March 11, 2008
London – Bangkok
British Airways First Class
Boeing 747-400 G-BNLW
The flight departures board showed BA9 to Bangkok and Sydney had been delayed until 10:30pm. On a positive note, this allowed that much more time to enjoy a leisurely shower at the Elemis Spa, located downstairs from the Concorde Room. This I did, reveling in the multiple torrents from the fabulous Pharo-Hansrohe Hydrotherapy Shower. Later, I retired to the Concorde Room to savor a glass of Johnny Walker Blue Label while using the internet terminal to check on the progress of the
Iditarod dog sled race back home in Alaska.
Once the premier lounge at Heathrow, the Concorde Room is beginning to show its age. The furniture looks well used and even the staff seemed a bit… tired. Although it is still a very nice lounge, I’ll look forward to visiting
BA’s lounges including the new Concorde Room at the new Terminal 5 next month.
Down at gate 2, an orderly crowd waited patiently for boarding to be announced. When that finally happened at 10:30pm, I wasted no time in making my way down the labyrinthine jetway to the waiting 747-400, a sixteen year old bird registered G-BNLW. This time I was greeted at the door and immediately handed off to another flight attendant who escorted me to my seat at 1K.
Despite its relatively advanced age, this aircraft had been configured with BA’s new generation Club World seating. The arrangement is interesting to say the least, with eight across World Traveller Plus seating located immediately behind First Class, followed by Club World and then World Traveller or Economy Class. Of course, Club World is also available on the upper deck. It’s an unusual layout and were I travelling in Club World I’d endeavor to get a seat upstairs where it would certainly be quieter and likely quite a bit less crowded around the lavs and galley.
But enough of the drawbacks faced by those travelling in Club World. Up in First Class the Champagne was flowing and the mood was light and relaxed as I hung my jacket and settled in for the long flight ahead. Interestingly, seats 1A and K are normally held for BA Executive Club elites along with other garden variety VIPs and are not released to the general public until just a day or so before departure. I’ve been fortunate to procure these seats on a number of occasions. They offer more privacy than any other First Class seat and, given the extreme curvature of the forward cabin, offer three windows that allow for a more forward view than that attainable anywhere else on the airplane.
Following the usual preflight formalities, I sat down and checked out the electronic seat controls to ensure that they were in proper working order. With nearly nineteen hours of flying to look forward to on this aircraft, now rather than somewhere over Turkey is the time to find any potential problems. The seat offers a variety of adjustable functions ranging from lumbar support to leg rest to full recline. Push buttons controlled two different lights above my seat, while a third cable mounted light snaked out from the seatback behind my right shoulder. The TV and video controls were in the armrest beside me and the unit used for those controls doubles as a telephone. Eh? Wot’s this? I‘ve no bloody overhead lights! A member of the crew stopped by to inform me that someone was working on rebooting the system to repair the lights. As things turned out however, they never were able to fix my lights and so it was promised that someone would look into it once we’d reached Bangkok. In the meantime, the offer was made to see if anyone who’d planned on sleeping most of the trip might be interested in switching seats with me. No thanks, said I. I’ll tough it out until Bangkok.
I’ve read in other reports where passengers have gotten quite upset at what I would consider trivial little problems like this. I mean, it’s a couple of lights. It’s not as if the seat wouldn’t recline. Yeah, yeah – I know that thousands of dollars or miles have been spent for the privilege of First Class travel and that everything should work. From my experience with BA and over 120 other airlines, the vast majority of the time everything does work but sometimes something doesn’t. It’s not a perfect world we live in. In this case a proper fix may well have involved calling in maintenance, further delaying this already delayed flight and possibly inconveniencing some of its nearly 250 passengers. I still had my cable light and overall I felt that the cabin crew did all that they reasonably could to remedy the situation. So, overall, I didn’t feel that put out. Certainly nothing that couldn’t be assuaged with another couple of glasses of Chablis.
So - soon after takeoff, I reclined my seat an enjoyed a second glass of the deliciously chilled Grand Cru Bougros Chablis whilst munching on a plate of tasty canapés and perusing the menu for tonight’s flight.
