gba

August 11, 2009
British Airways 9, LHR-BKK
747-400, G-BNLL
Scheduled (Actual) Departure Time: 10:00pm (10:05)
Scheduled (Actual) Arrival Time: 3:20pm+1 (3:25)
Duration: 11:03 Seat: 1A


With a nine hour layover, we had plenty of time to venture into Central London for a bit of sightseeing before returning to the construction site better known as LHR Terminal 4 about 8:30 at night. We’d been given boarding passes in SFO and after a bit of nosing around found the fast track security line and were quickly in the Gate 1 lounge. The lounge is well-equipped but reasonably crowded around the time of the late night BA/QF flights to Asia and Australia. We sought quiet (and a bite to eat) in the First class dining area. Genius1 has a great selection of photos of the T4 Gate 1 lounge in his recent report for those interested.

The process for gaining admittance to the first class dining area seemed unnecessarily complex (after entering the lounge, you had to get a pass from the customer service desk which was busy serving customers, to present to the staff in the dining area) and, in retrospect, wasn’t worth the ever. Even by airline standards, the food was non-descript. As my girlfriend observed, “What’s the point of eating on the ground if they’re just going to serve airline food?” but it did tide us over until the dinner service on board. After a quick shower, it was time for us to head down to the gate which, as luck would have it, was at the opposite end of T4 (gate 12). We were able to skip one queue by using the “fast track” line to have our boarding pass checked but the there was only one jetway in use and it was a bit of a wait before we made it to door 2L and were shown to our seat.

We were fortunate enough to have been able to grab seats 1A and 1K at the 72 hour prior to departure mark and were not disappointed with the quality of the seats. Unlike the middle seats in row 4, there’s far more room to place items (beverages, camera, headphones, note book, amenity kit, etc.) on the shelf between the seat and the window. The curvature of the front of the aircraft provides a high degree of privacy, as well as panoramic views, and my girlfriend and I had no trouble talking back and forth without disturbing others (or at least, so I think). Though for dining we decided to make use of the buddy seat, I far preferred having the nose of the aircraft to ourselves, especially on a flight where sleep is of the evidence, to the relatively exposed and well-traffic seats in row 4 or 5. Some have complained that persons accessing the closet cause a fair amount of disturbance but this didn’t really bother me as it was only briefly at the beginning and end of the flight and personally I liked being able to store my own things in the closet as needed without bothering others.

This seems like as good a time as any to give my two cents on the BA seats. Although they’re by no means cutting edge, especially in terms of width or privacy, if I didn’t know that the grass was greener on the other side (SQ, EK, QF A380), I’d have nothing bad to say about them. I had absolutely no trouble sleeping due to seat comfort, and all of the seats I sat in worked perfectly. While 4 and 5, especially in the middle, seemed somewhat exposed because of the amount of foot traffic they get passing by, rows 1 to 3 were well secluded (although have none of the fancy door things that many of the newer first class products have). My biggest complaint would have to be that the table is difficult to access and, while it’s nice to have a big surface area for meals, a smaller, easier to access, working surface would be nice to have for setting things on during the flight. One nice item which was available on this flight, and all our subsequent flights, but not SFO-LHR was the new BA pashmina which my girlfriend made frequent use of.

Soon after arriving at our seats, we were offered a choice of drinks as well as amenity kits and pajamas (without asking), and our beverages were again served with a small bowl of macadamia nuts. Having had a moderately substantial snack in the lounge and knowing that dinner would be served as soon as we were airborne I didn’t eat any of the room-temperature nuts but did re-arrange them a bit so it didn’t seem like a total waste (note to BA: save costs by cutting, or reducing the number, of the ordinary nuts rather than chocolates or canapés; or, better yet, serve a nice hot nut mix). Menus for the entirety of flight BA9 LHR-BKK-SYD were also distributed. We pushed back just a few minutes behind schedule and the flight attendants had to do a manual safety demo due to a problem with the sound on the normal one which was a bit odd. Soon enough, we were airborne but not before I’d caught my first glance of the A380 (Singapore Airlines) which would also be waiting for us when we arrived in Sydney two days later.

