Hello and welcome to another trip report.
Last month I had the enjoyable experience of flying BA F from AUS-LHR

As normal here is the video trip report with music that some of you love or hate


And then the classic written trip report below. Enjoy

After flying in from Dallas I had plenty of time to make my connecting flight on British Airways, I decided I would exit the airport and start again outside to take in the full experience of Austin airport when flying British airways on a long haul international flight.

It would be my first time flying with British Airways on one of their new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner's and I was looking forward to it.

I wanted to use the automated check in system and print out a boarding pass, but the British airways button was blocked out and I could not use it, I was a bit early and check in was not yet open, so I just checked in on my phone and used that boarding pass to go through security.



Security was relatively painless and short, the line for economy passengers was ten minutes, but with fast track I was on the other side in a matter of minutes.

Austin Bergstrom airport is really just one long terminal which you can walk the entire distance of in a short time.
When flying British airways you can use the American Admirals lounge before your flight, which to be honest when flying in First or Business class is the most disappointing lounge you could expect as its normally for domestic passengers, so get ready for cookies and cheese cubes.



The Admirals lounge is located upstairs in the airport, one of only two lounges they have, the other being United.





As you can guess, everything was very basic, which is fine when you are using the lounge as a domestic passenger.







The added benefits you receive in this lounge when you show your boarding pass is that you can drink branded beers and spirits and enjoy them for free and there is a tiny menu selection of hot food that you can enjoy for free.

I decided to give the chicken sandwich a try, which in the lounge they charge $10 for if you are flying domestic.

Once I watched the bar tender take it out from a fridge in the bar, I knew that I was in for real treat.
The bar tender did his best to make it look appealing, what with putting it on a plate and all.

But it definitely does not hide the fact how disgusting this was , it was foul, I took one bit and it tasted like rubber, and you can believe me, I normally don't complain about much, but this was just horrible.



The standard cheese cubes with some olives were more enjoyable and gave me something to nibble on







Anyhow, lounge rant over, I did not spend much time in the lounge and wanted to walk around before sitting for a long time.
I left and took a look around the airport.

My British airways flight was departing from gate 2 today, which is at the far left of the terminal.



Even out of the window I could not see my plane for tonight's flight, but it did show that it had arrived on flightaware



Boarding was then started the usual way with people needing assistance and with children being allowed to board first



And then First, Club World, and Executive club status passengers could board.
There was a rather large bunch of people all using the priority line today, almost half the aircraft to be honest.

After walking the longest jet bridge I have ever been on, and trust me it was very far, I arrived up close and personal with our almost brand new Boeing 787-9.

It was just three months into service and still looked great on the inside

I was greeted and then escorted to my seat 2K, I was very impressed with the new seats, they looked fantastic and the entire cabin looked very sleek.
The newer seats just looked a lot more slick and had a lot more storage space than the older ones





There are just eight first class seats in the 787-9 cabins making them feel even more private than any of the other British airways first class cabins which have fourteen seats in the first class cabins.



I was greeted by the member of the team that would be serving me today and asked what I would like to drink before take off, I went with some champagne, sadly with US custom laws I was declined the good stuff and had to settle for the pre approved ground champagne and I could enjoy the Laurent Perrier grand siecle once up in the air.

Today our flight would have five of the eight seats taken in first class





Whilst enjoying my champagne I took a good look around the first class seat.
Directly in front of you is a small door which opens and you can hang up your jacket.



Below that is a small compartment that has some real depth to it and you can put your shoes in here to keep them out-of-the-way





You have a reading light just above your seat on the side



And on your right hand side, if sitting on the right side of the plane.
You have another storage compartment along with 2 USB ports and a universal Plug socket and the IFE remote and seat control and light settings switches.





You can control and dim all the lights with the dimmer switch in the middle and you use these controls to adjust your seat



And this also controls the larger central light at your seat



The light dimming switch also controls lower lighting located underneath the tray table and all along the side of the seat.



As with all 787's the windows do not have blinds and feature electronic window dimming.



Also to the side of the seat is a vanity compartment where you can place your amenity and use the mirror if you want to make yourself look beautiful.





The crew member passed by and asked me if I wanted a bit more champagne before take off and wanted to find out what size pajamas I wanted, I asked for medium and he suggested for comfort that I take the large as he said lately they have been running small, or he was just calling me fat, but I went with the large.



The standard BA headphones, nothing amazing, but get the job done.









We soon pushed back and made our taxi over to the runway.
We turned onto the runway and had a rolling start and took off into the nice calm evening skies as the sun was setting.