Flight time to Bangkok was announced at ten hours and twenty-seven minutes so there’ll be plenty of time to enjoy a leisurely dinner and maybe take in a movie afterwards. Following are the wine listings and the dinner service between London and Bangkok. What would you select?
WINE LIST
Champagne
Lanson Noble Cuvée Blanc de Blancs 1999
White Wines
Chablis Grand Cru Bougros 2006, Domaine William Fevre
Soave Classico Vigneti di Foscarino 2006, Azienda Agricola Inama
Grossett Piccadilly Chardonnay 2005, Adelaide Hills
Red Wines
Château Batailley 1996, Grand Cru Classé Pauillac
Babaresco 2005, Bruno Roca
Mitchelton Print Shiraz 1999, Victoria
Dessert Wines
Saussignac Cuvée Flavie, Chateau des Eyssards 2005
Warre’s 1988 Colheita Port
Spirits, Digestifs and Liqueurs
We offer a complete range of classic and timeless spirits, digestifs and liqueurs featuring:
Gonzalez Byass Sherries
Smirnoff Black Label Vodka
Tanqueray No. Ten Gin
Johnny Walker Blue Label Scotch Whiskey
The Glenlivet 18-year-old Single Malt Whiskey
Woodford Reserve Kentucky Whiskey
Camus XO Cognac
* * * * * * * * *
DINNER
STARTERS
Lobster, mango and pink grapefruit salad with honey and coriander dressing
Roast tomato and vegetable frittata with rocket leaves, basil and tomato dressing
White bean and oregano soup with truffle oil and fresh herb croutons
Fresh salad leaves with your choice of Roquefort cheese and pine nut dressing or spiced lemon and soy dressing
MAIN COURSE
Grilled Filet of Beef
With grilled marinated courgettes, fois gras crouton and Anna potatoes
Catch of The Day
Please ask your crew for details of today’s fresh fish selection served with your choice of watercress sauce or red pepper citrus coulis, seasonal vegetables and parsley potatoes
Vineet Bhatia’s Green Masala Chicken
With green pea and cumin rice with stir-fried asparagus and enoki mushrooms
Main Course Greek Salad
With herb dressing
DESSERT
Michel Roux’s blancmange with roast pineapple
Warm treacle tart with vanilla ice cream
CHEESE PLATE
Montgomery Cheddar ~
An award winning straw-coloured unpasteurized cheese that is rich in flavor with a hint of fruit; this variety is made from the legendary Jersey cow’s milk and is a British Airways exclusive
Cropwell Organic Stilton ~
Produced by the award-winning Cropwell Bishop Creamery, this is a well balanced and creamy blue Stilton made from pasteurized milk
Tornegus ~
This semi-hard unpasteurized cheese is made from cow’s milk and herbs
SNACKS
Warm olive oil bread filled with mesquite chicken and tomato relish
Penne pasta with your choice of char-grilled red pepper sauce or porcini mushroom and Parmesan cheese sauce served with garlic herb croute
Duchy of Cornwall biscuits
A selection of cheese and fruit
BEVERAGES
Twinings Teas ~
Traditional English Breakfast, Darjeeling, Earl Grey or Pure Green
Twinings Fruit and Herb Infusions ~
Pure Chamomile, Pure Peppermint, Lemon and Ginger or Blackcurrant, Ginseng and Vanilla
Coffee ~
Freshly roasted and ground, decaffeinated, espresso or cappuccino
Interestingly, despite this flight passing through the Thai capital city of Bangkok enroute to Sydney, there were no dishes from BA’s Thai food consultants Paisarn Cheewinsiriwat or Chiva Som Spa. Oh well – there were plenty of other appealing selections and I had no problem putting together an enticing assortment of appetizer, soup and main course that would be worthy of positive review at most any ground based restaurant.
The lobster, mango and pink grapefruit salad may well be the finest appetizer I’ve ever been served on an airplane. It’s presentation was every bit as attractive as its flavor and the portion of lobster included was surprisingly generous.
White bean and oregano soup with truffle oil and fresh herb croutons… I must say the descriptive title rolls rather nicely off the tongue, so much so that it sounds quite delicious just saying it. As expected, this soup was very tasty indeed. My only regret is that it won’t be available on the flight between Bangkok and Sydney.
