Finally on to my last leg of my RTW journey. As I was transiting through London Heathrow, I made one mistake. Given that I had traveled with only a carry-on suitcase and had now collected a total of four sets of first class amenity kits, I thought about checking my bag for the last flight. I’ve experienced LHR’s security theater in the past and knew it could be just as ridiculous as the TSA in the U.S. I ultimately decided to not check in my bag, but my hunch was right. At transit security, First Class passengers were mixed with all other passengers and I got stopped for secondary screening due to all the liquids in my bags. The security officers were completely inflexible and insisted on going every single item in my luggage. To be honest, it felt spiteful the way they rummaged through all my belongings and questioned why I had so many amenity kits. I ultimately had to dispose of some of the items – that did not upset me as much as the manner in which they treated me. My security experience at LHR woke me up to the cold reality that I was no longer in the more hospitality-oriented Asian and Middle Eastern cities, but in the much frostier Western Hemisphere.
After that horrible experience, I was finally clear to visit BA’s Concorde Room. Since I was now trying to adjust my body to the Pacific Standard time zone, my goal was to rest during the 6 hour layover in LHR rather than to stay up in the lounge. I was able to reserve one of the infamous Concorde Room Cabanas. The Cabanas are private rooms with a bath, shower, and lounger, but have a less than stellar reputation given that they are also windowless rooms and have furnishings more typical of a hospital rather than a first class lounge. Despite this, I actually found the Cabana to be perfectly adequate for sleeping for a few hours in relative silence. When I woke up from my nap, I was able to order from the Concorde Room menu and the food was delivered straight to the Cabana, so it was a private dining experience in slightly less luxurious surroundings.
LHR to SJC
British Airways 279
787-9 (G-ZBKG)
Jan 16, 2017
1:13pm – 3:40pm
Seat 2A
After my SQ and EY flights, I think I was in First Class sensory overload. Since I’ve already flown on BA’s Club World before, I did not have high expectations for their First Class product.
Boarding was on an extremely long and distant jetway – it was in fact so long that I was not able to catch a glimpse of or take any pictures of the 787 from the outside. Nevertheless, BA’s new design for its 789 First Class was quite impressive and sleek. The First cabin felt pretty cramped, with 8 seats across two rows, and seven out of the eight seats were occupied.
Exhaustion took over me and I ended up falling asleep shortly after take-off. While you are in relatively close proximity to your neighboring seatmates and can see everyone, it was still private and quiet enough that I had no trouble sleeping – it’s hard to tell if it was because the 787 is actually quieter or if it was because my exhaustion inured me from my surroundings at that point. The seat itself felt like a slightly larger reverse herringbone business class seat, but it was comfortable in both seated and bed positions. The fixtures on the seat, including the lamp, seat controls, and large TV, were of high quality and felt like a first class product.
When I woke up, I asked for my lunch meal to be served. Similar to what I experienced in Club World before, I was informed that they had run out of nearly all of the meal selections and that I could only have the “fish pie”. It was as tasty as it sounds – sufficiently filling so that I would not go hungry on the plane, but not much more than that.
Service on BA First was better than expected. The flight attendants were younger (possibly mixed cabin crew?) and more proactive than I’ve experienced on other BA flights. After talking with my assigned FA before we were about to land, I learned that it was her first time serving a First Class cabin and she admitted that she was a bit flustered – if she had not told me that, I would not have known at all.
After watching a few movies and tv shows, we were close to landing at SJC.
Here’s a great overhead view of San Francisco as we approached SJC. We passed right over my neighborhood!
Conclusion
This was a once in a lifetime trip to fly around the world and I’m glad I was able to piece together an itinerary with award redemptions that worked. If I had to do it all over again, I would probably not put together a marathon return journey of having three first class flights in one fell swoop. It got tiring in the end and there’s definitely diminishing returns in how much you can appreciate flying first class with that many consecutive flights. In the future, I would welcome the opportunity to fly Etihad Apartments again, but I would not necessarily go out of my way just to fly on Etihad. Out of all four airlines, Singapore Airlines was definitely the best in terms of service and making the First Class experience special, whereas Korean had a leg up with regards to the First Class hard product (behind Etihad’s Apartments, of course).