Sun-Air/British Airways Billund-London City

Dear Santa,
Please bring me a new laptop for Christmas. I'm not a hundred per cent sure this one will last me till 2010. The battery lasts about 10 minutes, the power supply is in dire need of gaffa tape, and the wireless ... well, suffice to say it prefers I sit right next to the antennae or whatever the thing stuck to the modem is called. I just hope it won't crash as I try to upload the photos from my little trip to London last week.

Normally, if you go from my part of Denmark to London and aren't rich as Roosevelt, you go Ryanair. Or Cimber Sterling. But on this trip, we flew Sun-Air (a BA franchisee) and may I say, it comes highly recommended. Ryanair was by far the cheapest, but by the time I had calculated in the cost of a train ticket from Stansted to Liverpool Street Station, a snack and a Diet Coke onboard (or, purchase of same at Billund Airport because of course, I cannot survive a less-than-2-hour flight without sustenance),baggage and check-in fees, not to mention the endless queues at Stansted and the very real risk of missing the last train into London - well, then the difference wasn't so big at all, and one that I was happy to pay.

Life is good when you travel Sun-Air. The staff is always friendly, they don't seem to have even heard of the "no waivers-no favours" policy so popular among airlines these days - AND, wait for this - they serve food!!! Free of charge!


My camera is not the best, but what you see in the picture is chicken-and-2-veg - the chicken was actually really tasty, not dry at all, and the salad was fresh and delicious. Served with hot bread rolls and free beverages. Lots of people don't like airplane meals but it was really good.

But the best is yet to come...

Free drinks with the coffee! And...

Dessert! Ice cream!! I think by now the gentleman sitting across the aisle thought it was my maiden voyage or something; the way I was snapping pictures of everything and flapping my hands like an over-excited chicken. But really - where in Europe do you get all this nowadays? The newspaper and the smiles are also free of charge...

Anyway, time flew and we were on approach to London City Airport. It was Bonfire Night, or Guy Fawkes Night, in the UK so for the first time in my life I got to see fireworks from above. Very pretty. And they don't go as high as I thought they might...

LCY is a small airport and if time = money, this is the place to arrive. From we left the aircraft to we took our bags off the baggage belt took exactly 12 minutes. Another 8 and we were on the platform waiting for the Docklands Light Railway train to arrive. 20 minutes flat, and that included a bathroom visit and a bit of fiddling around with my Oyster card because having purchased it nearly 2 years ago, I wasn't sure if it was still "alive" (it was).

The DLR ride to Bank station took 25 minutes, another 25 on the Central Line and we alighted at Notting Hill Gate. It was all very pleasant.

London in November is, well, mostly rainy, but Saturday was a lovely sunny day. The night before, our friends had taken us out for a meal at a very nice Italian restaurant, followed by a visit to "The Collection", a bar in South Kensington which played host to a Miss Motor competition that very night. Lots of skinny ladies in black/white checkered bikinis swarming about the place. Would have posted a picture but who knows what kind of copyrights I might infringe... So, Saturday the others went to the park and I went to Borough Market. The place is probably a lot nicer if you arrive around 9AM, as it was, I had to share it with loads of other tourists but it was still extremely satisfying to wander around, contemplating bringing home a pheasant or 2.
On the way home from London, we ended up spending a bit more time at the airport than we'd bargained for. BA says you can arrive at LCY 20 minutes before your flight and still make it; personally I would never do that but it's probably not unrealistic. However, this morning a thick fog rolled in from the Thames (we couldn't see the top of Canary Wharf) so when we got to the airport it was crowded with people standing in line at the ticket office, and when we checked the monitors it was most discouraging:

This picture was taken when the fog started lifting - as you can see, two flights are now boarding. For 3 hours, it was "delayed, delayed, cancelled, delayed". Sun-Air gave us a £10 voucher to spend on food (another thing you don't get on Ryanair, sorry) while we waited for the flight which was initially diverted to Southend before eventually making it to LCY. We were just happy that it wasn't cancelled altogether and the ticketing staff did a really great job keeping people informed.

3 hours behind schedule we arrived at Billund after another pleasant flight home. The flight attendant was the same as on the way out, and the service just as great. I would recommend this carrier/route to anyone going to London, especially on business travel.

On this trip, we flew one of Sun-Air's Dornier 328 (or similar number). This was the propeller version, but even though we sat in row 2, right next to the propeller, it wasn't too noisy. They also have a jet version.

Hint: seat 9A is the best seat on this aircraft. Exit row, so plenty of legroom.

Oh we likes!