jdsworld

I recently had my first First, flying to JFK on 30/Aug, returning to London on 7/Sept. Here are some of my thoughts, some of them may be be a little odd to frequent First flyers but as I’ve mentioned before, I have relatively little premium cabin experience. I think I’m going into too much detail here, so I apologise in advance for being verbose.

LHR-JFK

First Wing and CCR

I had intended to arrive for BA115 with more than three hours to spare to make the most of the First Wing, but dawdling with my packing combined with some delays on the Piccadilly line meant I arrived just before midday for the 2:30pm departure.

T5 itself was quiet, so I would have had plenty time even if I was in WT but I was delighted to step into the First Wing. There was no queue at check-in, so went straight to a desk, with a friendly lady taking my bag. Quite a change from my last BA flight (in ET) when a BA dragon at the bag drop entrance effectively told me I wouldn’t be allowed on the plane if I didn’t use the self tag bag drop. At the entrance to security, my boarding pass was checked by a lady who gave me lots of advice about the lounges. There was no queue at security, and I loved how unlike Virgin’s Upper Wing you enter the lounge straight after security, no dumping of the line into duty-free.

I entered the Concorde Room at about 12:10pm and went to get breakfast. All the staff at the dining area were friendly and when I was handed a lunch menu I asked could I have breakfast instead and was told this was no problem. I had a really good Eggs Benedict.

I needed the bathroom after that, and after having to queue for a few minutes for one was really disappointed by the state of it, it was horrible. Not very ‘First.’

After that, I had a glass of champagne and took a paper to read on the Terrace. Seating was in short supply but I was able to find a seat, and soon after some people asked if they could share the sofa with me. As an aside, I didn’t like the champagne at all, which I didn’t expect as I’d heard such wonderful things about the LPGS.

I had a spa appointment soon after, definitely the low point of the visit. The staff weren’t that friendly and I didn’t feel particularly refreshed after my treatment. A waste of time (as another first in First review recently said), and I probably wouldn’t do it on subsequent visits. After that, I went back to the CCR to sit on the Terrace until my gate was announced.

Spa treatment aside, I really loved the peace and quiet of the CCR, but I may just have been lucky with who else was in there.

Once the gate was called, I headed out but was a little baffled by what I thought was a lack of signage of the transit for T5B.

For the first time, I used the passageways (thanks to the excellent guide on here), and found it much better than the transit, and it barely took five minutes (though I am a fast walker).

Flight

There was certainly nothing premium about the scrum at the gate. But boarded as soon as group 1 was called. As I mentioned in a previous post, it’s been a dream to fly in the nose of the 747 and I managed to secure 1K 72 hours out (and I wasn’t bumped as I had feared).

I was one of the first to board and the CSL walked me to my seat. I had a little chat with her and mentioned it was my first First. I then asked for a glass of champagne and some water, which she promptly bought to me, and she managed to spill the water over me, saying jokingly “this is how we treat First passengers.” I can’t say I found it funny, but didn’t complain as it was just water. I did overhear her say to a colleague how embarrassed she was spilling water on me. The champagne was really nice and when I asked if it was LPGS she said it was and I mentioned I had it in the CCR and it wasn’t nice at all. She suggested maybe it wasn’t chilled enough in the CCR. While we were waiting to push back, she took my meal order, and while she advised me that I could eat when I wanted, I was definitely encouraged to eat sooner as opposed to later. When she took my order, she mentioned I had pre-ordered a meal but could order something else instead but I ‘should keep in mind I had preordered the chicken.” She repeated again that I could order whatever I liked, but chicken was preloaded for me. I took the hint and stayed with my pre-order. The plane looked and felt old, and my seat wasn’t that clean, in fact I noticed some dried snot on the ‘wing’ of the seat (by the headrest).

The cabin appeared to have just two empty seats.

Shortly after take-off, the CSD came over and introduced herself and had a brief chat with me. She also referred to the old age of the plane.

The food was good, I definitely enjoyed it, but it did feel rushed, and my dinner plate was hardly cleared when dessert was in front of me.

After the meal, I went to watch on IFE but it was really poor quality, both in terms of picture quality and selection. I went to watch two episodes of a comedy but it froze every time I tried to watch the second episode. So I just listened to some podcasts I downloaded.

I didn’t see much of the cabin crew after that, I appreciate in the nose of a 747 they won’t be walking through the cabin but I didn’t really notice any crew presence at all, bar a crew member offering me a Magnum after a few hours.

I have a knee injury at the moment, and my physio advised me to get up and walk around as much as I could. So I took a stroll from nose to tail (I noticed the WT Plus was behind First, which I didn’t expect) and was rather surprised to find the CSL in First working the economy cabin. She greeted me with a “what are you doing here?” I said I was about to ask the same! She said she works the other cabins when crew are on break. On my way back to First, I had a chat with a crew member working in the galley. I mentioned I was dreading the immigration queue in JFK but she assured me that as a First passenger I’d be among the first off.

