Review: British Airways Club Suites Business Class Boeing 777 (IAD-LHR)

I love this site . But your flight reviews use the word “quite” over and over. I find it quite annoying and wonder why you use this sentence quite a bit when it is in fact quite meaningless.

“especially by European standards”

AF, VS, and AY put up a good show in business. But in general my BA experiences line up fairly well with yours, Ben. Not too shabby.

Thanks Ben! I am taking this exact flight in May. Thanks for the heads up on the food selection, as it's not just a problem for those who don't eat pork, but those who can't eat dairy. Otherwise, I'm looking forward to it.

How can you fall a sleep with 5.5 hours remaining if it took 75 minutes for them to bring your manin course on a 6 hour 15 minute flight? The math is not mathing! Did you mean 4.5 hours remaining?

I’m happy to see they offer a mattress sheet. Even if it’s only a sheet, it makes a seat so much better to sleep on just knowing you’re sleeping on the sheet and not the seat itself. I wish airlines invested a little more on that part.

I flew LHR-IAD return last month in F, very nice it was too, thank you BA.
Thank you too Ben for your candid article, hopefully those who follow us will enjoy a safe and pleasant flight(s).

Once again, the side of butter on an already buttery muffin and greasy sandwich is just off.

Matt, please be advised that the B777 cannot quite manage a 6hr 15m flight time between IAD and LHR, even with a hurricane like tail wind. Furthermore, trust me, it is easy to sleep for about 5hrs on this pond crossing.

Solid flight, good to know about the newer IFE on the -300 variant as well as having DO & CO out of LHR.

It may seem trivial to some people but the mattress pad and hardness of the seat are critical for me, a side sleeper, to get some rest. A couple turns and the thin mattress pad on BA gets all bunched up and is annoying. I sleep better without it. Just got back from Tokyo and the Japan Airlines pad was thick and much better.

At least this craft was not configured with those idiotic rear facing seats. Happy that you received the meal of your first choice.

Do you possess basic algebra knowledge?

Solid review and good timing with my first experience coming up in June from JFK, using CX miles as well for my family of 4. It's a great use if you ask me as well. Need to select the seats and the embedded link helped me figure out where I want to sit. I just wish BA didn't charge for seat selection, ugh.

We also used CX miles on this flight last year. It’s an extremely underrated way to fly into LHR because of the low fees. Agree that the seat selection fees are extortionate.

While the experience sounded reasonably ok, this review is not enough to shake my general perception that BA is just like American Airlines in terms of a carrier charging high prices for a mediocre product and spotty service, and gambling my money/miles on what I am going to get. An airline that is barely holding it together. That and I have little desire to pay the UK's opportunistic flight taxes, or transit through there unnecessarily. I will never get why those depressing airports in a depressing country have the traffic and hub status that they do. (sorry, just a strong personal opinion, and of course I could be wrong)

@ Hector -- Point taken, thank you! 🙂

@ Redacted -- Agreed, and ultimately comes down to what plane you end up on. Finnair has a very consistent hard product, which is great. Virgin is super inconsistent, especially with the 789s and A333s. And yeah, Air France's latest planes are great, but I'd say British Airways has the hard product advantage compared to A330s, 772s, and four-cabin 773s.

@ Matt -- My apologies, thanks for the correction. That should've said 4.5 hours, rather than 5.5 hours. Fixed.

It was a typo. He meant to write "a little more than 4.5 hours remaining". I can tell because the picture of the IFE flight map he posted right below it says "Time remaining to destination: 4:47".

"Admittedly I’m biased, but I think it would be nice if the airline had a non-pork option for breakfast, since that excludes two major religions, plus people like me, who just like pigs. "

Thank you Ben for your recent comments on this topic in your flight reviews! As a person who flies a lot and fits into one of those groups, I appreciate a mainstream airline blogger calling this out! I also appreciate the heads up 🙂

That's what pre-orders for Halal and Kosher options are for.

Nothing wrong with pig. It tastes beautiful.

Not gonna lie the halal options on Western airlines are usually awful. Over spiced food that isn't authentic to really any cuisine and is sort of a patchwork fusion that doesn't get it right

One finds it necessary to call a point of order in regard to your comparison of AA to BA, surely, this is like comparing peaches with mushrooms?
I say this in the firm knowledge that BA is a rather a peach rated 13th in the Airline World Rankings, while AA is a mushroom and only rated at 78th.
One hopes that perhaps your perception will realign with reality sometime soon Eric.

How was it in F ? I’ve just booked this exact flight and am ( hopefully ) looking forward to it. How’s the food and champagne and did you partake in first dining in the lounge ?

that breakfast would be served in YCL on the likes of SQ, EK, QR, CX, etc.

YCL …. Young Communist League?
Putin or Trump fanboy?

Seems you have a bias towards BA, and I have one away from it.

I guess we'll just have to live in our own separate worlds of information and belief.

115,000 miles and $351.17 in taxes & fees for biz isn’t a good deal overall for one-way between the U.S. and Asia in my view. It’s only a “good” deal for flying BA metal on miles, and only because BA sucks and has horrible award policies for flying BA metal.

Absolutely, life is too short and besides after all, it is horses for courses.

F on BA is solid overall..... Great champagne and food plus free wifi! Only thing of question was on a flight last December they ran out of my dessert option!!

So, how for out did you book, what miles did you use and how much did it take in miles and $??

Hey Lucky........ Thanks again for a detailed review!

So, how far in advance did you book the trip using CX miles??

I largely agree with your comments, but I would say that service on AA is significantly more likely to be uninterested and believing that they are doing you a favour.
I'd say that is almost never on the good airlines, occasional on BA, and common on AA.

"As an aviation geek who loves taking pictures of planes at airports, it bugs me how gates at the terminal have an arrivals hallway behind the first set of glass, so you can never really get a good shot."

Thanks for calling this out, I was hoping I wasn't the only one who disliked this!

Please can you also review your use of "both"?
It is the substitute for "all two", not for "the two".

We just flew British Air from Los Angeles to London Heathrow. We had exactly the same thoughts and were very pleased with the entire experience. I actually found British Air to be better than the Qatar on just about every level.

It would be wonderful if you did a series of reviews on the hotels they feature in Amazing Hotels!

I was thrilled to be upgraded from Premium to Business class. I would imagine it was like winning a lotto prize! Outstanding crew, full of personality and attention to detail. Flying out of London to SA, what an opportunity, thank you, BA 😉

I think all airlines should offer pork and non-pork options. I personally detest and will not eat a chicken sausage for breakfast as offered on all ME and FE airlines. No pork options for us Westerners that like them,