BA - Hmm

As I write this I'm sitting in a 747 on flight BA177 from London to New York. It's too hot, the guy on front of me can't sit still for more than about 5 seconds, and is therefore constantly banging my knees, the air is stale, and time is beginning to drag. Such are the pleasures of air travel. Most of our recent flights have been travelling east with middle eastern airlines, Emirates, Qatar, and SriLankan (operated by Emirates) and it's so noticeable how much better they are to this wholly unmemorable experience. They have new planes, very attractive and efficient staff, good food choices, and amazing entertainment systems to keep you amused for hours on end.

Here on BA we have stewardesses that look like they'd probably seen better days 15 years ago and a male steward that seems so enthusiastic it's as if he'd taken a couple of Es before we took off. The Boeing seems incredibly shabby compared with the almost new Airbus 300s of the other airlines and from where I'm sitting there seem to be plenty of broken seats and 'entertainment systems'. Oh happy days.

I guess I shouldn't complain too much as we're travelling on a couple of free tickets paid for with our air miles, but it's easy to see why anyone paying with their own cash would give this outfit a wide berth. Maybe the problem is that we're on the very busy LHR-JFK route which I know from regular experience in the late 90's is definitely not one of the glamour trips, America Airlines were even worse than BA then, so business is easy and they don't need to try.

Looking on the bright side we only have another couple of hours to go before we have the joys of US immigration to negotiate. No doubt we'll be met by some of the most unhappy people the US can assemble in one place, who will scour our documentation for any little error we may have made before hopefully grunting and sending us on our way.