The Photos
At last a journey that doesn’t leave LHR at early morning or late in the day.
Usually I am up and out the door or taking advantage of a late flight and working all or part of the day. This time a 13:35 departure meant I had the luxury of sleeping in and pottering around for a while at home before heading out to the airport.
This final trip for the calendar year was supposed to be a shopping and tourist jolly to New York. The pound tanking against the greenback sort of tempered that aim somewhat.
The trip was booked with a combination of a Gold Upgrade voucher and a J sale fare on BA. This meant I and a friend could travel in First for the price of J.
I made my way to Paddington where I sat for a while doing some last minute Christmas card writing. When I was finished I went to the post box only to find a woman gently teasing her letters into it as it was jam packed full. I decided to not even bother with that and went down to the HEX platform and caught the 10:25 to LHR T5. On arrival I found a member of staff and enquired as to the whereabouts of a post box. For anyone interested it is just to the left of the Club Customer Service/Check In desks.
I deposited my cards and walked down to the F check-in area which ironically enough is zone J.
There I waited until the arrival of my friend who was on a bus from the long term parking lot by this time.
We sauntered up to the F check in podium and after confirming we were in F we were then directed to a free agent. I handed over my passport and put my case on the belt. Instead of asking where we were going she said ‘Help me out here. I need to know where you are going.’ I said New York and she said ah that would be the 15:30 flight I said no the 13:35 flight. She said ‘Oh I thought you said Newark’. Finally she was able to check us both in and said ‘I see you have been upgraded that is nice isn’t it?’ Not wanting to let this nitwit off I said no it is a Gold Upgrade and we have been in these seats since we booked the flights. She seemed not to understand so I let it go.
Don’t BA staff even know what products the company offers?
We went back down to security where a long queue had formed leading up to the BP check point. Someone said ‘isn’t there a fast track?’ I said 'you’re in it welcome to BAA airports'.
The queue moved quickly though and we were through to the security check in a few minutes. I was surprised to find that the queues on this side where not long and they even had two channels for Fast Track. We were directed to the queue that did not require the removal of shoes. Small wins. Small wins.
For the first time since T5 had been opened I was actually entitled to use the door just to the right of security. After the agent checked our BPs she opened the door and invited us in. Inside another agent swiped out BPs and welcomed us to the lounge. I noticed that she had a wad of US immigrations and customs forms on her desk and asked if she had any of the green ones. She said there were more over at the other desk. We grabbed some forms and headed on into the lounge. My first impressions of the Concorde Room were that it was nice but nothing brilliant. It was quite busy inside and we had to wait a few minutes before someone was able to show us to a table at the dining section.
The staff member took our drink orders and came back a few minutes later with two glasses of bubbly and some sparkling water. We both ordered Eggs Benedict and filled in the US immigrations forms whilst we waited.
The bubbles in the lounge today were Pol Roger and Lanson Rose.
After eating brunch we headed out to the terrace area which was much less crowded. After the lounge agent ignored us we decided to go and get our own champagne.
We then noticed to our joy and delight that we had been assigned a bus gate which meant getting the extra special treatment from BA. This meant no priority boarding and having to queue with the civilians and be crushed on a bus to get to the plane. Oh how I love flying BA First, it makes you feel so special.
The flight was called early of course as we had to be bussed out to the plane. We left it as late as we dared and by the time we got to the gate the queues had dissipated. We were two of the last few on the bus that was preparing to leave. BA seemed to think we were heading to the Caribbean or something as the bus was swelteringly hot.
After an eternity driving out to Terminal 5C where I plane awaited whilst stuck behind very slow moving cargo tugs we eventually were let out of our hot cell and invited to climb the stairs to door 2L of the aircraft.
Flight BA0177 LHR-JFK Seat 1A
Aircraft: 747-400
Departure time: 13:35
The crew member at the door escorted me as far as the F galley where she handed me over to one of the F crew who then led me to seat 1A. I was ensconced in my seat by 13:12 awaiting that first glass of champagne. It seems BA has a problem understanding what is appropriate kit required for long haul flights. On my YVR flight earlier in the year I didn’t get PJs or pillow even though the flight arrived after midnight LHR time. Yet for this relatively short flight arriving early evening LHR time I was given PJs, slippers, pillows etc.
My champagne arrived with a small plate of cashews and macadamia nuts. Newspapers were also offered pre-takeoff. My champagne glass was re-filled before we took off. The captain announced a rather long fight time of 7 hours and 50 minutes due to strong headwinds. We pushed back at 13:45 and the crew waited until the last possible minute to take my glass from me.
My vid screen was not working for the safety demonstration which made me wonder if I was going to be entertainment deprived on this flight.
