matthandy

Hi all, yet another flight to or from New York for me. Unlike my previous flights, this time, unfortunately, was on a 777 with the old style Club World seating.
This trip report contains details of the flight, including a cross-wind landing as well as my thoughts on the new vs. the old Club World seat.

My previous TR’s can be found here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=866907

And here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=881262

For best viewing of the photos be sure to enable to the 'in line' viewing option in your options menu under 'My FlyerTalk'.

Some Background

I work as an IT consultant and I’ve been lucky enough to land a 6 month role on a project in New York (I live near London normally) so I’ve got about 5-6 return trips planned over the coming months. Each time I’ve used my points to upgrade from World Traveller Plus (premium economy) to Club World (business).
This trip, like the others, was an MFU (miles for upgrade) redemption WTP to Club.

I’d flown back to the UK on Thursday the 23rd of October and had spent a long weekend getting everything in order and sampling a few English favourites that I’d missed out in the US. My sister was gracious enough to come over and cook a nice beef roast dinner, yum, and I got myself a large portion of fish and chips for my tea on Monday. I also admit to packing some tins of baked beans, some Cadbury’s chocolate and stocking up on various brands of toiletries which I can’t get out in New York.
It’s the small things that you miss!

Anyway….

Online Check In

OLCI opened at 15:00 on Monday the 27th of October. I’d agreed to work from home on both the Friday and Monday of my long weekend so was sitting comfortably in front of the TV when OLCI opened. Ok, so this flight being on a 777 there weren’t going to be any ‘good’ seats in comparison to the 747. The best ones on the four class are arguably in row 15, which is the bulk head seat. The downside is that it is a bassinet position and is also directly in front of the WTP bassinet position putting you at risk from being close to screaming children for the whole flight.

The system had allocated me 14A and in light of no better options, I simply stuck with the allocated seat.

Day of the Flight – Tuesday 28th of October

(This was to be the start of a very odd day for me).

Getting to the airport

I’d booked a car to pick me up from my place at 11. It promptly arrived and after dragging all of my luggage down four flights of stairs (I live in a flat on the top floor, with no lift) I sat in the back of the lovely E class Mercedes and settled in for the one hour journey to LHR. About 20 minutes in, after chatting with the driver, a horrible thought came over me. Where was my passport? In the 12 years that I have had my own passport (after being on my mother’s as a kid) I have never once forgotten to take it with me to the airport, so this was pretty embarrassing for me. I also knew that having to go back home would eat into my lounge time . Got back home, collected the passport and then promptly arrived at T5 at about 1.15pm.

Checking In/Bag Drop/Security

My first TR had quite a few photos of the T5 check in area so I’m not going to repeat that here. You can look at my previous TR or if you want the full photo experience I recommend that you check out the excellent ‘BA Premium Experience’ TR created by Genius1.

For a Tuesday lunchtime I found check-in rather busy. I made my way over to the Club World desks at zone H and only had to wait for one person in front of me. Bag dropped off and BP in hand in under five minutes. I love T5.

Fast track security was actually faster than the normal and I definitely got through security quicker than those people in the non-fast track.

Lounges – Galleries South and T5B

I was sure that my flight would be departing from the satellite terminal, T5B, as most of the long haul flights do. However, as nothing was on the screen yet, I made my way to the south lounge complex and into the Galleries lounge. This lounge is accessible by Club World, Club Europe passengers and Silver Card holders and above. Wow, it was busy! My usual spot was taken (how dare they). I decided that I wasn’t going to stick around, so went and asked the nice lady at the desk if she knew whether my flight would be leaving from a B gate. She said yes, so I immediately headed down and jumped on the train over to T5B. At this point, it was about 1.30pm.

On arrival I went straight up to the T5B lounge. Again, a full picture report is available in my previous trip report, links at the top.

The lounge was pretty empty and I bagged a set of chairs overlooking gate B45 where a 747 was being prepared for departure. My flight was leaving from gate B44. Yes, this was indeed a 777. I got logged on to the free lounge wifi and proceeded to look up the registration on Flyertalk. There is a list of BA’s 777’s and whether or not they have been upgraded to the Next Gen Club World product. My bird was G-ZZZC and sadly, not only was she the old Club World she also has the small screen IFE system. Boo. Oh well, at least I knew what to expect.

Some photographs of the T5B lounge and the view from where I was sitting:







To lift some of my disappointment I went and helped myself to the food and drink offerings in the lounge. I picked up a hot roll, (which had no label telling you what it was), some crisps, a glass of wine and a coke.

Settling back down I started download some programmes from the BBC iPlayer to watch on the flight. I’m going to be away for five weeks so wanted to soak up as much British TV as I could. The download speeds were pretty good and at one point I was getting 1.15 mb per second. At this point, while sipping my wine I noticed that there was a bloke on the departures level staring up at me. Hehe, how often had I, when travelling in economy, been staring jealously at the people in the lounge (I seem to remember that you can do this at HKG). If I was feeling very rude I’d have lifted my glass up to him, but as I’m nicer than that I just looked away, feeling a bit smug.