Although the first class cabin was completely full for the LHR-BKK leg, service was more personable and no less attentive than we’d experienced on SFO-LHR. Soon after takeoff, drink orders were taken and hot towels were distributed. I went to the lav to change into my pajamas and was disappointed to find that the sink in one of the two first class lavatories was inoperable. This would (fortunately) be the biggest snafu we’d encounter on our BA flights: although it’s not worth delaying a flight to fix a sink, given that BA doesn’t seem to turn their 747s that quickly it’s the kind of problem that should be identified and fixed. To my disappointment, this problem wasn’t even fixed during our two and a half hour ground time in Bangkok— I think the problem had to do with the sensor rather than the plumbing, so perhaps the problem is more complex to fix than I fully appreciate.
Upon returning to my seat, drinks were served with a pleasant selection of canapés.


Canapes, seat controls, and my foot

The canapés were a tasty assortment including Yorkshire pudding (my favorite), lobster with a little bit of caviar garnish (Hah! BA F does have caviar!), and Waldorf salad (too much mayo, not enough apple). Meal orders were taken and my girlfriend and I made our selections and asked to dine using the buddy seat at 1A (which means you get to see pictures of twice as many food items!). Here’s the menu for the BKK-LHR dinner on BA 9 for 8/09 (190F001 - ROT2):

Dinner

Starters
Shawn Hill’s English asparagus with pea and basil dressing and shaved Pecorino (V)
Warm crab and crayfish ravioli with wilted baby spinach and lemon cream sauce
Cream of sweetcorn soup (V)
Fresh summer salad French dressing or orange and tarragon cream dressing For a limited period we also have ‘liquid gold’—olio extra vergine di olive from castello monte vibiano, a very special olive oil from hand-picked olives, pressed at low temperature and bottled within six hours.

Main
Lamb rending with sesame-coated vegetables and jasmine rice
Catch of the Day – Roast cod with brown shrimp and dill sauce Loch Fyne Fisheries offers a selection of wild fish from sustainable stocks. They supply us with the freshest prime fish daily.
Seared filler steak with Choron sauce, matchstick chips, watercress and herb-crusted field mushroom
Nicoise-style summer vegetable salad (V)

Dessert
Eton mess with shortbread biscuits and raspberry coulis
Chocolate and orange cadeau with Seville orange syrup

Cheese Plate
Fleur du Maquis – Also known as Brindamour, this cheese is encrusted with dried herbs.
Traditional Normandy Camembert – An unpasteurized cow’s milk cheese, Camembert features a creamy texture with a full flavour.
Gevrik – Made in Cornwall, England, Gervik is an award-winning goat’s milk cheese with a soft texture and a mild flavour.
St-Nectaire – This unpasteurized cheese features a soft, supple texture and earthy, fruity flavour.
Unpasteurized cheese may pose a health risk to certain groups of people including pregnant women, the elderly, the very young and those whose systems may be immunocompromised.

A basket of fresh fruit

Snacks
Chicken tikka masala with lemon rice
Smoked haddock kedgeree cakes with celeriac rémoulade
A selection of biscuits
A selection of cheese and fruit

Beverages
We offer you a selection of the following:
Twinings Teas – Traditional English Breakfast, Darjeeling, Earl 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
Chocolates

Wines (654W555 8/09)

Aperitif
A sparkling aperitif combining Crème de Cassis (a blackcurrant liqueur) with Champagne, creating a refreshing cocktail.

Champagne
Pol Roger Brut 1999, Vintage Champagne
Pol Roger, founded in Epernay in 1849, is one of the truly great names of Champagne and is one of the very few proudly independent family houses left. They reserve their Vintage declarations for those rare years in which all the climatic and winemaking conditions come together in complete harmony. This wine is a blend of Pinot Noir, which contributes intensity of flavour and body, and Chardonnay, which provides fragrance, delicacy, and finesse. This is a real treat!
or
Bollinger La Grande Annee 1999
Founded in 1829 in the village of Ay, Bollinger is one of the great names of Champagne—synonymous with the finest quality. This wine is sheer class—rich, complex, intense, and rounded. Powerful flavours of toasted nuts, wild fruits and crème brulée abound, balanced by a lively acidity. La Grande Anneé is Bollinger’s prestige cuvée and is only made when an exceptional vintage occurs.

White
Meursault Clos De Meix Chavaux 2007, Burgundy, France
A rich dry white Burgundy with a complex nutty flavour and crisp apple finish. A third of this wine has been aged in new oak to give it a delicate creaminess to the palate. The Burgundy village of Meursault is the home of some of the most famous white wines in the world. The 2007 vintage was saved by a glorious autumn that created fresh wines of longevity and style.

