Nice TR.

British Airways only has -200 version in their fleet.

Had you been to London-City airport near the docklands...you would've seen the BAE-146 throughout the day.Really nice to see them on approach from there.

Regards,

Mayank

As promised, an account of our return trip from LON to DEL. It is an interesting example of how small things can cause a lot of inconvenience.

At the time we left on 8 Sep by the evening flight, the liquid bomb scare was dying down and a laptop-size bag was being allowed but not liquids. This was becoming a big issue in the British media. Anyway we kept some essential things in our small bags which we carried as hand baggage.

We had given enough margin for the traffic, so we arrived at Terminal 4 over 4 hours before the flight. There was now a regulation that you could not check in more than 3.5 hours before the flight. (In the distant past I remember checking in for an US domestic flight about 5 hours before time).

It was interesting to see a large number of metal containers near the entrance with signs saying "See if your hand baggage fits in this-If not, you can't take it into the cabin".

As is often the case in Britain, there were huge queues but things still moved quickly. Once again the online checkin saved some time. We then had enough time to explore the large number of duty-free shops and got some bargains there.

This flight is operated by a 747 which did look a bit older than the 777 we came in. While taking off, we passed a number of planes from a variety of little-known airlines. There was even a 747 freighter of the UAE government.

For some reason the cabin crew were more relaxed than on the flight into LON. However, it was strange to see the long delays in serving dinner; one person got dinner half an hour after his neighbour did.

The IFE did list the location map but it was not working-perhaps this is not there on older aircraft? Although the flight left a bit late, it arrived in DEL before time.

While getting down at Delhi, there was an ominous sign chalked at the entrance giving the names of several passengers including myself asking us to contact BA's customer services desk. After going through immigration, we went to the baggage belt where 3 of our 4 bags appeared. After a while a BA rep came up and asked if we were missing a bag and asked us to come to their desk (which was not signposted).

We were then told that one bag had not got on the flight and would arrive later that night on the other BA flight. The BA desk-in-charge very confidently told us that the missing bag would be promptly delivered to our home in Jaipur by the next morning and there was no problem with customs, so we could proceed to Jaipur.

Meanwhile, an European youngster (whose English wasn't too good) was struggling to come to terms with the disappearance of his tent and the rest of his baggage. He had planned to camp at some remote place in Himachal and thus could not give a proper forwarding address.

The next morning came without any sign of the bag or any call from BA. After much effort we got through to them and were told that the bag had been held up by Customs who wanted to examine it. The culprit was apparently a video camera which I had put in the checked baggage as it wasn't clear whether it would be allowed in hand baggage during the hysteria at that time. And the best part was that I had purchased this in India and had the receipts with me on the trip. So the Customs does X-ray all incoming checked baggage.

Ultimately as BA staff at Delhi couldn't solve the matter I had to make another up and down trip to Delhi airport. Ultimately the Customs staff were rather apologetic about the trouble. All this would not have happened if I had carried it in hand baggage. (Or is this still a problem?) BA did promise to pay the taxi fare to and from Delhi-but this came only after sending them a reminder after three weeks.

Comments are welcome. I later heard that BA has a rather bad record of misplaced baggage round the world. I am not very sure if I would try BA again while flying to Britain. And Air India is certainly to be avoided. Others have suggested to try Jet or Emirates in future.

Hey ABN - sorry you had a bad time with BA. This is like the 3rd case I'm hearing of BA loosing baggage in as many weeks. They are definitely the worst of the lot, and what gets me is that they loaded 3 of your bags, but not the 4th. And this is when you'd checked in about 4 hours in advance! BA ought to be fined heavily for this nonsense with the baggage, though with LHR being the mess it is, I wonder how much of the fault is directly with BA!