Manchester to Dubrovnik Part 1-BA

By: astraeus471 - 5th June 2006 at 18:58

I've just returned from Croatia today, a day later than expected but i'll explain in the return trip.

So, my mum booked a lastminute deal to Korcula in Croatia with Holiday Options on saturday the 27th of May.

At 3:30am On Tuesday may the 30th, I woke up a got ready for the holiday, lastminute items to pack and so on. So at 4am, my dad set off with me and my mum to manchester airport. We arrived at 5am in Terminal 3 and headed to the BA check in area. We were told by holiday options a rep would give us tickets due to the lateness of booking. We looked but we couldnt see her and the check in queue grew longer so we decided to queue. The rep found us and gave the tickets to us. We checkin at desk 45 at about 5:30 and we were allocated seats 09E/F.

After saying goodbye to my dad, me and my mum headed through security and into the deparure lounge. I bought a flight check from WHSmiths and we took a seat near gate 52. I could see a lot of take offs and landings on runway 24R, alyought I'm sure in the past, take offs are on 24L in the early morning. I saw the Excel 738 with winglets taxi to 24R and take off, but 20 mins later, another excel 738 with winglets taxied out. Do excel have 2 aircraft with winglets? At 6:55 we were called to gate 48 for immediate boarding. We boarded quickly and took our seats.

Flight: BA6838
Aircarft: Airbus A320-200 G-TTOC
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1021732/M/
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0739184/M/
Seats: 09E/F, 04E/F
ETD: 0715
ATD: 0735
ETA:1110
ATA: 1100
Flight Time: 2hours 25mins

Next to us, on stand 49, a BA 767 was preparing for its JFK departure. As we took our seats, we realised the were in front of an exit, so they had no recline. The seats also felt more vertical than the others. We asked the crew if we could move, and she said there are plenty of spare seats so we could move after take off. At 7:20, pushback commenced and we waited for a few bmi flights to leave ahead of us. At 7:30 we were in the queue for runway 24L. The captain introduced himself and the first officer and explained our route.

After a 5 minute wait, we lined up on 24L. The engines spooled up and take off power was applied. The A320 throttled down the runway, it wasnt that powerful, but after 30 secs we were climbing away from manchester. We made a left turn over the airport, providing good views. The seatbelt sign was switched off so me and my mum moved to seats 04E/F, we also had the aisle seat free. The leg room was excellent, even though 31" doesn't seem much from the standard charter 29", but it really makes a difference.

The TV's just showed a skymap with height, speed etc. We were soon at 37000ft over amsterdam and the breaksfats was being served. It consisted off a tiny portion of omlette, baked beans and 2 miniscule sausages, carton of orange juice and a bread roll. Tea and coffe was served aswell. The flight deck crew regulatly updated us with info such as the weather in Dubrovnik and flight time. We were over north east italy when the bar service commenced, it was all complimentry was was great! We got a coke and water.

Then about an hour before landing, the duty free service commenced. We began our descent over Split, the weather was cloudy and the approach was bumpy. Soon we were on finals into DBV's runway 30. It seemed as though the pilots struggled to get us down, I thought we might go around as runway was running out. The landing gear slammed onto the tarmac and full brakes and reverse thrust was used. We were all thrown forward at touchdown then back into our seats as the reverse thrust kicked in. The aircarft had reverse thrust on until we tuned off on the last taxiway,if didnt make that, the aircraft would have had to go to the end of the runway and back track. The Purser told us it was 20 degrees and 11am local time. The aircraft slowly taxied to the stand infront of the terminal. We disemarked down the front exit, although both exits were being used. A bus came and took us to arrivals. Withinin 20 minutes, we were leaving the terminal and getting onto our minibus for the hotel. The fastest we've ever been through an airport.

After another 2 and a half hour journey by minibus and sea, we arrived at the hotel Bon Repos on the island of Korcula for a 5 night stay, well what we thought would be a 5 night stay, but i'll explain this in the return trip report tomorow. So look out for Dubrovnik to Manchester-Thomsonfly.

The flight was great, and i'll give BA a reluctant 9/10. This is becausue the flight was faultless, but I say reluctant because BA overbooked the return flight on Sunday so we had to fly thomsonfly.