Afternoon tea was served about 90 minutes later, then we prepared for landing in JFK. On landing we had a very long drawn-out taxi to the gate (about 30 minutes), which the flight deck apologised for.

Once at the gate, the airbridge was brought to door 2, which meant that WT Plus were disembarking first. I don’t want to sound stuck-up or entitled, but I felt a bit let-down by this. When i reached the door, the CSD saw me and exclaimed “oh, we didn’t let First off first!” Not much could be done by then as WT Plus were mainly off and First had a clear run to the door. I was really annoyed as I was held up on the walk to immigration by a family travelling in WT Plus who took up the entire width of the corridor and moved very slowly. I really didn’t feel this was good enough that First weren’t first off.

At baggage claim, I was waiting for my bags for an eternity, so the point I was worrying they hadn’t made it. Plenty of non-priority tagged bags were off long before mine. Eventually they came, but that along with the slow disembarkation made me feel quite disappointed and let-down.

JFK-LHR

Check-in and CCR

My holiday passed too quickly, and departure day on Friday arrived. When I last flew from JFK (T4) in 2016, my cab was caught in the legendary JFK traffic and I cut it very fine. So this time, I made my own way via the E line and AirTrain and left with plenty of time. I arrived at T7 at 4:30pm, exactly three hours before departure of BA176. First check-in was empty so was through in seconds, even if I was confused about why I had downloaded my boarding pass to my phone, but was still presented with a paper boarding pass (is this the usual process? If so, what’s the point in having a mobile boarding pass?). She then gave me instructions on how to find security. Certainly any ‘wow’ factor I had at the check-in area were wiped away by the grey corridor to security. Once through, I was even less impressed by T7, I’d heard it wasn’t the best, but it’s a long way behind airside in T4.

Went to the CCR, which was pretty quiet when I entered. All the staff gave me a friendly greeting. Took a seat but then the peace and quiet was ruined by a man talking very loudly on a mobile. Lots of talk about ‘NASDAQ-listed’ and ‘fallen angels.’ I was disappointed he didn’t appear to use my favourite new word in relation to finance, a ‘unicorn’ but he certainly seemed to know plenty of buzzwords. While he was loud, he clearly felt not enough people in the room knew about the important call he was on, so instead of just pacing around the section overlooking gate 1, he decided to walk the entire length of the lounge back and forth from where the bathrooms are to his original patch by gate 1. I kind of hoped the lounge staff would ask him to quieten down (or at least stop walking about) but they didn’t. Why can’t BA install some quiet rooms like most offices now have? Or are some people of the nature they wouldn’t use them, because then how would people know important they are?

I also noticed some people looking at me, I suspect because as I was in shorts (so if you saw a guy in his 30s wearing a red check shirt and some navy chino shorts in the JFK CCR on Friday evening, that was me). But my view is, I paid for my flight so can’t I wear what I like, especially as NYC was hot last week and my shorts were smart and not at all tatty?

I wasn’t made aware of, nor did I see any signs for a spa.

Anyway, I had some dinner as I wanted too maximise sleep and the sirloin steak was delicious.

The flight was about 15 minutes delayed, but I headed out of the lounge when they made the boarding call.

Flight

Disappointingly, loud phone call man was in front of me with a companion on boarding, but thankfully he turned right to CW on boarding, while his companion turned left into First.

I had initially been disappointed by the equipment change from a 747 to a 777 but straight away found it so much more spacious. I took seat 2A as one of the crew members outbound advised me to avoid row 1 on the 777 because of the galley. The plane was spotless, unlike the outbound.

The CSL came over to introduce herself. She was a lovely friendly lady, who was telling me about how much she loved her job, how her husband had recently retired and if I had much of a journey home after landing. She took my drink order, and arranged for me to get a sleepsuit, before showing me to the toilet to change. Again I mentioned I was a First novice but she kindly said she had no idea but if I had any questions at all, no matter how silly, I should feel free to ask her.

After I’d changed, I noticed she went around the cabin taking meal orders and asking if they wanted immediate turndown instead. Except she didn’t ask me. I was a bit annoyed by this, and wondered if it was because I joked on chatting to her that I felt I’d gained a lot of weight in NYC and maybe she felt skipping a meal would be good for me, or if it was she assumed as a First novice I wanted the full meal experience. I also thought it possible she was just so busy chatting to me that she forgot to ask about food or turndown. Had she been rude or standoffish on boarding then I would have guessed it was because she just didn’t care, but she wasn’t.

