After our first trip in BA F, we have now done our first in CW, LHR-ATL

Got to the airport about an hour before take off, to bag drop, notice that the sombre-suited man adjacent to us was upgraded to first. We went to check out the galleries lounge.

Impressive in size and design, although the route to get there is rather inconvenient with pushchair.

Also the impression given is very much that BA is a 'self service' airline - grab what you want, but don't expect any service - buffet stations everywhere, fridges with beers, soft drink, jugs of (poor quality) juice, but not much sign of any service. Food is M&S ready meal standard, generally.

Saw people pouring themselves wine, but couldn't work out how to get a glass of champagne, despite wandering around looking for a likely spot.

As we were later than planned, we made our way to the dreaded A10. Although we were there just a few minutes before the gate closed, we ended up waiting for 15-20 minutes for the bus to leave, due to a late arriving family.

In the meantime the young Indian woman opposite spontaneously vomited on the American woman next to her. Oh dear.

Got on the plane, I had been moved due to a pax with mobility issues. I request of another pax that we swap seats, which he did, apparently already having swapped with a woman who wanted to sit with her husband but apparently had selected one window (in very short supply) and one middle aisle seat (in plentiful supply), rather than two adjacent middles.

They seemed to be in the 'our first flight on Club for a special occasion' category.

Flight was delayed by 30 minutes or more, due to late-arriving pax delaying bus plus usual Heathrow ATC issues, and did not receive any attention from crew (aside from the announcement to all that 'in First today we have Jo [or whatever], in our World Traveller cabin we have Bob' - no mention of club, which might have been confusing to some) until at least an hour after boarding, when I was asked 'what would you like to eat'. 'Actually I haven't been given a menu'. Menu supplied, shortly after I am asked what I would like. I ask for the lobster+prawns. Also a glass of champagne, I say, feeling rather thirsty by this point.

This is ignored, it seems that they don't do drinks service at this point, and I will have to wait until the drinks trolley comes around with the meal.

Tables unfolded, I notice mine is rather grubby, I give it a wipe with my hot towel, with some distaste. My daughter's, who is sitting in the middle seat next to my wife (the opposite way round to me), is likewise dirty.

I ask my wife if she has ordered food for my daughter, assuming that with her next to my wife, they would ask her. 'No'.

She asks the passing crew member and is told she will have to order from the other side. So I do this, wondering why they hadn't asked me what she wanted, and say that she will have the turkey with stilton and cranberry. 'Sorry, turkey is finished, would she like the ravioli from economy class?' 'No thanks.... [reads menu] Beef casserole please. ' 'Are you sure she wouldn't like the ravioli?' 'Beef casserole please'.

So the meal is served. The salmon starter is pleasant, and given that the only alternative was simply 'baby leeks', it was the only choice. The spicy lemon dressing with the salad was delicious.

Then came the main courses. After I had finished, the used plates/cutlery sitting on my tray, the CSD asked me what I would like for dessert. 'What do you have?' 'Cheese or cheesecake' 'What cheese is it?' 'Roquefort and something.' [hmm, I love roquefort' 'I will have the cheese please'.

Cheese arrives, and is plonked down next to my main course plate, which is not removed. Oh dear, I think.

Cheese is conspicuously not roquefort, but stilton. It's all a bit bland for my taste, and the 'cheesecake' I notice is actually a tasty looking chocolate dessert.

Oh well.

The 777 we are on is a non-VOD plane, with 12 channels. My wife informs the crew that her TV was not working. Promise made for someone to come and have a look, this does not happen, so I tell her to ask again, about 20 minutes later. 'After the meal service', she is told.

Eventually a third request, some time later, results in a crew member pressing a few buttons on the remote. 'It's not working, you can move to 12G (or something like that)'. Not really an option, to leave our daughter behind, so she declines.

I'm not sure if this is usual, but the picture quality is poor, and there is a very prominent buzz in the headphones, also sibilance, and both my son's headphones and mine are in pretty poor shape.

After the entertainment cycle has finished (about 2 hours ?), the screens go dead.

Then just under two hours before landing, it came on again. I flick to the 'Flights from the UK, second showing' section, and decide to watch Harry Potter.

I quickly realise that they are showing the first screening again, having presumably reset things.

Oh well.

Apart from meal services, the cabin crew are not to be seen. I do not get the sense from their general lack of grace previously that they will be too happy about me ringing the bell to ask for a drink, so about half way through the daytime flight, I walk up the galley and have a peer at the club kitchen. There seems to be juice there, but no glasses, so I politely disturb the adjacent FA from reading her Daily Mail. Suitably fortified with juice, I return to my seat.

Second meal service is 'afternoon tea', the CSD offers me a scone from the basket. I ask 'are these raisin and plain'. The foreign-accented CSD, seems not to understand, so after repeating myself I shut up, having taken two scones.

Female FA arrives soon after with drinks trolley. 'Would you like some tea?' 'No thanks, some champagne please'. It seems that afternoon tea in club is not routinely served with this, so wordlessly, she disappears and returns to plonk down my glass.

Immediately after tea is finished, we are advised that the seat belt sign will be going on in twenty minutes and to visit the toilet now. My wife goes with out daughter to the toilet, but almost immediately we hit some turbulence, the seat belt sign goes on, and they are sent back. My daughter is not very happy about this. Turbulence, which is nothing too terrible, clears after a few minutes but the seatbelt does not, perhaps they think there is no time for people to go to the toilets and get back before the seatbelt sign goes on.

