Eastern Europe Trip! London to Bucharest

To celebrate quitting my job, I decided to fly to Bucharest, which is a destination I’ve wanted to visit for many years but had never been able to find someone to take me.  Trying to get there for this vacation also turned out to not be without its own problems.  I have a BA voucher that I’ve been trying to use for over a year now, but the phone centers keep having problems trying to apply it to a booking.  Finally, I gave up trying to get someone on the phone to book it, but by that time, the tickets had greatly increased in price.  However! I got super lucky and there was an award ticket available in Club Europe on the day I wanted to travel and so snatched it.  I would’ve much preferred a paid ticket on this leg because I would’ve earned 80 tier points, but I was past the point of being able to optimize the trip.  I then got a text the night before that my flight was cancelled, which was obnoxious.  They could only rebook me onto the flight the next day, so I just took that. 

I then called the BA Gold line to try to change my return ticket.  The guy said he couldn’t change my return ticket because it was on a different booking so I was SOL. So instead, I filed for EU261 flight delay compensation.

When you call the BA Gold line, it’s a bit hit or miss who you get, so if you don’t like the answer you get, just try calling back later.  I decided to try my luck with the lounge staff at the airport.

The flight to Bucharest left from Terminal 3 at Heathrow, so I made sure to get there comfortably early so that I could enjoy the lounges and talk to BA customer service.  In terminal 3, only the BA Club (business) lounge has customer service, so I went there first.  I explained the situation to the desk agent, who said he’d see what he could do.  I visited the buffet while I waited. 

The Club lounge buffet was pretty standard. It included soup and sandwiches for people more interested in a lighter meal.

Next, they offered tea and a more proper buffet of curries. All the buffet options were located right by the entrance, which is interesting because in my experience, most lounges’ food options are located a bit deeper into the lounge.

I selected some couscous and some of the vegetarian curry. After I finished, the lounge agent came and found me. Unfortunately, the agent wasn’t able to help me and referred me back to the gold line.  After my lackluster experience with the Qantas lounge on my flight to Denmark two weeks prior, I decided instead to visit the always reliable Cathay Pacific First Class lounge.  I then called back the BA gold line. After waiting on hold, the agent was extremely helpful.  She pushed my return flight back a day immediately with no trouble (compared to the first person who said he’d have to charge me over €800). 

After I finished with the call, I was able to properly enjoy the lounge.  I poured myself a glass of champagne and relaxed into the lounge. From my seat, I watched my plane pull up to the gate that was immediately below the lounge, so I was able to enjoy the comfortable seating until the last minute, which was great.

The boarding process was a bit hectic: there were two lines set up, but the gate was a ‘holding pen’ gate and the gate staff were having a lot of trouble getting everyone to use the correct priority/standard line. I used the priority line, but everyone seemed to be having travel problems. I’d imagine it’s because of so many flight disruptions.

The flight was less full than I had expected given that the flight the day before had been cancelled.  I had selected my favorite intra-Europe seat (1D), and it turned out I actually had the row to myself, so I took the window seat instead.  Interestingly, this flight is long enough that BA provided a pillow and blankets.  Other airlines, like Finnair supply these on every business class flight, but most of my BA flights haven’t had them, so that was fun.  And the bedding was very welcome because the flight was so late at night (we landed around 1 am).

The service began shortly after takeoff at a leisurely pace.  First, they came around with drinks, then there was a 10–15 minute pause, then more drinks, and then dinner.  While I agree that for a 3-hour nominal flight time, there wasn’t a specific need to be quick, but given the flight pushed back after 8 pm UK time, it didn’t seem to me that there was a need to wait for everyone to get hungrier before the meal.  That being said, 10-15 minutes really wouldn’t’ve changed anything.

I selected the fish meal, which was served all on one tray, as is typical for Club Europe. The fish was cooked well but perhaps a bit dry. The side dishes with it were flavorful as well and not overcooked, which was nice. The small appetizer was pretty unremarkable, but the cheese plate and the tiramisu were fun as per usual. I don’t like tiramisu, but as with most Club Europe meals, I’d say it was the part that was best executed.

After I finished the meal, I took out the blanket and pillow and managed to take a (relatively) short nap.  With the 2-hour time change, we ended up landing in Bucharest around 1 am local time.  I was amazed how busy the airport was, but it makes sense that all the evening flights from Western Europe would arrive around that time.

Romania is part of the EU but not part of Schengen, so stays in Romania don’t count toward the 90/180 day rolling visa-free period.  Immigration was quick and soon I was waiting for my Uber, which was a shitshow, but honestly that’s what I expected from everything I’ve heard about Romania. 

In summary, this Club Europe flight to Bucharest was everything I wanted it to be.  It was annoying that I ended up having to book an award ticket, but that’s a larger BA issue, rather than an issue with this flight, so I won’t let that impact this flight’s score.  The ground experience in Terminal 3 is always amazing because of the excellent lounges, and it was great that my flight left from the gate immediately beside the lounge (5/5).  BA’s first row of Club Europe is my favorite standard intra-European business class seat, and I got the row to myself (4/5).   The dinner was actually pretty good and welcome by the time it was served (4/5).  The service was great as well, and I appreciated that it wasn’t rushed over the flight (5/5).  The plane offers WiFi and in-flight power, which is pretty good within Europe (4/5).  Overall, the flight gets a 22/25, which is to say that it was the best standard intra-Europe business class I could’ve asked for. 

I booked this flight using Avios; it cost 9 750 Avios and £70, which I paid for on my Platinum Card.  When I wanted to book the flight, it was £250 and would’ve netted me 3 268 Avios and 80 tier points.  That would’ve been a good deal since I want to requalify for BA Gold.  When I finally couldn’t wait any longer and had to book it, the price had gone to £667, which is outrageous.  However, using Avios on this flight gave me a value of 2.2 ¢/Avios (based on the price when I wanted to book it) or 7.3 ¢/Avios based on the price when I actually booked it.  Both these values are amazing.