BlackCat

When BA announced that it was introducing First Class on its flights from London Gatwick to St Lucia I mentally filed the information away as one of those pointless pieces of trivia which just consumes space in the attic of one’s mind. However, a few weeks later we were thinking about making best use of 150,000 BA miles and a BA Amex two for one voucher and the knowledge came trickling back to me. St Lucia is a little too ‘resorty’ for us but SVG Air had also just added flights from St Lucia to Bequia which more or less worked with the BA schedule, and given the newness of the route there were plenty of award seats available on the 777.

Scroll forward a few months and we headed down to Gatwick early one Wednesday morning. Living near LHR means that the hour’s trek to LGW (M4/M25/M23) always seems a pain, but some web browsing a couple of days earlier has given us short term parking at a price cheaper than a couple of cab fares, so the car it was. Having dumped the motor we made a short detour to get some EC$ and headed up the escalator to find security. I must confess it has been a while since I’ve done the Gatwick thing: the last time would have been a few flights to DFW and IAH when I had a client in the chemicals business, but that was probably 6 years ago.

We had made a pact to travel light: hand baggage only although in the manner of long suffering partners everywhere I ended up with all the snorkelling gear and much else besides – ‘twas always so betwixt man and maid. Anyway, each clutching a small rucksack and (in my case at least) an overstuffed carry on we found security where my Gatwick recognition kicked in at the sight of a seething mass of poorly dressed holidaymakers. A Fast Track line was allegedly buried in there somewhere, but actually getting to it was impossible – and had we tried there was every chance of being torn limb from limb by the package holiday crowd. Happily an officious sort brandishing a clipboard led some of us down to a secret passageway where there were a couple of screening lines. Of course, this being Gatwick the pace was glacially slow: bag on belt – yes that’s it, do you have a phone? – well take that out of your pocket, what about a belt? – remove that too, wait for the other person to get clear of the detector, etc. etc. Still, I suppose a 30 minute wait is not that significant in the overall scheme of holiday delays. Had this been at Heathrow Fast Track with the Concorde Room door beckoning within arm’s reach I’d have been rather more annoyed.

Off to the BA First Class lounge and bacon rolls for breakfast. The staff were helpful and welcoming (not always the case at Heathrow) and the lounge was soon about half full, although most seemed to be gold card holders on short haul flights. There were two or three obviously holiday couples as well as ourselves: cargo shorts, t-shirts and sun dresses seemed to be de rigeur.

BA First class lounge at LGW


Following my usual slightly up-tight practice we went down to the gate before being called, but timing things just right so that we only had 2 minutes to wait for business class (‘and first class’ I muttered) to be called. Just as well, since the LGW North gates have very limited capacity and certainly don’t well cope with even a moderately full 777.

On board we took the middle pair at the back of the cabin: 4E and 4F. We did have a clear choice of seats when we booked but had settled on these as being one of the three pairs suitable for sociable couples and being as far as possible from any babies in the first row. Happily the presence of squalling infants was not an issue, and the cabin ended up with only 8 out of 14 seats taken. Great BA service was in evidence from the start: shown to the seats, offered newspapers, glass of champagne and so on. In fact the more informal nature of BA crew on the LGW routes is an excellent fit with their holiday nature. I’m sure they would have taken a formal approach had we wanted, but after a few of my jokes had established a more friendly dynamic we were more or less treated as old friends.

Of course, this was the old BA First product: the new cabin might make its way to the Gatwick routes eventually, but it is clearly going to take a long time given the number of LHR-based 747s and 777s yet to be updated. Still, the basic seat footprint hasn’t changed and the old seats are perfectly comfortable with a decent amount of space even if there was the odd scuff on the coverings.

After taking off on schedule it was time for a G&T and the lunch menu. I have to say that I’ve always found BA First variable in terms of food quality. I do remember an excellent chicken curry on one LGW-IAH flight, and catch of the day has always seemed a good bet, but there have been many misses as well.

