pb3

This is my first trip report. I've hugely enjoyed poring over the trip reports on Flyertalk, and it is a pleasure to be able to give sometihing back to the board in producing my first one. This trip report is rather long so I've split it into a number of sections. I hope you will forgive me for going on at length.

This trip was special to me in many ways, not least of all that it was my first trip in F by right. A few years back I was the lucky recipient of an op-up, and while it was hugely enjoyable experience I'm sure you agree that it's just not the same. This time around I was also badly in need of a holiday so I decided to treat myself.

BA F finally came within reach in the BA sale in March 2009. Before the sale I was considering J or WT+ outbound and F return, but the sale allowed me to do both legs in F with some change left over - I guess good things do indeed come to those who wait! Something I hadn't considered was the two month wait in between my booking and the actual date of my flight - this was simply torture over the 60 day period. I downloaded a nifty bit of software that displayed the days, hours, minutes and seconds left until the flight - this helped tremendously and indeed time seemed to accelerate once the T-7 milestone was reached.

I put the information in the Ultimate BA guide to good use, combined with recommendations from Seatguru and SeatExpert and decided that seat 2A was the best choice. It was refreshing to be able to choose my seat from day one, though of course seats 1A and 1K were not available to me as a Blue. However the popular opinion is that seats 2A and 2K are the best seats on the 777 Furthermore I know from experience that the left side of the aircraft gives the best view on approach into BGI, so 2A seemed the logical choice. Perhaps a number of my fellow travellers had similar thoughts as seats 3A and 4A were taken.

I usually take the green route of taking the train to Gatwick airport. Unfortunately the new taxi service for F does not yet include Gatwick hint hint... As I was travelling with slightly more luggage than usual I decided to spend the night at the Gatwick Hilton. As this hotel is connected directly to the South Terminal it meant that I could stroll over at my leisure to the check-in desk on the morning of my flight, with the option of breakfasting in the hotel.

Things went somewhat awry with the Hilton's reservation system as on the morning of my stay I attempted to retrieve my booking online, and got a message that the reservation could not be retrieved due to a name mismatch. I then went in using the last 4 digits of my credit card and discovered that the reservation was now in someone else's name! I rang Hilton customer services, who appeared as puzzled as I was. They eventually managed to sort this out.

Later that evening after I'd checked into my room, a friend who lives near Gatwick passed by and collected me, and I had dinner and a few beers with him and his wife. The anticipation of the flight was really getting to me and I contrived to lose both my hotel key cards. After several minutes of fruitless searching at the end of the evening my friend dropped me off at the Hotel. Just after I entered my room, having obtained replacement cards from reception, I realised that I'd left my camera at my friend's place. I'm usually much more organized than this and I knew then the excitement of the imminent trip was affecting me far more than I cared to admit.

The next morning I made my way to the Hotel's lounge for breakfast. My room rate included a continental breakfast in the lounge which includes Internet facilities. The lounge receptionist checked my reservation and advised me that my room rate meant that I was also entitled to a full English breakfast in the Hotel's main restaurant. Happy days! I had the light continental breakfast in the lounge then wandered over the Internet PCs to check-in. The good news was that MMB showed that I was still in seat 2A. The bad news was that the online check-in would not work for my booking. It threw up a message along the lines “Online check-in failed – please check the status of your booking”

I was already slightly jittery with excitement over the trip, and given the earlier problem with my Hilton reservation I'm sure you appreciate that this cryptic message in no way helped my frame of mind. I had visions of being denied boarding due to my booking being accidentally cancelled by a computer or human error. I pulled myself together and made my way down to the Hotel's main restaurant where I indulged in a full buffet breakfast. This left me about an hour to indulge in the in-room jacuzzi while watching a breakfast show on the bathroom TV. Very nice indeed!

I checked out of the hotel and leisurely made my way through the short connecting tunnel to Gatwick's South terminal, where I took the transit train to the North terminal. As I exited the transit train I realised that I could not find my Ipod. This led to me unlocking and rifling through my luggage in increasing panic as my Ipod has about 1400 songs and a lot of other important information stored. I had just about despondently resigned myself to returning to the Hotel when I found the elusive Ipod stuffed into one of the hidden pockets in my laptop bag. Phew!

I repacked and locked my luggage and made my way up to the Departure level. My friend had left my camera at the F check-in desk on his way to work earlier that morning. The departures level was uncharacteristically quiet without the usual queues at the fast bag drop areas. I made my way over to the First Check-in desk. Both check-in positions were occupied but the agent at the adjacent Club Europe desk immediately motioned me over, so there was no wait. Check-in was painless and shortly thereafter I was in possession of a crisp 2A boarding pass with fast track sticker.



