My latest trip report from Bucuresti to Barcelona via Rome, with Alitalia.
So 4 flights, all Airbus equipment. I’ve heard a lot of wonderful things about Barcelona, so I’ve decided along with with my best friends to check it out. The best option was with Alitalia, some 185 eur for the tickets. Managed to check-in online one day before the flight using Alitalia’s website, printed the boarding passes at home and left for Bucuresti some 6 hours before the flight. I live inConstanta, that’s some 250 km from OTP so we left around midnight. We parked the car in the long term parking, dropped the only bag at the drop-off desk and then headed for security. And it was one of the most serious checks ever. The guy there was really trying to earn his money so he patted me for some 3 minutes…. After security we headed for passport control which took less then 5 seconds and then into the terminal. It was still early so we’ve had some coffee and just hanged out, but it was still dark too so we couldn’t see the planes. I knew already that our ride will be EI-DTG which came from Rome as AZ502 about the time we left Constanta, thanks to flightradar24.com. Boarding was a bit delayed but it went on very smooth afterwards. The last 3 rows were completely empty but we decided to sit down at our designated places 28 A, B and C. We moved around during the flight in order to enjoy the view.
Otopeni at 4:15AM
Waiting for boarding
The first leg.
OTP-FCO
18.05.2012
AZ503
A320-216 EI-DTG
ETD 6h25 ATD 6h25 (WOW)
ETA 7h35 ATA 7h25
The plane was quite nice, first flight in may 2009, slim seats and individual IFE. They even gave us free headphones when we boarded. The quality of those screens is quite terrible but still it’s better then nothing. Cabin crew didn’t smile too much but I guess it was early for them too. Safety briefing on the screens and also performed by cabin crew and we start our push back from the gate.
Decent leg room
Taxi to the active, RWY08L.
The new Departures building, almost finished
And off we go….
http://youtu.be/LGVpHVHbPB0
The Bucuresti-Ploiesti motorway which is not finished yet.
Then it got cloudy.
And it stayed that way for more than one hour, untill we were flying over Bosnia.
Cabin shot
Close-up on the wingtip
After some 40 minutes from take-off , cabin crew started the service.
Not a lot to choose from. Sweet (dolce-some cookies which tasted good) or sour (salato- some salty snack ) along with water and some coffee which was quite good actually. No beer which I must say it’s disappointing. Really.
The moving map and my phone GPS which works perfect
Lovely mountains over Bosnia.
From the right side
Croatia and the city of Split
The lovely landscape near Split
The Adriatic Sea
Pescara and we are over Italy now
Italy from FL380
Some more mountains
L’Aquila is somewhere to the right
And we begin the descent for FCO
Sppeedbrakes…
Sunny weather
We land quite smoothly on 16L
and taxi to the gate.
http://youtu.be/VQCcJvRVVt4
A bus gate, this time
The green CFM engine
Ludovico Ariosto, our plane even has a name (googled him, 15th century Italian poet)
Under wing shot
And quite a long drive to the T3 terminal.
A lot of Panda’s
Fiat’s everywhere (does FIAT really stands for Fix It Again Tony?)
Although the security check queue was very very long thing went smoothly (well not for one of my friends who had to take out his shoes) and after some 10 minutes we headed for pass control since we were coming from a Non Schengen country.
Activity at Fiumicino
We passed into T1 terminal, airside and headed for D gates. Fiumicino looks old and outdated (some of the displays with flight information were made in the early 80 judging by the look) and all the windows were really, really dirty.
Like I’ve said…
X-Ray Delta waiting for us.
A smart livery next to our ride. (through the dirty window)
Not much to do here so after smoking one cigarette in a very poorly ventilated “smoking lounge” we just sat down and waited for boarding to begin.
And down the stairs to the plane.
FCO to BCN
18.05.2012
AZ74
A321-112 EI-IXD named Piazza Pretoria - Palermo
ETD 9h05 ATD 9h15
ETA 10h55 ATA 10h55 (WOW again)
Again the cabin crew was not terribly friendly but they weren’t rude or anything. Guess they should smile more. No headphones this time (I found out why once I got seated). And absolutely no empty seats.
This plane was quite old (first flight in 1995) and it looked old too. Old interior, dirty seats and less leg room. And 100% load factor.
No IFE this time and no infos from the cockpit as well. And just my luck a very scratched window. Yey!
D gates area Terminal 1
Pushback and taxi to RWY25.
Take off and here’s the sea (I always forget that Fiumicino is so close to the sea).
http://youtu.be/BrV_N9W8h0w
Unfortunately the sky was cloudy during the entire flight but with my scratched window it wasn’t such a big problem.
Since the crew didn’t bother to say anything about the flight route I’ve decided to check for my self..
I love Alitalia’s way of writing on the wings.
Same food and beverages as in the first flight(guess the salty snacks were a bit different), again no beer or alcohol in economy class.
We flew over northern Sardinia and some90 minutes later we were descending for BCN.
Stormy weather with grey clouds and some rain. We’ve landed from the south on 07L and then taxied to the gate. This time no bus ride.
727, quite a rare sight these days.
Jet2
Ryanair at Terminal 2
Vueling everywhere.
Time to unload the bags and cargo.
Farewell to X-Ray Delta
BCN’s Terminal 1 looks great, the best looking terminal I’ve seen so far but also look kindda under used.
Delta at the gate
Terminal 2
We had to walk a bit in order to get our bag, which was damaged quite badly (broken handle, broken wheel some cuts to the side and I’m still trying to get some compensation from AZ)
Huge parking.
Then the free shuttle bus to Terminal 2 and from there another long walk to the train station. Next, the train to Barcelona. Finally!
