Flight Review - BA Economy Class from London City to Dublin. Unusual airport, unusual service....
The only London airport that's actually in London is, well its different.... Not necessarily bad different, just different! And in this video I'll show you those differences so you can be prepared if you have a trip coming up through the airport...
BA's Cityflyer service is, well its different.. Not necessarily bad different, indeed in some ways its pretty good different! I'll show you those differences so you can be prepared if you have a trip coming up on that BA subsidiary!
The best seatmaps = www.aerolopa.com
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⏰ Timestamps:
0:00 - Intro
1.41 - Getting to the airport
3:48 - The terminal
7:36 - BA Cityflyer
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I've done LCY a few times. Its a nice airport and its nice to visit an Airport and not see regular Airbus & Boeing traffic. Most of my LCY flights are arrivals though, I find it very difficult to get to for departures, but it can be amazing for returning.
That's a good point as arriving can be super rapid - a very short walk from the plane. Less fun if its raining but that only inspires you to move even quicker!
Always fun to fly in/out of LCY. Done it a few times from NCE and it's always a good experience especially in the E190 exit row
Probably the closest you'll get to launching off an aircraft carrier!
Flown into London City once on BA from Zurich. I booked the ticket as an Avios Business award since I was returning on Easter and that was the only availability showing when I booked the flight a week prior to departure. I was pleasantly surprised by the breakfast offered on such a short flight and of course had access to one of the contract lounges at Zurich which was okay. What I really enjoyed about arriving at London City (aside from it being very close to King's X) was the landing. Wow do you hit the deck hard!
G'day! Thanks for that - didn't mention it in the video but LCY is one of the best to immigrate into too...
I flew London City - Berlin for the first time this week, in economy. I got a £100 business upgrade offer that I’m glad I didn’t take, what a waste of money that would’ve been. I liked the small and efficient airport but without a lounge my BA silver card felt completely worthless.
£100 for 15 TPs *is* expensive. The lounge is outside, just bring your own six pack, and you can smoke too. Even with status, I love airports where you don't need it.
Aviation at LCY has changed over the years. It was originally opened as an airport purely for high revenue travellers and check-in time was 10 mins even if you had checked luggage. That explains the lack of lounges but I agree things ought to change.
Indeed - the economics are certainly different...
The image of a 6 pack and a few Marlboros in the car park is a compelling one!
@@alexmcwhirter6611 The terminal is being renovated. Even now I never need to arrive more than 45min prior to departure.
City is really good in comparison to a lot of the other London airports. I took a flight from City to Berlin and it was very good, the ease of checking in and getting through security is light years ahead of the other London airports. Cityflyer is a very good service too, like you I was shocked to get a free drink and a snack on the trip. As someone who is used to Ryanair and Gatwick/Luton its a real step from up.
Its a little gem!
I love LCY. There's no messing about as it's all business people
Let me know next time you're in DUB!
Thanks - its a very professional airport to transit! And I'll shout next time I'm in DUB
@@MattsPlanet You have my email - I asked you about the Shamrock avios bonus 🙂
I used LCY way back in the 80s when it was very new! So new that my assumption that if anyone knew how to find the place it would be a London black cabbie proved to be somewhat wide of the mark. Several wrong turns later and there I am sauntering in through the main terminal doorway some 20 minutes after my flight to Amsterdam was due to have left, no longer in a panic as I was totally resigned to needing a rebook. I was approached immediately by a very friendly uniformed cabin crew member with the words 'You must be Mr Pedlow!' A sign of the number of passengers that passed through in those days :D Everyone had checked in already of course and i was the only passenger left unaccounted for, there was only the 1 plane at a time back in those days! Happy ending though - the incoming flight had been delayed by fog on route so i didnt lose my fare and was welcomed warmly for the intended flight. :) Im revisiting in June, first time back there since that infamous occasion so your video was very enlightening Matt, well done and thank you! :) Phil Pedlow.
Wow! It's changed quite a bit since then!!! I'm back there soon too - its just a quick and convenient airport to use if you just need to get somewhere!
Thanks Matt for another interesting and accurate video. Yes LCY really is the capital's own airport. Some time ago when London was being given new landline code numbers 0207 for inner London and 0208 for outer London, LCY lobbied sucessfully for the 0207 code. Yet directly across the Thames in SE London the landline numbers all start with 0208.
That's a wonderful bit of trivia!!! A small thing, but it was probably very important to them!
Another great video! After a few LCY trips I try and avoid it now I’ve gotten used to the CCR but after a 3 hour wait for bags last night at LHR following a 2 hour delay from Frankfurt I might have to go back to LCY because at least they do tend to stick to schedule.
Hard to recreate the CCR experience at LCY - there is a private terminal you can use but its not the same!