Amayna Sauvignon Blanc 2007, Leyda Valley, Chile
Amanya is a family-owned property founded by the Garces family in the San Antonio-Leyda Valley. One of only two wineries in the valley, Amanya was launched from the 2003 harvest. It has a very modern, gravity-flow winery set in a sheltered valley between coastal mountain range and the Pacific Ocean, just fourteen kilometers from the sea. The cooling breezes from the sea make this a perfect site for Sauvignon Blanc. Crisp and dry, with tropical fruit and ripe citrus flavours, it is well-balanced and fuller than most Sauvignons, and has a fresh citrus finish.
or
Lindberg Reserve Gruner Veltliner 2007, Kremstal
Austria’s signature white grape variety, Gruner Veltliner, is extremely fashionable with high-flying sommeliers the world over, and the 2007 is drinking very well now. Full-bodied, aromatic, and dry, this wine has hints of herbs and white pepper.

Orlando Saint Hilary Chardonnay 2006, Padthaway, Australia
Flagship Australian Chardonnays such as this one have slimmed down enormously over the past few years. From South Australia’s cooler region of Padthaway, this wine is surprisingly elegant with rewarding richness and just a hint of oak. It brings lift and life, and it is very appetising, with great balance and complexity. You could keep on returning to this wine.

Red
Chateau Trotte Vieille 2002, Saint-Emilion
A Grand Cru Classé, this wine is rich and velvety with a hint of ink and juicy fruit on the palate. A relatively easy wine, with very fine, chalky tannins on the finish and a texture that is user-friendly, but with potential. Full, sweet, and lip-smacking.

Clos de I’Oratoire des Papes, Chateanueuf-du-Pape, 2006
A rich cocktail of a wine from a lovely, juicy vintage for the southern Rhone. A deep purplish-red in colour, the wine has a complex nose full of spicy, red-berry aromas and a hint of dried fruit.

Saint Clair Pioneer Block 4 Sawcut Pinot Noir 2007, Marlborough, New Zealand
This elegant Pinot Noir from one of New Zealand’s most celebrated winemakers shows a round, full palate with well-balanced acidity and abundant ripe tannins. Aging in new French barrels provides warm, savoury notes leading to a full, lingering finish.

Dessert
Chateau Coutet 1998, Premier Cru Classe, Sauternes-Barsac
Chateau Coutet is one of the oldest estates in Sauternes and prides itself on its exalted history—its buildings date from the end of the thirteenth century. The winemaking follows the same painstaking traditions—grapes are not harvested in bunches but individual berries are picked, as they are ready. The harvesters have to go through the vineyards numerous times and a harvest can last several weeks. The result is a sumptuously sweet wine that combines superbly with the expensive French oak in which it matures.

Warre’s 1992 Colheita Tawny Port
Complex, sweet, nutty flavours offer an admirable after-dinner glass.

Spirits, Digestifs and Liqueurs
Gonzalez Byass Sherries
Smirnoff Black Label Vodka
Tanqueray No. Ten Gin
Johnnie Walker Blue Label Scotch Whisky
The Glenlivet 18-year-old Single Malt Whisky
Woodford Reserve Kentucky Whiskey
Camus XO Cognac

Soft Drinks
A selection of traditional and modern drinks
Highland Spring still or sparkling water

Interestingly, despite this being a flight to Thailand, there didn’t seem to be many accommodations to Thai palates (and, not to spoil the surprise, but all the breakfast options were western also). I suspect that BA’s passengers are dominantly western, given not only the lack of food choice but also the fact that all announcements on the flight were exclusively in English. There seems to be a consensus that BA food out of London is considered to be better than the catering from outstations and this meal did not disappoint. See for yourself:


Sweet corn soup in foreground, asparagus starter in background, with hands of girlfriend trying to ignore the fact that I’m taking pictures of airplane food


Salad in foreground, sweet corn soup in background


Steak in foreground, catch of the day in background

We enjoyed all of our starters, I was especially a fan of the sweet corn soup (note to self: soup is always a good option on airplanes) which I would happily eat on the ground. The mains weren’t quite as popular, but it was probably the best steak dish I’d ever had on an airplane. Although it was a bit well-done for my general taste, it avoided the usual dryness so common amongst airline steaks and both of the side items were tasty. My girlfriend enjoyed her fish, noting that it was better than the food we’d had in the lounge before the flight, despite the somewhat anonymous potato cake on the side. For dessert, we elected to try one of each item (our flight attendant recommended the Eton mess):


Eton mess in front, Chocolate and orange cadeau in back. My girlfriend thinks taking pictures of chocolate is ok, so you can see both these items pretty well.

