On May 18th 2016, I flew Business Class in a Boeing 777-300ER (B77W) of British Airways (BA) from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport (HND) in Japan to London’s Heathrow Airport (LHR) in the United Kingdom. The UK’s national carrier has 58 Boeing 777 planes in its fleet, making it – to the best of my knowledge - the 5th largest operator in the world of the popular widebody aircraft (behind Emirates, United Airlines, American Airlines, and Cathay Pacific). Most of these aircraft in the BA fleet are aging Boeing 777-200ER models, with a total of 12 new Boeing 777-300ER being added to the fleet since 2010. Business Class on BA’s B777-300ER is similar to the one on BA’s A380 and features a slightly updated version (read: better entertainment system) of the product that you find on its aging Boeing 747-400ERs and B777-200ERs.

I made a Youtube clip with my impressions during the flight, which you can watch here:


I also took a lot of photos and will post some of them below.

- Trip: HND-LHR
- Airline: British Airways
- Aircraft type: Boeing 777-300ER
- Aircraft registration number: G-STBE
- Flight Number: BA8
- Date: May 18th, 2016
- On time departure: yes (9 am)
- On time arrival: yes (12.30 pm)
- Miles: 5974
- Flight time: 11 hours & 30 minutes
- Seat: 12A
- Class: Business

1. JAL LOUNGE AT TOKYO’S HANEDA AIRPORT

BA does not have its own lounge at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport. But this is not a bad thing at all since BA’s Business and First Class passengers have access to Japan Airline’s excellent and refurbished Sakura lounge, located opposite gate 112 in Henada’s international terminal.

The Japan Airlines Sakura Lounge spreads over two floors. The lower floor is mainly used as a dining room, but also has lockers (to store carry-on luggage) and shower facilities near its entrance. In addition to a business center and a small self-serve bar, the upper floor has a large lounge areas. Both floors feature a classic, contemporary décor and embrace the daylight with large windows offering excellent views of the runways.

I visited the lounge in the early morning hours, when breakfast was served at the large buffet station. Food selection was extensive, with a mixture of Western and Japanese cuisine. The buffet featured scrambled eggs, hash browns, sausages, bacon, several types of sandwiches, corn flakes, chilled corn soup, a salad bar, rice porridge with scallops; spicy seasoned cod roe, grilled Spanish mackerel, and Japanese omelette.

From the lounge it was a 10 minute walk to the gate.

2. BUSINESS CLASS CABIN

BA’s Boeing 777-300ER has a total of 299 seats spread over four cabins: 14 in First Class, 56 in Club World (Business Class), 44 in World Traveller Plus (Premium Economy), and 185 in World Traveller (Economy).

The 56 Business Class seats are located in one, spacious cabins, behind the First Class cabin and in front of the Premium Economy Class cabin. The bright, contemporary Business Class cabin decor creates a sense of wellbeing and comfort, which is a great thing when you are a nervous flyer like me. The predominant white colour of the suites and cabin walls elegantly contrasts with the seat covers’ maritime blue, which is British Airways signature colour. The cabin’s ceiling also features four design chandeliers, creating soft light inflight. While the overall cabin ambience feels great, it cannot compete with the intimate and private atmosphere that you experience when flying in BA’s Boeing 747 upper deck Business Class.

The cabin features BA’s unique “Ying/Yang” 2-4-2 layout: window and middle seats face backwards, while aisle seats face forwards. Because of this unique concept, you have to jump over other passenger’s legs to reach the aisle when seated in a backward facing seat (which is rather inconvenient when you frequently have to go to the bathroom during the flight).

3. THE BUSINESS CLASS SEAT

A great thing about BA is that is offers a very consistent Business Class product across its wide body fleet. The seat is located within its own cocoon or suite, and has a pitch of 72 inches (182 cm) and a width of 20 inches (50 cm). In front of each seat, there’s a foot rest, which need to lowered in order to use it for comfort or for an extension of the flatbed.

Each seat has its own private entertainment screen, which swings out from one side of the cabin suite. With 12 inches or 20 cm, the screen is considerably larger as compared to that of BA’s older wide body planes. It also tilts up and down, so it’s no problem to watch movies from the near or fully flat-bed position.

There are retractable privacy dividers between adjoining seats, which can be lowered or raised, depending on the fact whether you are traveling solo or with a companion. The safety screen needs to be lowered during the safety briefing, and in addition, the crew will lower it when they serve you meals and drinks; this can feel very awkward when you are seated next to a stranger because you are directly looking into his/her eyes because of BA’s Ying/Yang layout.

The seat controls, a power port, and the remote control for the entertainment system (which can also be controlled by touching the screen) are located below the screen divider.

What are the best Business Class seats on BA’s B77W?
- Solo travelers should go for the rear facing, window seats, which are located in their own cocoon, although you will have to step over the feet of other passengers every time you leave your seat (except when you are seated in a window seat in row 16, which has direct aisle access).
- The “honeymoon” center seats are a the best option for couples. The same problem here though, as you will have to step over another passenger’s legs everytime you need to go to the restroom or want to stretch your legs (except for the row 16, which has direct aisle access)

What are the worst Business Class seats on JAL’s B77W?
- Window seats in row 10 (10A & 10K) lack a window and are best avoided if you like to look outside and enjoy the aerial panorama’s.
- Passengers seated in row 10 and 16 might be occasionally troubled by the noise from the galley and the nearby restrooms
- If you are traveling solo, you don’t want to be seated in one of the center seats.

4. AMENITIES

Each seat comes with a thin blanket, a comfortable pillow, and an amenity kit. The latter is a bag (one for men and one for women) and includes Elemis spa products, moisturizer, socks, toothbrush, toothpaste, lip balm, earplugs, and eyeshades.

5. FOOD

This was a day flight, leaving in the morning, and we were served an excellent breakfast shortly after takeoff, and a disappointing lunch about 90 minutes prior arrival.

Breakfast was the best meal of the flight, with several option to choose from. As a starter, I had the Bircher muesli, which was served with a selection of warm breads and pastries, and an energizing mango smoothie. As a main course, I had the Belgian waffle with mixed berry sauce, ricotta cheese and maple syrup, which tasted excellent (although as a Belgian, I always find it strange that waffles are considered to be a delicatesse from Belgium, although waffles are not particularly popular in Belgium itself).

Lunch service, which started about 90 minutes before touchdown, was painfully slow with desserts being served less than 30 minutes before landing by a very hurried crew. I had the buffalo mozzarella with tomato and olive oil as a starter, which had a poor taste and lacked flavor. The main course was a grilled fillet of Australian grass-fed beef with Madeira sauce, garlic and parsley mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables. Although the presentation was ok, the beef was inedible and an embarrassment to BA’s catering department. I did like the original dessert though: green tea tiramisu with Chantilly cream.

6. FLIGHT PATH

The flight path took us to the north of the globe, following a (sub)polar route. We flew north of Novary Zemlya (the big island north of Siberia) before reaching the Norwegian coast. This seems to be the standard route that BA flies on its return flights from Tokyo to London, while other airlines such as ANA and JAL seem to consistently follow a much more southerly itinerary for the same route (check it out yourself on Flightaware). I am puzzled by this, so if there’s an aviation expert or pilot reading this, please leave your expert opinion in the comments.