The catch of the day was described simply as Cod, so I elected to go with the more exotic sounding
Green Masala Chicken from Vineet Bhatia. I’ve enjoyed Chef Bhatia’s creations on a number of other British Airways flights and I’m pleased to inform that tonight’s dish did nothing to detract from my appreciation of Vineet Bhatia’s culinary prowess. The chicken was more flavorful than spicy and yet piquant enough to take pause. The seasoned rice and peas made for a delicious accompaniment and the asparagus – well, there’s no bad way to prepare asparagus in my book.
Hats off to the crew as well for the attractive presentation of all courses and the attentive service throughout. Michel Roux’s blancmange with roast pineapple brought this repast to a delicious conclusion, after which I enjoyed a glass of port with an after dinner chocolate.
I’ve eaten hundreds of First Class meals and this meal was as fine as they come. Well done, BA!
Although I’d intended to check out one of the fifty or so movies on BA’s new AVOD inflight entertainment system, I could tell even before the meal service started that I needed sleep more than entertainment. I’d slept maybe five hours on the flight into London and, following a busy afternoon around Heathrow along with a couple more beers, a scotch and the wine onboard, it’s a wonder I wasn’t in somewhat worse shape. Truth be known, I felt quite sober but otherwise tired. So, off to bed went I.
Wow! I slept really well this time. When I awoke, we were over Bangladesh and there were only about two hours left in the flight. I had hoped to be up a bit earlier so that I might put in some serious writing on this trip report. Alas, breakfast was less than an hour away. Not that I’m complaining, mind you. The smells and sounds coming from the galley promised a delicious welcome to the new day. As I freshened up in the lavatory and checked out the view outside, it was clear to see that far from being new, the day in this part of the world was more than half way over. Local time was approaching 4:00pm. That’s just weird! Regardless of the situation, I’ve never liked waking up after noon. I feel like I’ve missed half the day – the best part of the day. Oh well – breakfast was soon to be served and it sure smelled good. Back at my seat I savored a smoothie and a cup of coffee while perusing this afternoon’s breakfast selections:
BREAKFAST
STARTERS
Chilled fruit juice
An energizing fruit smoothie
A selection of yogurts
A selection of cereals
Fresh seasonal fruit plate
BAKERY
A wide selection of breakfast pastries and rolls
MAIN COURSE
Full English Breakfast
Scrambled eggs, grilled bacon, pork sausages, sautéed mushrooms, grilled tomato and hash brown potatoes
Sharp Cheese Frittata
Topped with Mornay sauce
Buttermilk and Sultana Pancakes
with maple syrup or blueberry compote
Hmm... which is higher in cholesterol… the Full English Breakfast or the Sharp Cheese Frittata topped with Mornay sauce? Who cares? I'm in First Class! It’s true – I don’t get to enjoy service like this on a regular basis, so I figured what the hell – go for it! When the time came to place my order, I said “I’ll have the Full English Breakfast with a fruit plate starter and a Danish.”
My fruit plate was everything a fruit plate ought to be. A nice variety of colorful fruit tastefully arranged. It was accompanied by a visit from the bread basket and I selected both a croissant as well as a tasty almond Danish.
As for the full English breakfast – what can I say? It’s got it all in both abundance and flavor. I particularly enjoyed the hash brown potatoes which seemed quite a bit less greasy than previous versions I’ve been served on BA. And the toast! How come American and United can’t serve toast with their breakfasts?
In any event, I enjoyed every last bite of this meal and took a moment afterwards to express my appreciation to the flight attendants for their excellent service and attention to detail. With the exception of the non-functioning overhead lights, this flight was just about perfect. Once again, Well Done, BA!
We landed in Bangkok at 6:20pm local time, with departure to Sydney re-scheduled for 8:00pm. The new departure time, two and a half hours later than our originally scheduled 5:30pm departure, meant that I would very likely miss my connecting flight between Sydney and Launceston. I wasn’t overly concerned. There are plenty of connections available via Melbourne and besides, I’d purchased the $9.00 insurance option in anticipation of just such an event.