Both my girlfriend and I are big fans of chocolate, and the cadeau was our favorite dessert of the trip. In general, though we were somewhat disappointed by the dessert selections. Perhaps it’s a British vs. American thing, but the general model for BA menus, both on the ground and in the air, seems to be one “solid” dessert and one “soft/pudding texture” dessert. The “soft” desserts (like the Eton mess) were never particularly impressive (although the Eton mess was the best of the bunch). Personally, I think that dessert menus should have one chocolate dessert, and one non-chocolate dessert. I concluded the meal with a cheese plate and a glass of the dessert wine:


Wine and cheese

We were two and a half hours out of London when the meal finally concluded and at that point my body clock was totally messed up and I was ready for a bit of a nap. Beds were promptly made up, and I was asleep before my head hit the pillow. Since I was so tired, it was a much better night of sleep than the previous flight, although I did wake up once and obtain a glass of ice water but was pretty out of it until breakfast time. When I awoke, I noticed that our routing had taken us north of Ashgabat, Turkmenistan (so no Iran flyover) then south over Afghanistan and Lahore, Pakistan before cutting across northern India at a height of 37,000 feet (at least when I was looking). Breakfast service began about 90 minutes out of Bangkok, here’s the menu:

Breakfast

Starters
Chilled Fruit Juice
An energizing fruit smoothie
A selection of yoghurts
A selection of cereals
Fresh seasonal fruit plate

Bakery
A wide selection of warm bread and breakfast pastries

Main
Traditional English Breakfast of scrambled eggs, grilled bacon, Cumberland sausage, tomato, sautéed mushrooms, and Irish potato cake
Eggs Florentine
Blueberry French toast with crumble top and blueberry syrup (V)

Beverages
We offer you a selection of the following:
Twinings Teas – Traditional English Breakfast, Darjeeling, Earl 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

Or you can enjoy a quick Continental Breakfast to maximize your sleep time onboard

I’m not the biggest fan of breakfast food generally, especially on airplanes, and given that the flight was to arrive in Bangkok in the middle of the afternoon, and that the breakfast options were pretty similar to what I’d seen on the first flight, I elected to have the fruit starter and then the chicken tikka masala off of the snack menu instead of a breakfast entrée. The flight attendant warned me that the chicken would take about twenty minutes to prepare but this was no problem given the flight time remaining and it allowed me enjoy a nice leisurely meal:


Fresh fruit with orange juice and energizing fruit smoothie and moving map


Chicken tikka masala snack

This was a quite refreshing snack. The chicken tikka masala had a very nice flavor (or is it flavour?) although it was a bit less saucy then what passes for chicken tikka masala state-side. The Naan bread was disappointing as it had not been reheated particularly well but a selection from the breakfast bread basket provided the necessary carbs.

Forty minutes out of Bangkok the captain came on over the PA to announce our progress and landing preparations began in earnest. Fast track cards for Bangkok were distributed (including a coupon to the infamous King Power duty free store), although they weren’t needed, service items were cleared, and passengers were reminded several times that they would have to disembark in Bangkok and take all their belongings off the aircraft before the flight continued down to Sydney. Soon, the whizzing and the whirring of the landing gear were heard in the front cabin (I’m pretty sure that the voice of R2D2 was recorded here) and we’d arrived in Thailand. As we taxied to our parking spot at the other of the airport the cheerful captain came on over the PA again to welcome us to Bangkok and provided some interesting trivia about our flight—we burned 115 tons of fuel and reached a maximum speed of 625mph—which was a nice touch. We disembarked through a crowd of employees who each seemed to be holding a sign, or passing out a sheet of paper, reminding passengers of the gate and departure time of the continuing flight (this is somewhat useful since the boarding time of the second leg of the direct flight is not printed on one’s boarding pass). After a five minute walk, we were welcomed into the joint BA/QF First Class lounge.