I wasn't originally planning to post this portion of my fourth trip out to Australia via British Airways. Somehow, the SFO-LHR portion seemed enough, especially since I've now described the trip three times previously. Still, once I'd finally written it up, I figured why the heck not post it seeing as there would appear to be six - maybe even seven or more readers still out there who enjoy what I would call a "Flight Report" as opposed to a Trip Report.

Now, I could just append this to my Laramie to London report, but as the report's title indicates it ends in London, I doubt anyone would even know it was now available for public consumption. So, here it is... the rest of the story.





30 December, 2004
London to Singapore
British Airways First Class * Dinner - Breakfast
747-400 G-BNLR Seat 3K
915p-550p Flight time: 12:19

The Concorde Room provides everything one could reasonably ask for during an extended airport layover – a shower, a massage, a quiet corner in which to sleep, a menu of complimentary soups, salads and sandwiches, free beer, lots of reading material and two internet equipped computer terminals. Those requiring further stimulation can step out into Terminal Four and wander amongst the wide variety of shops and restaurants.

Down at Gate 22, hordes of passengers pushed towards the podium at the entryway while others stood patiently in line. As the gate agents implored Economy passengers to step back from the First and Club World counter, I quickly slipped in, presented my passport and was on my way down the jetway moments later. Ah… ‘tis indeed a treat to fly in BA’s First Class!

The First Class cabin looked to be completely full by the time I was led to my seat. Moments later, I was relieved of my jacket and presented with a welcoming glass of Shiraz. Truth be known, when queried as to my choice of pre-flight beverages, I asked for a glass of red wine. The lovely Flight Attendant serving my side – Dianne – soon returned with a menu opened to the Wine List from which I made my selection. What would you choose?


WINE LIST

CHAMPAGNE

Laurent Perrier Grand Siecle Champagne
A stunning Champagne with a classic toasty aroma and creamy, fresh lemon flavours – the finish is long and stylish

WHITE WINES

Chassagne-Montrachet 2002, Marie-Louise Parisot
The wines of Chassagne have a mineral complexity, not always apparent in other appellations, that combines well with the richness and depth of great Burgundy

Cullen Margaret River Sémillon Sauvignon Blanc 2003
The beautifully fresh and aromatic blend of Sémillon and Sauvignon Blanc grapes has become the hallmark of the Margaret River region of West Australia – and a benchmark for the world!

Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay 2001
Recently described in Wine Spectator magazine as “the greatest white wine Australia has ever produced,” this wine is utterly seamless, harmonious and seductive with a finish that just goes on and on

RED WINES

Domaine de Chevalier 1995, Grand Cru Classé, Graves
A deep garnet colour and a fine, soft fruit bouquet lead into an all enveloping, mouth filling black fruit flavour or great length and power

Chateauneuf-du-Pape 2001, Domaine du Pére Pape
You can almost taste the warmth of the southern Rhone Valley in this ripe, full-bodied, luscious and mouth filling red wine

Heartland Director’s Cut Shiraz 2001, Limestone Coast
This is an intense, black Shiraz with a minty white pepper aroma and chocolate and blackberry flavours


DESSERT WINES

Opitz Goldackerl Trockenbeerenauslese 2002, Austria
Austria makes some of the finest sweet wines in the world. The effervescent Willi Opitz, from his tiny vineyards in Illmitz near the Hungarian border, produces some of the very best in the country

Warre’s 1988 Colheita Port
Complex, sweet nutty flavours offer an admirable after dinner glass





The Shiraz was an excellent choice – truly amongst the finest examples I can remember ever drinking. Unfortunately, the tasty Macadamia nuts served on my earlier flight had been replaced by cashews ~ very tasty but not quite in the same league as the regal Macadamia.

Hot towels were presented and collected, the doors were closed, the safety video dispensed with and we began our taxi out to the runway. After a 38-second take off roll, we climbed into the night sky above London, banked gently to starboard and began the long climb up to our initial cruising altitude of 35,000 feet. Unfortunately, the SkyMap, usually my favorite part of the entertainment options, was inoperable for tonight’s flight. That’s a real shame because the London to Singapore route is one of the more exotic in terms of lands flown over. Eastern Europe, Russia, the Ukraine, the Black Sea, Afghanistan, Central India, Burma and the Malay Peninsula – it’s always entertaining to know exactly which of these locales you’re flying over, much less at what altitude and speed your flight is progressing.

