Travel Review: British Airways

Traveling has become the need of the day in view of the present age of cut throat competition. Long and tiring journeys have become the part of our daily life. In these circumstances, it becomes absolutely necessary to ensure that your journey becomes most comfortable. I had an opportunity recently to travel to India from BWI airport in the USA to Vadodara in Gujarat State in India by British Airways via London. I shall give a review of my said journey by British Airways.

The flight departure time was 9 pm from BWI. Though, it was mentioned that the passengers can check in before 24 hours of the flight departure time, I was not able to do so in spite of repeated efforts as the web site had a problem. Due to this, I also could not get the seat number allocated as it was only possible at the time of checking in. We reached at the airport at 6 pm and got checked in without any problems. The luggage allowance was 51LBS per bag and two numbers of bags per passenger. However, the main problem was that British Airways allowed only one piece of hand bag and that too within specified size. Even the gentlemen were not allowed to carry the laptop and the ladies could not carry their hand purses. The security check was the next hurdle.

Unfortunately, we were caught in sample check and we had to offer our complete security check with our hand baggage. I had to remove my laptop from the hand bag and place it in X-ray check. While we were checked thoroughly, our hand bags were stacked in the corner. I could not see my laptop, when I came out from body check up. Though, I was able to find out my laptop due to the help of security, we had a nightmare time in all these hassles. Finally, we were able to board the flight in time. The seats allocated were good as per our wish. The in-flight entertainment was also nice, offering us around 250 various choices on a very sensitive touch screen personal TV. This also included the latest couple of Indian Hindi films. The dinner and drinks served were also nice, offering many varieties of food/drinks. We could rest a little and reached London at around 9 am, around 20 minutes earlier. Though, the minutes saved here could not help us in our flight change at London as our aircraft had to wait for around half an hour before a gate was made available to our aircraft.

We started our running around as we had to catch our flight for Mumbai, which was to depart within 75 minutes. The walk was not too long as we had to travel from international arrival to international departure in the same terminal number 4. However, once again, there was a large waiting at the security station and we could just make to our flight. It is really necessary to keep a time interval of at least 3 hours for the change of flight. The wheel chair passengers are given the preference during this change of flight. Our flight for Mumbai left on time at 11.05 am. The in flight arrangements were also very nice once again, comprising of nice lunch with high quality drinks. We landed at Mumbai on time and could pass the customs easily. We were pleasantly surprised to see the check in counter of Jet air ways just outside the customs area for our onward flight to our final destination Vadodara.

There was also a nice waiting lounge for the passengers. We were taken to domestic terminal of Mumbai airport by a luxury coach, well in advance of the flight time. The Jet air flight to Vadodara from Mumbai was excellent with hot breakfast served onboard. I would strongly recommend all my AC friends to buy a direct air ticket for your internal destination in India as it would be highly convenient, with same luggage allowance and avoiding all sorts of hassles of train travel ahead. We could reach Vadodara exactly on time. The entire flight experience was very good but we had to face lots of problems on ground during the security check and the flight change running around. Make sure not to carry any sort of liquid gel in your hand bag as it will cause real problems during the security check. It is strongly recommended to book the type of meal that you would like to have during the flight at the time of booking the flight itself.

As a conclusion, overall experience of British Airways was very nice excepting some problems on the ground during flight change and security. I have no hesitation in recommending travel through British Airways to all my AC friends keeping the above facts in mind.