I’ve just checked in here for a 07:55 BA flight to Berlin, I just got to the business check in desk and was pounced on by 2 separate staff demanding I stop filming.
Interesting! I know Steve Marsh was very surprised I got no hassle when travelling through and I've managed it twice now without incident!
@@MattsPlanet would you believe I got taken off the plane and detained under the terrorism act, just for filming, they are simply not capable of common sense, I got let back on after they were convinced I wasn’t a threat, which should have been obvious from the get go
My go to and from airport... comfortable seating on the EMB and minimum airport time ... plus most passengers know the drill.. Also easy arrivals often through the border in mins... good clear informative vlog Matt.
Thanks Richard. Went through LGW the other day and the benefits of being amongst experienced travellers was made clear!
Great video. Looking forward to doing that same flight later this month. Yes, I've used LCY before as it's only 20 minutes from our place in London. This will be our first try of the BA CityFlyer though which is what drew me to your video, which was so good and informative. As an American living in China since the 90s I thought I was relatively well-traveled but having only 41 countries under my belt and only 40 US States, I wish to learn from your greater wisdom so I am now a subscriber. I look forward to watching more.
Thanks Bob. LCY is a great airport if you just want to get somewhere - its terrible if you want to linger and take advantage of any status you might hold. Judging your travel by country count is always a little daft - I've been to China twice but never been more than 50 miles from Hong Kong! Having lived there I'm sure you've seen a lot of that great country, yet it only counts as 1 in your country list!!
Lcy is really convenient for me and have flown through it afew times. Good points: easy to access and nice few shops after security Love the 2 2 configuration incase I need to get up mid flight Things I'd change: more destinations and allow flights on Saturday evenings since that's a common time I've flown in the past
Great summary!
Hi Matt, just stumbled accross your channel. Absolutely love how you come accross and your style of content you have earnt a subscriber here. 🎉
Thanks James - welcome!
Thanks again Matt for another great report. Used City airport many times. Loved it since it was quick & easu to reach via the DLR from Canarywharf where my Head Office was. Flew to Glasgow, IOM and Jersey from there. Still believe it is one of the best airports for views of London and very exiting to land on that single runway😊👍👍👌. The BA flights from there are great for the short hops around the UK👍🇿🇦
Cheers Peet
Another great video Matt. LCY is a dream to fly in or out of but coming in even more so as you can be in and out within 5 minutes if travelling HBO. It is also the only airport in my view that can actually call itself a London airport. Really like BA Cityflyer and the Embrarer planes are super comfortable with great legroom in all rows especially row 2 if in club . The fact they also offer snacks and drinks on flights still is a bonus as well. Owing to it being a largely business centered airport there is and likely never will be a need for a lounge as it relies on being in and out quickly. that being said there is the jet centre you can pay for if you wish. The convenience of being so close to central London is a big plus I would say
Thanks Jack! Agree with every word of that!
20 minutes before departure, and not 2 hours? (or 3 hours at Schiphol) That will take some serious re-programming of my brain
LCY aims to be different and in this regard it succeeds!
Great video Matt with very interesting details.It's nice that someone can fly from LCY to Mykonos Santorini and Skiathos, three very beautiful Greek Islands, among other lovely European destinations.Greetings from Athens.
Thanks - all good weekend spots for city types, and the rest of us!
Nicely done. I must admit I do like LCY, something a wee bit different, but we’ll done filming there! They get very touchy about it so you must have been discreet :)
Cheers Steve. Very, very discrete.... A black camera attached to a black strap against a dark sweater..
Very useful and informative video
Thanks!
LCY is also great if you are going to ExCel for a show. I did LHR & Elizabeth line last year, which also worked (about an hour door to door)
LCY is very handy... The Elizabeth line is a big part of the reason why BA1 to NYC died as its won't be much quicker to get to LCY than it will be to LHR once the line is up and running.
My record for City is this. Handbrake on, start the stop watch. Get off the plane, walk to passport control, collect bagage from the carosel, customs, departure hall, outside, get into a taxi, start moving, stop the watch. 1 minute 45 seconds. it was the last plane of the day, it was pouring with rain, but remarkable never the less.
Fantastic! I wish that was possible everywhere!
@@MattsPlanet My jaw dropped. I've done 3 minutes without checked in.
Brings back some memories for me Matt! Seem to recall we met there some years ago too. No doubt see you on a new Riyadh Air flight soon too....
Hey!!! Pleased you saw this... I was thinking of you through the process... Saw some publicity about Riyadh air - they need to get some planes first before I can fly on them!!!
@@MattsPlanet72 dreamliners on order for 2025 delivery... expect some action before then though!!