Meanwhile, I start to fill in our landing cards, but am one short, so I press my call button. It is ignored.

After about 10 minutes I notice a FA heading down the aisle. I look up and see that my light is off. I assume I have been subject to the 'over the shoulder call light slam', which I am not impressed by (it wouldn't happen on an Asian airline, in economy class, let alone business - they would check what you wanted rather than assuming you didn't want anything), so I press it again.

Eventually I get my landing card, and having completed them all, we are told we are in the pre-landing phase, and to clear our seat area, bring our seats to the upright position, etc.

The seatbelt sign has been on for about 20 minutes at this point, and so with my seatbelt securely fastened, I start to tidy up, leaving a row of three glasses that were not collected previously, plus a half-full juice carton, the plastic bag that the headphones were in, and a crumpled Daily Mail.

FA comes along and picks up the glasses, leaving the rubbish. 'You need to clear your floor area.' 'Where should I put it?' 'In your overhead bin'. The other items are sanitary, but I am not about to put the juice carton in the overhead bin to foul passengers' bags, so I ask if there is a rubbish bin. 'No I don't have one'. 'Can I take this somewhere?', I say.

Eventually she spits out, 'ok, I vill do it'. She demonstrates her annoyance by stomping off, very visibly angry, and in the process knocks off the blanket of the pax across the aisle.

She returns and picks up a pen that has rolled over to the over-the-aisle pax's foot and asks her 'is this yours?' I don't really want to say anything more to this woman, but after a pregnant pause I say 'it's mine'.

The CSD who was walking by at that moment sees the expression on my face and says 'don't worry, she's not going to steal it'.

After landing, every one sits until the plane stops and the cabin lights come on, whereupon everyone stands up. 'Sit down', says an FA. About a second later, the seat belt line goes off, and she adds 'a paramedic is coming on board'.

Everyone sits down, and after 2 or 3 minutes, two paramedics make their way to Y class. I don't know what had happened but I could only imagine that the pax in need of attention was at the back of Y, because it is not long before we are told 'you can get off now'.

My daughter has fallen asleep, and as I try to pick her up, a pax from WT+ comes barging past. Eventually I make my way to the front of the plane, holding my daughter, while several dozen overtake me, and stand in front of the CSD, who had put our pushchair away in boarding. I wonder if he would remember or say anything, but he doesn't, and having not been understood when asking about the scones, I say 'my pushchair'. 'Could I have my pushchair please', he corrects me. He shows me that it is in the galley.

I ask 'which way should I go', considering that I had a child in one hand, and there was a stampeding herd of Y class pax heading out the door, and I wasn't sure which way I should head around the galley to get out.

So he picked up the pushchair and took it outside the plane door.

I tried to unfold it while stampeding herd continued behind me. US security detail (who is helpful, as are the other staff in the airport, TSA excepted) at the gate takes pity and helps me by getting it out of the way.

Eventually I am on my way.

We join the infamous ATL immigration queue. We are pretty much at the back, and it takes about an hour. At one point a small boy starts crying/screaming, and the staff usher his family through the entire queue and to the front of one the sub-queues in front of each immigration point. Make a mental note to tell my kids that the dog has died, next time, as the waterworks seem a good way to cut the queue short.

Eventually we make it through the main queue, and I select the sub-queue with the middle-aged white people in it, rather than the adjacent one consisting of single men, Mexican and Asian, which predictably enough takes longer.

After we make it through, I see the queue has disappeared. I realise that all the people in front of us were off our flight, and mostly in Y to boot, as the crew did not bother to let the premium cabins get off first. Am not very impressed with this, and when we make it downstairs we see that immigration has taken so long, the luggage belts have been switched off, and the cases are piled up at the side, usually a sign that you've been detained for 'special questioning' or similar, and not something I remember happening before.

We take our cases, and not having been through ATL before, are confused when our bags are taken off us again. We are then told we have to take our shoes off, while the water my wife had taken off the flight is confiscated by the TSA, while my sleeping daughter was forcibly ejected from her pushchair. We are rather confused by this, but eventually we make it out to second baggage claim. Don't fancy a baggage cart at $4, so we manage to balance our bags for the short distance out to the taxi, which we get into about 2 hours after landing.

The taxi driver is a mercifully silent Somalian, who appears not to have acquired the American habit of angling for a tip by engaging exhausted passengers in small talk. We make it to the hotel, the fare was $43.50, and I gave $50, which he didn't seem to expect.

Won't be bothering with BA CW/F again, or BA at all, unless they are cheapest - when you pay a bucketshop fare, you don't expect much, and surly crew are much less of an annoyance. OTOH, when you've paid extra for a premium product, the crew that evidently regard passengers as an inconvenience rather than valued customers to be served, become a source of stress and annoyance by the end of the flight. I felt that they would be better selling the seats (which are very good, apart from the substandard IFE), and forgetting about the service, because it didn't do anything for me at all.

I'm not too familiar with American airlines, but it always seems to me that the service in the US, in shops, restaurants, etc., is several degrees more friendly and helpful than the service you get in Britain, so I don't see that British Airways have any kind of competitive advantage, what with high labour costs and a lack of a service culture in Britain.

I was considering BA J to SIN for our next flight, which will be in March, but that definitely won't be now. I guess we will fly SQ Y, and our newly minted BA Silver status, will likely get its one and only outing on our return flight.