Tag: British Airways

Amalfi Coast 1.9.26

2 September 2026 / admin

T5 Pod Parking 1.9.26

Up early to get loaded and depart for Heathrow T5 via the wonderful Pod parking. We are early so have a wait which is extended due to our aeroplane having undergone maintenance overnight and in consequence was at the wrong end of the airport.

We board and take off at 08:50 so should not be too late on arrival. BA524 and G-NEOP which is an Airbus A321. It is not quite full and yet we hear BA staff moaning about suitcases again within our earshot, I despair at the training being delivered these days, no consideration of passengers at all, simply just customers not passengers going on a journey with the airline.

BA524 flight – data from Flight Aware

The flight is smooth and the lost time recovered with touch down 5 minutes early. That was the end of the good news as it then took a shade under 2 hours to complete passport control. We pointed out that we are registered but apparently all British passports are being rejected, hence the queue, which snakes around a large holding pen and which has clearly been in place for sometime so this is very much not a one off. It seems that once the queue exceeds 45 minutes they revert to manual processing and stamping of passports. To be honest it now looks as though it is purely and simple a device with orders from on high to prevent British entry as plane loads of Americans are waved through rapidly. Most of the others in the queue have also registered before – so why not get us through the e-gates?

Vesuvius 1.9.26

Some 2.5 hours after landing we are finally on the coach, driving past Vesuvius which dominates the landscape. Then through three tunnels and then a drive down towards Sorrento (which I must have traversed in the opposite direction and of which I have no memory) and we are delivered to Hotel Eliseo Parks in the adjacent town of S’Agnello. Book in and unpack.

Sorrento Peninsular 1.9.26

This is from the coach window as we wind down a twisting road into the five towns which occupy the coastline with Sorrento being in the far distance.

After a shower and then it is time to eat the dinner requested as we booked in. Yes it is the little known cost reduction philosophy or phenomenon of having to know what you want to eat hours before dinner time. Normally we are told that on future days we have to decide at breakfast what we have to eat in the evening. I do realise that some cost control is necessary but somehow my brain just rejects the rationality of making such decisions. How do I know what I might fancy some 8 or more hours hence.

When dinner is served we are not exactly impressed. The initial linguine is not too bad but the hake delivered to Jackie looks like nothing on earth and certainly not some form of fresh fish caught overnight and delivered to the hotel this very morning. My piece of pork is not too bad in itself but the accompanying vegetables probably saw better days once upon a time, before they were cooked to near inedibility. Not a wonderful start. Given that the hotel is an upgrade on the three star in Sorrento we are a little surprised. Visually the hotel is attractive – but the food does not feel 4 star style.

Not being amused with dinner an online search brings up Hotel Vesuvio with a sky bar and impressive looking restaurant where a booking is made for tomorrow night.

For the record the Newmarket description of the day:
Arrive in Italy, meet your tour manager and board our coach for the scenic journey to the Bay of Naples, and on to your chosen hotel, in or close to Sorrento.

Lyon 6.5.26

7 May 2026 / admin

Empty l;ocker space 6-5-26

Having spent a fortune on her Amex card we became entitled to a companion voucher on BA and whilst they have made these less attractive and usable over the years they do enable an almost free flight to European destinations so when it arrived last year we determined that we would visit Lyon. Hotel booked, Restaurants booked and hopefully a few pleasant days would ensue, which looked even better when a previously unavailable dining location re-opened bookings to co-incide with our time in the City. All good news.

Off to Heathrow and as usual into a pod from the pod parking to the terminal. Convenient even if a little expensive and of course our second trip using this route in a short time.

We have both packed with two cabin bags – Jackie with her new cabin bag as acquired in Den Haag and me with a black case I had for short trips at work. We also have a second bag all in accordance with BA guidance. At the gate we are minding our own business when a BA employee asks to see our boarding passes and then tells us that our bags are going in the hold. He had walked around the waiting passengers and we were the only ones he approached. Apparently the plane was full and the luggage had to go in the hold. When we pointed out that this was not right we were told we would be offloaded and could not fly. There was none of the usual – can you help us please or any politeness – it was his way or the highway. The lack of customer awareness was unbelievable.