We had a long wait to take-off, but at 8:30pm we were airbourne. Immediately the crew started turning down beds, but not coming near me. I needed to retrieve something from the overhead bin, and the friendly lady must have thought I was going to make my own bed so she came over quickly and said she’d make my bed next. I mentioned I was maybe going to eat something and if there was a menu I could look at, and she said had I not seen one, When I said I hadn’t she said she was enjoying so much chatting to me she forgot to give me a menu. So there was my answer.

I ended up just having dessert and some red wine, before asking for turndown. I had mentioned I always sleep well after red wine, so the CSL said she’d be straight over with the red wine bottle if she saw me awake. I asked to be woken for breakfast.

I slept really well and after what seemed like a few minutes, the CSL was waking me up. She said we had just 35 minutes until landing. When I asked if that was enough time for me to have breakfast, and she said usually no but as I was the only one eating (which surprised me), it was fine. She also mentioned she hates walking people up, even if they tell her they want to be woken.

I really enjoyed the full English, plus the head start in being able to change back into my clothes before everyone else.

Before landing, the CSL came back for another chat about my weekend plans and how she loves working the NYC route (something the CSD and CSL also said to me on the outbound). She really was such a credit to BA. I only interacted with one other crew member in First, a man working the other side of First but he wasn’t friendly at all, so I was lucky I had the nice lady working my side.

We landed just after 7:30am, and I was surprised to see we were parking at a remote stand. I didn’t think a bus was a particularly premium way to end the flight, but the pilot announced sometimes a bus is faster to immigration and baggage claim. When the seatbelt light went off I was shocked to see loud phone man stand up from seat 1F. I started thinking that surely BA wouldn’t allow a self-upgrader, or had he successfully sneaked into First unnoticed. On disembarking, I arrived at the door the same time as he did (from the other side), and the crew member at the door put his arm up to block phone man and let me disembark first. Which was nice.

I did notice his companion didn’t disembark with First so I assume they swapped seats.

At Heathrow, I used the e-gates and this time my bags arrived pretty quickly, though one of my cases was missing it’s lock.

I definitely had better feelings after my return flight, it was definitely a more premium experience on the way home, bar the JFK security experience.

So there you have it, a very long review of my first First. Sorry again for the length of the post.

PxC

As someone who is tempted to cash in my first GUF2 soon, enjoyable read. Thanks!

I keep reading about the poor state of the hard product and inconsistent crews and think back to the BA documentary where they claimed they checked the cabins on their hands and knees, as First passengers demand the best. Snot on the seat indeed...

I keep reading about crews leaning on passengers to eat early, how do they do it? I've been spoilt by QR's non stop service and fully intend to eat whenever I like. Do you think they would serve you a main meal twice if they had leftover meals at the end of the flight?

TimDP

Not sure if it is the reason but when passing the passport check in the US the agent doing the check usually makes some 'notes' on the BP, so perhaps that's the reason why one still gets a paper version in the US?

Having my first First next month (LHR - SFO in 747 on Oct 22 and SFO - LHR in A380 on Nov 3) so I'm looking the experience it myself.

KARFA

TimDP

I rather have their creative drawing on a paper than on my mobile

KARFA

All She Wrote

I wouldn't expect anyone to be over the moon with the 747 hard product, although it's still much nicer than club world, it's really comparing a sub par first class to a sub par business class. The triple is definitely nicer, but the A380 and 787 have nicer cabins by far, the 787 being the nicest in my opinion. Your review is pretty similar to what one would expect!

sualg

jdsworld

Quote:

Originally Posted by PxC

I keep reading about the poor state of the hard product and inconsistent crews and think back to the BA documentary where they claimed they checked the cabins on their hands and knees, as First passengers demand the best.

That's hilarious to read since it's clear that 747 (G-CIVE if I recall correctly) hadn't seen a good clean in years, and certainly there nothing to indicate a hands and knees inspection. When I pulled down the footstool it was pretty disgusting behind that too. I do need to say the 777 I came home on was immaculate.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PxC

Do you think they would serve you a main meal twice if they had leftover meals at the end of the flight?

Assuming there were leftovers, I'd imagine it's entirely dependent on the crew member you ask. If it's someone who goes the extra mile, then I'd imagine you would, anyone else and you might be out of luck.



Thank you for your kind words. It's funny (but not in a ha ha way) how little has changed in 10 years then. Honestly, if I was going anywhere else in the world outside the US, I wouldn't consider BA. I was in Australia earlier this year and flew Singapore Airlines in J. BA is sort of my default to the US as I detest the Virgin Upper Class seat, and I have a reluctance to try US airlines, even if I have heard good things of late about AA J.

adrianlondon

Different senses of humour. I would have laughed! Not that I've travelled first, and if they'd said that to me in economy I would've assumed they meant it 😁