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