It was probably about 2pm at this point and I’d decided that I would head down to the gate at 2.30. I thought that this would give me ample time, without rushing, to get on-board and settled. I was wrong. I believe that the gate showed ‘board now’ at about 2.20, no worries, I still had half a glass of wine left to finish. My next glance at 2.30 showed the dreaded red ‘flight closing’. I number of expletives almost came out of my mouth as well as what was left of my wine. Damn, damn, damn. I’d never once missed a flight (and I’ve been flying since I was a toddler) and I wasn’t about to miss one now, especially as I was an MFU and wouldn’t be guaranteed to keep that status should I have to swap onto a later flight. I literally slammed the laptop closed and shoved everything into my bag and pretty much ran to the gate.

Boarding

On arrival at the gate, I learnt that this was BA playing a cruel trick on their passengers to get them to run to the gate to make their flight. In fact, it wasn’t closing at all and there was still a queue of people waiting to board.


My aircraft - G-ZZZC

I made way down the air bridge and was greeted by the CSD and directed to my seat. I stowed my hand luggage in the overhead bin and sat down on the expectation of receiving the champagne, water or juice question shortly.

The flight didn’t appear to be very busy but there were definitely some characters on board. Firstly, there was a miserable American couple, probably in their late fifties who upon boarding, opened up my overhead bin (over the A and B seats, they were sitting in E and D) and loudly complained that it was “an absolute disgrace” that the bin was full. I just sat quietly. How about trying the correct bin first, before complaining? Vile people. This couple were an absolute nightmare for the lovely Polish FA that we had. After the bin incident she walked past with the pre-flight drinks tray and they sarcastically exclaimed “oh I see, none for us then”. She went on to explain that she was working from the back, forward, and that she would get to them in a minute. Me and the guy in 15B were just shaking our heads. The captain came on to tell us of the expected flight time, 7 hours, and that we’d in off the plane at 11pm UK time. Cue the DYKWIA’s who then stopped the FA to complain that the captain had got this wrong. How could it be 7 hours of flying time when it was 3pm in the UK now and we were expected to arrive at 11pm UK time? The poor girl tried to clarify but had to get the CSD to ask the Captain again. Anyone that flies knows that the flying time is only part of the overall flight. You have taxiing at both ends to include as well. Stupid people! Perhaps they had never travelled in business before, or maybe they were op-ups. They certainly had a serious attitude problem.

In addition to this we had a number of other oddities on the flight:

1. The man behind me in 13A stopped various FA’s to complain about the “disgraceful standards of cleanliness on board”, but then declined to move when offered an alternative seat
2. Multiple people walking back and forth to WTP and then back to Club for seemingly no reason
3. The man in 15B asks to move for no apparent reason, he wasn’t able to swap from an aisle to a window seat but still moves anyway
4. A couple in 15 E and F with two young kids start by changing the baby’s nappy on the seat, in view of everyone else, they then complain to the purser about lack of children’s meals on board, even though they didn’t order any and then spend most of the flight trying placate their screaming kids by walking them (still screaming) up and down the cabin.

At this point I also recognised one of the FA’s who had been on my flight in August. She wasn’t exactly friendly that time around so I was glad to see that she was working in WTP this time.


The Flight

Flight Number: BA189
Route: LHR to EWR (Newark)
Date: 28th October 2008
Scheduled Push Back: 15:00
Scheduled Flight Time: 8h 05m
Airline: British Airways
Equipment: Boeing 777
Registration: G-ZZZC
Seat: 14A (Club World/Business)

We pushed back about 20 minutes late and it seemed to take an age before the service started. Dinner orders were taken about an hour after take off, during the drinks service. The choices were:

Starters
- Beef bresaola with rocket, parmesan cheese, pomegranate and lemon oil
- Goat’s cheese with marinated carrot

Mains
- Lamb Shepherds Pie
- Liam Tomlin’s roast chicken with bread sauce and roast seasonal vegetables
- Penne pasta with cep and truffle sauce
- Chilled main course of Ploughman’s salad of cheese and ham with Kentish huffkin

Dessert
- Chocolate delice with maple syrup and fruit compote
- Somerset Camembert and Coastal Chedder Cheese with Duchy Originals oatcakes

Wines
- Champagne – Charles Heisdeck Brut Reservce
- Champagne Cocktails – Kir Royale and Buck’s Fizz

- White – Hahn Estates Monterey Chardonnay 2006, Chateau Thieuley Francis Courselle 2006
- Red – Bonterra Cabernet Sauvignon 2005, Cline Cellars Cool Climate Syrah 2005, Valpolicella Classico Superiore Ripasso 2005

For anyone that wants to know what they will be served on-board in Club World in the month of November, the menu above is valid for the following flights:

067, 069, 093, 099, 113, 115, 175, 177, 189, 193, 195, 197, 207, 209, 213, 215, 217, 219, 229, 265, 269, 279, 283, 285, 287, 289, 295, 299

I ordered the beef bresaola to start and pasta as the main. I also ordered I ordered a Kir Royale, which was just what I needed.


