Dusseldorf International

I arrived at the airport in Düsseldorf around 05:15 for my flight to London. After I returned my rental car, I walked over in the main terminal, which was already busy and a long line at the counter of British Airways for Economy class and also for Club World and elite customers had formed. Only three counters were staffed, two counters were serving Economy Class and one counter was serving Business Class and elite customers. But the wait was not long until it was my turn. I did not check luggage, but somehow was unable to download the boarding passes on my smartphone. The agent confirmed that I was flying to London and on to Dallas Fort Worth and to Miami the next day. She printed all boarding passes to Miami and also confirmed, that British Airways was departing temporarily from terminal A but still used the Hugo-Junkers-Lounge in terminal B.

The fast lane was in use this time but all three security checkpoints had nearly the same number of people queuing. As usual, no verification was done if one was entitled to use the fast lane. Staff was friendly and I passed the body scanner but needed to be patted down by one of the officers. My carry on made it without need for a manual inspection.

A quick elevator ride up and I was in the Hugo Junkers Lounge, which is used by British Airways. My boarding was checked by the lounge agent at the entrance of the lounge and I was granted access. The lounge is also used by other airlines and also a lounge in the Priority Pass network. The lounge was not very busy and I had not difficulty to get a seat on the less busy right side. I grabbed a coffee from the buffet and started my laptop to check e-mails and download some items for the upcoming flights.

Ten minutes prior to boarding time, I left the lounge and walked over to the terminal A. I had to pass immigration, but there was no line. Boarding had not started as I arrived at the gate A 79, but the waiting time was not long. After a wheelchair passengers was brought into the plane, the pre boarding announcement was made and passengers in Club Europe as well as oneworld emerald and sapphire members were invited to board the aircraft.

27 October 2015
DUS – LHR
[Dusseldorf International – London Heathrow]
BA 935 (British Airways); Airbus A 319 (G-EUPW)
Gate A 79
07:10 – 07:40 [effective 07:10 – 07:29]
Economy Class
Seat 12 D

A passport check was done at the gate and another agent attached a hand luggage label to my laptop bag.
I was among the first passengers to board the plane and the second passenger in Economy Class. I stored my carry on in the overhead bin and the laptop under the seat in front of mew.

Our plane for today’s flight to London Heathrow arrived the day before and was parked during the night at the gate. I had already researched it and it was an Airbus A 391-131 with the registration G-EUPW, which joined the fleet of British Airways on March 06, 2001. Like all Airbus A319 in the fleet of BA, it was powered by IAE V2522 A 5 engines. The plane was configured with 132 seats at the time it joined the fleet but was reconfigured in 2015 with 143 of the new Euro Traveller seats.

As the cabin had already the new Euro Traveller seats, this means there is no big difference in the seat pitch between the first 10 seats and the remaining seats. The first ten rows have a pitch of 30 inch while the remaining 15 rows have a seat pitch of 29 inch. The seat width is 17 inch.

The plane filled with passengers but Economy Class was not full and the middle seat remained empty.

The captain welcomed us on board and gave us information about the flight time to London and the weather we could expect in London this morning. During a few of my flight with British Airways, he announcement of the captain was either translated into German or done in German by the flight deck themselves, but not so this time. The safety video was started and while it was shown we were pushed back and began to taxi to the runway.

We took off in Western direction and headed towards the Dutch border and the channel.

Once the seat belt sign was switched off, the crew closed the curtain and distributed the landing card for the United Kingdom. The snack and beverage service started round about ten minutes after we left Düsseldorf. On the morning flight a ham sandwich or a sweet pastry was offered along with a orange juice and coffee or tea and water. I skipped the service and continued to listen to the music on my blackberry.

Flight time passed quickly and the captain came on the microphone after we already had made the first step into the final descend into London Heathrow. He expects an arrival ahead of schedule and announced the remaining flight time with 20 minutes. There were low clouds in Heathrow, but he did not expect a delay in the approach. The crew began to collect the remaining items from the service and began to prepare the cabin for the arrival into Heathrow.
We approached London from the East and touched down on runway 09 L at 07:25 ahead of time and after taxiing back to terminal 5 A pulled up at our gate at the main terminal at 07:32

The jetbridge was attached to the plane and after a short wait was on my way to the transit checkpoint.

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