I had a remarkable family trip to Abu Dhabi, Dubai and London before Thanksgiving. We used points and received suites at the Park Hyatts in Abu Dhabi and Dubai and at the Hyatt Regency The Churchill in London. And we got to experience two flights in the Etihad First “Apartment” on their Airbus A380. It’s one of my absolute favorite experiences in the air, from the incredible amount of space each passenger has, to the genuine service, and the onboard shower.
The last segment of our trip was a flight home from London Heathrow to Austin on British Airways in business class. They use an Airbus A350 on the route, with no first class but with the airline’s Club Suites – essentially a bespoke version of the current American Airlines seat with doors added. It is a very good but not great seat.
This was the flight I already told one story off of: being refused water as a predeparture beverage, with the crewmember snapping that I already had a bottle at my seat.
- I didn’t know she was only willing to serve juice or champagne and not water, water seemed like a reasonable request!
- On my previous BA flight they ran out of water bottles, getting refills from British Airways crew can be a roll of the dice, and I wanted to save my bottle for the flight.
Many of you thought that asking for water as a predeparture beverage was entitled and unreasonable. I still think it’s a pretty basic request, that it was made politely, and I’m shocked at the snark I received in response.
Other than that the flight was.. fine.
We arrived at British Airways terminal 5 about two hours prior to departure. Traveling in business class, with three of us, I wasn’t entitled to use the First Wing so we checked in at the business class desk and went through what wasn’t bad security for Heathrow.
Our flight was departing from the remote terminal 5B, so we routed through the mall that is this airport out to the train to 5B, and up to the British Airways lounge there.
The lounge is basic, but generally less crowded than BA business offerings in the main terminal. (Again, with three passengers, I’m not entitled to Galleries First access using my oneworld status.)
It’s open daily 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. and available to British Airways and other oneworld business and first class passengers as well as BA Silver status and above and oneworld sapphire members.
You don’t have to be flying out of 5B to use the lounge – it’s accessible to and from 5C (in fact, it’s the preferred lounge for those departing from 5C). Technically you can also visit if you’re flying out of the main terminal 5, but you cannot take the train back from 5B to the main terminal – you’d have to walk it.
Inside there’s plenty of comfortable seating, self-serve bar opportunities, as well as modest buffet spreads featuring both hot and cold items.
In my experience the food is pretty similar in both the BA business and first class lounges, at least at breakfast (I did not stay to see what the lunch offerings at the 5B club were like) and only really differentiated in the Concorde Room (Galleries First has upgraded wine and spirits, of course).
We had about half an hour in the lounge before heading down to our gate for boarding. While boarding time had passed when we arrived, they weren’t actually boarding yet, though no delay was ever posted.
The wait was only about 10 minutes and we were on board quickly, amidst the chaos of British Airways boarding groups and lack of clear announcements.
The cabin itself is simultaneously beautiful and daunting. The forward business class cabin is enormous, creating the sense that it is never-ending.
The size of the forward business cabin simply makes a sense of exclusivity impossible. Nonetheless, the seat itself is quite nice – a good standard seat, add doors, but also add custom branded stitching and lighting makes for a nice experience.
The White Company bedding at your seat is good, and the amenity kit well-enough stocked. There’s a bottle of water pre-placed at your seat and headphones in addition to the amenity kit. There’s even a few different spots for storage, but since you aren’t supposed to be permitted to use the foot well for storage during takeoff and landing, something large enough for a laptop would be appreciated.
Menus were distributed for the flight, with lunch and afternoon tea to be served. As you can see from the menu, they do not actually distinguish between lunch and dinner but I’ll call it lunch as it was a 12:10 p.m. departure.
The backlit British Airways logo at the front of the cabin is a nice touch. However on the other side is a poorly designed galley that you need to traverse to reach the forward lavatories (or cross to the other aisle of the aircraft). People do that throughout service, though I’ve seen some crews close down the area. There’s both little room for them to work, and little space for them to store catering.
One thing I noticed about the suite is that it’s aging. On this flight the divider between center seats was stained. The seat cushion didn’t seem as thick and supportive as it’s been on some recent BA flights.
We took off and I had a closer look at the amenity kit. Beverage of choice was served once we were in the air, and I finally got some water – to go along with packaged nuts, which just seems cheap for business class, but also efficient given the galley space issues and the number of passengers that crew have to serve in this dense business cabin.
Catering is certainly better out of London than it is out of Austin (true on all airlines, a sad tale about Austin catering) and the smoked salmon was fine and even fairly tasty. I didn’t fancy lamb or chicken so I went with the pasta option which was way overdone and I ate just a couple of pieces.
For dessert I had the apricot souffle, which was good enough though unmemorable.
