[fulmer]

I'm flying to Leningrad via London soon, and it's British Airways all the way from the US to London to Leningrad.

I've never flown BA before, and would like to hear your opinions of 'em. but I guess if they get me there and back without crashing, I'll be happy.

[7Macfreak]

all my experiences with BA have been great. my only gripe is when travelling on certain sectors within asia.... they use 'old' aircrafts, which pissed me off. but i dont think you'd face that problem.
food is good, service is good.. and um... yeah. good overall. dont worry about it.

[Mastrap]

BA is my favourite airline when flying in Europe. They're boring in a good way. Planes are clean, food is edible, cabin staff friendly. They tend to be on time.

If you can, choose the Hindu meal option - their curries are excellent. If you like curry that is. If you're flying business - is anyone left flying business?- even better.

[Mulattabianca]

st. petersburg is great, enjoy!!

BA is cool. the personal is friendly and the foods seem to be edible.. one of my fav airline companies in europe.

[El Pre$idente]

BA, American Airlines and Alitalia have the worst food. Air India and Emirates have the best food and in house entertainment.

[Mastrap]

Originally posted by El Pre$idente:
Air India ---snip--- have the best food and in house entertainment.

The food is certainly good (if you like curry which I do), however the "entertainment" is terrible. Ancient Bollywood stuff.

[pixelghetto]

IT'S GOING TO CRASH! YOU ARE GOING TO DIE!!! I SABOTARGED IT!

I have never flown BA, but I have done Canada Air, Scandinavian Airlines and some other one...Western American or something! Scandinavian was the best! I am planning to try and get business class on my next long haul flight anywhere! I hope!

[deekay1]

as far as i can remember (took a flight with them from frankfurt to london back in '96) the service was really friendly and the food kinda sucked (but it was only a "snack" since the flight lasted merely 1 h and 45 mins)

wudda ya expect, - it's british food!

[Hawkeye_a]

If your flying coach....hehe...get ready for the worst butt-cramps you'll have your entire life.I've flown from Chicago to London(Heathrow). The seats are cramped more than any other airliner ive ever flown. I personally loved the service, the food and the entertainment(in flight shows and movies were preety good, hopefully u'll be flying in a Boeing 777 cuase i think they are the only ones which have the personal video screens for each seat). But my airline of choice is KLM. (i totally dispise NorthWest by the way, one of the worst airliners in the world as far as i'm concerned. the staff is so un-professional, it makes you wonder if you'd have had a better ride on the back of a truck with sheep, and they charge you an arm and a leg)

[El Pre$idente]

Originally posted by Mastrap:



The food is certainly good (if you like curry which I do), however the "entertainment" is terrible. Ancient Bollywood stuff.

The ancient Bollywood stuff is the best, man. Shashi Kapoor, Amitabh Bachan - those guys were the Paul Newman and Robert Redford of the day!

[Mastrap]

Originally posted by deekay1:
as far as i can remember (took a flight with them from frankfurt to london back in '96) the service was really friendly and the food kinda sucked (but it was only a "snack" since the flight lasted merely 1 h and 45 mins)

wudda ya expect, - it's british food!

What? That must have been a lot earlier than 1996 because that flight takes a maximum of 55 minutes nowadays

But you're right, the food on short hops isn't really worth eating, especially in coach.But then, I don't ask to be fed when I take the Underground in the morning. Last time I went to Amsterdam the client paid for business. They served us a whole lunch, starter, main course, coffee in 45 minutes. Madness.

[Jens Peter]

Even though I haven't been traveling with BA, I do have to defent the food on Alitalia. When I travel from Copenhagen to Napoli(Naples), the food have always been great. And the italian crew are always nice and helpful when I try speaking italian

But hey, enjoy your trip to Leningrad, I've heard it's a nice city.

Jens Peter

[SimeyTheLimey]

Originally posted by fulmer:
I'm flying to Leningrad via London soon,

OT question: do the locals ever call it St. Petersburg? Or is it still Leningrad "in their hearts" or just by habit?

