I'd chosen the rear bulkhead window seat as it is the only seat in business class that doesn't require climbing over anyone, or have someone climb over you, or have crew passing food & drink over you.
It is the new business seat and the configuration is "mid-J" - meaning premium economy deplanes before first and business class when door 2L is used
I notice the tray table has a different latch system (not as good) to my previous club world seat.
There are a number of problems with my seat, but due to the flight being totally full I have to just sit and take it. A pane on the privacy screen is broken, so no privacy. The footrest isn't working properly and only goes down into z-mode position, not flat. The lamp isn't working. The tray table was filthy and looked like it hadn't been cleaned in months.
A pre-departure drink of water, juice or champagne. No seconds offered
Doors closed on time. The safety video wasn't working so we got a manual briefing. Our taxi was slow with a 15 minute wait at one point. The rain had returned. Shortly after take off I got a view of Fort Lauderdale in between the rain clouds, with water sheeting off the wing at speed outside my window.
The in flight entertainment system crashed for most of the aircraft immediately. By the time it was rebooted it was nearly an hour into the flight. Then compulsory videos for wellbeing, explaining the AVOD system, and in club world (ie business class) explaining the new seat. Now 75 minutes after takeoff and I get to start the IFE. Nope. Crashed again. 2 more reboots of my seat (and many others). At 2 hours into the flight the purser comes by and apologised for the hassles. He made one more try at rebooting my seat. I see the first 5 minutes of a movie before it once again crashes.
After 2 1/2 hours of the flight I give up on seeing any IFE.
Grrr - so not only do I not have a light to read by (once cabin lights are dimmed after dinner) but no IFE either. Great
Unfortunately I'm wide awake having had such a good sleep the night before.
Bored, bored, bored.
Dinner is served. The entree choice is described as half lobster, but if it is really half a lobster it is the smallest I have seen (and would certainly be too small to catch in New Zealand). Main course was also small. No drink refills offered. My tray was taken without being asked if I want dessert or coffee.
Eventually I did fall asleep and got an hour or so of sleep before being woken for a very small breakfast. Lucky I wasn't hungry - the food offered on this 6 1/2 hour flight is less than I'd get on a 3 hour trans-tasman flight
By now I'm regretting choosing British Airways over American Airlines for this flight. Unlike BA Executive Club and AAdvantage members who have mile earning considerations, I could have chosen either. There was availability on both flights at time of booking and the flight timings are within 10 minutes of each other. They both use the same terminals at MIA and at LHR so no difference in my onward connections. I chose BA expecting a better hard product and reasonable service. More fool me.
We arrived slightly early, and as such the airbridge wasn't ready. With so many flights arriving around 6am it was annoying to be standing in the aisle waiting and seeing lots of other widebodies pull up at other gates, knowing the queues are getting longer with every passing minute. After some 15 minutes wait the doors are finally opened. As I mentioned before, premium economy passengers are let out first, then first class, then business class. As I hop onto the airbridge someone is berating the ground staff for the delay in opening door and complaining that the queues will now be bad. Hmmm - not much you can do about it now and by wasting time you are even further back in the queue.
We had a gate right at the end of the furthest pier so a long walk to transfers. I power walk past a couple of hundred passengers en route. Then a wait for the transfer bus to T4. By the time the first buses arrive at 0630 there are huge queues for both T4 and T1/2 (separate buses), and only some of the waiting passengers make it onto the first bus. There was a reason for my walking very fast.
At T4 I get stopped before security and asked about liquids despite my holding the baggy already. Then the bouncer for fast track was reluctant to let me in
Security was slow despite the short queue in fast track (non fast-track queue was quite long but not too bad). Then over to the lounge. Once again the bouncer wants me to use the business class lounge instead of the first class I am entitled to. It is a pathetic joke
- in dozens of times flying one world through LHR as a one world emerald status passenger flying in economy or business class, I am yet to be directed to the first class lounge without prompting. There is a queue for the shower - estimated at one hour. So with pager in hand I first head to the first class lounge to try to check in for onward flights (to no avail) and then hop on the computers to catch up on messages and post some of this report.