As the standard security entrance was immediately ahead with no queue, I went through this rather than expending additional effort in walking over to the equally empty fast track entrance. Security was quick and painless though I was lucky enough to be selected for an additional scan of my shoes. Somehow this incredible luck never seems to extend to my lottery tickets

I went directly to the FC lounge after stocking up on air sickness medication and taking my periodic dose of a nasal decongestant. More on that later. The lounge dragons at the reception were actually quite nice and certainly didn't look like dragons at all. Having taken stock of the F lounge I found I preferred the Terraces which are larger with a more relaxed atmosphere and a much better view. As I'd previously enjoyed an hour long jacuzzi session and 2 breakfasts at the Hilton I had no need for snacks or a shower. Instead I headed over to the bar and helped myself to a large brandy snifter and poured a stiff shot of Remy Martin XO. This worked wonders in calming my pre-trip jitters. The brandy was so nice that I could not resist pouring myself a second stiff shot

Time flew by quickly and it was shortly time to head for the gate. The flight was boarding from gate 54 which as it happens is the closest gate to the lounge. I grabbed a newspaper and bid the lounge receptionists goodbye. I decided to try the famous CIP staircase rather than wait for the lift. I got totally confused and went past the departure level (which was only 1 floor down) and was eventually rescued by a janitor as I was heading deep into the bowels of the basement. I blame this squarely on my over indulgence in Remy Martin XO.

A couple minutes later I was at the departure gate. The flight seemed absolutely crammed and the holding area was standing room only. The gate agent wished me a great flight and advised me to position myself near the far end of the holding area as the premium passengers would be boarded first.

We were advised there would be a 15 minute delay in boarding due to a minor technical problem. Sure enough about 15 minutes later an announcement was made that boarding would be done by row numbers due to the flight being very full. At that point premium passengers and EC gold and silvers were invited to board. I usually tend to hang back but this time around I grabbed my stuff and joined a flock of premium passengers in a mini-stampede down the ramp towards the airbridge to avoid the large queue that was sure to build at the aircraft door. At the bottom of the ramp I came across a vantage point giving a spectacular view of the aircraft. The aircraft enthusiast in me could not pass this opportunity up and I paused there for a couple of minutes admiring the aircraft .

This worthwhile diversion meant of course that I was at the back of a long queue up to the aircraft door. The flight attendants were very efficient and it was only 5 or minutes before I was almost at the door. The rate of increase of my excitement level and heart rate was at that point inversely proportional to the distance remaining to the aircraft door and before I knew it I was there. My adventure almost ended tragically there and then as I almost knocked myself out cold on the top edge of the door. We all shared a laugh as I somewhat sheepishly handed my boarding pass to the door attendant whose eyes lit up. He turned and motioned another FA over "Could you please show Mr Pb3 to his seat?". That little touch really did it for me ^

I was shown to my seat by a nice FA who inquired as to my choice of pre-flight drink once I'd settled in. Now I'm normally not a champagne drinker, but due to the nature of the occasion I made an exception and asked for a glass. A glass of Pol Roger 1999 swiftly appeared along with a small dish of Macadamia nuts.



I took this opportunity to glance around the cabin. I noticed to my horror that seats 4A and 3A were taken by a party with an infant. Sombre scenarios all involving my upcoming F experience being completely ruined by a bawling baby began to play themselves out in my mind. Thankfully I realised that salvation lay at hand in specialist countermeasures that I'd brought along. More on these later.

Continuing my look around the cabin, seat 2K was occupied and at a slightly later point 3K. As the cabin was quite empty both 4A and I took turns at trying seat 1A and we both decided against it - in my case because it had only 2 windows and therefore less natural lighting than 2A. For a few moments I had a tantalizing view of the cockpit instrumentation and the Gatwick pier through the front windscreens of the aircraft as the cockpit door was not yet closed.

An FA passed by and greeted me and presented me with an amenity kit and the menus. The CSD visited shortly thereafter and introduced herself. A few minutes later a passing FA noticed that the level of my glass of champagne had fallen dangerously low and offered a refill. I certainly could not refuse!

Shortly thereafter the airbridge retracted – I had a lovely view of this from my seat - and pushback commenced. The taxi was very short and within 5 minutes we were lined up for takeoff. The take-off roll was powerful and seemed extremely short given the aircraft was almost fully loaded. I made a mental note to select seat 4A for my return as it has an absolutely wonderful view of the huge GE90 engine on the port side.

pb3

continued...

Hot towels were dispensed shortly after the crew left their seats followed by a small plate of canapes. Now at this point in time I almost had an “airsickness moment" I should mention that I suffer from two major problems which have the potential to mar my flying experience. First I have some type of inner ear problem that means awful agony during descent and loss of around 30-40% hearing (and further pain) for up to 3 days after the flight. Taking a nasal decongestant periodically during the 48 hour period before the flight usually avoids this.
The second problem is air sickness - Taking air sickness medication a few hours before the flight usually means a trouble free flight though I need to proceed gingerly while eating. It has been several years since I've experienced any major episode on a flight.