Internet worked better on this flight than my last one, and I appreciated that because as a day flight there was more to get done and keep up with. I spent a good bit of time with my daughter in her suite as she watched shows, did activity books, and drew.
Midway through the flight I went back to check out the snacks in the galley. While there were beverages available, there was only a single bag of nuts for food. I mentioned this to a crewmember who did find some more, though she wasn’t sure she’d be able to.
A couple of hours before landing, afternoon tea was served. While the finger sandwiches, scone and macaron isn’t quite as good as I remember BA’s teas in the past (though my memory is likely tainted by first class offerings) I find it preferable to the second service on many other airlines, and certainly to second service on U.S. carriers. Among European airlines I only consistently prefer Air France’s second service on Paris departures.
We landed in Austin about half an hour ahead of schedule. The walk from gate 1 over to customs is a long one. And baggage seems to take an especially long time for Austin international arrivals. In our case, we’d come in at the same time as a Mexico flight and our bags came out after theirs. Immigration queues grew quite a lot because you have to collect your bags before getting in line for immigration in Austin (as opposed to going through immigration and then getting your bags).
While our bags came out towards the end of all of the BA luggage, there was no wait for a Global Entry kiosk and we were on our way home.
Flew BA recently and their operations is a complete disaster. Landed 20 mins early into LHR at 730am (keep in mind there is a curfew, so it’s not like there were planes landing for hours before us). Took over an hour to get to the gate. Missed our connection. AA ground staff sucked and wouldn’t let us go through security at Term 3 with 30 mins to go before departure. But BA rebooked us on another flight in Term 5 in an hour. So, AA won’t let us through but we can run to Term 5 for a departure in an hour? Just dumb. By the time we got to our flight, we were last to board and sweaty from running, and thirsty since we had to dump our water bottle out to go through security. After getting situated I asked the FA up in business (we were economy but given PE seats due to the delay and the half full flight) for some water as we just been running around for 90 mins. I had my water bottle ready to fill and she graciously gave me two large bottles of water. So while BA ops sucks, and AA reps suck at LHR, the FAs we had from LHR to DFW on the A380 were super nice.
I don’t understand the snappy title of this review.
It sounds like the service and hard product onboard wasn’t bad?
The Lunch / Dinner title may be cultural. In northern England and parts of Wales and Scotland, the midday meal is called dinner.
@Ed: i agree. What made them “their own worse enemy”? The review picked minor criticisms with the in-air experience and did not even mention the crippling aspect of BA FF — the ludicrous carrier fees for award travel. On Gary’s business class ticket the fee would have bought a coach seat.
So Ryan thinks that BA is a complete disaster based on his one fairly negative personal experience? “Annoying” might be a better description. I have no love for BA and fly Virgin whenever I can. This kind of review is just venting by someone whose experience didn’t go very smoothly.
“The lounge is basic” …? What did you feel the T5B lounge was lacking?
You turned up your nose at your main course at lunch, then were irritated at insufficient snacks in the galley?
You spot one stain / mar / etc. on one suite divider, and use it as a basis for concluding that “the suites are aging?” (NB. The most senior A350-1000 in the fleet is an ancient four years old — ther majority of this type were delivered in 2022 or 2023.)
In what way is BA “its own worst enemy” — an up-front assertion you never pay off with data?
There is a big difference between a reasonably discriminating frequent flyer and a peevish implacable nitpicky one who’s perhaps going to spend the rest of their flying complaining that nothing compares to the Etihad F Bespoke Condo or whatever the heck it was.
P.S. I am no reflexive apologist for BA, they have systemic problems aplenty, but this review tripped my fairness alarm.
BA Trans Atlantic business seats and seating in 777 now 1000X better than just a few years back when it was the awful facing each other. Food not great although mostly okay but service weak. Pleasant FAs but not enough of them. JFK to LHR a month back. Took a half hour after seat belts sign went off to have a FA come around and ask for beverage choice. Again, no water given out throughout flight. Fees ridiculous for the product.
Let that be a lesson to you: Drink champagne and save water.
Other than that one issue, it sounds like BA did a good job. Having flown BA a few months ago, and spent a few hours in the same lounge in LHR. It beat most of the AA clubs.
What I didn’t understand was all the photos. It looked like my neighbor’s home video of the only trip he had ever taken in his entire 75 years of life.
I always buy a sandwich at Pret before a BA longhaul flight in J, as the midflight snacks and tea service are not very filling.
Lounge, no, but I would expect to be able to use the First Wing as an Emerald traveling with my family (two extra people, like you).
What’s with the constant backbiting remarks on the review? Are we defending BA? LHR is a dumpster fire. BA is the most unhelpful airline on the ground, and mediocre at best in the air.