Thanks Matt . Another good vid . I’m here for the “ stick around “ 😂
Cheers Norm. I'm 52 and somehow I've ended up with a catchphrase! Bonkers...
Flying to Dublin from LCY next month. Coming down from the Midlands, I may kill some time in Stratford to avoid arriving too early.
Probably a good idea!!! Even the greatest plane geek can get a bit bored with more than an hour at LCY!!!
@@MattsPlanet the problem is I’m one of those people who hates to cut it fine when getting somewhere. I’m figuring Stratford is close enough on the DLR to get a bite to eat.
Brilliant video again Matt. I saw Manchester as one of the destinations you can fly to and from LCY. I never see it though. Is it a seasonal flight i.e summer?
Thanks Tony - I think I saw a Noel Philips video when he took a MAN-LCY flight - as LCY closes at the weekend for noise restriction reasons, the planes get redeployed elsewhere, including Southampton I think. They then position back at the end of the weekend to be ready for the new week... That may be what you've seen?
Thank you for the review of LCY, I was hoping to use it last month as we were due to go to Florence but our plans changed and ended up going to Pisa instead (and did the former as a daytrip) so we flew there and back via LHR with BA. Hopefully I'll get chance to use it in the future as I'm sure the close up views of London are worth it?
Thanks Rich - its usually a day trip to Pisa from Florence rather than the other way round but I'm sure it still worked... City is waiting for you!!
Always use lcy when flying to London 😊. It's like flying use To be😅.
I do like it coming back to the UK - I do like a few moments in a lounge on the way out though!
Interesting to see city airport - I won't be rushing to travel through it anytime soon though.
You'll be prepared if you ever do!
Hi Matt, I have flown BA CityFlyer only once on my return leg from Palma last spring. I flew to LCY and I have to say a fantastic flight crew were great. I was in business so got the premium experience but I think their economy is one of the best in Europe from what I have heard. I also wonder your thoughts on their route network. Before Covid of course they flew from MAN, STN & EDI. I wonder if you think it would be viable for them to start based their again or perhaps take on more regional airports and let the new BA EuroFlyer take on Major airports??
Thanks. Big question - next week's video will be MAN-LHR and I talk about how poor BA's service from the provinces is.... There's logic behind filtering everyone through LHR even if its not immediately obvious! Their LCY fleet does run the occasional route from somewhere other than London on weekends but its not very helpful if you don't want to fly Saturday to Saturday...
Thanks for your reply Matt. I will certainly check that out. I fly with BA fairly regular in fact my next flight is tomorrow LHR - ZAG. I do think the BA service is good but not to the standard it maybe should for a scheduled airline. I live near LGW so for me it’s not an issue but I’d love to see BA improve their route network from airports outside of London.
Great video, my favourite plane spotters at newham council offers. I flew many time with British European with dash 8-200/300 and bae 146 to Jersey 2000 between 2004. Ba cityflyer is friendly cabin crew. I don’t like London city terminal find to small, I love landing and take off, I had flew twice ba cityflyer when good deal fly there.
Not tempted to get a job with Newham to spot professionally???
Not my dream job lol. Enjoy walking around London city and visit for fews hours. No way live there or job lol 😂.
Its great for transiting through, but beware the early curfew. I'd been looking forward to my weekend after a long working week in Madrid. A succession of small problems and delays pushing back onto the runway there, meant we'd missed our landing slot, and we were put into a local hotel at Barajas. I made it home nearly 24 hours late..
Good advice. Weather can be an issue too. Also last Friday an ITA Airways flight to MXP was unable to depart owing to strong winds coupled with a heavy load. A few pax had to disembark (each was given a voucher for €250) before the flight could depart.
Sorry the arrival airport was Linate (not Malpensa).
Alex makes a good point that LCY is more susceptible to weather issues than other airports due to its location
The free drink and snack is a very nice touch for economy. Do you get a choice of beverage or is it just beer?
I could have had a wine and also spirits I believe....
@@MattsPlanet thank you!
And wasn't London City the world's first airport to have a virtual control tower, with the air traffic controllers not being at the airport but down at Swanwick? Good review. P.S. I'm not alone in having slagged off BA over the past couple of years. Fairness demands that I compliment them on my first post-pandemic, long-haul with them a couple of days ago. The food, in Economy, was really good.
I think you may be right WBM... Good to hear BA did well - is there a subjective performance rating column in the spreadsheet?
@Matt's Planet No need. I'll add my MBA's objective review to Tripadvisor and that will then drive a higher score. 😀
I've done it a few times as it is my nearest airport (I live NE London). Agree it's not the best airport to wait in but it is also hyper-convenient if you time it right. I've actually flown to both Edinburgh and Dublin in business class and it can be quite pleasant if it is not busy, but when it is packed, yeah its not much better than economy.