So at Lyon I checked the overhead locker – it was completely empty. In other overhead lockers we could see cases with luggage labels indicating they were destined for the hold. Put simply there was no need for it. One bag each would have gone in the overhead and the other one under the seat in front. It was handled so badly that it put us off completely – this is not the BA that once claimed to be the world’s favourite airline.

The next nightmare is border control. They have three open booths (of 6), no-one is managing the queue and it takes two hours, no seats, no water and no-one keen on actually welcoming us to the country. No instructions on how to use the electronic gates or even information on if they could be used (as we registered on the new system entering the Netherlands). When we do reach the border person she and her adjacent colleague are discussing the next night out and Jackie is pretty sure she does not even look at her to compare the photo taken. Absolutely awful.

Rhone Express 6-5-26

The airport is adjacent to the TGV station to which we walk. On the far side of the station is a platform for the “tram” known as the Rhone Express into Lyon which terminates adjacent to the main station and also our hotel as Jackie wanted a short walk from tram stop to the hotel – which is just as well as it actually raining at this point.

Now I can offer some advice. Nothing wrong with the hotel. However the area on this side of the station is less than attractive. We wander around some adjacent streets in the hope of a little bar or similar but nothing appeals and at one point there are some less than welcome drunks lying in the street. Not appealing at all. To save going out again we cancel the restaurant booking this evening and decide to eat in the hotel. The wine is good even if the food is slightly lacking.

In summary not a good start to this particular trip.

Euro Tour 1 – to Berlin

1 August 2017 / admin

Sunday 23 July 2017

This is one of those holidays which has long been on the to do list – a variation on the usual Prague / Vienna / Budapest excursions as our first destination is the city of Berlin with onward travel being by rail. Tour operator is Rail Discoveries – the secondary brand of Great Rail Journeys.

The taxi is with us at home at 05:15 for our journey to Heathrow T5. We manage to avoid the long queue at Group check in as Jackie flashes her BA card and we are moved to a non-existent queue at Club check in (my BA membership has now dropped back to Blue status but thankfully they let me check in with her!).

We head through security and now we wait for the plane. Breakfast is taken at Huxleys which is a new outlet (to us) I think. Then downstairs for a wander through duty free, £20 saving on an iPad does not seem a huge amount, and trade in will provide a better net cost. Even though we are at terminal 5 there is no opportunity to ride the shuttle service as we are going from an “A” gate. I have still not been to the “C” gates.

We board the plane and as it is not full we are pleased to have three seats for the two of us so more comfortable than usual, greatly improved by the delivery of a glass of champagne each from the front of the plane courtesy of Angela and delivered by Mark. Thank you very much BA.

On time arrival in Berlin then a wait for our luggage. The coach loads and we are soon at the Alexander Park Inn and the sandwiches from Boots are consumed once we are in our room on the 24^th floor as a late lunch.

The weather is much better than anticipated. We descend to Alexandersplatz and walk under the adjacent railway line to the bottom of the TV tower which dominates the area. We go a little further to see Neptune’s fountain, the town hall and the old but rebuilt church. During this holiday we will be slightly restricted as Jackie is suffering from bad sciatica which is limiting the distances she can walk. I will try not to mention it again.

The photos of this are here.

On our return to the hotel (Park Inn by Radisson) we head to the Panorama bar at the top of the building for a couple of drinks and to enjoy the late afternoon sunshine. Not an attractive space in itself – but then the building was originally a Soviet era accommodation for Comecon officials. There was a very expensive refurbishment in 2001 to bring it up to modern standards – we are deep in former East German Berlin. However I can get some views of the obviously very flat city which stretches in all directions from this point.

We rejoin the group for buffet dinner in the main restaurant with an excellent selection of starters, the main course is slightly less inspired but the cheese selection was also excellent. This was followed with a coffee in the ground floor bar (which had a very odd soft bed like “compartment” which we did not try) where we chat to some of the others on the tour.