SamWardill - 14/06/2011 08:52 GMT
Check In
My wife and I were travelling with an infant on this flight from London Heathrow Terminal 5 to San Francisco. BA therefore let us choose the seats that would accommodate a bassinet some time in advance.
I also entered my advance passenger info and purchased an ESTA some time in advance. Despite this, and despite showing that the information had been entered, the 'manage my booking' info on BA.com still showed that I had to nter some more information. This worried me and I called BA.com. Apparently BA.com had overwritten the advance passenger information that I had given it with the other passport number that they held in my Exec club profile. This, I felt, was bad functionality. I know that I am not the only British frequent traveller to have more than one UK passport (the UK passport office will give a second passport to anyone who gets a supporting letter from their employer) so it is not good that BA.com does not support this.
My actual check in was a a lot less fraught. I printed my boarding card online. On arrival at the airport I walked straight up to a bag drop (terminal 5 does not have premium bag drops presumably because the queue is rarely more that one in front for any class). The bag drop assistant was very pleasant and we were on our way through fast track security very quickly.
Lounge
The BA Terminal 5 Southern side lounge is probably my favourite lounge of any I have been to at any airport in the world. It has most things I would ever want: wi-fi, good selection of newspapers, business traveller magazine, showers, good selection of food and drink (including London Pride beer), good coffee (decaf & regular), snacks to take away (albeit not strictly allowed). The only things missing for me are: bottles of water to take away, good access from the security (it is a bit of a trek to get there). My only other quibble is that you are not told which gate you will leave from until very just before the flight is boarding so you can't select a lounge near to your gate.
Boarding
We boarded from a B gate which is a train ride away from the main hub. On arrival at B island we made a quick pitstop at the B island BA lounge to grab a quick coffee. As we had a young child we were invited to pre-broad the plane. However, even as club world passengers we would have had some priority boarding. Boarding was, therefore very pleasant and stress free. The cabin crew / ground staff also offered to stow our buggy in the plane (rather than the hold) which was a very welcome gesture (much better than having to carry a baby to the baggage carousel at the end of a long flight). On boarding we realised that the seats we had been allocated were not the optimum for attending to the baby bassinet space. They were either side of a divider and the second half of the middle double seat was allocated to a stranger. Fortunately the stranger was travelling on his own and was as keen as us to swap (rather than sit with a baby for 10 hours).
The plane was extremely hot on boarding. We found out later that this was because the aux power unit was not working. The captain had decided to make us suffer from the heat rather than making us a suffer an extended delay whilst they found another plane. I supported his decision. Because of these problems (I think) we were a few minutes late in departing.
Seat
The second generation of BA flat bed is my favourite business class seat. I find it comfortable to sit in, to eat in and to sleep in. This is especially true if, as we did on this ocassion, I manage to get one of the seats without a barrier at the end of the footrest thus allowing a little extra legroom whilst sleeping. The double seat that we ended up sitting in also provided us with a little cocoon where we could keep our baby entertained without disturbing other passengers. My only gripe with the seat is the lack of a proper reading light.
BA also provides infants (uniquely I believe) with a choice of a bassinet cot or a seat in all classes. Other airlines tend to provide only a bassinet cot which is usually too small for babies > 6 months so babies tend to have to sit on your lap for the whole flight. As it turned out, our toddler refused to sit in her own seat preferring to share with mum and dad.
IFE
The screen in Club World is very large and can be viewed well in any sitting or lying position. Noise reducing headsets are supplied, however, my headset and that of our neighbour, did not work properly. I was glad that I had my own quality noise reducing headphones brought from home.. There was an excellent selection of films and TV AVOD. I watched the Kings Speech.
Crew
BA cabin crew were at the time in dispute with BA. I guess certain crews were more supportive of the current greivances than others. I got the feeling that our crew were not as dedicated to the airline as others I had seen. One of the crew members allocated to us was not at all attentive. She didn't bring us a baby seat until we asked. She forgot to bring my wife scones with afternoon tea. She didn't tell us that there was a spare seat that we could use rather than have a baby on our lap for 10 hours. Neither of the call bells on our seats worked. It would not have surprised me if this was because the cabin service director had turned them off!
Food
Dinner was good but not excellent. I had a chicken terrine on celariac with raspberry coulis to start. This was very good. I had a beef pie as a main course. This was nothing special and no mustard was offered (luckily I had brought my own from the lounge). Desert was a low quality treacle tart. Cheese was on the menu but was not offered to us. Coffee was really bad. The red wine I chose was good. Prior to landing we were served a sandwich (which was like the cheap sandwiches you sometimes get in euro traveller) with scones and clotted cream (for me but not my wife - see above). The tea served was cold and not at all pleasant.
Arrival
We landed 15 - 30 minutes late. We disembarked quickly to beat US immigration queues. However World Traveller Plus are allowed off before Club as they are seated forward of the lower deck club section on this 747 configuration. As it turned out, Californian immigration staff were more helpful than those we were used to, they singled us out as we had a young child and we made it through very quickly. Our bags arrived soon after and we were on our way about 30 minutes after arrival.
Summary
We did not choose our airline for this trip. We were using up a BA Exec Club AmEx companion voucher so we actually chose our destination to maximise the value of the voucher. Given a free choice on this route between Virgin, United and BA who fly direct, I would always choose BA over United. I have never flown Virgin in business class and, given a free choice, would consider choosing Virgin. The BA seat is very good but is let down by poor food and less attentive service.