"Timing it right", ie cutting it fine, goes against every bone in my body!!
@@MattsPlanet I tried to cut it fine last time I went only to discover the flight was 2 hours late due to fog...
@@timlewistcf ...Which only makes you worry about how close to the curfew you are getting!
Matt, is the police officer holding an AR at 4:32? I didn't know this was a thing in the UK.
I wouldn't recognise an AR! Whatever that is... But police at the airport get some unusual equipment so it could be....
be😢
Of 🍑
Heading to Dublin tonight from NCL, sadly not for St Patricks day!
Have a great trip - I think Paddy's day could be epic there this year as it should coincide with a momentous rugby weekend....
Shoreham airport has a bigger airfield than London city airport but the smallest terminal but I think Shoreham would be on the map if they build a bigger terminal and let the planes what London city has fly from Shoreham they would bring more money in and it would increase passinger numbers
I'm sure they'd call it London Shoreham....
LCY is my preferred airport especially when flying to JFK and it is a full bar service in Economy - keep up the good work Matt
Sadly BA axed its JFK route from LCY.
Axed it years ago... 😢
A couple beat me to it but the Babybus to NYC was binned some time ago... With Global Entry becoming more widespread amongst the sort of customer using the service, the benefits of quick pre-clearance in Shannon dropped off and the promised Elizabeth line makes it not much slower to get to LHR than LCY...
sorry for the dumb question, is this the same as BA Euroflyer? i.e. LGW-AMS? with the Airbus A320?
Not a dumb question at all! LCY flights (and a few others where this equipment goes to other airports when LCY is closed) are CityFlyer flights... Ex-LGW flights are operated by the brand new EuroFlyer. All are subsidiaries of BA, all should be very similar in terms of the experience... They exist (call me a cynic here) as a way for BA to put crews on different contracts as they're employed by separate companies... But all are BA and should feel very similar.
I did this route on a tire point run to Las Vegas last October made a weeks holiday of it. I had the fastest ever time though US border control literally 2 mins-5mins no questions just a couple taps on the keyboard and though.
Thanks Paul - was that pre-clearance in Dublin or when you got to the US?
@@MattsPlanet That was pre clearance in Dublin even shorter that the one in Las Vegas in 2018 that was all off 10 mins max I wonder if it is that do travel to the states at least 1-3 times a year on holidays
I love lcy
If you love lcy like I live lcy.... I'm too young to get that reference!
Can you still claim avios if you book through a third party like travel up on skyscanner on BA? It's cheaper to do it that way
Absolutely. Once the booking is made you'll be able to see it in BA.com regardless of where the booking came from... And you can add a BA number to the booking to earn avios.
its a 5.5 degree approach. the climb at much steeper than that!
That makes sense... It's an experience!
Matt, what website do you check the legroom on please?
I find Aerolopa.com is the most detailed and accurate. Seatguru doesn't talk about the differences between specific rows...
Nice review. I did the LCY to Edinburgh route last year, also on a 190. There was a technical problem with my seat and the crew wouldn’t let me travel in it, so they “upgraded” me to Business! (The seat, not the service). Absolutely no difference in the seat, but I did get to see the meal my neighbours were served across the aisle. Looked very nice but probably not worth the extra cost. Apparently LCY used to offer a “lounge” experience through their FBO terminal for about £60, including chauffeured car to the aircraft and a meet and greet at the DLR station. Seems to have become a victim of the you-know-what though.
Quite an underwhelming "upgrade"! You can still do a lounge experience at the private terminal but it's expensive. I thought about it but wanted to cover the terminal in the video... Maybe next time...
I've not flown from City before; can you get a decent meal before you fly?
There's a couple of food places airside - not much landside. Can't vouch for their decency and they've always been quite busy when I've passed through, but you can eat!
I'm guessing Matt you are catching the early flight from Dublin to Doha? But from Doha to ..........is what is making me bite my nails. C'mon the tension is palpable.. Kind Regards Roger
Thanks Roger! You are bang on the money that it was a 07:25 departure to Doha... I have mentioned where on my Instagram so I can reveal I connected on to....
Phuket!
@@MattsPlanet You could not have have timed your trip any better.The UK weather is, to put it mildly,not the best. Looking forward to your trip report.
@@rogermorgan2168 It was absolutely gorgeous!
Hope your search for the business lounge in Doha is better than my experience last December. We flew LHR-DHA-PHK but on arrival couldn’t find the right lounge there’s several Qatar lounges but none of the staff knew which one to send us to with our silver status gave up on the way out as we had no time left but did get to one on the way back which was well appointed with a good choice of hot food even @ 1am.