For those desiring cinematic rather than geographic entertainment, British Airways offers a nice variety of movies, television shows and documentaries available to all classes via its plane wide IFE system. While this system offers plenty to entertain, compared to the state of the art AVOD or Audio Video on Demand systems offered by airlines like Singapore and Cathay, BA’s IFE is really rather basic and outdated.

In addition to the entertainment offerings described above, BA’s First Class passengers are offered an additional twenty-five movies, available in mini-cassette format that can be inserted into a player located in the side of the each suite. These additional First Class movie selections are described in a stylish magazine style format that I perused with some interest. After all, on a twelve and a half hour flight, there’d be more than enough time for a movie – or two.

First however, it was time to peruse the First Class dinner menu, presented with a plate of canapés and another glass of that spectacular Shiraz.


London to Singapore

DINNER


STARTERS

Ballottine of Salmon with Herb Crème Fraiche

Glazed Pecorino Cheese and Potato Tart with Parsley and Truffle Oil dressing

Spicy Pumpkin Soup with Crème Fraiche

Fresh Salad leaves with your choice of Pommery Mustard or Lemon and Herb Dressing


MAIN COURSES

Roast Best End of Lamb with Haricot Bean Casserole and Vegetable Jus

Halibut with Red Pepper and Citrus Coulis

Chicken Tikka Masala

Salad of Sticky Ginger Chicken and Spicy Noodles with Asian Dressing


SNACKS

Grilled Fillet of Beef Sandwich with Red Onion Marmalade

Spicy Pumpkin Soup with Crème Fraiche and a Side Salad

Fresh Pasta with your choice of Creamy Rocket, Basil and Pesto Sauce or Arrabbiata Sauce

Duchy of Cornwall Biscuits

A Selection of Cheese and Fruit


DESSERT AND CHEESE

Warm Apple and Blackberry Pie with Vanilla Ice Cream

Lemon Tart with a Quenelle of Clotted Cream and Mascarpone

Cheese Plate featuring –

English Stilton – Stilton is an English, cow’s milk, semi-hard, Blue, unpressed cheese with a natural brushed rind

Fountains Gold – A semi-hard cheese made from Jersey cow’s milk

Brie – This soft cow’s milk cheese is one of the world’s most popular cheeses

A Basket of Fresh Fruit

Chocolates




I didn’t sleep all that well on the flight between San Francisco and London and I couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps there were some correlation between eating red meat so soon before bedtime and then trying to enjoy a quality sleep. This could be completely baseless, I know, but I have noticed that when I do eat heavier meats like steak or lamb they initially seem to sit in my stomach like a lead weight. No problem perhaps if you’re looking to be up another four or five hours after dinner, but for me at least it might perhaps be better to go with a lighter dish on these late night departures. As such, I requested the Halibut with Red Pepper and Citrus Coulis, to be preceded by the Salmon appetizer and a fresh salad. I should imagine a white wine would go much better with a light fish like Halibut, but having now imbibed two glasses of that Shiraz, I decided to stick with the red regardless.

Well I must say that the Halibut was just wonderful – moist and succulent with a lightly tangy citrus topping. Oddly, it was presented atop potatoes rather than rice, but overall a very nice entrée selection. BA has a culinary council made up of five chefs whose entrée creations are often highlighted in the menu. Although tonight’s menu didn’t credit any of them, if I had to guess, the halibut was likely submitted by Vineet Bhatia. He seems to specialize in creating light and zesty entrée choices and tonight’s halibut certainly met that description. Delicious!

I passed on the cheese and port service, but did go with a slice of the apple and blackberry pie. It was served warm with a tiny scoop of vanilla ice cream and was a good, though fairly basic dessert.

After dinner, I sipped from a cup of BA’s surprisingly good decaffeinated coffee while watching the first cassette of the movie Casino – one of my favorites with DeNiro, Stone, Pesci et al. Four hours into the flight, I lowered my seat, spread out my duvet and called it a night. I slept somewhat better than I did on my earlier flight though I did have to get up in the middle of the night and request that the heat please be lowered a bit.