STARTERS

• Lemon-poached king prawns with celeriac and quail egg salad and mango coriander dressing
• Warm almond-crusted vegetable tikki with green herb chutney
• Minted pea soup with crème fraiche and diced pancetta
• Fresh salad leaves with your choice of blue cheese or lemon thyme dressing

MAIN

• Grilled Casterbridge fillet of beef with morel mushroom mustard jus and thyme-roasted coquette potatoes
• Catch of the day (turbot) with your choice of saffron chilli sauce or cucumber and dill velouté
• Grilled Gloucester Old Spot sausages with creamed mashed potatoes and wilted cabbage with bacon and red onion gravy
• Caesar salad with warm lemon pepper fillet of salmon and ciabatta croutons

BISTRO SELECTION

• Rigatoni pasta with sun-dried tomato and leek sauce and garlic brioche croute
• Warm bacon roll
• A selection of biscuits
• A selection of cheese and fruit

DESSERT

• Baked English toffee cheese cake
• Warm bread and butter pudding with vanilla bean ice crea,m

CHEESE

• Kidderton Ash (goat’s cheese), Butler’s Secret (Cheddar), Blacksticks Blue

Lunch did have some possibilities: the prawn starter could be excellent if the prawns were done such as not to be overpowered by the dressing, and the fillet of beef had the capacity to be simple, tasty and unaffected if the mushroom and mustard sauce packed enough of a punch.

The wine list was BA standard: basic champagne, one decent red and more of a lottery on the whites:

CHAMPAGNE

• Taittinger Brut Millésimé 2004, Champagne

WHITE

• Saint-Aubin Premier Cru La Chateniere 2008, Burgundy
• Savennieres Clos doe Coulaine 2008, Domaine Pierre-Bise, Loire
• Dry Creek Fumé Blanc 2009, Sonoma County

RED

• Chateau Yon-Figeac 2005, Saint-Émilion Grand Cru Classé, Bordeaux
• Willamette Valley Vineyards Pinot Noir 2008, Oregon
• Angélica Malbec 2007, Bodega Catena Zapata, Medoza

To start, a salmon amuse-bouche was served which really hit the spot: well flavoured with lemon/lime and not strong enough to spoil the palate for the other courses. And the Sauvignon Blanc complemented it well. Then the prawns arrived and the meal took a turn for the worse. Not only were the prawns (well the one and a half I had the courage to eat) completely tasteless but they had the texture of cold, damp cardboard. The rest of the components were adequate although the tastes of both mango and coriander were absent despite their billing on the menu.

Pushing the half (well, quarter) finished starter to one side I took refuge in the white wine which was nice enough, although for the same price (about £10 a bottle, retail) BA could have stocked a far better sauvignon from New Zealand or South Africa.

I switched to the Saint-Émilion in preparation for the main course: as I didn’t fancy the turbot I thought I’d try the steak instead. Despite Yon-Figeac not exactly having the pedigree of some of the bigger Bordeaux it was perfectly drinkable (retail price around £15 a bottle). After perking up at the taste of the wine my spirits then slumped at the sight of the main course. The beef was slightly burnt on the outside… could it be nice and pink inside? No, it could not. In fact it had all the attributes of shoe leather but none of the taste. Honestly, it was like trying to eat some type of industrial lagging product. After one mouthful I gave up: the meat was completely inedible and something nasty had been done to the vegetables too.

Nasty beef


One of the cabin crew did take pity on me and offered a bacon roll instead. Unfortunately the bread was hard enough to put my fillings in jeopardy, so the opportunity for recovery foundered quickly. Cheese followed with more red wine. Sad, though, that this was the highlight of the menu. Come on, BA, this is just not good enough. I can live with your spending half of what Cathay and Singapore Airlines spend on wine, but to serve inedible food in First class is just unacceptable. And not only is the quality an issue: attempting to combine salmon and parmesan in a Caesar salad is just as much a culinary crime.

The rest of the 8 hour flight passed quickly enough – I had my Kindle and smartphone for reading matter and video (no AVOD on these flights, of course) as well as a comfortable seat which allowed me to sink into a post-lunch doze which was obviously more to do with the early start than sleeping off the champagne and wine.

Throughout the flight the cabin crew were exemplary and even suggested that we change seats for landing so that we could see The Pitons as we passed over the island on our descent. In short, the crew represented everything that is good about BA, but the poorly conceived and selected menu (presumably with accountants figuring large in the process) represented everything bad.

Just as a quick coda, we had a 2 hour wait for our SVG Air flight to Bequia at the airport, but the process was made supremely easy by being met by someone with our names on a board who took us through immigration and then a special transit security channel. We could even use the (only) lounge (via Priority Pass) so the transit passed quickly until we were escorted to our (we were the only passengers) tiny Britten Islander on the tarmac. Yes, interisland flights in the Caribbean do tend to be expensive (a few hundred dollars each) but with service like this we weren’t complaining. After a 25 minute and slightly hair-raising flight to Bequia we were in our villa on Lower Bay before 5 pm local time.

