MAN-MJV-MAN with WW

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Member for

20 years 1 month

Posts: 1,098

My first ever experience of a LCC, and no it is not Easyjet!!

MAN-MJV- WW5563- 24/05/03
Aircraft: G-OBMP
Scheduled Time of Departure: 17:15
Actual Time of Departure: 17:42
Scheduled Time of Arrival: 21:00
Actual Time of Arrival: 21:43
This was my first ever experience of a LCC so I was nervous. I knew there would be no meal, but I had never heard of Bmibaby before and didn't know what aircraft they operated!! So, since our flight was in the evening, we had most of the day to pack. At 14:00, we left for the airport to be there for 15:15 when check-in opened. So, when we arrived, we were puzzled as to why there was no queue for Bmibaby check-in. The answer was because it was round the back with BMI check-in. We were first to check-in for the flight so we got a wide choice of seats, from which we chose row 15. We went through security and found seats by the massive window in the departure lounge. We hung around waiting for our aircraft to arrive. We wondered why it was so late, and thought it must be round back where it can't be seen. Wrong. It was late and arrived eventually at 16:54 from Malaga. There was no way this flight would go away on time, as boarding was supposed to start at 16:45. Instead, boarding began at 17:15, our scheduled departure time!! My sister got the window for this leg. We pushed back as the safety demo was carried out. The engines were started and we were away. A little boy in front thought we were racing G-MANS and that we were racing cars!! He screamed with delight when he saw that we won!! We immediately commenced a rolling take-off on 24L which got this boy even more excited and we lifted up into the air! The cabin crew commenced their service with drinks and snacks, then duty free from which I got a G-ECAS model!! Another drinks round came before we commenced our descent over Palma!! We came in over the England training camp in La Manga (they were there at the time!!) and touched down smoothly on runway 23 before applying reverse thrust. We taxied onto a busy apron and parked at the very end. We disembarked and walked to arrivals, passing G-JOEM, G-STRA and EI-CSC on the way.

MJV-MAN -WW5564- 31/05/03
Aircraft: G-OJTW
Scheduled Time of Departure: 21:45
Actual Time of Departure: 23:04
Scheduled Time of Arrival: 23:30
Actual Time of Arrival: 00:16
This was the homebound journey on Bmibaby. As this was a night flight, we spent most of the day on the beach before heading back to pack up our stuff. We left the apartment at 19:30 and got to Murcia at 19:40!! It took no time at all to leave the car with the hire car company, but inside the terminal building was worrying. 5 flights were checking in all at the same time, and our flight had 1 check-in. Fortunately, we were first in queue and booked seats for the flight. We checked the departure board and saw that the My Travel Lite flight was delayed and that our flight was early!!! We were looking forward to going home now!! It soon became apparent that there was a delayed BA flight to Gatwick which was holiding everyone up. G-DOCL had decided to break down in Murcia and with there being no BA engineers out there, they had to fly in a replacement aircraft in G-DOCA. So at 21:00, the time our aircraft was due to arrive, we checked the departure board to see the status of our flight. The status of our flight was delayed and not even close to arriving!! We were in for a rough night we thought!! We watched the Ryanair and My Travel Lite passengers board their respective aircraft (EI-CSW and G-FHAJ) and G-DOCA depart with the BA passengers!! At 22:00, there was a pair of lights in the sky, which the PR system announced was the Bmibaby flight!! Indeed he was right, 2 minutes later, down came G-OJTW applying reverse thrust!! It came and parked up next to the tech G-DOCL, and the Ryanair and My Travel Lite planes didn't move!! The announcement came for us to board, and G-DOCL departed thanks to the BA engineers who came out on G-DOCA. We boarded and I grabbed the window seat in the back row!! The safety demo was done manually again and the engines were started. We taxied out in front of the Ryanair and My Travel Lite planes that were on the ground for 2 hours!! :eek: We commenced a rolling take-off with the other 2 planes holding! The services were pretty much the same as the outbound flight. We made up time on the way back to arrive 46 minutes late. We disembarked at the front, but the captain asked if I would like a visit to the flight deck?? The answer he got was a very quick yes and I got shown all the instruments and explained the delay and was very interesting. We eventually departed the aircraft and headed home.

1 report left to go!!

Original post

Member for

19 years 10 months

Posts: 841

Good report. Hope WW didn't put you off other loco's!! BTW, the return flight seemed to make up good time, 2:12 for MJV-MAN is a short flight.

Member for

20 years 5 months

Posts: 10,625

You know, using more that a couple of !!! marks in a sentence is the sign of madness ;)

I've lost count how many are in your report. It seems as if you were gobsmacked by every single thing that went on, including check in opening, planes pushing back, engines starting etc.

Good report, but go easy on the exclamation marks ;)

Member for

20 years 10 months

Posts: 9,401

Yeah, totally agree Sandy way too many '!!', as there are in the other two reports you have done.

Good report though.

Member for

20 years 1 month

Posts: 1,098

I have cut down on exclamation marks. Thanks for the comments so far.

Member for

20 years 5 months

Posts: 10,625

:D

Member for

21 years

Posts: 4,209

Interesting that there were broken BA 737s in Murcia as well, considering GB Airways serve that route with A321s?

Member for

20 years 1 month

Posts: 1,098

It was a BA service. GB Airways didn't operate the route at that time.

Member for

21 years

Posts: 4,209

Oh right, May 03! Didn't see it was that long ago!

Member for

20 years 1 month

Posts: 1,098

That might be why Mark!!

Member for

19 years 11 months

Posts: 313

Nice report Green, Well done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

Member for

20 years 1 month

Posts: 1,098

Good report. Hope WW didn't put you off other loco's!! BTW, the return flight seemed to make up good time, 2:12 for MJV-MAN is a short flight.

They were OK actually, although I prefer charters. We had strong tailwinds and engines at full power coming back.

Member for

20 years 1 month

Posts: 1,098

Thanks BY767!!

Member for

19 years 11 months

Posts: 313

When I'm awake I'm going to do a trip report for my flight to Belfast from Bristol I took yesterday. I spent ages and ages this morning doing a trip report about it on plane-mad.com for it only to dissapear when they new forum was introduced!!

Member for

20 years 1 month

Posts: 1,098

I didn't realise it has been changed, but have just re-registered on the new one!! I like your report as well!!