Tier Point Run to Sofia in Dec 2023: Day 2 – London Heathrow LHR to Sofia SOF

By Nige on Tue 12 Dec 2023 at 17:21
Type: Post
Story: Tier Point Run to Sofia in Dec 2023
Tags: British Airways | LHR | London Heathrow | SOF | Sofia | Trips

T3 was not as busy as normal, possibly due to it being a Tue. But T3 Fasttrack Security was now back in its normal place, having had the new 3D scanners installed.

That makes it a lot quicker. Nothing needed to come out of my bag, and the scanner is a lot wider, with arms now down, rather than up above your head.

So within a minute or so, I was heading towards the BA Lounge. Rather than procrastinate over deciding which lounge to go to today, I just went to the BA Lounge and be done with it.

I had to ask for a First Dining invite, but enjoyed another classic full English breakfast. The only issue was (again) the mushrooms, which were anaemic as hell, and the chef had obviously run out of any seasoning…

Did a couple of walks up to Gate 40 or so. Also walked down to Gate 1 once and to Gate 22 once. Nothing terribly exciting observed, but good exercise nonetheless.

Watched the flight arrive from Aberdeen, which would turn into my flight to Sofia. On the basis that my flight to Sofia was leaving from Gate 24 (a bus gate), I assume that means the Aberdeen flight was arriving into a remote stand somewhere around the airport.

Finished off my visit to the BA Lounge with a lunch comprising turkey and ham pies, mash, veggies and gravy, which was delicious.

It’s been very quiet in the lounge today compared with the first leg of this TP run which was on a Saturday. Perhaps not surprising that mid-week is less busy than a weekend.

It was dead down at Gate 24b when I got there. There were a few passengers sat patiently waiting for the gate to open, but no staff in evidence.

Another disaster in BA boarding. Didn’t start taking pax into the pen until 30 mins before departure. Then, whinged when everyone immediately queued at the door.

Another example of a Premier that didn’t do any sort of ID check before entering the pen and then catching a mini bus to the aircraft. BA – this does not send a good message about security.

Onto the bus finally, and we headed out in the driving rain. Luckily I waited at the front of the bus and because of the rain, the driver parked the bus such that it wasn’t much more than a jump from the front left door of the bus onto the stairs up to the aircraft. How considerate.

The aircraft had parked up at remote stand 590 on arrival from Aberdeen.

On into 01F – how nice does that feel. The first officer announced that we were running a few mins late due to a fire in T3, which led to an evacuation. She then said, “My condolences,” which seemed a very odd thing to say.

Flight: BA0890 Equip: A320
Sched Depart: 13:55 Actual: 14:13
Sched Arrival: 19:05 Actual: 19:10
Takeoff: 14:36 Landing: 19:07

We pushed back about 20 mins late, but taxiing didn’t take too long. It was bumpy for the first 10-15 mins, but was pretty calm thereafter.

The drinks service started fairly promptly and the meal service gave me the opportunity for my first turkey dinner of the season.

The turkey was plentiful and not too dry. Potatoes were fairly limp. A small amount of stuffing was well seasoned. Veggies including some fresh cranberry sauce was not bad. Overall, it was half decent.

I didn’t bother too much with the cheese and crackers, which were the standard fayre. The chocolate mousse was tasty, and I didn’t try the starter.

We seemed to be flying through cloud for good deal of the early part of the flight – I couldn’t see anything out of the window.

We arrived into Sofia Terminal 2 Gate B7 about 5 mins late.

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