Summing up
Using St Lucia as a jumping off point to the Grenadines has given us another option for the Caribbean – previously we’ve used Barbados and Antigua as transit points to some of the smaller islands like Anguilla and Nevis. The presence of first class on BA also gives us a non-Barbados option for burning the miles which is great – but on this showing some elements of the product are disappointing. Previously we’ve used Virgin Upper Class for Caribbean routes and, although VS has certainly gone downhill since then, I would be hard pressed to differentiate the BA First experience from the bearded-one’s best. BA could, and should, do better.

(Apologies for the photo quality - for some reason I only had my phone with me)

BlackCat

After a week of snorkelling, lobster salads and Hairoun beers on Bequia it was time to return. The first part of our journey was enlivened by a torrential downpour for the 24 hours before our flight to St Lucia. As I nosed our rather clunky rental jeep around landslips and through deep rivulets on the way to the airport it did seem that this weather was rather out of the ordinary. Still, when we arrived at Bequia’s tiny ‘international’ airport there was a queue of people waiting for security to open. After running the gauntlet of the officious and unpleasant staff (why is the Caribbean always like this at airports?) and the security guard soliciting for a ‘donation’ which didn’t seem that optional, everyone apart from us left to get on the Barbados flight. A couple of minutes later our little Islander appeared, this time with just a single pilot. As on the way out we were the only passengers on the 25 minute flight to St Lucia, landing at a completely deserted airport, so much so that we had to wait while the customs staff were roused from their slumbers.

Unfortunately the SVG connection doesn’t really work for the BA flight which hops to Port of Spain and back after its initial arrival at UVF. This meant a 19:25 departure back to Gatwick, and the better part of the afternoon to kill for us. Plan A was to grab a rental car and head out to explore, but all the desks were unstaffed, no doubt until the next UK or US flight arrived, so instead we settled for Plan B: a quick taxi ride to a beach bar, some Piton beers and a dozy, lazy afternoon with the water lapping at our toes. It could have been worse!

Arriving back at the airport with that rather fuzzy I’ve-been-drinking-beer-on-the-beach-all-afternoon feeling the check in was quick and efficient although security asking us to remove our thin sandals for x-ray was pretty daft. Then up to the lounge where some finger food (sandwiches, cheese etc.) was drying out at the buffet. Still, the bartender furnished us with soft drinks and we found a corner next to an air conditioner to sort out our hand baggage (we had no checked bags) and accidentally dump about a kilo of St Lucian sand on the carpet.

The lounge isn’t the largest, seating about 40 people although an additional side room was opened eventually. Bearing in mind that a full 4 class BA 777 has more than 50 premium passengers and that there would have been both gold and silver card holders in other cabins it’s no wonder that the lounge got full very quickly. (The 3 class BA 777 only has 36 Club pax which would be more manageable). I did my usual slightly obsessive attempt of leaving the lounge before being called, this time timing it supremely well with the announcement happening just as we reached the doors. Then it was onto the plane through the steps at 1L and into seats 3K and 4K – we chose these over a middle pair for a little extra privacy sleeping.

First class was almost full – seat 4A was empty but taken in flight as a crew rest. The remainder of the cabin was full of couples, including a pair at the front with, horror of horrors, a baby. However, they took care of the child pretty well throughout the flight and deserved plaudits for the lack of impact on the rest of the cabin. (There was some screaming in the descent – why can’t parents work out that their kids would be more comfortable sucking on a drink to equalise their ear pressure?)

Most of the passengers did seem to be sporting a certain (ahem) style, with ostentatious luggage and gold jewellery much in evidence. Unfortunately the stereotype was reflected in how they treated the cabin crew: being waiting upon hand and foot was clearly the expectation. One rather unpleasant and sneering woman had a bag with ‘Mustique’ written upon it in festive script. I wonder where she had been? Not having a loaded Uzi to hand I made do with fantasising which of my fellow passengers would be first against the wall when the revolution comes, as well as entertaining the crew with some of my better jokes and enough banter to drown out the incessant demanding drone.

Service was very slow to start with: 40 minutes for the first drink after take-off is not good, and by the time dinner was served the potential sleeping time had been cut down to around 3 hours followed by an hour for breakfast and the descent. On short (ours was 7 hours 40 mins) eastbound flights maximising sleeping time is important for those of us having to work the next day (or even that day), so I’m always sensitive to service delays if a lounge option is not available for a pre-flight meal.

