A couple of weeks ago I flew Air France’s A220 from Paris to London Heathrow. The flight itself was one of the best intra-Europe flights in economy that I’ve ever flown, though even so in the grand scheme of things I’d consider the flight itself pretty run-of-the-mill. However, there was one moment of the flight that will go down as one of my favourite flying moments ever (so far). In order to explain it to you guys, first you’ll have to meet someone, then I’ll get into the experience.
There’s someone I’d like you to meet…
Just over 15 months ago, I started going out with J. No, her name isn’t actually J – we’ve had a chat about online presence (we come from different places in that regard), and she’d prefer to remain anonymous to the general public for now. What you need to know is that she’s an infectiously radiant bundle of joy who loves sharing excitement for all things with those she loves (including when they’re towards the most random things, such as my strange flying antics).
J loves London because of all there is to do and see, though probably more so because of the fact that you get to meet cool people from all over the world. We share a love of travel generally, though she’s only started picking up habits that more of us regular folk do, such as searching up how old the plane is on Planespotters.net after seeing the tail number.
The first flight we flew together was a TUI flight to Reus, where I briefly questioned whether things would work out when she said that people taking photos of planes normally gave her the ick
Teaching J the good things in (the flying) life
There are really only three rules of thumb that I abide by whenever flying:
- Staring out the window is well worth the hippopotamus crawl over people if you need to go to the bathroom (it will never, ever get old for me, unless I develop accessibility needs)
- Always maximise what’s included in your ticket (do your research) – maximise onboard meals, lounge access, etc.
- Pick a seat on the right side of the plane when landing into Heathrow
J is the kind of person who will look up census data of London just to figure out where different communities are geographically placed. So, when Air France presented itself as the most economically and schedule-friendly option to get back from a short birthday day trip to Paris, I knew I’d be bereft in my boyfriend duties not to assign a seat on the right side of the plane. As a result, I gritted my teeth and paid £14 (HK$147) to assign us two seats on the right side of the plane (yep, one of the seats I pre-paid for was a middle seat), even though we were on an A220 and would’ve gotten a two-seater if we sat on the left.
This was one of the better approaches into Heathrow – sometimes approach paths can only line up with runway 27R over the Camberwell area (giving good views over Waterloo, London Bridge and the Shard), though this time we were lined up as east as Dartford, which meant we had a full view over City Airport, the O2, and Canary Wharf as well. It was also dusk at this time of day, which made the views even more breathtaking.
Landing into London Heathrow
J has landed into Heathrow multiple times, though I think this is the first time she’d actively taken note of these views upon approach. It was so cool to watch J identify all of the different landmarks in London with exhilaration, including where I live by Canary Wharf, the Shard, the Cheese Grater/Walkie Talkie, the O2, the Royal Albert Hall, and the Wembley arch (roughly in that order). Since our story started in London, needless to say there were some other parts of London that are significant to both of us, which we pointed out as well.
One of my favourite moments looking out of the window
Before someone makes fun of me for this, of course this wasn’t the highlight of our Paris trip. However, as an aviation writer, this is the bit of the trip I wanted to share with you guys the most.
Travel (and flying) is SO much better when you get to share it with someone else
As a frequent flyer I do this Heathrow approach pretty often, but the ability to share the experience of a bird’s eye view over London with someone you love and point out together different parts of what made the city special to us, was so precious to me.
I’d imagine J and I will travel more often (we already have some travel planned, some of which I’m reviewing), and while I’d love to experience new things together with her, there will undoubtedly be bits of the flying experience (as well as life more generally, though that’s outside the scope of this aviation blog) that we’ll share with each other as veterans. I’m looking forward to being able to share more of these joys with her, whether that be made-to-order food in a Priority Pass lounge, flying over Hong Kong with a view of the Victoria Harbour, flying out of a different origin city to knock down airfare, etc..
I figure this is why I blog at all – it’s fun being able to share weird quirky moments when flying, such as discovering five different lounges in a day at Heathrow’s Terminal 3, socialising in the onboard bar onboard an Emirates A380, or tracking a British Airways A320neo flight relentlessly until the inbound flight takes off just so I can see what kind of seat I get. There’s joy in being able to share this with a community that’s equally as nerdy as I am and interested in this stuff. However, I’m also so grateful to get to share this niche world with someone who isn’t intrinsically interested in this stuff, but gets excited because they love and care about me, and want to be excited about what I get excited about.
While I’m talking about flying specifically, travel in general is a great way for people to figure out each other’s weird and random internal dialogues, since it’s wildly out of routine from daily life. Whether it’s what attractions/places people visit, what people remember most, all the logistics involved (including flying, airports, etc.), or where people go, there’s so much joy to be had about loving and caring about those you’re travelling with (or those whom you’re hearing about their travels), and seeing the world through their eyes.
I’m personally excited about how all of these people in this photo (at Heathrow) would’ve been scattered all across the world the day after I took this photo
Conclusion
I booked seats on the right side of the plane when landing into Heathrow, and J and I hugely enjoyed the views upon landing. Not only was this objectively fun, though it also left me with some musings about why I blog, and why travel is so fun with someone else.
Who do you love travelling with?