First time in F on Dreamliner Doha to Heathrow ...
May 11, 2019, 1:45 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: New Zealand
Programs: AA ExPlat
Posts: 184
First time in F on Dreamliner Doha to Heathrow ...
In order to get BA codeshare on Qatar Melbourne to Doha I had to book Doha to Heathrow on BA for the connecting flight. I would have preferred to continue on on Qatar but need to get my 4 flights on BA for status purposes. I knew that BA were not going to match the seat , service, IFE or food on Qatar but was looking forward to experiencing the BA F cabin on the Dreamliner for the first time and also the new First enhancements .
In summary ... was escorted to my seat by very friendly crew member - this had not been my experience with BA in the past - so a good start.
I was in 1A and my initial impression was how tatty things were looking already and the catches to the storage compartment with the mirror in and also the storage area at the front of the seat were not working ..... and the small reading light looked as if it was about to fall off and was clearly damaged. It all looked very flimsy.
Great size TV but pretty poor headphones - just not at all comfortable. Reasonable selection on the IFE but nothing like the choice on Qatar.
Liked the privacy of it though it was all a bit cramped was glad that i was not looking to sleep .
Great crew and service was fine throughout so full marks . BUT the food offerings were pretty dreadful .... and the crew apologized many times for both the lack of quality and also the meagre portions .
It was breakfast and afternoon tea .... tiny amount of yoghurt for which i received an apology ... bread was fine .... but the cream cheese omelette was small and dry and the coulis that went with it simply tasteless and watery.
And once I ordered some tea to go with it there was simply not enough room on the undersized table - the plates and the teapot were too big ... probably ok on the A380 and 777 tables but was a real juggling exercise to get things in the space available.
If i thought breakfast was decidely underwhelming ... the Light Bites were simply a joke - and to be honest i couldn't believe that BA would even consider putting them into print on the menu ..
The offerings were .... Tyrell crisps and Caramel and sea salt popcorn ......... i was incredulous that BA could consider this first class offerings on long-haul ...
Then there was the afternoon tea ..... meagre offerings again .... sandwiches were good apart from the completely inedible piece of shoe leather that was billed as beef .No sign of a scone and cream and jam.. just one strawberry and 2 tiny pastries - one of which had such sickly sweet icing on that I had to leave it .
But really a tiny amount of food .... barely 2 slices of bread .. plus a strawberry and 2 tiny pastries ....
The new crockery looks v nice etc but what's the point if the food is so poor .
One of the crew said to me ... it's all fur coat and no knickers ...... what's the point of the nice new crockery when it's still the same awful food ..
So on the food front things were on this flight far from first class .I wonder how long the cabins will survive on the evidence of this flight - one F seat was out of action ...
Best things were the relative privacy and the great crew and a big thanks to them all for making the trip more enjoyable that it would have been otherwise.
In summary ... was escorted to my seat by very friendly crew member - this had not been my experience with BA in the past - so a good start.
I was in 1A and my initial impression was how tatty things were looking already and the catches to the storage compartment with the mirror in and also the storage area at the front of the seat were not working ..... and the small reading light looked as if it was about to fall off and was clearly damaged. It all looked very flimsy.
Great size TV but pretty poor headphones - just not at all comfortable. Reasonable selection on the IFE but nothing like the choice on Qatar.
Liked the privacy of it though it was all a bit cramped was glad that i was not looking to sleep .
Great crew and service was fine throughout so full marks . BUT the food offerings were pretty dreadful .... and the crew apologized many times for both the lack of quality and also the meagre portions .
It was breakfast and afternoon tea .... tiny amount of yoghurt for which i received an apology ... bread was fine .... but the cream cheese omelette was small and dry and the coulis that went with it simply tasteless and watery.
And once I ordered some tea to go with it there was simply not enough room on the undersized table - the plates and the teapot were too big ... probably ok on the A380 and 777 tables but was a real juggling exercise to get things in the space available.
If i thought breakfast was decidely underwhelming ... the Light Bites were simply a joke - and to be honest i couldn't believe that BA would even consider putting them into print on the menu ..
The offerings were .... Tyrell crisps and Caramel and sea salt popcorn ......... i was incredulous that BA could consider this first class offerings on long-haul ...
Then there was the afternoon tea ..... meagre offerings again .... sandwiches were good apart from the completely inedible piece of shoe leather that was billed as beef .No sign of a scone and cream and jam.. just one strawberry and 2 tiny pastries - one of which had such sickly sweet icing on that I had to leave it .
But really a tiny amount of food .... barely 2 slices of bread .. plus a strawberry and 2 tiny pastries ....
The new crockery looks v nice etc but what's the point if the food is so poor .
One of the crew said to me ... it's all fur coat and no knickers ...... what's the point of the nice new crockery when it's still the same awful food ..
So on the food front things were on this flight far from first class .I wonder how long the cabins will survive on the evidence of this flight - one F seat was out of action ...
Best things were the relative privacy and the great crew and a big thanks to them all for making the trip more enjoyable that it would have been otherwise.
Last edited by pianoperson; May 11, 2019 at 4:26 am
May 11, 2019, 3:54 am
#3
Join Date: Nov 2004
Programs: BA GGL, LH FTL
Posts: 3,578
It's why people bring McDonald's Chicken Nuggets on flights these days...
Joking aside - I've only done this flight in the other direction and ended up with two full meals on a short red eye. Which was a lot more than I would have liked as the noise from both meal services pretty much left no time to sleep. Fully agree on the state of the F cabin though - pretty disgraceful, considering those birds are pretty new.
Joking aside - I've only done this flight in the other direction and ended up with two full meals on a short red eye. Which was a lot more than I would have liked as the noise from both meal services pretty much left no time to sleep. Fully agree on the state of the F cabin though - pretty disgraceful, considering those birds are pretty new.