The wine list was the same as our outbound flight; the food menu as follows:

STARTERS

• Smoked salmon tartare timbale with tomatoes, sour cream and toast
• Cream of celery soup
• Fresh salad leaves with your choice of classic vinaigrette or blue cheese dressing

MAIN

• Grilled steak with béarnaise sauce, thyme-roasted new potatoes, baby carrots and glazed courgette
• Poached shrimps in chilli sauce with grilled leeks and rice with tricolour peppers
• Chicken cacciatore with grilled courgette, risotto and garlic herb crouton
• Salad of grilled salmon steak, potato wedges, beans, red onion and olives in French vinaigrette and sour cream

BISTRO SELECTION

• Hot chocolate with warm chocolate chip cookies
• A selection of biscuits
• A selection of cheese and fruit

DESSERT

• Coconut crunch cake with caramel sauce

CHEESE

• Cheddar, Blue Stilton, Brie

Before the meal service things had already gone awry with no champagne glasses loaded, and the tenor of chaos grew as it became apparent that the stock of food was very low. So much so, that the cabin crew were getting effusive apologies in first, before taking the orders! As it was there was not nearly enough of the starters to go round, so some made do with soup or a salad from Club World.

The amuse bouche was decent enough: crab meat and mixed peppers with lime. But the salmon starter that followed was essentially the same dish with salmon not crab. Salmon does not work well with a liberal dose of fiery mixed peppers, and serving it with cold, grilled tomatoes and uncooked dough masquerading as bread just added insult to injury. In short it was plain nasty and I left all of mine.

The prawn main course fared a little better: the prawns themselves did have some taste although the rice came – you guessed it – with a liberal sprinkling of the same mixed peppers served in every other dish and the ‘grilled leeks’ were a horrific atrocity to this Welshman, managing to be both burnt and flaccid at the same time. After poking one with a fork and seeing it recoil in pain I left them well alone and said a silent prayer to their ugly demise as the plate was whisked away. I have never, ever, seen anything as unfortunate on a meal plate in a premium cabin.

Leeks, apparently


Of course, those of us who had not had a great deal to eat had very little in the way of options. The ‘Bistro Selection’ on the flight consisted mainly of biscuits… not previously known as the staple of those bistros that I have visited. Given that BA tell us that the Bistro service offers “a selection of salads, soups, pasta and hot sandwiches” this is just poor.

In any case the cabin crew were clearly embarrassed – I could see that most people left their plates unfinished and my partner’s main course salmon salad was graced by some spectacularly raw potato chunks as well as ‘grilled’ fish which had clearly only just been defrosted.

While this culinary tragedy played out, things were unravelling elsewhere in the cabin. The absence of any amenity kits up until mealtime tipped me off: not enough had been loaded so they were only ‘on demand’. One of the cabin crew (thankfully not the guy on our side) had clearly never worked in First class before and needed helping with everything, and even simple requests were either unfulfilled or needed to be repeated. Some passengers didn’t help either: the unpleasant person in 2K seemed to think it her right to have her grown up daughter who was travelling in Club come up and stand around chatting to her on multiple occasions blocking the aisle, and of course the crew did nothing to stop this.

The hapless cabin service manager was buttonholed by a couple of other people – the guy next to me (he had mistakenly tried to eat the beef which by all accounts was even worse than the shoe leather on the way out) launched into a lengthy and itemised diatribe where one could agree with the sentiment even if not his angry manner. Following this I did grab the CSM for a quiet word and he was honest, straightforward and a credit to BA. But he did let on that things were far worse in Club World.

We did get a few hours’ sleep. Or at least I did until the food poisoning kicked in. Obviously it is difficult to be sure, but given the overall standard of the food I’d be far more likely to place the blame on the in-flight meal than the fresh food I’d had at lunch time on the ground. Breakfast was a glass of juice for me, and we landed well ahead of schedule. There was one final insult left: the female member of the cabin crew who was clearly new to first class also didn’t seem to understand that a 777 had twin aisles, preventing me from leaving the plane after exiting through the galley until ‘our First class passengers have disembarked’. By this point I accepted this nonsense with weary resignation – at least the CSM had committed to a full write up of the flight for his BA bosses, even going so far as to ask to include my name in the report. Truly this was BA First at its worst.

So, lessons learned? Well, clearly it appears that even a well-established product can have issues when applied to a new route. Some of the cabin crew were great, others had seemingly never been trained on the first class service flows. Not loading the right glassware or amenity kits is a shocker, and the food quality was quite the worst I have ever had when travelling up the front. The sad thing is that I have travelled in BA F from both LGW and LHR and know how good it can be. This seemed like a different airline and on this showing I’d dissuade everyone from flying this route for a few months.

