halfcape

Enjoying your trip report - waiting for the rest!

Jet'Dillo

Ooops...dupe!

Jet'Dillo

Really, really nice shot of the SQ A380 there!
Have you sent it into Airliners.net ? It's that good!
(Although I'm sure they'd find some reason to reject it. They always do )

phimmy

Absolutely loving this report so far! Keep it up

ABZ1C

Top notch report, loving it.
Roll on part two.

matthandy

Sydney to Bangkok in First with British Airways

Flight: BA10
Carrier: British Airways
Aircraft: Boeing 747-400 - G-BNLI
Scheduled Departure time: 16.40
Duration: 9h 15m
Scheduled Arrival time: 22.55
Class: First (Old)
Seat: 1A (seat plan)


Boarding

After only a couple of minutes, I presented my boarding pass to the crew member at the door and on seeing First, she welcomed me, but not by name, and invited me to follow her to my seat. She was a bit curt and not particularly friendly, not a good start really.
As I settled down, she offered a sleeper suit and brought it on a tray with a wash bag. She then disappeared, which was lucky, as I was able to get some snaps of the empty cabin.


First Class Cabin (Front)


Seat 2A


First Class Cabin (Rear)

So, after stepping into the nose of the 747 for the first time in my life, what were my impressions?
Well, first thing to say, despite it being Old First, this is still First. The cabin is well appointed, with plush materials, from the carpet to the seat coverings. The cabin is clean, so much so that you can smell it. It is pretty small though, and moving between the seats is quite difficult without knocking into them. Putting 14 seats into the A zone makes it feel a little cramped. I'd say that CX have got the best arrangement, with just 9 seats.
What about the much coveted 1A? Well, it's an odd feeling, being so far forward of literally everything, even the Captain and his crew. Being forward of the nose wheel results in some weird sensations when taxiing. It looks like the aircraft is going way off course before it then suddenly turns to line up to the centre line. Having three windows to yourself is brilliant and the fact that you can see forward slightly is also a bonus. 1A seems very private from behind, but in actual fact, it is pretty close to 1K, so if you find yourself next to an undesirable, there's no escape. The wardrobe is bigger than expected and people coming and going could get annoying. There's no storage available either, unlike other rows, row 1 does not have the expandable magazine pocket so the only place to put stuff is on the shelf to the side of you. Luckily, it is large and within easy reach. There is also no overhead locker, so you'll have to fight 2A for the space. A silly thing, the carpet was very nice, thick, and if you have ever seen Die Hard, you'll know what I mean when I say that it was great for making 'fists with your toes'. Another, obvious, but important point, it's very quiet up the front. During all stages of the flight, including boarding, the cabin is serene. Whilst the hustle and bustle of boarding goes on behind you, just open up your newspaper and forget about the other 300 or so people that you are about to share 9 hours of your life with.


My Seat, 1A


Buddy seat, PJs and wash kit


For Genius1, clean seat controls

On my seat was both a large pillow and a separate, plush cushion. On the buddy seat, foot stool, some slippers, a blanket and headphones.

The crew member that showed me to my seat returned to hand over newspapers. She started with 1K then skipped me. Not good. What if I wanted one? I felt like walking to the galley and asking for a newspaper, even though they were right there, in front of 4EF, but I didn't, I just helped myself.

At this point I got up to use the loo. I'd heard that there was a window, and as we were still on the ground I made sure that the blind was shut. The position of the window would give an undesirable view for male passengers!

The cabin started to fill up so that only 5EF remained unoccupied at this point however, shortly after, a very loud American gentleman joined, with his business partner, and occupied the remaining seats. Having gone from only 4 seats occupied to a full cabin, could only mean one thing, op-ups. This was bad news for me and the other passengers that had paid for First. I say this, not because I begrudge the upgraders themselves, but because it meant that the service would affected.

One of the crew, who turned out to be the F purser came over to my seat to offer me a pre-departure drink of orange juice, water or chamagne, I obliged her by taking a glass of champagne and sat taking in the view from my 3 windows.


Pre-departure champagne

At 16.30 the Captain announced that we were almost ready to go and gave us a bit of information about the flight including the flying time which would be 8 hours and 50 minutes and that we should expect strong winds on take off as well as turbulence as we climbed.

The purser returned with the bottle of champagne to offer re-fills to which I obliged again. I was certainly enjoying the ground experience although it seemed a bit cold up to this point.

We pushed back on time and the CSD, Mark, welcomed us on board and introduced the crew. He also explained that the flight was totally full, which does explain the full F cabin.

Pushback Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69c75c1Tg2Y

The safety video was played, during which, an Emirates 777 passed very close to us as we taxied out to the runway. Once the video had completed, the female crew member (the purser) came to collect my glass, but noticed that I hadn't finished yet, so said that she would come back later. I took that as my prompt to hurry up, so I did and just a few minutes later she came back to collect it.

