because there were some problems with the gate controls and the ground staff could not connect it to the plane door. When that was fixed the passengers started moving towards the exit. At the height of the stairs towards the upper deck I asked a Cabin crew member if it was possible to make a photo of the flight deck. She literally ran up the stairs and a minute later she returned with good news. Had a nice chat with the 2 pilots both coming from the Airbus fleet. I told him that some of the KLM 747’s are 25 years old and they also hoped BA keeps the 747 fleet flying strong, with big competition of the new 773.
77.
We thanked the crew for their time and proceeded downstairs to exit the plane and head over the immigration. Back in 2011 when I arrived on KLM there was a large wait of about 1 hour before we cleared immigration, but this time we were the only aircraft waiting for the desks and it only took 15 minutes to clear. There was a lady behind us from Kuala Lumpur that missed her connecting flight the day before because of the delayed MH A380 flight from KUL to LHR, she had been traveling for the past 30 hours ouch. We headed over towards the exit and took the bus instead of the taxi that can be quite expensive when you are going to the city. The bus ride to Grand Central Station took about 1 hour and 30 minutes and was $16. From there it was only a 5 minute walk towards our hotel.
Impression:
Flying this flight from LHR instead of AMS was a nice extra and a good chance to see how BA operates this route in comparison with KL from AMS. I liked the way the crew keeps you informed about things happening on the flight deck. Service on board was good with plenty of drinks being offered. I hope BA keeps the 747 fleet flying for much more years to come and I can’t wait to board one of these beauties again on my next trip. I had a great flight onboard BA and hope flying them once again in the near future.
On the return journey it will be an all new experience for me as the EWR-LHR flight is operated by a Boeing 787 Dreamliner. I will post that trip report the upcoming weeks so stay tuned for more photos and experiences from my point of view. I will also add some photos from the city and the helicopter flight my girlfriend gave me as a present for my birthday.
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