Tier Point Run to Sofia in Jan 2024: Day 4 – London Heathrow LHR to Sofia SOF

By Nige on Mon 29 Jan 2024 at 15:22
Type: Post
Story: Tier Point Run to Sofia in Jan 2024
Tags: British Airways | LHR | London Heathrow | SOF | Sofia | Trips

The final segment of my exciting TP run to Sofia and back starts today, but it didn’t get off to a great start!

It took what seemed to be ages before I finally got to sleep last night, and perhaps as a result, I woke up later than expected this morning.

I am normally on one of the first two tube trains into Heathrow (between 5am and 5:30am), but I didn’t even wake until 6:20am – that’s seriously late for me.

I was up and out in no time at all, heading back to Hatton Cross tube, and it was another one of those moments when I found a train at the platform, so I jumped on it.

It took a few seconds before realising it was heading to T4 first off. I vaguely remember an announcement suggesting that trains can wait at T4 for 6 or 7 mins before heading to T2/T3, so I jumped off and waited for the T5 train 4 mins later.

There was a long queue at T3 Fast Track Security this morning (probably as a result of my tardy time of getting up), but it moved fairly quickly. I decided to base myself in the Cathay Pacific lounge today.

By 8am, I had done my first walk around T3 and was up to 5k steps. On my way back to the Cathay Lounge, I popped into the BA Lounge to enjoy more toast and my first coffee of the day.

The flight left from Gate 24B. Flightaware.com was aware of the gate early and I headed down there about 50 mins before scheduled departure.

Flight: BA0890 Equip: A320
Sched Depart: 11:20 Actual: 11:17
Sched Arrival: 16:35 Actual: 16:17
Takeoff: 11:29 Landing: 16:14

The bus took us to a remote stand, and passengers were allowed off from the front of the bus, which is where I was loitering. Managed to get a good space for my bag in the locker above row 1 and into my favourite seat: 01F.

There was no power at seat 01F, although there was at 01D – I’d have to hope there was power available at my seat on the way back.

I noticed a guy I recognised from the Sofia flights yesterday was in seat 01C.

Within 10 mins of our scheduled departure, we were hurtling down the runway. That’s unheard of for BA!

I ordered a cup of tea from the drinks service, which arrived quite quickly. A packet of shortcake was offered and gratefully accepted.

Lunch was the same as yesterday, and due to how nice the cod was yesterday, I decided to go for that again. Lovely.

Starter was the same as yesterday: mozzarella salad, which I didn’t bother with on this occasion.

Pudding was the chocolate mousse, which was good. Cheese and crackers made up the standard fayre.

Arrived 15 mins early into Gate B7, which seems to be the standard gate at this time of the day. Gate B3 was being used by another aircraft. Later in the day, Gate B3 is generally available for the inbound BA aircraft.

Follow the whole story here: Tier Point Run to Sofia in Jan 2024