As we climbed out I took a look over the menu, it really did have a very good amount of choices.
I will let the pictures do the talking on the menu













The Drinks menu had a nice choice of wine to choose from on the flight























As the cabin crew started preparing for dinner service, I popped out my tray table to take a few pictures of the amenity kit.
Note that the tray table on the newer first class seats is smaller than the older first class seats





The amenity kit contained all the usual items that you find from British Airways



I was then given a hot towel to freshen up with



Which made way for some excellent champagne



The crew then asked if I wanted to have dinner, they said that I could dine when I wanted, so I decided that it would be better to drink the entire bottle of champagne first before order anything else of the menu, and that was the plan I went with.

During this time I checked out the IFE



The entire system is controlled by the IFE remote and its a little bit slow and lags a bit, but it's fairly straight forward



The picture quality was good







Now that my sugar levels were starting to run low, I decided it would now be a good time to have some dinner



I kicked things off with the Cream of carrot, ginger and orange soup served with a warm bread roll.
I know soup is not a very fancy thing to have when flying in first class, but I really just wanted something lighter than normal as it was an overnight flight.

It was very enjoyable and served at the perfect temperature.



I was informed that the Bordeaux was a great wine and I was encouraged to give it a try with my soup and main course, I was more than happy to oblige.



For my main course I did indeed take a risk and try the beef. It was indeed well done, but not tough and chewy and went down rather well, overall it was an enjoyable main course.





I then waited about thirty minutes before ordering the cheese plate, which was a delight to wash down with more wine.
I could honestly just eat cheese plate, after cheese plate with wine when flying long haul, that would be perfectly fine.



A chocolate box was then brought around the cabin, most people passed on them, but I enjoyed a few



The dinner service overall was very good, the crew were prompt and friendly and attentive through out and the food was tasty.

I then had my bed made up to see if I could catch some rest before breakfast. The entire flight is just under nine hours, after drinking and enjoying dinner we had about five hours and thirty minutes until arrival.

The bed was extremely comfortable, I never sleep on planes and normally stay up all night, but on this rare occasion, probably because I had been up since 4AM, I did manage to fall asleep for about two hours.



I woke up with about three hours remaining in flight time to a dark first class cabin with everyone sleeping



The very attentive crew noticed I was awake and asked if I wanted anything to eat or drink, I went with an Americano



I then just relaxed and sort of dozed in and out of sleep, the sun had started to come up at this point.

With about one hour and thirty minutes remaining the crew started coming around the cabin taking breakfast orders, I decided to give the full traditional English breakfast a go, it was very enjoyable and made for a good start to my morning, I washed it down with some more coffee.



The Captain then gave an announcement that we would soon be landing into London and that it would be a very foggy morning in London, but that would not be a problem for us, but we might have to wait a bit for landing as they need to spread the aircraft out a bit more during this time.

I mean that's nothing new and fairly normal for arrivals into London Heathrow from my experience



We enjoyed a nice smooth touch down into foggy London which must have been a category II or III touchdown, I'm not 100 percent sure which one.

It had been a very enjoyable flight with British airways and I felt fresh, and relaxed after my flight. I'm not sure if that has anything to do with the cabin air being better on the 787's, But I do always feel a little bit better when flying on them.



We had parked remotely today and had to leave the aircraft via stairs and we were then taken on a bus to the terminal.

Clearing immigration in terminal 5 was very quick and I decided to use the arrivals lounge to have a shower and have a bit more breakfast.
I'm always really hungry when I step off a plane, not sure why, but that's always the case with me.





The arrivals lounge has a dedicated first class breakfast room, it's a little bit on the small side, but at least it adds a bit of exclusivity for first class passengers with table service over the buffet.



I asked where all the people were and apparently I had just missed the morning rush, no problem having the entire place to myself though







I decided to give the California eggs Benedict a try



I'm not really sure you can call this Egg's Benedict though, really its poached eggs and Avocado on toast. It did taste very good, though I was disappointed with being given just one egg, a little bit on the cheap side there BA.



I then made my way to the 94 shower suites that British airways has in its arrivals lounge.
This place was impressive and a complete maze of showers, which were all setup in a coded system for you to navigate and find you shower.



The shower suites are a little bit hospital like and not as good as other ones I have experienced.



The journey was over and it was time to head home feeling refreshed, and full of caffeine to keep me going for the rest of the day.

It had been a very enjoyable trip and I loved the new first class seats.