In this trip report, I’ll take you from San Francisco to London on an overnight flight operated by a British Airways 747-400.

(disclosure: this is a monetised channel, though I do this as a hobby and not for the income)


Many of you know that BA’s F service can be very inconsistent. All of my previous trips have been big hits, so perhaps I was due a mulligan…

I’d arrived at SFO on a connecting flight from LAX. The good bit? My luggage was through-checked. The bad bit? I had to reclear security. I despise “security theatre”, though I understand that a private contractor does it on the TSA’s behalf at SFO. Despite being in First, you still have to queue!

The BA Terraces Lounge is halfway down Concourse A, and provides respite from the terminal. First things first, a shower. My preceding itinerary for the day was MKE-ORD-LAX-SFO so I was pretty much in need of one by this point. The lounge has two shower suites with a shared communal area, and you can get in using a key from the front desk.

The lounge and showers show their age, but at this point I wasn’t too concerned as all I wanted to do was change my clothes and have a shower to freshen up. That done, it’s off to the First Class lounge, which is basically located in an ante-room to the business lounge. It’s a small room with about 25 seats, so it gets pretty busy (747 F cabin is 14 seats, plus any Gold Card holders in lower cabins). I was there early so I perched myself in the corner. It’s a poor lounge, in honesty. No hot food, no ambience and a lack of space make for something much less than premium. It’s due to be extended and refreshed this year, I believe. That doesn’t stop it being used by celebrities though….you’ll have to watch the video to find out who stopped by!

Let’s skip to the flight itself. We had a ground delay of around an hour thanks to a broken cargo door which needed some TLC before shutting. Cabin crew were proactive and communicative, and I wasn’t on a tight schedule anyway. I was pretty chilled, took the opportunity to change into my PJs and had a few drinks.

Once under way, we climbed straight up to 36,000 feet and I asked for my dinner to be served. Now, here is where BA can be so inconsistent. On my outbound flight (details here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...ull-works.html) I had a genuine 10/10 experience, and the food was outstanding. Sadly, not so great this time. 747 ovens are inferior to A380 ones and so my fish was a little dry. The amuse-bouche was unimaginative and the soup poorly presented. A 5/10 offering here. BA, you can do better.

Luckily, I find the beds on BA to be excellent and managed to get a good six hours’ sleep, aided by a half-glass of dessert wine, for which I am a sucker. I awoke a few hundred miles west of Galway, to brilliant sunshine. I asked for my breakfast, bearing in mind local time at destination was already gone noon. I had the cooked option, which was fair-to-middling. I really don’t like powdered eggs, and I strongly suspect that’s what I was given. However, the tea was excellent and the juice didn’t stop flowing. We held for only a few minutes outside LHR and landed only a few minutes late – thanks to a favourable jet stream – and taxied to a gate at the B satellite at Terminal 5. The crew were proactive at letting F passengers off first, but not after our celebrity in 4K had made themselves scarce, heading for a black VIP car parked by the jetbridge.

Conclusions? Well, I was due to have a weak F experience at some point. It is frustrating that BA can’t deliver the excellent experience I had on my outbound flight with consistency. That said, I was pretty tired from travel before I even got to SFO and the product did well to refresh me and leave me well-slept.

Let’s hope my next trip, on BA’s 787-900, in F to SJC, will be a lot better!