[Montanan]

Well, if you're used to traveling on the major United States airlines, you'll probably find BA to be a notch higher in terms of service quality ... but you're not going to find huge differences among any of them any more. (I'd say that my favorite European carrier these days is probably SAS, but it's probably a "style" thing rather than markedly-better service.)

If you want great service and food, though, try to book on one of the Asian flag carriers, like Thai, Singapore, or Cathy Pacific. They still have the touch ... you'll notice a BIG difference.

And St. Petersburg is awesome!! You'll have an amazing time.

[Montanan]

Originally posted by SimeyTheLimey:

OT question: do the locals ever call it St. Petersburg? Or is it still Leningrad "in their hearts" or just by habit?

I was there a couple of years ago, and I didn't hear anybody call the place Leningrad. Most of the people I met seemed like they were hoping to forget those decades, and instead concentrate on trying to catch up with Moscow's economy.

OTOH, when I was in Vietnam, pretty much everybody was still referring to Ho Chi Minh City as "Saigon." Go figure ...

[scaught]

ooh. greatest website ever.

www.airlinemeals.net

user submitted pictures and reviews of the in-flight meals. great for atwork browsing!

[SimeyTheLimey]

Originally posted by Montanan:
OTOH, when I was in Vietnam, pretty much everybody was still referring to Ho Chi Minh City as "Saigon." Go figure ...

I'm not entirely surprised. AFAIK, the locals always called Karl Marx Stadt Chemnitz. On the other hand, isn't there supposed to be a movement to restore the name Stalingrad?

I guess it depends on what the name conjures up as an association. Opression? Heroism?

[scaught]

Originally posted by SimeyTheLimey:
Stalingrad?

I guess it depends on what the name conjures up as an association. Opression? Heroism?

yay! the greatest mass murderer of all time! 40 million processed! wee!!!

[SimeyTheLimey]

Originally posted by scaught:
yay! the greatest mass murderer of all time! 40 million processed! wee!!!

But for the locals in Volgograd (I think that's the current name) the name probably has more to do with the battle than the man.

I'm just guessing though. It could just as easily be nostalgia. Why, for example, would people be pressing to return Iron Felix to his spot in front of the Lubyanka? Seems odd to me. But then, I don't know Russia.

[macvillage.net]

Expensive but I hear very good things about them.


FYI...


Singapore Airlines is really cheap, yet suprisingly good. Tried a Newark to Amsterdam....

Even in coach personal entertainment system (Super Nintendo Games, Music, Movies, TV Shows, CNN News etc.)....

Controller/phone thing in hand:


Food wasn't to good, but I knew that since my mother flew with them before so I brought a sandwich and got some drinks.

Not to mention they were THE cheapest flight to Amsterdam.

Leg room really wasn' bad. Much better than Delta or United.

I would highly recommend them, they just don't do to much here in the US... but if they are an option, save the cash and get a decent flight.

Edit: Pic

[fulmer]

Originally posted by SimeyTheLimey:


OT question: do the locals ever call it St. Petersburg? Or is it still Leningrad "in their hearts" or just by habit?

the World War 2 generation often calls it Leningrad merely out of habit. To them, it was always Leningrad, from their birth (or nearly so, if they were born before Lenin died) through their entire lives, and the change is still 'recent' to them. so out of habit, yeah, and some of the 20+ folks will sometimes say Leningrad as a joke, like they will joking call each other 'comrade' or 'citizen'. The very young (<18 yrs or so) simply don't know anything but Petersburg.

[fulmer]

Originally posted by Mulattabianca:
st. petersburg is great, enjoy!!

thanks for the well-wishes. I'm very familiar with the city, though, having spent a lot of time there.

I WON'T be going to Moscow, however. there's just too much crazy stuff going on there right now. assassination, mcdonald's bombing, and this hostage mess.

[Mr. Blur]

i flew british airways vancouver-london-zurich (and return) this past summer and found the service *much* better than what i am used to with our national carrier (air canada).

