LONDON HEATHROW to ABU DHABI (LHR-AUH) on British Airways 777-200 in business
I headed to the gate in satellite B at the appropriate time to board just before the deadline. I noticed the gate was right next to the one I'd arrived at a couple of hours prior. Boarding hadn't even started when I reached the gate, and commenced about 10 minutes before scheduled departure. Load appeared to be fairly light, and indeed there were only about 6 or 8 in business class.
The usual pre-departure water, orange juice or champagne. Safety demonstration was manual.
After take off hot towel, amenity kit and menu were handed out.
The in-flight entertainment system on this aircraft G-ZZZC is archaic, like a relic from the 80s. Handset was a big clunky brick like a very early mobile phone. Sound quality was atrocious. Only looped movies, with 12 selections + air show. No description of what movies are in which channels. When they started the IFE some time after take-off it was already halfway through the movies. I gave up and left my screen on airshow while I read some reports.
In my experience when the load in a premium cabin is low the service tends to be either fantastic or terrible with little middle ground. Unfortunately today we drew the short straw. The flight attendants were more interested in their New Years Eve plans than in serving the passengers, and were badly distracted most of the flight. One passenger had to call to get their meal tray because they'd been left out, others were left out of a course, or drinks round, or picking up rubbish (e.g. the empty nut packet), or clearing trays away. It seemed like every passenger in the cabin got missed from at least one or two elements of service.
So not feeling the love of IFE or crew, and being uncomfortable thanks to excessively hot cabin temperature, I spent much of the flight catching up on sleep.