At this point, I noticed how weird it was when taxiing. As the runway is so close to the water (you get great views from the beach if you want to go spotting) it looked as though we were travelling on water.

At 16.55, we lined up and we were on our way. Take off was smooth, and quite quiet, given that this was an 'old' 747 rather than an A380, I suppose that this was one of the benefits of the A zone on the 747.

Take Off Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYMsdlz-LCE

About 10 minutes after take off the menus were handed out and pre-dinner drink orders were taken. I decided to go for a Kir Royale, which is a bit of a BA tradition, since they serve it in Club World too. In the past I have certainly availed of the opportunity to experience this champagne cocktail.
The menus were very nice, in terms of presentation, and everything sounded good. I'd heard a lot of chat about the poor quality of the food in the F cabin of late, so I was interested to see how the actual meal would stand up to the marketing hype in the menu.

My Kir Royale arrived and dinner orders were taken.


My Kir Royale, the dinner and drinks menus

matthandy

Orders seemed to being taken by status, but I was asked first, so that doesn't seem right. I decided to have the mushroom tart to start, the soup and then the salmon. She then asked me to turn my phone off as she had noticed that I was using it to take notes. She wasn't rude, just a bit 'off'. I told her it was in flight mode which seemed to satisfy her.

At this point, I was feeling a little drunk and was feeling chatty. I really wanted someone to talk to, but alas, 1K didn't seem like the type.
To entertain myself, rather than working my way around the F cabin, I tried out the IFE. Being totally green to the setup of the F seat, I couldn't work out how to extract the screen and kept pushing on it. Eventually I had to ask the crew, who pointed out the button underneath the arm rest to my side. That was also where the controller was located.

I remember feeling that this is truly the only way to fly, and it is, first class that is, however, there are other carriers which we all know offer a better overall product.

As the seemingly perpetual sunset continued, my table was laid up, followed shortly by the amuse bouche which wasn't really described by the crew, but appeared to be Parma ham, some roast vegetables and a bit of cold cheesy bread.


Amuse bouche

This was actually pretty nice although, having had a few glasses of champagne, I could feel my heartburn coming on so I popped a couple of tablets to ward it off.

Next up was the tart, which was actually more like a quiche. It was warm, and actually tasted great.
However, I couldn't help think that what I had eaten so far was not any better than the food that I'd had in J on Qantas. This certainly wasn't first class in my mind.


The mushroom tart/quiche

After I polished off the quiche it was time for the soup. One thing to mention, although the quality is questionable, there can be no argument about portion size, I was actually getting quite full at this point.


Carrot and orange soup with ginger

The soup was fantastic, and bursting with flavour. It surprisingly sweet though, and was without doubt, the singular most flavourful dish that I have been served on a plane up until now.

We experienced a bit of turbulence and the seat belt sign came on. My drinks were in danger of spilling so I took a quick swig, as I'd prefer them inside me instead of all over the table cloth.

The salmon then arrived, and, oh dear, what a sorry state it was in. I felt sorry for the fish that had been sacrificed for this dish, it deserved more, as did I.


Sorry salmon

The presentation was very poor, the salmon was over cooked (BA can do fish properly in F, as you'll see later on in this TR), it was drowing in some kind of non-descript luke warm gloop and the vegetables were looking particularly sad. In my opinion it should have never have come out of the galley and it is an indicator of the 'don't really care' attitude that this crew was exhibiting.

Despite it's appearance, it didn't taste too bad and actually the veg was on the al-dente side of cooked.

For dessert, I ordered the nut tart, hoping that this would make up for the poor show that was the main. Luckily, it did.


Nut tart with clotted cream, yum

The tart was excellent, although a bit hard, and cold. I did wonder if it should have been warmed as it certainay would have benefited from it.
The cream was divine and I don't remember having 'proper' cream since moving to Australia. I had also ordered a glass of dessert wine, although I had to specifically ask for it, rather than bring offered. I had expected something quite sweet like a botrytis Semillion, however, this was not the case, and it was actually quite dry.

I wondered if BA have ever presented the wine bottles and offered tasting in F? I was a bit disappointed that this did not occur as this is something that I would expect in F. I have had this on a relatively short business class flight on Asiana, and I also remember it happening on CX and QF on occasion (all J).

At 19.15 Sydney time, I'd finished my dinner, just over two hours since take off, which isn't bad. I was totally stuffed. I had wanted to carry on to the cheese course, but just couldn't manage it.

Overall, the food wasn't that good. The starter, soup and dessert were good, but not exactly first class. I'd still say that the food that I have had previously on Qantas in Business. The service was ok, but again, not as expected. In First, I expect an individual service, which makes me feel special. It is fair to say that this did not happen. The crew were simply going through the motions. I'd rate this as reasonable service in Club World, but expect far more when traveling first.