Kir Royale and overall seat view

I estimated that it was about an hour and a half before I received my starter. The purser, an older gentleman served my starter to me by taking the appropriate tray out of the trolley, taking off the plastic covers and handing the tray to me. Call me a snob, but this could have been done a lot better. We all know that airline food is pre-prepared but does it need to be served with the plastic covers on? The only difference between this and economy is that in economy I take the covers off myself.

Starter:


The starter wasn’t great, rather tough, but I suppose that this is how it is supposed to be.

Main:


I must admit, the main didn’t exactly look appetising, but it was tasty enough. I’ve had better pasta on board before.
The final flourish was the desert though:



This piece of cheesecake was the best desert that I’ve had a plane ever. It really was fantastic. I rounded this off with a glass of Baileys. It really did make up for all of the strange people on board and the stress of almost missing the flight.

Old vs. New Club World

At this point, I started to take some notes about the differences between the old and new Club World seats.
Here are my thoughts:

1. BA advertise that the new seat is 25% wider when turned into a bed. This is certainly noticeable when sleeping but in the seat mode, there is no noticeable difference at all. This is because in the new seat, the arms retract flat when the seat is in the bed mode. The old seat does not do this. New Seat
2. The in-seat power on the old style seat requires an expensive adapter. The new seat allows you to plug in any standard US and European plug. New Seat
3. The IFE on this aircraft was a very poor offering. The screen is tiny and is non-AVOD. New Seat (I realise that this will continue to be the case on some 777’s even after the seat upgrade).
4. The old seat has a separate mini-table for drinks which can be left open even when sleeping. The new seat does not have this. Old Seat
5. The main dining table on the old seat is physically smaller than the new table but is far sturdier and does not wobble when you press down on it. In addition, you can push the table forwards and twist it at an angle to get out of your seat, even with a dinner tray still in place. I think there are advantages and disadvantages of both here. I like the swivel function, and the sturdiness. Overall I’d give a thumbs up to the old table. Old Seat
6. The seat cushions in the old seat are noticeably harder than the new seat. New Seat
7. Magazine pocket - The old seat has a separate magazine pocket, attached to the back of the seat in front. In the new seat, this is attached to the foot stool and therefore cannot be accessed when this is down. Old Seat
8. Storage. The old seat has a tiny shoe drawer and a couple of cubby holes next to the seat. I’d argue that the new seat actually has more storage space, with the relatively large laptop/shoe drawer. New Seat
9. Privacy screen – The old seat has a paper fan to divide the two facing seats. The new seat has an electronic divider offering complete privacy. Arguably this has been over-engineered but it is very effective. New Seat
10. Overall, the cabin seems more open, due to the low overall height of the old seat. The new seat rises higher and therefore overall privacy is increased. New Seat

Old Seat = 3
New Seat = 7

Some photos of the seat features:


Small IFE Screen


Cocktail table


Overall, the new seat wins hands down. It is more comfortable, more private, has better IFE, universal in-seat power and offers more storage space as standard. However, I think that BA need to improve the stability of the table, and could easily add a stand alone magazine pocket to the back of the seat in front.

This was the first time that I had flown on a 777 since April 2007 so, while I was comparing the two seats, I thought I’d also compare the aircrafts too.

777 vs. 747

1. The 777 has noticeably nicer toilets. The wash basins have a granite effect as opposed to the steel of the 747. They also seem brighter, less worn, and perhaps a little more spacious. 777.
2. The Club World cabin on the 777 contains 6 rows with a 2-4-2 configuration. This creates quite a large cabin and giving it a very open feel. The largest club world cabin on the 747 is only 4 rows in a 2-4-2 configuration. Overall the 747 is more compartmentalised and this leads to a greater feeling of privacy. 747
3. On the four class 777 most of the Club World seats are either over or very close to the wing. This makes the cabin noisier when compared to the 747 as many of the Club World seats are in front of the wing position.747.
4. The ‘club kitchen’, a selection of drinks and snacks, has it’s own dedicated display cabinet on the 747. On the 777 this is simply laid out in the galley area. The choice on the 747 also seems more extensive. 747

747 = 3
777 = 1

The Club World cabin on the 777:





Overall, there is no competition. It has to be the 747 all the way, even if you end up in the rear Club World Cabin, the overall experience is still better than that on the 777.
I’m really keen to see how this improves with the New Club World refit on the 777 but I suppose that nothing will be able to beat the privacy of the upper deck on the 747.

