Review: British Airways Business Class A318 New York To London City

I love this flight...and also had the same salmon entree in Aug on a LHR flight and thought it was so delicious!

Wait, how can you bring the fruit and dairy products from the “to go” breakfast through customs?

@William
I'd guess those are british products not needing any declaration.

@william
UK customs doesn't have many restrictions on what you can bring in from the US when it comes to food.

You can take eggs, almost any fruit or vegetable (somewhat randomly, no potatoes, but other root vegetables, np!).

Can't take meat... but you can take... wait for it... up to a 50lb fresh fish!

Menu does look exceedingly bland, however. Then again most of the passengers seemed to be as well.

I wonder if they used to announce nut allergies on Concorde service or was that before nut allergies existed?

Is there any way one can book LHR-JFK-LCY in one itinerary originating in London? The inbound flight seems so convinient, while the outbound not so much, especially given the stop in Shannon.

@ Ben Holz -- You sure can, just enter "LON" as the city code when booking, and all three London-area airports should show up.

Great review, I really hope I can try out this flight one day!

I'm thinking of recommending this flight to friends, wondering if you think a narrowbody on TATL even without the heavy chop you described is in general less smooth than a widebody? Of course the smaller plane has its advantages too in intimate feel and service...

Thanks

Are you, as they like to say on the VS forums, ' turning to the dark side'? ☺

That's a couple of BA reviews that weren't horrible.

Hey Ben - this is an interesting contrast to your post earlier today about wanting less service on short transatlantic hops in C. When push comes to shove, would you say you prefer the more attentive service, as long as it’s customized to your sleep preferences?

It would be super cool if BA could offer this on a DCA routing - something of a super-perimiter exception.

I know DC is not the NYC market and all, but 32 more C seats per day would not blow the yields out of whack. And folks on the westbound would happily tolerate the stop at SNN, clearing customs there, over the misery one must tolerate with any landing at IAD, bussing to customs, etc., etc.

The A318 / A319 have a very stiff wing -- and handle turbulence worse than the A320 and much worse than Boeings of similar size.

As I fly to the UK on business from NY regularly, this is the flight I almost always take. It's esp helpful when I am connecting to Glasgow, due to the insanely short passport control line. As anyone that has flown though Heathrow can tell you, the lines as passport control can be insane, even with the business/first class line.

The menu does need a refresh though. The meal you had is the same one thats been there since the beginning of the year. I do usually skip the meal now, as I eat in the BA lounge before boarding.

I do wish WIFI was available for this flight, as most folks taking it are business people. Otherwise, this is hands down the best BA experience.

They should get permission to go to LGA. Now that would be cool.

This plane/flight is fun. Concorde was more fun.

Flew the service in the other direction last year and loved it. Hope to do it again one day.

The original tablet for the IFE on this service did fit in the arm. Then they changed to iPads...

I love this flight. No more exclusive way to cross the Atlantic when flying commercial. The outbound stop in Shannon isn’t bad really, and is useful as you can pre clear immigration which is a real help at the other end unless you have a US passport/ global entry etc.

I never had too much turblulence tbh. But as someone else noted the smaller busses are prone to it.

Great review, always fascinated by the service.

Was the soup not spilling everywhere with the turbulence? Surprised they served it.

@Jfhscott I don't think 318s have the legs to do SNN-DCA. It's a about hundred mile further from Europe and SNN-JFK is already quite stretching it.

When on an airplane, what exactly is "homemade gnocchi?"

I don’t see the value of LCY over LHR.

They should do an all First class service to/from LHR.

West London has always been West London, and you will reach Knightsbridge faster from LHR than LCY.

LCY is advantageous for Canary Warf but that’s where the office juniors and clerks are posted. The real money is with the entrepreneurs/ceos in Mayfair/Knightsbridge/Kensington.

Have to take this flight one day. Great job, Lucky.

The reason why the seats are different from any other BA J seats is that these seats are the ones that came with the plane and BA didn't change them because they would have needed to certificate the usual CW seat for use on the A318 at some cost plus also the additional weight would have been an issue.

I do like the CWLCY service but the BA02 is just too early a flight back for me as a leisure traveller and so I much preferred the later BA4 service but obviously that's not an option now.

BA aren't going to operate this from LGA not when they have a full base at JFK with ground staff and lounges etc. Ditto with DCA when IAD is nearby.

And I wish people would stop being so sniffy about it. LCY suits some people but not others. Personally I'd rather fly the CWLCY service than make the longer trek (for me) to LHR even though I'd get lounge access etc etc

Ben, you should have got a seat on the right side to enjoy a better view of London during the approach 🙂

I was on this flight with you (2A) ... was a bit surprised that you thought that was worst turbulence you’d experienced in two years. Sure, it was difficult to sleep, but pretty normal bumps for a transatlantic crossing in the 318 when you fly across the jet stream as we did that night (and there were storms around southern Canada),

For anyone worried about Ben turning into a BA fan, he has just taken the 747 upper deck and JFK-LCY, which are the only half decent BA business products. Avoid anything else.

Are these more expensive business class fares over the traditional ones being that it’s almost like a private plane experience and flying directly into London City?

I was hoping you’d cover how to book these seats using various miles/award tricks.

Last time I flew business class with BA was back in 2012 - great to see how much they've upgraded the cabin and the seating arrangements. Looking forward to trying them again as soon as I've got enough Avios!

Great review. I may be booking this flight in a couple month's time. I am a tad concerned about the turbulence report and someone else mentioning the A318 having a stiff wing and not handling turbulence well. Is turbulence a common experience on this flight regardless of weather (ie even calm days you get bumped around being it's a smaller plane) or is it the same as hitting turbulence on a 737?

@Tom. This is well outside the range rules of LGA.

@Ben Holz, a few minutes in SNN avoided the immigration lines at JFK. It's a time save even with global entry

The westbound flight, BA001, is even better. Yes, there is a “technical” stop in Shannon for fuel, but you clear US customs at SNN and when you arrive at JFK it’s as if you were arriving on a domestic flight so you go right to baggage claim. Avoiding Customs/Immigration At JFK is truly priceless. Some may prefer Club World on a larger plane, but once you’ve flown BA001, I thoroughly doubt anyone would choose arriving at JFK on any other British Airways flight.