PaulST
Established Member
- Joined
- Feb 12, 2014
- Posts
- 1,196
Goodness gracious me, I’ve just had the worst flight in first class I’ve ever had. Now I stress the point that it was far from horrible (unlike the EY Y flight from AUH to CAI the following day) and I count myself as very lucky to fly in first class anyway, but it appears that my run of good BA flights has come to an end.
I’ve always read negative things about BA F but my single experience (LHR-DOH 772) last year was absolutely fantastic. It’s really the crew that make the flight good, and I had a fantastic team looking after me.
Sadly, this most recent flight sounds a lot more like other peoples experiences.
The Concorde room itself was a mixed picture. I was actually surprised that the Cabanas weren’t terrible. Other videos on youtube portrayed them pretty poorly but I didn’t mind them. Sure, it’s not The Pier, but it’s not bad. The service within the cabana was also pretty good (including getting something from the lunch menu a little early), and out on the balcony, although there were a few more sour faces in the dining booths. It’s really a sorry state where people feel so miserable working in what should be the most prestigious airport lounge in Britain.
The massage was OK although short (15 minutes) and not as enjoyable as the one in the Qantas first lounge I had the week prior.
Just make sure that you book both the cabana and the day spa a week or two in advance as they tend to book out otherwise.
Anyway, things started well when I was greeted by an incredibly friendly FA who showed me to my seat (something lacking in both recent QF F flights by the way). Sadly, she wasn’t looking after me (In club world I think) and I then sat there for 8 minutes (I was timing because I was filming for my video review) before anyone came to offer a drink. Their names were never introduced and I never met the CSM (I still remember the names of everyone last time – which shows how good the impression was that they left on me). One drink, no top-ups, and everything was cleared for takeoff.
The food was quite tasty with the exception of the sandwiches at the end which were quite stale. I didn’t bother complaining as I hate to cause a fuss and probably wasn’t that hungry anyway (since the lunch service was reasonably slow…)
I won’t go through everything in detail other than to say that things were very slow. When I pressed the call bell, they responded swiftly but they weren’t proactive at all. And a few drink requests were mixed up and they clearly didn’t listen to my responses during small talk as they asked if I was flying for work or travel twice.
Anyway, I quite like the suite itself as well as the colours in the first class cabin. It’s clearly more of a business class seat (albeit slightly larger) but I can’t complain too much. At least the BA accountants haven’t killed off the PJs and amenity kit on what is a 6hr day flight.
I must admit that this flight, and the club world A320 flight from FCO earlier that morning, have left a sour taste in my mouth and I doubt I’ll fly BA in the near future. Actually that’s probably not true since there’s a lack of OW airlines within Europe, but still, I certainly won’t blow a whole lot of points to check out their premium cabins anyway.
Here’s my video. I must admit that I was a lot nicer in my description than what I really felt as the crew seemed very junior and I didn’t want to get them into trouble.
I’ve always read negative things about BA F but my single experience (LHR-DOH 772) last year was absolutely fantastic. It’s really the crew that make the flight good, and I had a fantastic team looking after me.
Sadly, this most recent flight sounds a lot more like other peoples experiences.
The Concorde room itself was a mixed picture. I was actually surprised that the Cabanas weren’t terrible. Other videos on youtube portrayed them pretty poorly but I didn’t mind them. Sure, it’s not The Pier, but it’s not bad. The service within the cabana was also pretty good (including getting something from the lunch menu a little early), and out on the balcony, although there were a few more sour faces in the dining booths. It’s really a sorry state where people feel so miserable working in what should be the most prestigious airport lounge in Britain.
The massage was OK although short (15 minutes) and not as enjoyable as the one in the Qantas first lounge I had the week prior.
Just make sure that you book both the cabana and the day spa a week or two in advance as they tend to book out otherwise.
Anyway, things started well when I was greeted by an incredibly friendly FA who showed me to my seat (something lacking in both recent QF F flights by the way). Sadly, she wasn’t looking after me (In club world I think) and I then sat there for 8 minutes (I was timing because I was filming for my video review) before anyone came to offer a drink. Their names were never introduced and I never met the CSM (I still remember the names of everyone last time – which shows how good the impression was that they left on me). One drink, no top-ups, and everything was cleared for takeoff.
The food was quite tasty with the exception of the sandwiches at the end which were quite stale. I didn’t bother complaining as I hate to cause a fuss and probably wasn’t that hungry anyway (since the lunch service was reasonably slow…)
I won’t go through everything in detail other than to say that things were very slow. When I pressed the call bell, they responded swiftly but they weren’t proactive at all. And a few drink requests were mixed up and they clearly didn’t listen to my responses during small talk as they asked if I was flying for work or travel twice.
Anyway, I quite like the suite itself as well as the colours in the first class cabin. It’s clearly more of a business class seat (albeit slightly larger) but I can’t complain too much. At least the BA accountants haven’t killed off the PJs and amenity kit on what is a 6hr day flight.
I must admit that this flight, and the club world A320 flight from FCO earlier that morning, have left a sour taste in my mouth and I doubt I’ll fly BA in the near future. Actually that’s probably not true since there’s a lack of OW airlines within Europe, but still, I certainly won’t blow a whole lot of points to check out their premium cabins anyway.
Here’s my video. I must admit that I was a lot nicer in my description than what I really felt as the crew seemed very junior and I didn’t want to get them into trouble.
) As I am oft heard to say, I won't be taking any other airlines J product over BA F any time soon.
