You always know when you’re going to get a good British Airways crew. During the pilot announcements, if they emphatically mention you have an excellent cabin crew on board, it’s usually true. I expected to see the blue and white hornets in action, and I was not disappointed.
Flying from London Heathrow to Dublin means a quite short flight time. Just how do you serve business class passengers travelling in Club Europe a full meal and drinks in 50 minutes?
BA828 – London Heathrow to Dublin (LHR-DUB)
1 February 2022
Airbus A320 – G-EUUD
Seat: Club Europe 1F
Departure: 18:20 Arrival: 19:45
Gate A12 at Heathrow Terminal 5 is where our aircraft was positioned for this flight. Unfortunately it means a scrum at boarding as it’s hardly the most spacious. Happily I was in Group 1 and was on the plane quickly enough.
On Board
Pleasingly this was one of the older A320s at the airline. This means the lovely tray in the middle seat is still present, which is a good place for putting things like your phone.
-
- That handy table in the middle seat.
-
- Plenty of knee and leg room for me.
While on the ground, the cabin crew came around asking for our food and drink orders. I selected the Cauliflower and Carrot salad over the Chicken Caesar salad as I felt like being healthy. Soon enough, we headed into the night sky without any ground hold at all.
Blue and White Hornets Spring Into Action!
Quite soon after gear up, the blue and white hornets got up and sprang into action. Within moments, the first tray and drink was being delivered to 1A, with mine following shortly after.
-
- Dinner time!
-
- Lots of crunchy goodness here.
-
- A little treat and a shy bun!
Back and forth they shuttled, getting all the meals out in a very short space of time. Non-stop they did refills, took away trays and generally made sure everyone was satisfied. The sign of an experienced crew? You betcha! The sign of an experienced passenger is to attack the food with gusto as there is not much time and one must eat it all.
-
- Baggage claim, a place nobody likes to wait.
Shortly we started descending and landed into Dublin without incident. While deplaning, I complimented the crew on their excellent performance, to big grins behind the now ubiquitous face mask adorning their faces.
Overall Thoughts
Kudos to the blue and white hornets of BA828! From a passenger’s perspective, as a regular it’s really noticeable when you have an efficient crew versus one who is phoning it in. Taking the orders before take-off is key really.
As I know the flight time is quite short, sitting there seeing a crew pfaffing around taking their time is really annoying. Sometimes I’ve seen people in rows further back getting served right before descent begins, and there’s no need for it really.
What do you think of the service on board from British Airways crews on short flights? Do you get blue and white hornets or slowpokes? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
Like planes? See my “Does anyone remember” series.
Flight reviews your thing? Mine are all indexed here.
Follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Featured image by Aero Icarus via Wikimedia Commons.
Service like that on a 50 minute flight in the US is unheard of these days in First Class. Or 90 minutes, or 2 hours for that matter. The next time I read someone describing BA as “Bloody Awful” I will link them to this post and patiently wait for them to eat some well done crow.
Oh, I know! I flew a 2 hour plus Denver to LA flight on the same trip with AA and had the snack basket passed around. Definitely an entirely different experience altogether!
As crew myself it’s always nice when customers appreciate speedy service, especially on CityFlyer where there’s just two of us for the whole aircraft and Scottish flights can have up to 22 in Club (fortunately DUB is capped at 14). Unbelievably we used to offer Club on GLA-BHD which is typically a 20-25 minute flight. I was impressed by the group of four gentlemen who not only managed to finish their meal before the 10 minute call but also found time for a second beer! Meanwhile the Euro Traveller passengers all got a snack and bar service. You end up… Read more »
The CityFlyer crews like yourself are certainly no slouches when it comes to good service, that’s for sure. Memorable was an IBZ-DUB where I was the only passenger in Club, so I got to have a right good old chat for an hour or so during the flight when they visited my seat. Love that kind of thing too. It is pretty remarkable to see the service delivered on the short flights. It must make the flight go incredibly quickly for you and your colleagues – not to mention tiring! No need for the gym after flights like that. Thanks… Read more »