chriswiles

The 'everything on one tray' isn't most people's issue. In fact, like you say, it's potentially better as you don't have to wait 20 minutes+ between each course. I remember once waiting 45 minutes between main course being taken away and my pudding arriving and that annoyed me.

The issue is the size of the portions! The all-in-one Club World service is now almost 1:1 with a basic Club Europe 2-hour tier-3 flight, meaning I can fly to Spain and get the same tray and food I'd get on a 10-hour flight to the west coast. And the second 'meal' is now much smaller, too.

- You used to get a choice of starter + small salad
- You used to get a choice of pudding and something much larger than the little mouse pot
- You used to get a proper half-decent cheese board!

There's a huge difference now and it's not good enough. At a very minimum they should give you the salad/choice of starter back.

The service on a long haul expensive flight to the US shouldn't be the same as a low-cost Club Europe flight to Spain.

DoctorCopper

I do hope not!

Doc Copper

Lucanesque

Saw this and thought "of course it is", then checked the lounge opening hours and it looks like the only lounge open before 15:00 is the Alaska Lounge

I could have sworn I've been to both the Concorde Room and First Lounge before BA178 pre-pandemic??!

wfiring12

Well, that is odd. And disappointing!

Lucanesque

Very! This was the source of my disappointment:- https://www.oneworld.com/airport-lounges?location=JFK

ExpatExp

Yes, certainly I have visited the CCR at JFK before the morning flight to London.

lall

My wife and I travelled in BA First (suite) - LHR-IAH (2.15 pm) on a 777- 300ER, a few days ago, and it was one of the worst flight experience we have ever flown. First wing lounge was extremely packed, food was very bad in the lounge; and the BA flight was extremely cold - freezing temperatures - and quite tiring. True that my wife and I had separate seats but we did spend a lot of time together and even had lunch on board together, but we have had much better experience on BA club seats. And to make matters worse, brandy or cognac was not available on the flight, nor in the First lounge.

chriswiles

When BA get First right, it's really good (quality service, attentive, good food served promptly). However, I've found First to be very mixed, including an evening flight back to LHR which was supposed to take off at a reasonable time of around 8pm, but sat on the tarmac until well after 9.30pm. Hungry, but the crew seemed more interested in making beds and getting everyone off to sleep. Incredible. I had to ask specifically for food and the crew member did a Club and brought out as much as he could in a single serving, claiming he didn't want to disturb the other (sleeping) passengers.

I did wonder why most passengers had gone straight to sleep - that was one of my earlier First flights. Shortly after, had a daytime flight to LAX which was fantastic. Quiet, only about 4 people in First, so the service and food choice was spot on. Much prefer a daytime First flight for these reasons - I don't want to pay so much money just to sleep.

KeaneJohn

Pre pandemic it was indeed open for the BA178. The chef was running late however so there was no hot food. Cream cheese and salmon bagel for breakfast,

English breakfast served after take off (I’ve had better in Morrisons cafe), and mediocre afternoon tea.

Mine was a disappointing experience and made me glad to be happy with J after this. It was an UUA on a BAH . There might have been bank error in your favour concerning Avios so not the end of the world.

crazyarmadillo

Have flown the morning flight (from JFK) once,
prepandemic.

We have never flown it since and will never again fly on a BA morning flight USA UK.

Food on the plane was disappointing to say the least. Service onboard ok.

CCR wasn't open when we arrived. Eventually to he CCR did open up .

the club lounge was open and relaxed (with alcohol) to use in the interim. So that was good

I don't think much has changed since we took the morning flight.

Avoid and go later if I were you, unless your schedule / price point, dictates otherwise.

IAMORGAN

For me, First is only worth it on daytime flights. As I think the service is key. I enjoy being able to dine on demand - ie if i have had food on the ground, no need to eat again straight away - you can say please can i have x in about 3 hours? I’ve done that on the morning ex-middle east services as I preferred to watch a film then have food to break up the journey. Also done it transatlantic ex-London.

Sometimes you get crew who are really motivated / happy and who you ‘click’ with; other times…you don’t. When you don’t I still feel the First seat is good & cabin nice. Club Suite is a great product but it felt ‘smaller’ than First.

woodey

The oneworld lounge database isn’t up to date, the JFK CCR is open for the morning flight, it opens at the same time as the BA checkin desks and they serve a breakfast menu. I posted the menu a few months ago in the JFK CCR dining thread. I’ve taken this flight times a couple of times this year and much prefer it to the overnight. If it’s a short trip to NYC I tend to keep my body clock close to UK time, go to bed early, get up early and return with zero jet lag.

Confus

Proving that EMMV, for me F is absolutely worth it on night flights, simply because the additional space and calmer/quieter ambience makes it much easier to sleep. If I’m flying overnight, the ability to be slightly more sprightly on arrival is most important to me. If I’m in Club, I seek out CW rather than CS, because I find the rear-facing window seats much more conducive to sleeping than the coffin-like suites that are all next to the aisle.

chriswiles

Can someone explain why sleeping is *so* essential? I've never understood this. Why pay so much money to sleep? Every human can have at least one ropey night and still function successfully, so unless you have some mission-critical meeting at the other end, why is being asleep so important? Genuine question: I've never understood why people would pay thousands of dollars/pounds to sleep.

This goes back to what I was referencing above with a JFK flight which was supposed to leave around 8pm, but eventually took off around 9.45pm. By the time we were in the air and they served drinks, most people were requesting their beds making up. I was almost the only one eating. Just perplexed me why people would pay First prices and....go to sleep.

For me, the entire point of travelling First is the experience. From the Concorde room, to seats, to quality of the food, quality of the drink and an excellent start to a vacation.

_nate

I agree that daytime First is better but we all react differently to time zone changes and the timing of naps or sleep can be critical and the affects can last for days. I can think of a specific example where the sleep onboard and the shower at the arrivals lounge made a huge difference between basically being able to handle a very busy week the way I wanted versus not. I can sleep in economy but it is liable to be a variable experience. And controlling when you eat in First gives it an edge over business class.