And yes, I have complained to BA Customer Relations. We'll see what they have to say but given the number of issues (supported by the CSM's write up and the volume of passenger complaints) I'm expecting BA to make a significant gesture to all those in the F cabin.

henkybaby

Only to familiar I'm afraid. Would never pay for First. I will take it as an upgrade. The food is so horrible and the crews are so unpredictable that it is not worth it.

CX F? QF F? Yes!

Come to think of it, I would take QF in F over BA NF any day of the week and twice on Sunday...

stevie-d

Yet another tale of poor quality food, I've suffered the same on a few BA F flights ex LHR in the past couple of years. It really is a totally unacceptable position.

henkybaby

Complain, use the pictures and it will get you 20K miles each way and per person. Been there, done that.

BlackCat

If it was just the poor quality food I could understand, but to have some of the decent cabin crew stressed out with no proper glassware, too few amenity kits, too few meals loaded (well, possibly not that serious given the quality!) and untrained colleagues is just poor management.

Sure, it was 'only' on miles (plus a considerable amount in 'taxes') but frankly I expect better from BA. Having sampled CX/SQ/TG/LX/QF in F (both paid and on miles) over the past few years the return flight on this BA trip was the worst by some margin. Disappointing.

BC

henkybaby

Probably a lot of OpUps. Had that on my latest flight from HKG too. One pax did not even get bedding because that wasn't on board. Poor planning? No idea...

Swiss Tony

Incase anyone is interested, I was the Mr Angry across the aisle and the food really was as appalling as described, although my wife had the salmon salad and it seemed cooked OK. I'd forgotten about the lack of champagne glasses to be honest and it was only when the FA tried to fob me off with a J washbag as if it was the SOP that I decided I finally wanted a word with the CSD. I was willing to given them the tardy service and well below par food...

BlackCat

And to be fair to Mr AngrySwiss Tony the first words I spoke to the CSD when I grabbed him afterwards were "what he said". Hopefully BA Customer Relations will sort both of us out with some tangible manner of remorse.

BC

Swiss Tony

I'm still hoping BC wasn't offended by my chosen style of a white linen shirt, chinos and a pith helmet, although I admit our carry-on bags are looking rather knackered...

PS - BlackCat - did you see the machete they were using in the lounge to slice the lime with? That's why you had to take your flip-flops off!

Genius1

An excellently written trip report ^^

Unfortunately I am not surprised by what is described - by all accounts (both my own personal experience and reading those of others) BA First is sliding downhill rather quickly in the food and service stakes.

Whilst the hard product may be good (and New First in particular is very nice), the soft product is falling well below standard.

I agree with henkybaby in that I will never pay for BA First in the near future, particularly after my experience coming back from HKG (details in the report linked below).

I actually felt angry reading this report - BA, this is just not acceptable

My miles and money will, in future, be directed towards QF (who have an excellent F (and J) product) and CX (whose F/J products I am very much looking forward to trying).

BlackCat

Our usual paid F travel is our annual trip to AKL on either SQ or, since we threw our lot in with OW, CX. It's hardly going to be a surprise, but CX F is a completely different experience from BA F in pretty much every way. Only the lounge at LHR disappoints slightly, but on board the service, food (particularly if you like Chinese cuisine), wine, champagne, bed, seat, size of lavs, amenity kit, pyjamas, IFE, personal space, closet and everything else are just miles ahead.

The thing is, the BA hard product is actually not that bad. We flew LX F (old product) at the back end of last year and the seat/space are much the same, but there was no comparison in terms service and the quality of food and wine were streets ahead.

BC

NoY

Interesting & well written report, thanks for posting ^ Reminds me of a somewhat lamentable trip we took to YVR on BA F 18 months ago or so. Food was totally unacceptable even then. Your trip (& others on here) shows that BA F really has become a travesty in terms of soft product. Sad.

IAMORGAN

Thanks for a well-written report. Sounds like the outbound F flight was overall okay (not that F should ever be 'ok') and the inbound was a joke. I thought BA were doing a training programme for CC so that they had to have done special F training before they were let loose on the F cabin -maybe it's only for LHR.

You shouldn't have to complain, but I would. Unless enough people shout loud enough, nothing will change. Maybe it's a plan to make F as crap as possible so people don't book it and therefore they can drop it altogether.

BA F can be very good -with the right team. It can also be incredibly mediocre. What concern is it of yours that the situation in CW was much worse? You were in F not CW, and that fact is the Cabin Manager's problem, not yours.

Sounds horrendous, and I'd be incredibly cheesed off that they can take your money or miles for a trip purportedly in F...

Not good enough, BA.

potakas

Nice Report BC, well written and unfortunately everyone who has traveled in F with BA has been there..

I have my first First next month, I really hope for something better.