A few minutes later, the CSD came around, not to say hello, but to ask me to complete a survey. Interestingly, he asked me to be 'brutally honest' which was a strange comment and I got the impression that he expected me to highlight issues or failings that he himself felt but couldn't say.

After the survey, it was time for bed. I went to the toilet to change into my sleeper suit, which is quite difficult in the confines of the small bathrooms on the 747.

The crew made up my bed which included a mattress cover, thick pillow and a cotton duvet. It was very comfortable and offered a good degree of space to move a suitable sleeping position.


All cosy in bed

I dozed for about an hour, as the cabin was very warm. I took off my socks, rolled down my sleeves and rolled up the pyjama bottoms and then managed to sleep for about 3 hours. I woke up feeling pretty refreshed, just as the mood lighting was turned on. We were about 1 hour and 20 minutes from landing in Bangkok.


Mood lighting

One of the crew came over to my seat to offer sandwiches and cakes. I hadn't actually noticed these on the menu, but I wasn't hungry, so I skipped this service, opting instead for a green tea, before heading to the bathroom to change.

Here is the menu:

I headed to the bathroom and took a look at the amenity kit. It was very extensive and included lip balm, moisturiser, eye mask, ear plugs, socks, mouth wash, eye gel, tooth brush and toothpaste. It was the most well appointed and quality amenity kit that I have seen previously.


First class amenity kit (after the flight)

As I returned to my seat one of the crew stopped me and asked if I wanted her to replace my tea, as it was probably cold by now. This was an unexpected nice touch, and I obliged.


My green tea

A few minutes later, the CSD made an announcement regarding our arrival into BKK including information for those people who were carrying on to London. 10 minutes later and the Captain made the 20 minutes to landing announcement. I packed up all of my stuff and settled in for landing.

The approach was very smooth and it was again amazing how quiet the engines sounded from 1A. The cabin only got noisy when the landing gear was lowered.

We touched down at 22.45, on time and had to wait for a Korean Air aircraft to move off stand.
We were on stand at 22.55 and two air bridges were attached,
Passengers in both First and World Trraveler Plus were able to exit via door 1. This meant that we had a bit of a face off with the WTP passengers as we exited. I thanked the crew and then made my way out of the aircraft and into the maze that is Bangkok Airport.

Wow, this airport is huge! It was a very long walk to immigration but luckily there was no queue so I was through very quickly.
Consequently, there was a bit of a wait at the baggage belt, but as the bags came out, mine was one of the first, which was good.
So I collected my bag, quickly made my way through customs and then out into arrivals to meet the hotel rep who would arrange my hotel transfer.
I was in the car within 25 minutes of being on stand, so that's not bad really!


Too many walk ways!


Waiting for my bag

Verdict

So how was my first First?
Erm, honestly, good, but not as good as I had expected.
The hard product, despite being over 10 years old, was very comfortable and roomy. My worries about not having New First were unfounded and I would be very happy traveling Old First again.

The food, well, that wasn't as bad as some have been saying, everything but the main was pretty good, but arguably not up to first class standard.
The service is what made the difference, wasn't up to standard. Simple things, like not being addressed by name or as 'Sir', not being presented the wine bottles, and the crew failing to go the extra mile. I have had, and I'm sure will continue to have better service on Qantas in Business.

Overall, I'd say that this flight was nothing better than just ok. It could have and should have been better.

matthandy

Thanks very much Padmeister, part 2 posted now.

Thanks very much, that means a lot coming from you.

That's a kind comment, not thought about that actually!

Very pleased to see that your first post on FT is commenting on my trip report. Welcome.

glennaa11

some really great photos here!

Always love seeing BKK. Can't wait to go back.

That old school departures board at the QF lounge looks really cool. Much more fun than those boring old plasma screens everywhere else.

Genius1

Great update for the SYD-BKK sector. ^

Fantastic to see that BA listened to my complaint and actually cleaned the cabin, including the controls

I agree that old First is perfectly adequate whilst the new First cabin is being rolled out. There are rumours that BA did a proper clean of all the remaining old First cabins recently.

Sounds like the food and service once again present themselves as the flaw in BA's First service

OPebble

I think you must have been unlcky with your crew as every time I have flown in F, the wine bottle(s) has always been presented for my approval.

Nice reports - more, more!

mp2

Amazing trip report! Great read and awesome pictures as well ^^^

Teece

A nice report.

Didn't manage to join the dots here, then?

Jimmie76

Excellent so far and looking forward to the rest. ^

Padmeister

Fantastic pictures and a very enjoyable read as always! ^

When i read your Tr's i feel like i am there with you so much so i can hear the dissapointment in your voice that your first "First" wasn't quite the magical experience that you were hoping for Well there is always the return journey

Bring it on ^

Nice 1 matthandy