Tier Point Run to Sofia in Dec 2023: Day 1 – London Heathrow LHR to Sofia SOF

The friendly bus driver dropped me at Heathrow T3 and I headed into Fast Track Security. The access point had been moved – I guess as a temporary measure whilst they make changes. It certainly wasn’t fast today though!

The Departures Lounge was really busy; perhaps no busier than normal, but there were bodies everywhere! So I didn’t hang around and I headed through to the lounge area.

As I was heading through towards the lounges I was trying to decide which lounge I would base myself in. I had decided I wouldn’t bother lounge-hopping today – I had a fair amount of work I wanted to do, so the question was where would I get the best breakfast?

My default is normally the Cathay Pacific First Lounge – they have a sit-down breakfast service, but recently have reserved all of the nice tables, even though you can’t actually reserve them! That annoys me, so I was thinking it wasn’t going to be a Cathay Pacific Lounge day today.

The Qantas Lounge is ok, the breakfast is ok, but it’s buffet and nothing very special, so there was nothing particularly attracting me in that direction.

Other frequent fliers seem to swear by the AA First Lounge for breakfast, although the lounge is a little on the small side and the buffet breakfast doesn’t do that much for me either.

Lastly, might it be a BA Lounge day today? Last time I was in, the First Dining area didn’t accept anyone other than First passengers. I didn’t think that was quite right at the time, so if that’s still the case, then the best I could hope for was a half-decent buffet breakfast.

I was about to head left to the Cathay Pacific Lounge, when something told me to head to the BA Lounge.

So I turned right and headed into the BA First Lounge, which turned out to be a great decision.

When my boarding card was checked by the Lounge Dragons, I was asked whether I was GGL – I assume they could see that on my account and when I confirmed, I was offered an invite into the First Dining area. Fab! That’s a good improvement!

So I found a seat in the lounge and then I headed through into First Dining, where I was warmly welcomed and enjoyed a very nice full English breakfast.

The only question was whether the fried eggs had actually seen more than a minute of heat or not!

After doing some work, I took a break and wandered around the terminal. It was noticeable how cold it was in the corridors between gates.

As I walked down to Gate 22 (the Virgin wing), it felt like I was walking into a fridge. I might have said freezer, but I’m trying not to exaggerate!

Flight: BA0890 Equip: A320
Sched Depart: 14:00 Actual: 15:19
Sched Arrival: 19:10 Actual: 20:25
Takeoff: 15:51 Landing: 20:20

Back to the lounge and I got another invite to First Dining so I could sample the Balti platter, which was quite tasty.

Not sure there was anything served up that I couldn’t have got at the buffet, but I felt that BA was looking after me.

The flight to Sofia left from Gate 26, so as soon as that was publicised, I headed down to join the small number of passengers already in the holding pen.

What a mess at the gate! Firstly, I respectfully waited about 6 feet from the boarding door on the left hand side. I never like to look too pushy or insistent that I am going to be boarding first!

And of course, I like to leave room for families to board ahead of Group 1.

Everyone leaves the first row of seats close to the boarding door free – it clearly states they are for Priority Boarding and even has icons on those seats representing the types of passengers that are allowed to sit in them: old people, pregnant women etc.

Of course what happens next – two fat guys take a long look at these seats and decide one of the icons shows a fat guy that can’t be bothered to find a seat further from the boarding door.

Cheeky f*ckers. Of course, no one says anything (including me) – us Brits do not like making a fuss.

The main BA Chief Boarder was really clear and firm in his announcements about pax in groups 4-9 would have their rolling bags taken and put in the hold – no exceptions. That was good to hear.

Then he clearly stated the first group of pax to board would be families and those needing extra time to board. What he referred to as Priority Boarding. All clear and correct.

Whilst I was patiently waiting, up walks an older English gent and pushes past me, pulling along behind him his Asian girlfriend.

He decides he will board first by (as good as) leaning against the boarding door. From this point on, I’ll refer to them as Mr & Mrs Knob.

Then a load of other passengers crowd the doorway, preventing those requiring Priority Boarding from getting to the door.

I got a face full of someone’s rucksack who decided it was a good idea to stand directly in front of me, without any consideration to the depth of personal space she needed to accomodate her oversized bag.

The BA Chief Boarder was at the boarding door at this point. Mr Knob then starts instructing the BA Chief Boarder as to who should be allowed through in Priority Boarding.

Good job he was providing instructions since the BA Chief Boarder obviously had no idea what he was doing, did he? I think I now realise why I named him Mr Knob.

What was worse was as families were going through as part of Priority Boarding, a number of individual male passengers were trying to tailgate through pretending to be connected with those families, just to board ahead of everyone else. Unbelievable.

The BA Chief Boarder sussed them out. Families declared they weren’t travelling with them and they were shamed into backtracking back into the boarding pen, looking embarrassed. F*ckwits…

Finally, the BA Chief Boarder asked for Group 1 passengers to come forward and of course every man and his dog started pushing.

I’ve seen some bad behaviour at gates, but I think I think this may have been the worst example I have ever seen.

Finally got on into seat 02F – not my normal seat – I think I must have had to change flights or something, which meant I couldn’t get my normal seat.

Of course Mr Knob was in seat 01D and Mrs Knob was in my normal seat. Just to be clear, Mrs Knob appeared to be a very nice, timid young lady that was happy to be dragged along by her English partner.

Their seating arrangements are relevant for the continuation of this story later on.

Back to the flight! We finally pushed back about 90 mins late, so it was going to be a late finish tonight by the time I got back to Heathrow!

The drinks service started promptly. Only water for me due to needing to drive. Just before the meal service started Mr Knob got up, leaned over to Mrs Knob and forced her seat back causing my legs some pain. No consideration, no checking.

Not sure Mrs Knob even wanted her seat pushing back, but she was happy to run with it. That just increased my appreciation of his interpersonal skills.

The meal was served with Mrs Knob’s seat still leaning back into my personal space. I could have made a fuss, but that’s not me unless I am really wound up and luckily I wasn’t pushed quite as much as was required.

So, back to the food! I went for the lamb, which was lovely as always. I’ve had the lamb dish a few times and the lamb is always really tender, tasty and the veggies that come with it always good.

The starter was a classic BA odd slop, which I tasted and moved on from. The cheese and crackers were nice too.

Finally, the lemon meringue pudding went down well as well. The food service was a success!

I just about survived the rest of the flight in a cramped seat with the seat in front of me leaning in to me.

Not a great experience, which helped me to better appreciate the benefits I gain when I can secure a front row berth.

On final approach, I got a great view of the Alexander Nevski Cathedral, lit up in the dark sky.

I haven’t noticed that on previous arrivals into Sofia.

We arrived into Gate B6. I overheard Mr Knob asking Mrs Knob as to whether they should go straight to the rooftop bar or get changed first. That at least meant they couldn’t cause me any further trouble on the way back to Heathrow.

Follow the whole story here: Tier Point Run to Sofia in Dec 2023