After take off the menus were given out and a drinks order for post take off was taken. I asked for a JW Blue to get the ball rolling. The champagne was the much derided, on the BA board, Cattier.
Lunch
Starters
Smoked duck with celeriac remoulade and a watercress and pomegranate salad
Roast onion tarte Tatin with pine nut and marjoram dressing
Seasonal Soup – Pleas see you menu insert for details of today’s seasonal soup.
Winter Salad – Please see you menu insert for details of today’s seasonal salad.
Main
Liam Tomlin’s confit of chicken with sautéed potatoes, black pudding and bacon
Catch of the Day – Please see your menu insert for details of today’s fresh fish selection.
Irish-style lamb shank stew with poached winter vegetables
Warm goat’s cheese and poached pear salad with caramelised walnut dressing
Dessert
Sticky toffee pudding with date and pecan sauce
Warm chocolate fondant with chocolate sauce and winter berry compote
Seasonal Dessert – Please see you menu insert for details of today’s seasonal dessert.
Cheese Plate
Coastal Cheddar
White Stilton with Cranberries
Somerset Rustic
A basket of fresh fruit
Snacks
Vegetarian Glamorgan sausages with fig chutney
Penne pasta with puttanesca sauce
Classic chicken club sandwich
A selection of biscuits
A selection of cheese and fruit
Beverages
Twinings Teas – Traditional English Breakfast, Darjeeling, Ealr Grey or Pure Green
Twinings Fruit and Herb Infusions – Pure Camomile, Pure Peppermint, Lemon and Ginger or Blackcurrant, Ginseng and Vanilla
Coffee – Freshly roasted and ground, decaffeinated, espresso or cappuccino
Winter Specialties – Insert
appetiser
Broccoli and stilton soup with crumbled stilton
salad
Fresh winter salad with choice of honey mustard vinaigrette or ranch dressing
main
Catch of the day with vegetable spaghetti, creamy risotto and caper parsley butter
dessert
Mulled fruit lasagne
Wines
Champagne
Cattier Clos du Moulin Brut Premier Cru Champagne
White
Puligny-Montrachet 2006, Joseph Drouhin
Chateau Larrivet Haut-Brion 2005, Pessac-Leognan
L’Ecole No 41 Columbia Valley Semillon 2006
Red
Chateau Langoa-Barton 1999, Grand Crus Classe, Saint Julien
Chateau D’Esclans Rose 2006, Cotes de Provence
Cline Cellars Los Carneros Syrah 2005, Sonoma County
Dessert
Chivite Coleccion 125 Vendimia Tardia 2007
Warre’s 1988 Colheita Port
My IFE looked fine on starting it up and I was able to see all that was on offer. However when I fired up a CD I discovered that the sound was all distorted. My friend had brought his own Bose headset so I grabbed his BA headsets and gave them a whirl. Still no good. I told the crew who reset my seat.
Our lunch was served starting with the soup. Well it seems the credit crunch is really hitting BA hard. My soup had about 5 spoonfuls in the bowl. It was nice though. I told the crew member that my IFE was still not working and she said she would look after lunch.
I had the salad which was, err salad greens only. I then had the lamb shank stew which although it looked quite dry was not as an unappetising as it appeared. Don’t get me wrong here, BA First and Business class food is amongst the worst I have had and this did nothing to counter that.
I drank the St Julien with the meal which was quite nice indeed.
For dessert I switched over the dessert wine which was fine with the mulled fruit lasagne.
To finish off the meal I had a double espresso.
Of course the crew never came back to look at the IFE. I spent the time listening to my Ipod instead.
At around 1.5 hours out of NYC afternoon tea was served.
English Afternoon Tea
Snacks
A selection of sandwiches featuring –
Egg and watercress
Chicken and vine tomatoes with pesto and rocket
Herbed soft cheese with cucumber
Mature Cheddar and red onion marmalade
Salmon en croute
Patisserie
Plain or fruit scones served warm with clotted cream and strawberry preserve
Farmhouse fruit cake, Paris-Brest and raspberry sables
I went with the sandwiches and the fruit cake which I washed down with a cup of EB tea.
I asked the crew for a feedback form to complain about the lousy IFE and a form was quickly presented. I had great delight filling out the form using my AA pen.
We landed at 16:50 where they actually know how to deal with First customers correctly. Door 1L was used and the first cabin was let off first. The immigrations hall was empty when we arrived and we were processed in no time. The bags came out pretty quickly and we were on our way to Manhattan within 40 minutes of landing. The drive took forever but we eventually pulled up at the Westin Times Square at 18:20.
The Photos