“And baggage seems to take an especially long time for Austin international arrivals. In our case, we’d come in at the same time as a Mexico flight and our bags came out after theirs.”
So your chances were 50/50 and you lost. That’s life.
Another abysmal haphazard assortment of words from Gary.
The meaning behind the title seems to have alluded the author, presumably after over-indulging on the flight before putting pen to paper. What went so wrong exactly?
How is it that the most generous lounge policy of the three alliances was a surprise to a travel blogger? You would even have been allowed to check-in at the first wing, but into the lounge it’s well known that oneworld emeralds are only entitled to 1 guest. You checked in presumably at the new ‘Club Wing’ with dedicated priority security that exits right in front of the lounge entrance. Yet as you mention there is little differentiation inside business and first lounges at T5 either – so is it just the entitled sense of exclusivity you further yearn for?
The first lounges are in dire need of improvement (not that you bothered to review and comment on) but outside of the Concorde room, the T5B business lounge offering is pretty decent and practically at first lounge standards. Heaven forbid you visit an Admirals club.
I reluctantly persist in checking your blog for some interesting links to other sites but goodness me you need to add some humility and quality to your articles if you want to play with the big boys in the travel industry.
Consider staying hydrated to the point where you won’t feel compelled to cry about it on the internet when the bottle already provided for you isn’t enough to get you through taxi, takeoff, and initial climb lolol. Why would you admit that you are this soft.
Gary arent you an EXP? I always check in at BA 1st at LHR as EXP flying Business.
@Solucia – you can use First Wing with one guest, not two
Though I sometimes get to use the Concorde lounge (lovely) the Galleries lounge has one benefit: they serve cream scones in the afternoon. I always walk over and bring one back when i am in the Concorde lounge.
@docntx Obviously BA has major, infuriating flaws when it comes to…
** Broken customer-facing IT reliability ands functionality;
** Paralytic irrops recovery including airport agents’ inability to rebook people, too few phone agents, and undertraining;
** The schedules’ shocking vulnerability to LHR weather and ATC slowdowns;
** Woeful baggage handling and delay / loss rates;
** Criminally slow response to duty of care and UK/EU261 compensation filings;
** An apparent policy to deny most valid service requests from customers, then eventually concede only to the persistent;
** And an absurdly, glacially slow J class upgrade program — the last of the born-in-1995 yin-yang Club World seatsets will be in service until 2026.
However, this review touches none of those bases. It goes at what is probably the best, most consistent facet of the BA experience, namely longhaul Club Suites service ex-LHR, and chews on weird trivialities (or fictional ones: seats that cannot be more than four years old, and are probably not yet past their second birthday, are not “aging”) whilst ignoring the airline’s many established, colossal faults.
Gary described what sounded to me like an OK flight in irritated terms, but could never explicate why BA is “its own worst enemy” in this context, although it clearly is in about a dozen undiscussed others.
The one guest not 2 seems particularly petty when the 3rd is a child.
The English love their rules….
Ah, those glorious family vacations in places where human rights are abused and outright slavery is accepted. How better to teach the children which people they can look down upon.
You got snark for asking for water instead of juice or champagne? I guess everyone either drinks alcohol or doesn’t care about their blood sugar? Juice is for toddlers.
My friend is traveling to BCN. He lives in DC so his international flights are through Dulles (IAD).
He is a united flyer so called UA and booked through them. Voila he is put on BA through LHR. He is disabled and uses a wheelchair and walker. United told him he had to pay $150 for seat selection.
BA has a policy of not charging disabled passengers for seat selection.
Unted said they are booking him so he has to pay the $150.
Anyone know how to get BA/UA to refund the charge?
Nice review and about what I’d expect from BA on this route. Thanks.
So you ordered pasta.
Pasta on a plane?
I guess you’ve never been to Italy otherwise you should know how and where pasta is eaten..
Please skip next time your review about food served onboard unless it is pizza, a burger or fried chickeb.
Today I learned that not all wine is vegetarian or vegan and port is not vegetarian or vegan.
Heidsieck Monopole is ( in my opinion) a cheap champagne for a business class!
Gary,
You attract a certain niche of unhappy readers who identify with mind chatter. The nature of the mind can have a problem with literally anything. They do not see you the way you see yourself.
Feedback; you come off as an ass most of the time who’s trying to appear reasonable
Making a significant amount of money by being critical of other’s service sets you up for this. I’m not defending ugly words from others but to say you are “shocked” to read these words is sort of why many dislike you.
No, it’s not unreasonable to ask for water, it’s unreasonable to complain about it on your blog when you had a water bottle. Most flights do not run out of water so it’s in-fact silly to if not put right moronic to ask a FA for water when they have a tray of everything BUT water.
