Tier Point Run to Sofia in Nov 2024: Day 29 – Sofia SOF to London Heathrow LHR
By Nige
on December 7, 2024
at 7:54 pm
Type: Post
Story: Tier Point Run to Sofia in Nov 2024
Category: Travel
Tags: British Airways | LHR | London Heathrow | SOF | Sofia | Trips
Whilst we were waiting to reboard, I was asked by the despatcher what the weather was like at Heathrow. A bit breezy, I said, which I guess was a bit of an understatement.
She said there was a delay of 2 hours heading back, and she needed to check with the captain as to what he wanted to do.
That delay slipped out to 3 hours due to the windy conditions at Heathrow.
One or two other flights managed to leave, although one was a Qatar flight to Doha. We quite fancied joining them in the warmth of Doha!
Our gate moved from Gate B7 to B12, and we watched the aircraft be tugged between the Gate areas.
That was the highlight of my stay in Sofia!
We started boarding via buses at 13:30, but the staff expected us to be hanging around for an hour before being allowed to push back.
We had a laugh with Ali, the cabin crew lead who was part of the world wide team, so normally flies long haul.
Stuart, who told us he was a tube train driver, showed up all of the GGL members on board by providing a gift to the cabin crew.
He got the best treatment for the rest of the flight!
We got chocoloate, nuts and drinks to keep us quiet whilst we patiently waited on the apron to get the nod to push back.
Another hour delay was announced. We finally pushed back at 4pm local time – about 4 hours late.
The service on board was quite joyful, and my third turkey dinner in two days went down well.
It was a fitting end to a mammoth TP run.
None of us really knew what to expect on final approach into Heathrow, with the warnings about Storm Darragh.
It turned out to be a hellish approach into the runway. When we landed, there was a round of applause, so there were a fair number of passengers relieved to be on terra firma!
Hats off to the whole team for keeping us happy whilst we were holding on the ground, for providing a great service in the air and to the flight crew for getting us on the ground safely.
We arrived at Gate 32 at Heathrow T3.
By Alan on December 10, 2024 at 9:05 pm
Great read. Running the gauntlet tomorrow only to add to the challenge I’m flying from GLA to LHR with a 05:55 dept landing at T5 at 07:30 then a 9am dept from T3 to to SOF. Keeping my fingers crossed there’s a B2B veteran on to hold my hand as this is my first time.By Nige on December 11, 2024 at 3:41 am
Thanks for your comment Alan. Good luck with the B2B - I'm sure it will be fine! Enjoy the turkey dinner on the way home!