More to follow.
So 4 flights, all Airbus equipment. I’ve heard a lot of wonderful things about Barcelona, so I’ve decided along with with my best friends to check it out. The best option was with Alitalia, some 185 eur for the tickets. Managed to check-in online one day before the flight using Alitalia’s website, printed the boarding passes at home and left for Bucuresti some 6 hours before the flight. I live inConstanta, that’s some 250 km from OTP so we left around midnight. We parked the car in the long term parking, dropped the only bag at the drop-off desk and then headed for security. And it was one of the most serious checks ever. The guy there was really trying to earn his money so he patted me for some 3 minutes…. After security we headed for passport control which took less then 5 seconds and then into the terminal. It was still early so we’ve had some coffee and just hanged out, but it was still dark too so we couldn’t see the planes. I knew already that our ride will be EI-DTG which came from Rome as AZ502 about the time we left Constanta, thanks to flightradar24.com. Boarding was a bit delayed but it went on very smooth afterwards. The last 3 rows were completely empty but we decided to sit down at our designated places 28 A, B and C. We moved around during the flight in order to enjoy the view.
Otopeni at 4:15AM
Waiting for boarding
The first leg.
OTP-FCO
18.05.2012
AZ503
A320-216 EI-DTG
ETD 6h25 ATD 6h25 (WOW)
ETA 7h35 ATA 7h25
The plane was quite nice, first flight in may 2009, slim seats and individual IFE. They even gave us free headphones when we boarded. The quality of those screens is quite terrible but still it’s better then nothing. Cabin crew didn’t smile too much but I guess it was early for them too. Safety briefing on the screens and also performed by cabin crew and we start our push back from the gate.
Decent leg room
Taxi to the active, RWY08L.
The new Departures building, almost finished
And off we go….
http://youtu.be/LGVpHVHbPB0
The Bucuresti-Ploiesti motorway which is not finished yet.
Then it got cloudy.
And it stayed that way for more than one hour, untill we were flying over Bosnia.
Cabin shot
Close-up on the wingtip
After some 40 minutes from take-off , cabin crew started the service.
Not a lot to choose from. Sweet (dolce-some cookies which tasted good) or sour (salato- some salty snack ) along with water and some coffee which was quite good actually. No beer which I must say it’s disappointing. Really.
The moving map and my phone GPS which works perfect
Lovely mountains over Bosnia.
From the right side
Croatia and the city of Split
The lovely landscape near Split
The Adriatic Sea
Pescara and we are over Italy now
Italy from FL380
Some more mountains
L’Aquila is somewhere to the right
And we begin the descent for FCO
Sppeedbrakes…
Sunny weather
We land quite smoothly on 16L
and taxi to the gate.
http://youtu.be/VQCcJvRVVt4
A bus gate, this time
The green CFM engine
Ludovico Ariosto, our plane even has a name (googled him, 15th century Italian poet)
Under wing shot
And quite a long drive to the T3 terminal.
A lot of Panda’s
Fiat’s everywhere (does FIAT really stands for Fix It Again Tony?)
Although the security check queue was very very long thing went smoothly (well not for one of my friends who had to take out his shoes) and after some 10 minutes we headed for pass control since we were coming from a Non Schengen country.
Activity at Fiumicino
We passed into T1 terminal, airside and headed for D gates. Fiumicino looks old and outdated (some of the displays with flight information were made in the early 80 judging by the look) and all the windows were really, really dirty.
Like I’ve said…
X-Ray Delta waiting for us.
A smart livery next to our ride. (through the dirty window)
Not much to do here so after smoking one cigarette in a very poorly ventilated “smoking lounge” we just sat down and waited for boarding to begin.
And down the stairs to the plane.
FCO to BCN
18.05.2012
AZ74
A321-112 EI-IXD named Piazza Pretoria - Palermo
ETD 9h05 ATD 9h15
ETA 10h55 ATA 10h55 (WOW again)
Again the cabin crew was not terribly friendly but they weren’t rude or anything. Guess they should smile more. No headphones this time (I found out why once I got seated). And absolutely no empty seats.
This plane was quite old (first flight in 1995) and it looked old too. Old interior, dirty seats and less leg room. And 100% load factor.
No IFE this time and no infos from the cockpit as well. And just my luck a very scratched window. Yey!
D gates area Terminal 1
Pushback and taxi to RWY25.
Take off and here’s the sea (I always forget that Fiumicino is so close to the sea).
http://youtu.be/BrV_N9W8h0w
Unfortunately the sky was cloudy during the entire flight but with my scratched window it wasn’t such a big problem.
Since the crew didn’t bother to say anything about the flight route I’ve decided to check for my self..
I love Alitalia’s way of writing on the wings.
Same food and beverages as in the first flight(guess the salty snacks were a bit different), again no beer or alcohol in economy class.
We flew over northern Sardinia and some90 minutes later we were descending for BCN.
Stormy weather with grey clouds and some rain. We’ve landed from the south on 07L and then taxied to the gate. This time no bus ride.
727, quite a rare sight these days.
Jet2
Ryanair at Terminal 2
Vueling everywhere.
Time to unload the bags and cargo.
Farewell to X-Ray Delta
BCN’s Terminal 1 looks great, the best looking terminal I’ve seen so far but also look kindda under used.
Delta at the gate
Terminal 2
We had to walk a bit in order to get our bag, which was damaged quite badly (broken handle, broken wheel some cuts to the side and I’m still trying to get some compensation from AZ)
Huge parking.
Then the free shuttle bus to Terminal 2 and from there another long walk to the train station. Next, the train to Barcelona. Finally!
More to follow.