After about five and a half hours of sleep, I awoke, checked my watch and decided to get up. Even though I could’ve easily slept more, we were only three hours away from landing in Singapore where, following a short layover, we’d soon be on our way to Melbourne. That flight is a comparatively short six and a half hours in length and it was important to get some more sleep before the scheduled 5:15am arrival. This was especially true in this instance since I’d be rendezvousing with a couple of friends from Alaska during my long layover in Melbourne.

People often mention how arduous this journey from London to Singapore is, but from my First Class perspective it just flies by – quite literally as the case may be. Consider ~ I get on the plane, have a nice dinner, read or watch a movie, sleep awhile, put in a little work on the laptop, have a nice breakfast and voila! We’re on final approach to Changi. Twelve hours gone just like that. Jeez, I work a twelve-hour shift during the summer months anyway. It’s really no big deal. I’ve done longer flights in Economy where the trick is to sleep as much as possible and otherwise bring plenty of things to keep yourself entertained.

With the breakfast service still an hour and a half away, I decided to try a small bowl of the spicy pumpkin soup – hold the side salad please – and then put in a bit of work on this flight report. I also made a stop in the lavatory, as much to check out the bright sunny day outside as to change and utilize the facilities. Beneath us was a stark barren landscape divided by a large serpentine river. We had to be past India by now so I presumed this was Burma. I sure do miss that SkyMap!

Here’s the breakfast menu. You’ll note the additional choices compared to the SFO-LHR service. I can only assume that this is to maintain a competitive balance with Singapore Airlines, generally regarded as offering the finest inflight service in the world.


BREAKFAST


STARTERS

Chilled Fruit Juice

An Energizing Fruit Smoothie

A Selection of Fruit, Plain Yogurts and Cereals

Fresh Seasonal Fruit Plate


BAKERY

A wide selection of Breakfast Pastries and Rolls


MAIN COURSE

Scrambled Eggs, Grilled bacon, Pork Sausage, Sautéed Mushrooms, Grilled Tomato and Hashed Brown Potatoes

Sharp Cheese Fritatta with Mornay Sauce

Brioche French Toast with Cinnamon Butter and Apple Compote




Hmmm… let’s go with the fruit plate and I’ll have a small serving of that cheese fritatta, please. I reckon I’ll check out the healthy muesli offerings tomorrow morning (which, given our eastbound heading into the later time zones, will come just about ten hours from now).

There’s just no such thing as a bad fruit plate. Even on the airlines. They’re all excellent! I really could just eat a couple of those and be done with it but it’s always good to get a few carbs in the morning for that initial energy boost. Eggs with cheese are hardly the healthiest way to accomplish this, but they sure were tasty. Tomorrow, it’s muesli for sure!

We landed at 5:45pm on a typically hot and muggy afternoon in Singapore. The temperature was 28 degrees and you could just see the humidity suspended in the air. We parked most conveniently at Gate C-1 and I wasted little time in hurrying up to the air-conditioned splendor of the First Class Lounge, operated jointly by BA and Qantas.

Singapore acts as a mini-hub for Qantas, with connections to points all over Australia as well as Europe. As such, this lounge is usually quite busy when I’ve used it, especially since all of BA’s flights through SIN are codeshared with Qantas. Although I use the term splendor in reference to the blessed air conditioning, this lounge is also quite a pleasant place to while away and hour or two between flights. In addition to free beer, it also offers a nice food island stocked with soup, finger sandwiches and a regional dish. Today’s offering was seafood fried rice with Thai fish balls.

There were also plenty of up to date periodicals in addition to four Internet capable computer terminals along the back wall. I checked my email and looked over some of the college bowl scores, then headed off for a quick shower. As it turned out, I needn’t have hurried as a hydraulic seal leak had been discovered on one of the engines powering G-BNLR, and so our departure time was delayed by two hours. When this bit of news was first announced, I heard a couple cries of anguish from somewhere in the lounge. Unless you’ve an early morning connection, who’d want to arrive in Melbourne much less anywhere else at 5:00am? On an equally positive note, I figured that with the later departure, I’d be that much more ready for some more sleep as well.