5th July
BA56 JNB-LHR
1920-0530
British Airways Airbus A380
Seat 2A
Being as this was a
flash sale, I was prepared for dramas at check in. Happily there were none
As predicted, check in instructed me to go to the SLOW lounge due to ongoing BA lounge refurbishment
Once again, I forgot to take any photos of the lounge
It was pretty well packed but I was able to find a seat. A highly energetic small child was intent on exploring
The food spread was phenomenal though- especially the tomato and goats cheese tart and the sliders
I wandered off to the gate not long after the first boarding announcement as I was keen to have a bit of a poke around the cabin before many people were on board
I know this will sound like a stupid comment but I haven't heard a regional British accent for a looooooooooong time and was thus quite taken aback by the range on display at the boarding door
I was escorted to my seat (not that it was hard to find) and settled myself in
Initially I put my carry on in the overhead, then I remembered some advice on here to make use of the wardrobe instead
The delightful Emma, who I believe was from either Scotland or possibly Northern Ireland (I know, I know), was the crew member for my side of the cabin and very kindly brought me a large champagne, PJs and amenity kit. Caramelised nuts and a hot towel
on a plate, which would please the SQ forum
I was well chuffed to have offered small pyjamas which actually fit beautifully (QANTAS TAKE NOTE!!)
As the nuts were being enjoyed, an announcement was made seemingly to all cabins, repeated a couple of times, that there was a customer on board with a severe nut allergy and could all passengers refrain from eating nuts, nuts would not be served etc etc. Not sure what that was all about but no one came and took the nuts away so perhaps they were down the back or upstairs
At this point the large group with the adventurous small child from the lounge came on board and into the F cabin
There was evidently, immediately an issue with the seat assignments, not close enough together or possibly hoping for the centre pairs instead of the individual side seats
Conscious that I was the
imposter flash sale customer in this cabin, I of course let the CSM know I was happy to move if it would help in any way- apparently my seat wasn't one of the wanted ones
The doors were closed at this point and we were more or less ready to push back
Unfortunately the adventurous small child (in 2E) was not impressed with the concept of being strapped onto a family members lap, and there was a lot of squirming and general dissent expressed
I was so impressed with how proactive and resourceful the crew were, and the CSM (CSD?), the lovely Barry, was eventually able to placate him with some kind of BA themed "Where's Wally?" type thing.
However, he was of course much happier after take off when the seat belt signs went off and he was unleashed to explore again
Barry came by to ask if I would like some slippers, and if there was anything else he could help me with? I asked if BA still did flight deck visits for kids, and when I was told yes asked if there was an age limit! Not only did he offer to make arrangements but also made sure the crew would fill in a Skyflyers log book for me (better late than never!!)
My policy of no PJs below 10000ft remaining active, I retired to the bathrooms to change
On return I scrolled through the IFE choices, but there wasn't really anything that inspired me. I then took a look at the menu
I also had a bit of a play around with the seat- controversial opinion I know but I didn't find the controls (especially the weird uni-knob thing) particularly intuitive, and while I can get comfortable in more or less any seat I wasn't able to manipulate it into my preferred barely reclined but with legs elevated position. This I am happy to admit is probably a user error thing...
I of course had selected a first and second choice for both course
In hindsight I should have gone with my second choice for both but I suppose hindsight is always 20:20
I started with the canapes,
Chakalaka prawn with ginger, coriander, parsley and peppers; mixed marinated olives; and kudu carpaccio with sweet piquante pepper
Olives are always wasted on me but the rest was good
For my starter, I opted for the
rooibos tea salmon with pickled beetroot and horseradish creme fraiche (my second choice was the beef biltong, pea and mint salad)
The salmon was nice enough although the rooibos flavour was at best subtle, so subtle you could almost describe it as "absent". I didn't feel the beetroot complemented the flavour and the horseradish creme fraiche was quite heavy
If anyone has any reviews of the salad it might help with my FOMO
To follow, despite my low expectations of steaks on a plane, I went for the
pan seared fillet of beef, with bois boudran sauce and cocktail tomato
This was served with a fairly arbitrary assortment of sides in a bowl- namely
potato au gratin, sautéed baby marrow squash and grilled pattypan squash, and sautéed red onion with herbs (I'm not sure why but I had it in my mind that the sides would be selected from the choices perhaps at seat side?).
Positives here
The sauce was a-maz-ing- probably the best part of the dish
The potato au gratin was also very delicious
Negatives
As predicted, the beef was overcooked to the point of almost being inedible
The various squash had not weathered well are were pretty soggy
I'm not sure that the red onion added much
If BA are going to serve boot leather in lieu of steak, they should perhaps consider at least supplying a steak knife to make it easier to cut
(my second choice was the Steamed Kingklip which perhaps would have been a better option)
I skipped the dessert and cheese in the interest of getting more sleep
When I returned from the bathroom, Emma had already made the bed up
I had some problems settling initially, primarily (exclusively) because "the adventurous small child" spent a lot of time trying to wake me up, calling me mummy, asking me if I was his mummy, and at one point getting into bed with me...
Emma and Barry did a great job trying to keep him under control but I can't say I was too impressed with the parents at this point!!
Happily once he was somehow subdued, I managed to get a decent chunk of sleep
On waking, I took myself to the bathroom again for a freshen up
On returning the my breakfast was waiting as requested- pot of tea and energising smoothie of vanilla and banana
The smoothie was not desperately exciting and with hindsight I probably should have gone for the cut fruit as well but...I did really love the weighty hand feel of the cut glass tumbler, and the branding and pattern of the crockery was just gorgeous
We landed 20 minutes ahead of schedule, and the views of sunrise at Heathrow were quite gorgeous. Emma came by just before landing to do the standard “thanks for flying with us”, adding “thanks for being so lovely” (awww!)
Super Barry (the legend, the man) came good on his promise of avgeek time and the lovely Captain Collins and his crew were very tolerant of my stupid questions despite the early hour
Here the first class experience ended and I found my way via the T5 corridors to the amazing transfer bus toward terminal 3...