Get a clue bro
I have an upcoming return flight on BA business. If I can get something else I will. I realized I didnt have my seat selection. I logged in and they want $300 for two tickets to pick your business class seat. I didnt remember this, since the last time I flew in First on BA from London. As a Platinum Pro AA, I get free seat selection (LOL). So I tried to call. The first few times I got a recording that said call back later. At 1AM EST I called and got a rep. He said he system was down and call back later. The next day a rep helped me. I wanted the seat, because most were assigned. If you dont pay, you cant select until 24 hours before. Plenty of fuelsurcharges on this as well. I booked via ASIA miles as the cash was a little less. Virgin charges huge fuel surcharges as well.
I thought this article was written by AI but it is so bad it had to be a human who wrote it!
If all you folks, including Gary, would focus your energy on what really matters in our world, (meaning: BIG picture) maybe we could resolve a few of our problems? On second thought, after reading your responses to it, why would I think that? I must be out of my mind…or is it you?
The author has forgotten that their mission was to get from Austin to London……..everything else is a ruse to get the consumer to spend extra.
To nit pick like this and christen the article “ BA its own worst enemy”, only suggests vexatious hatred for BA as there was no reasonable grounds for genuine complaint! When asking for water, being pointed to the water already provided can’t be taken seriously when there are 200 other customers…..imagine all saying I want water but not that water?!
From my experience with BA l would neither fly with them again nor would l recommend them.
It’s not an amenity kit, it’s a wash bag in British.
Not sure what you mean by the title, but I think BA is still head and shoulders above international UA, AA and DL for onboard service, food and beverage. And they have good award and upgrade availability. The BA T5 lounges are good, but too crowded. T5B is plain, but the least crowded.
I have done the AUS/LHR/AUS run 3 or 4 times a year, and I have to agree this review wasn’t entirely fair… although certainly BA could step up it’s game with customer service all around. Catering in AUS is about equivalent to what gets boarded at LHR – I had the Lamb dish on the return last week and honestly, it was as good as anything I’ve had in business class over the Atlantic. (Agree that the salmon was a superior offering out of LHR!)
The Lounges at LHR T5 aren’t bad, although I much prefer the T3 choice of lounges we had on the way to Budapest going over. Yes, we also had a remote gate on the way TO London, and then had to take a bus to T-3…packed like sardines on both coaches so we got the full business class experience.
BA FINALLY got new furniture (after 20 years!) in the First class lounge…a welcome development. But using the business class lounge in T5B on the return, I found that lounge entirely satisfactory – the beverage selections were almost the same as in the T5A First Class terminal and the facility was much more spacious. The food in the business lounge was fine…although not as varied as in T5A First.
On the flight itself – LHR/AUS – I agree the business cabin is perhaps too large. 14 rows does mean if you’re towards the rear, the wait for a takeoff beverage is long. I don’t understand the “value” of the “suite” door – it make me feel claustraphobic, and I really dislike them – but apparently I’m in the minority. The aisles are really narrow and it makes the walk to the lavatories long and awkward…and with the front lav closed off, that leaves only two for up to 68 guests (not enough!) I don’t find the seats particularly great, but compared to premium economy (which I have to fly sometimes) – or coach, where I don’t know how they expect you to sit for 10 hours… they’re “fine…” I agreee.
One last thing – on the snacks…I’ve done this flight more than 20 times and there are ALWAYS ample snacks in the galley. Fruit, chocolates, chips, and usually even a few leftover starters in the cooler. You must have been on a flight with someone who decided to clean out the supply… shame on them.
We flew BA first Heathrow to Vancouver…ancient plane, Ill equipped for 2023. Yes safety is no 1 priority but no USB port at all? I’m sure the Science museum will take the plane soon.
I always have Nanny make some pâté sandwiches…just in case.
Geez this is a grumpy review. When you nitpick at the small stuff and make questionable assertions (stain on divider = aging suite?) it’s clear you have an axe to grind rather than being balanced. It’s a shame because I think BA are genuinely pants at times, but not for the reasons outlined here.
I wonder how people would comment if they had to pay for the tickets themselves, not work or points. I pay, for 2, so I want service and vfm. If I ask for water, I expect a water, it’s not entitlement. Having been flying for 50 years, I can safely say this – my money is far better spent with airlines that care, have transparent costs, and value my custom. BA is for business and award customers only.
Seems to me that air travel is bare travel these days. The trimmings are to keep the privileged happy and thus the airlines afloat. Personally I’m just happy to get from A to B. It’s little more than a short (Europe) or long (intercontinental) bus ride.