...mainly because we had a superb crew on the flight. I tend to find that’s what makes it great in First or just ordinary! If anyone from BA reads these - shout out to Steve Islam - he was simply superb.

Wife and I were on the 297 (a380) to ORD on Friday. Crew was enthusiastic about the changes, which certainly put me in the mood to enjoy them too.

Things I noticed,
- cutlery: much nicer to hold/use (and plates did make the food look good)
- PJs: different, but not sure better or worse. Wife had a medium top and said it was far tighter than the old style mediums
- headphones: nicely presented, wife liked them, I’ll always use my own little B&O ones.
- bedding: was day flight so used PJs but didn’t make up the bed so don’t know
- food: didn’t notice much difference to be honest (ie I’ve found BA first this year has ranged from just about ok to really good. This flight was in the top end of that range but I can’t tell whether that was anything to do with the new food or just a good day!)... except that I thought serving separate ‘sides’ was such a simple but great step forward.
- slippers: didn’t get any, didn’t ask for any, don’t normally bother with them
- washbag: wife raved about hers (and I did think hers looked quite funky), mine was nice and definitely preferred to the old guys one (felt like the zip on this one could survive being opened and closed more than a dozen times)
- day blanket was noticeably nice

Also the nuts and champagne are served pre takeoff where in CW it is after takeoff.

First new First experience yesterday.

Overall I think it’s mostly an improvement but the crew seemed a little flustered and everything took much longer than normal. I felt they were trying and, as ever, eager to please.

There was quite a lot of fuss about the new turndown service. Each passenger was individually given a long spiel about what this entailed.

Glassware, crockery and cutlery are much welcome Improvement and more in line with the image BA have been trying to portray for F for some time.

On the new PJs the bottoms are unisex but the tops are gender specific. I’m assuming they are cut / fitted for the differing chests. I like the old logo. Handing them out in their plastic wrappers rather than presented on a silver tray wrapped in ribbon is perhaps a downgrade.

I found the new rectangular Meridian headphones to be very uncomfortable. I don’t think I have large ears but they were quite painful after watching a single movie. The sound quality was good but not noticeably better than the old Bose ones.

The menu seems confused. Apart from the use of American English they serve the cheese course in the French order rather than the English. There’s a choice of “sides” but in reality it’s a potatoe and two vegetables so not much of a selection to choose from. I liked having the warmed nuts pre takeoff and the canapés with the post take off drink.

I really appreciated the day blanket and pillow which were soft and needed on a cold day flight.

The PJs tops are indeed different for male and female, not only on the neckline but the cut as the female ones are fitted, they should be offered unwrapped.
There should be no long spiel about the turndown service, this would just be this individuals style and certainly not required.