Back to the flight…

The dinner service ended at about 6pm, approximately 2.5 hours after take off. At this point, I reclined the seat got out my laptop and started to watch some of the programmes that I’d downloaded from the BBC iPlayer while in the lounge. After finishing up with this, I put the laptop away and settled down to get some sleep. I found that when the seat was in ‘bed’ mode it was not as comfortable as the new seat.

I managed to get about 2-3 hours of light sleep before waking up as the cabin lights came on, indicating that the afternoon meal service was about to begin. The choices were:

Snacks
- Sandwich selection featuring poached salmon with lemon dressing and char-grilled Mediterranean vegetables with herb soft cheese
or
- Salad of roast vegetables and Mozzarella cheese with classic vinaigrette

- Warm spinach and parmesan roulade

Sweets
- Plain or fruit scones served warm with clotted cream and strawberry jam
- Traditional Bakewell tart

I chose the sandwiches:



They weren’t brilliant, but then I wasn’t really a fan of the fillings. What I was looking forward to was the cream tea. I’d been longing to see this on a flight since I’d started flying to New York regularly back in August but hadn’t had any luck so far. To savour the experience, I took two scones:



Note that I applied the jam first, and then the cream The scones were excellent and it really was as good as I had hoped.

The tray was cleared and then shortly afterwards the captain gave the ’40 minutes to landing speech’. This time around, he had some bad news for us. He informed us to expect a very bumpy approach. There were both rain and snow storms over Newark as well as cross winds gusting up to 45 mph. He told us that this was nothing to worry about but, being honest, it did make me feel rather nervous. I’ve flown a lot, but never once has the captain given us prior warning of a landing like this. I assumed that this must mean that it was going to be bad.


View from Door 2L

The approach was reasonably rough and we ‘dropped’ a couple of times. As we got closer to the ground I could feel the plane being pushed sideways by the wind, so that the front was pushed around to the right before the crew corrected it. We landed heavily with the right hand gear touching down first, and then the left, before the nose gear finally met the ground. I was pretty happy to be down, I must admit.

As we were about an hour earlier than scheduled we had to park up for about 30 minutes before being towed to an available stand. We disembarked through door 2L.
I was very quickly through immigration and customs and very quickly sitting in a taxi on my way to my flat in Manhattan.

Overall

This flight was a bit of an experience. Not only did I almost forget my passport, I also almost missed the flight, had to put up with a bunch of rather annoying DYKWIA’s on-board plus I got to experience my first cross-wind landing. One to remember.

My next flight will be on a 747 from JFK back to LHR on the day before Thanksgiving.

I hope that you enjoyed the report.

Matt.

Meriem

Nice report, Matt, thanks !

matthandy

Thanks Meriem, looks like you are the only one that enjoyed it though.....

duchy

I quietly enjoyed it

SFflyer123

Wow, these are great photos!

I was curious though. If the other passenger is fully extended, it looks like you're completely trapped in at the window. How do you get out of there? Is there a small opening or do you step over their feet?

thanks.

matthandy

Yep, afraid so! You have to step over them. That's why the seats at the end of the cabin are so coverted, because you get a window, but also unrestricted aisle access. I guess it depends how nimble you are....

SFflyer123

Do you feel "trapped" in that window seat? It almost looks claustrophobic.

matthandy

Personally no, enclosed perhaps, but not trapped. I think it depends how tall you are. I'm reasonably short, so I find the space adequate. The new seat provides a greater amount of personal space, especially enhanced when flying on the upper deck of the 747 (the only place to be when travelling in Club!).

I created a trip report for seat 64A which is on the upper deck in Club World. Compare that to the space you get on the 777: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=866907

Genius1

Only just caught up with reading TRs, and congratulations matthandy another superb trip report.

Your writing style and photos are excellent. ^

matthandy

Thanks Genius1 !

Ditto. I appreciate your comments.

I'm flying back to blighty tommorrow (day before Thanksgiving) so I'm expecting madness in the JFK lounge. I'll try and grab some photos.

Fingers crossed for an upper deck seat, or maybe, if I'm lucky, that elusive op-up to First!

Genius1

Some pics of premium check-in at JFK would be great, if you can get them. That's one thing I didn't manage to squeeze into my trip report!

putongo

matthandy -- What a great TR. I now know NOT to take the 777 on BA on any of my upcoming J-class trips.... Thanks for being so detailed!!!

Genius1

A lot has changed in over a year - almost all 777s have been refitted with the newest version of Club World now. Only two of the 3-class aircraft are yet to be refurbished.

The 747 is still preferable, especially the upper deck. ^

RCyyz

Nice trip report matthandy. Thanks! ^