buddman

Some will have noted my post earlier in the week enquiring on hand luggage allowance on AA. I was booked WT+ on BA to JFK, and then AA onwards to IND. I was unable to OLCI 24 hours before. About 12 hours before flight time, I was able to see that I had been upgraded to J. Yippee!! I did not print by BP, and with about 3 hours to go before leaving home, I decided to print out my BP, as I’ve come to the conclusion that the electronic BP on a Blackberry is annoying (the BA and BAA staff handle it like they’ve never seen one before, the always touch the screen trying to make the image move (its not an iphone) and your constantly refreshing the screen as you work your way through the BP checkpoints.

Anyway, I had been upgraded again to F. Lots of excitement in the Buddman household (well, I was excited. Mrs Buddman tried to be excited for me but I think she could care less), running out of the house to get to T5 as fast as possible to a least get a quick look at the CCR. I was pumped.

Anyway, I’m not going to go into every detail. Overall, compared to J, my F experience was really good, but more in terms of service from the BA teams than cabin comfort or facilities.

CCR – I was only there for 45 minutes. Had a good club sandwich and a few bevies. The look and feel is not dramatically different than the Flounge. If anything, it felt more crowded as the room is significantly smaller. I smirked in recalling the recent FT thread on “appropriate F attire” as there were lots of kids in there and 20 year old with baseball caps turned sideways. Service was much more immediate and attentive than in Flounge, no question.

F cabin – very nice. Didn’t feel terribly different than J although the seat spacing and width is more generous, and it certainly feels private. I think the leather padded arm rest are much more comfortable compared to the ones in J both when up, and when retracted for sleeping. To make my day go from strength to strength, 1A was unoccupied and I was asked to move there from 5K to make room for a couple travelling together. This is a great seat. The best thing is that on the 744, you have a somewhat forward looking view out the 2 windows near the nose, which gives a much more interesting view of the world then looking 90 degrees out the side of the fuselage in any other seat.

Big points on the enjoyment factor for 1A

Food in F – pretty poor. My selection for starter was unavailable, and they followed the correct procedure in taking my order and then coming back to me later once those that had actually paid for F seats were served their first choice, I had the rib-eye steak and it was a hockey puck. Didn’t eat it at all. The crew were not terribly surprised, mentioned that it was hard to get the steak right, and replaced it with a salmon and bream combo, which was fine but nothing special. I didn’t have anything else to eat other than tea and scones.

Wine – was really excellent I thought. Tattinger champagne, a few too many glasses of the Chateau Yon-Figeac and the Jackson-Triggs Icewine meant that I missed 40% of my F experience while in a horizontal doze. A very pleasant doze.

The crew was really good, super in fact A guy and a girl – she more efficient, he more earnest – I’m sure nothing would have been to much of a bother for them, but I did feel a bit of an interloper and I was pretty low maintenance. The male CC organised a wine tasting for the russian chap in 1K. Nice!

So, Positives for me:
(1) BA for giving me a double Op Up.
(2) Seat 1A on 744
(3) Wine selection
(4) Cabin crew service
(5) Jammies (which I am now wearing in my hotel)

Nothing to get over over over excited about
(1) CCR vs Flounge (sorry to say)
(2) NF interior vs J. However, I’m sure NF is a big improvement over OF.

Area for improvement
(1) Food. Dire.

Thank BA – it was a real treat.

Buddman

oscietra

Nice report, thanks for posting.

Moral of the story: NEVER order steak on a plane.

It's really hard for the crew to get right and rarely excellent. Much better to stick to the fish, soups and things which work best in a dehydrated environment.

tooblue

Nice to hear of your good luck and to read your objective assessment of the trip. ^

evacboy

I'd disagree! As much as I prefer flying BA over AA or DL, I've had some absolutely fantastic (pink in the middle) steaks on both the latter! And that's in Domestic F!

hillrider

I was about to post the same. Have had quite a few excellent steaks on AA, although a few hockey pucks did manage to slip in, most likely caused by the FA in the galley not following the cooking instructions.

henkybaby

The difference between BA and AA is that on BA all* the food is brought on board frozen solid, including the steaks. They therefore need to defrost and cook in one operation. That will never work well, especially not on steaks. On BA you are basically always eating 'TV dinners' no matter what class you fly.

On AA the steaks (at least) are not frozen.

So it was explained to me by an F purser on BA.

* except the salads (maybe that's why they are always so bad) and the cold dishes.

oscietra

BA food, especially in F, is not frozen.

henkybaby

Well, in that case many a purser, cabin crew or even CSD has told me fibs when I asked why on God's green earth they could not prepare a steak rare. What is your explanation for BA's inability to do so?

Here is a little article about Qantas doing the same: http://www.news.com.au/travel/news/q...-1226048081629

CT-UK

I nearly always have steak on a plane, I have had crap a couple of times, average a few which is fine by me good and excellent a number of times including quite rare just how I like it.

So saying NEVER is a bit of a generalisation.

henkybaby

Are you talking BA or 'in general'? I had excellent steaks on planes but NEVER on BA.

henkybaby

Here is another article claiming the same (about BA catering in particular): http://www.terminalu.com/features/an...ane-food/2181/

CT-UK

On BA, infact the best steaks I have had on a plane have been on BA.

BA6501

I've had excellent steaks on ME and BD but never on BA.

BicesterTerrier

+1 - GRU-LHR if the fact it might have been prepared in Brazil has any bearing, and it was in WT+.

corporate-wage-slave

I am aware of 5 different ways of preparing steak for consumption on planes. 4 of them involve heating the steak twice. The fifth way - pan frying or grilling a properly hung steak from ambient on board is no longer, to the best of my knowledge, available on a commercial airline.

Steak gets its melt in the mouth qualities from the streams of "marbled" fat riddling the flesh. Good cattle breeding gets the fat in the right place; proper slaughter technique avoids flavour atrophy; hanging accentuates the potential flavour; frying or grilling the steak brings this together into the dish we all know. Cooking a steak twice can never be as good as a single go at it.

It is possible to have an acceptable flavour from being double cooked. It is easy to destroy the product. It is impossible to get perfect steak from double cooking. Personally I feel that eating steaks on a plane literally does not do justice to the cattle, and is one of those pleasures reserved for a good restaurant on the ground.