I was departing Nairobi for London the same day I arrived in Nairobi from New York (well, technically I was departing just after midnight, but close enough). I spent the day at the Four Points by Sheraton Nairobi Airport. I'll be reviewing that in my next trip report, since on my trip a week later…
Continue reading: Review: British Airways Business Class 747 Nairobi To London
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“I know, I made a huge sacrifice.”
I really want to blame him. He seems like a tool. But I can't. The discrepancy between aisle and window in this configuration is just too big.
A suggestion on formatting of the reviews: Maybe put the photos of the menus on a separate page with links to them, or perhaps include thumbnails and titles but not full-sized pictures, if the site allows it. I may be in the minority here, but I tend to scroll right through the menus to get to the meat of the review since they're always terrific. Minimizing the menus but still providing access would, I think, clean up the review itself tremendously.
The privacy screen only needs to be down for the safety demo itself. You don't need to keep it down until it is over.
Some (lazier) crews will lower the divider when doing meal service but generally not when you're in the direct aisle access seats (such as 62A/K and 64A/K) as it is easier to bring the stuff around.
I dint pay anything for choosing seats probably depends on the ticket you have purchased. I chose 62A both times on the 747. Upper deck is great feels like a private jet with only Business class seats.
Other than that British Airways suck bigtime. Their first class is probably the business class on other airlines these days. Club world is not value for money unless its an award ticket.
Service was a hit & miss . Some attendants were great & some were really awful. On my flight from LHR-PHL i was refused extra nuts citing they were over with it within 2 hours of departure. I find it hard to believe
What a shame you didn't have the "full" package with a refurbished Panasonic IFE system. That tiny Nintendo like graphics screen looks and feels really ancient in 2018, but yasss to everything else. CW on the upper deck of a BA 747 is a dreamy experience and now probably even better than their own First downstairs.
Just did SFO-LHR on the upper deck, and couldn't agree more. BA nailed it with their new catering and bedding. My one gripe is the consistent need of BA to keep the cabin temperature somewhere between Summer in Phoenix and the surface of the Sun.
Whatever about the sometimes improved soft product, the picture of that seat tells all the reasons why I would never fly BA long haul.
Having done about 6 crossings on the BA 747 this year, I have to agree the upper deck is far superior to the lower deck 8 across. As far as being impressed, well, they HAVE done a few things recently that deserve kudos - the bedding is much better, with a functional pillow, but the seat is still hard as a rock and at barely 6 feet, very uncomfortable for anyone who is taller.
The new drink service is better. The vodka is now Ciroc (instead of undrinkable Smirnoff Red) and they upgraded the nuts (although the serving was skimpy and they didn't have enough for refills.
We still find the entrees on transatlantic flights basically inedible (especially the "steaks" - hard to believe they are as bad as they are. The "second service" tea is a joke - but at least they eliminated the pre-packed cellophane of sandwiches from earlier this year. On longer flights (like our 10 hour flight to Denver Monday) - we were actually hungry once we got off the plane.
As indicated, the old video system is so outdated you can hardly watch a movie. The map never worked and we had a countdown of 16 hours on our 10 your flight.
My touchscreen hasn't worked for the last three BA flights and the hand-held selection method is very wonky. I have yet to get a new system on one of my BA flights ...maybe they don't put them on secondary routes like Denver, Dallas, and Austin, but I expected to see it out of Miami...
Oh, and on the upper deck of the 747, the "mid-flight" snack never appeared on either of my Denver flights - we had to go downstairs to the increasingly meager offerings on the long haul.
While a lot of the markets I fly don't leave me much choice as a committed One Worlder, I far prefer the American 777 product - I never thought AA would surpass BA overall, but they have. In fact on the AA LAX/HKG run, they gave CX a good run for the money.
Overall, BA really needs to further upgrade their catering, entertainment and lack of WIFI to keep up.
As far as advanced seat assignments - you need priority status to pre-reserve seats without paying in advance. Fortunately, I have status, so I almost always take the upper deck for the "private jet" feel, which IS a benefit. On my Monday flight, the upper deck was only half full.
BTW - They have brought back Pommery champagne on Club Europe - which is a real plus, but the food our last flights LHR/ATH and LHR/BCN really sucked. I wanted to order off the coach menu but didn't actual ask! The seats still suck with the 30 in pitch, but it's "industry standard" on all the routes I have to fly.
Lucky - I think you're mellowing in your old age :-). That's now two or three 'BA is great' reviews in a row! I agree with all you've said - I've been a 62A addict for years. Going to be a shame when the 747 upper deck is no more. Key issue with BA business and first class is the staff. With the new mixed crews, it's totally inconsistent service and can rapidly turn a good experience into a bad one
@AdamR - I for one am really into the menus and would find it annoying to have to click through to another window. To me, they are an integral part of the trip report. Just my $0.02.
I've been flying business class on BA intra-European flights and the improvements in the soft product are amazing. But I still won't fly them TATL or other long haul until they replace the seats in business class. If that change turns out to be a winner, then I will shift my long haul Europe travel from AA to BA.
@Sam:
Maybe Ben could hold a poll. For me, I fly these routes/airlines enough (or read the blog enough) to generally have an idea of what's on the menu. Plus I prefer the pictures of the food itself. And when the menu is 10+ pages, that's a lot of useless (for me) pictures to scroll through since it's just pictures of text. To each his own. Though I do like to judge airline branding and marketing via typeface, color usage, and layout and organization of their printed marketing material, so I'd probably be clicking on the links to the menus every now and then.
love your reviews, and love how you include full size pictures of the menu, the food, etc. I like thinking of what I would order and seeing what you ordered. Great review Ben!
I like seeing the menu photos as part of the review because they're a big part of the timeline of the flight - get on plane, hand towel, read menu, etc. I don't want to have to click on another link to see them.
I think the current BA safety Demi video is tha absolute worst, but my da thinks it is fantastic. No account for taste it seems.
As long as I'm still paying like a grand in fees for two award tickets, this whole review is irrelevant.
@Lucky:
NBO seems to always indicate the boarding time is far earlier than it actually ends up being. I tell people to hold out as long as they can before going through security at the gate. Once you're in there you're stuck with no bathrooms and what feels like no air. I'd rather be squished in the lounge for a little longer than hypoventilate at the gate.
Got to be honest, the 1990s IFE, outdated seat, toilet and questionable service is really bad and wouldn’t be tolerated on some other airlines. I’d be gutted with this product if I had paid for it myself. Get me in a Qatar suite quick......
Good to see some soft product improvements. It is hard to justify taking BA though when I see the prices of Club Class.
The seating issue. The couple weren't seated "together" because they didn't purchase seats together. And this isn't economy, the couple won't be 'seated' with someone else, just not as close to each other as they prefer.
Bad form of the F/As to suggest hitting up other pax for a seat switch. I would not switch and I would not appreciate being asked to.
“British Airways’ mixed fleet flight attendants are paid less, stay at worse hotels, and generally don’t have the same conditions as British Airways’ more senior flight attendants. So I generally find that they’re excited and friendly, but not necessarily the most polished.”.
- complete rubbish. They don’t stay in “worse hotels”. Often, routes are shared between fleets, so there is no difference.