[Sven G]

Originally posted by Jens Peter:
Even though I haven't been traveling with BA, I do have to defent the food on Alitalia. When I travel from Copenhagen to Napoli(Naples), the food have always been great. And the italian crew are always nice and helpful when I try speaking italian

But hey, enjoy your trip to Leningrad, I've heard it's a nice city.

Jens Peter

... Forse � perch� i danesi sono i "napoletani del nord"... (M�ske er det fordi danskerne er "Nordens neapolitanere"...) [Maybe it's becuase the Danes are the "Neapolitans of the north"...]

Personally, I've travelled with Alitalia and SAS (Scandinavian): probably, they are roughly equivalent. One thing that irritates me, though, is the excessive "servilism" of the crew: I may need to travel - not to be "served" like a "client"!

P.S.: �rhus is a great city: neither to small, nor too big (lived there for 7 years, BTW)...

[fulmer]

Originally posted by Mr. Blur:
i flew british airways vancouver-london-zurich (and return) this past summer and found the service *much* better than what i am used to with our national carrier (air canada).

re zurich: I liked swissair when I flew nyc-zurich-petersburg and moscow-zurich-nyc over a year ago.

hated lufthansa when I went dc-frankfurt-petersburg and back just a few months ago.

[SimeyTheLimey]

Originally posted by fulmer:


the World War 2 generation often calls it Leningrad merely out of habit. To them, it was always Leningrad, from their birth (or nearly so, if they were born before Lenin died) through their entire lives, and the change is still 'recent' to them. so out of habit, yeah, and some of the 20+ folks will sometimes say Leningrad as a joke, like they will joking call each other 'comrade' or 'citizen'. The very young (<18 yrs or so) simply don't know anything but Petersburg.

Thanks.

This is like those "today's freshmen don't remember the world before the Compact Disc" e-mails that float about from time-to-time. I feel old!

[talisker]

I've had a lot of experience flying BA (in all classes) as I used to work for them. Having flown on many other airlines since, I would say that BA are very good. Their "product" is much more sophisticated than elsewhere, and although service is always reliant on the particular crew on your flight, it is pretty good.

I remember the food in economy on flights out of the USA was usually excellent, moreso than flying the other way. I think most aircraft have the seatback video screens now, not just the 777s. Oh, and if you fancy your chances of an upgrade, BA do tend to be fairly "by the book" but they will obviously upgrade if they run out of seats in economy.

To maximise your chances of being picked, dress reasonably smartly (no jeans), be friendly at checkin (so they mark you on the system as SFU - suitable for upgrade), don't ask for an upgrade, travel alone (more chance of them having one seat on its own to use in business class), join the BA Executive Club (frequent flyer programme) in advance. From my recollection of how the system worked (certainly out of Heathrow) checking in early or late doesnt make a difference. They simply wait until everyone's checked in then upgrade people on the system and alter their boarding pass at the gate. Of course if your flight's not full you're probably out of luck.

Have fun!

[nonhuman]

Sorry, BA sucks. You should just avoid the trouble. Было бы лучше чтобы вы дать мне ваши билеты.. Damn, I need more oppurtinites to use my Russian before I lose it completely.

I can definitely see why they might want to restore the name Stalingrad. The Battle of Stalingrad was a hell of a testament to the strength of the Russian people.

[D'Espice]

Originally posted by fulmer:
I'm flying to Leningrad via London soon, and it's British Airways all the way from the US to London to Leningrad.

I've never flown BA before, and would like to hear your opinions of 'em. but I guess if they get me there and back without crashing, I'll be happy.

BA screwed up my last trip to Chicago, I's flyin' with BA from Munich to London and then from London to Chicago with American Airways. Anyway, the BA flight was late, they lost my suitcase, had to wait for almost an hour before they found it. Anyway, I missed my connection flight to Chicago, had to wait in London for like 12h and they refused to give me anything to eat or to drink although it was their fault clearly.

On my flight back, again with AA to London and then from London to Munich with BA, they lost both my suitcases, AGAIN! So whatever you do, don't give them your baggage or you won't see it again.