On this occasion however I was midway through a canape when I had the awful realisation that I was going to be sick I stopped chewing and did the mental calculations as to whether I could reach the toilet in time or whether I would need the sick bag. I closed my eyes and time seem to stand still for a few long moments while I silently fought my inner demons. The feeling of nausea gradually ebbed away and I knew then that I was over the worst ^

From that moment on I could enjoy the rest of the meal and the flight. Sadly I forgot to take a picture of the canapes. My order for the main meal was taken shortly thereafter with the FA stressing that I could choose to have it whenever I wished. As I was somewhat hungry despite my earlier 2 breakfasts I decided to eat straight away.

I enjoyed an absolutely superb asparagus and broad-bean salad as a starter, with the FA suggesting that I try the roast tomato soup starter as well – it seems that you can have as many starters as you wish. I was up to my 4th glass of champagne at that point.




I selected Rosemary crusted rack of lamb as my main course. It was medium in texture and quite enjoyable though I needed to eat slowly and deliberately to avoid any possibility of a further "airsickness moment". For dessert I chose fresh strawberries with cream but passed on the warm shortbread that accompanied it.




I decided to err on the side of caution and end my dining at that point, closing off with another glass of champagne.



As I appeared to be the only one in F drinking champagne I certainly could not let the bottle go to waste! Oh - I forgot to mention that dinner was closed off with a choice from a lovely box of Lily O'Briens Irish chocolates.

I remember reading a FT post to the effect that there are lovely tidbits such as pasta hidden away in First and only available on request. I noticed these were clearly listed on the menu under Snacks, so I don't really think it fair to describe them as hidden away. Sadly I was in no condition to try them, hidden away or not!

After the meal service was completed, an FA came into the cabin and started closing the window blinds for the unoccupied seats. I glanced around and noticed that the other passengers had already closed theirs. Though the FA did not ask me to close mine I immediately did so out of consideration to my fellow passengers who may have wanted to sleep or watch the IFE. I mention this as I remember a long and contentious FT thread on this very subject

Now on to the bawling baby. He was at crawling stage which probably meant he was around 11 to 12 months old. I must give credit where credit is due and overall he did behave quite well though there were a number of occasions where he put the impressive capacity of his tiny lungs to good use. The din must have been somewhat annoying even to 2K and 3K over the other side of the cabin. Luckily I'd brought along effective countermeasures in the form of both Bose QC3 and Sennheiser PXC450 noise cancelling headphones along with a custom built portable headphone amplifier.



About half an hour after my meal I reclined my seat around 3/4 way and plugged my Ipod and the PXC450 headphones into the amplifier. This was my first road-test of the PXC450s which unlike the Bose QC3 are huge headphones which completely cover the ears. I selected one of my favourite Janet Jackson tracks and flicked the amp's on switch. Voila! Pb3 -1, Bawling Baby - 0. Closing my eyes, the bliss into which I succumbed was almost orgasmic in its silky smoothness and intensity - I was still vaguely aware of a crying baby but this seemed light years away on the very edge of my man made universe

Sadly my state of consciousness did not last much longer as my extremely comfortable seat along with the music and 5 glasses of fine champagne conspired to entice me into 4 hours of dreamless sleep. My in-built early alarm waking system was triggered by the wafting smell of warm food coming from the galley and I awoke with only 1 hour 45 minutes to go. I was somewhat chagrined that I'd slept for so long, and that I'd never even gotten around to having my bed made up.

A light afternoon tea consisting of a selection of sandwiches, warm scones with clotted cream and a tart was served. I passed on the tart and opted for a final glass of champagne.




At that point the baby got his revenge! – Until then he had satisfied himself with impromptu drag races up and down the aisle. Now I was treated to the surreal sensation of the back of my seat being kicked! I hadn't experienced this sensation since economy cabin days where on the odd occasion I've come perilously close to strangling the odd misbehaving brat I worked out that the infant was the cause of the sensation but I wouldn't have thought that 1 year old infants were capable of kicking with such gusto! The mind boggles.

The remainder of the flight flew by and before long the aircraft commenced descent. I sensed the descent by way of discomfort in my ears well before it was actually announced and I had a few anxious moments of worry that the decongestant I'd taken was not up to the job. However all went well in this regard and I knew that it was going to be a great day. Towards the very end of the descent I noticed with surprise that the clouds were ominously grey and shortly thereafter streaks of rain appeared across the windows. The irony of Barbados being rainy while England was 21 degrees in the shade was certainly not lost on me!

The approach was textbook with the aircraft coming onto the island near its northernmost point in the parish of St. Lucy and flying parallel to the opulent west coast, turning slightly to follow the south coast along before making a final turn inland to line up with the runway. The landing seemed particularly hard this time around as even though I was near the front of the aircraft I felt quite a jolt on touchdown. Though we'd left a bit later than usual we apparently made up time on the way as we landed on time at 14:45 local time.

pb3

continued...


We taxied in and parked next to a Virgin Atlantic 747 named
"Tubular Bells". I could be wrong but I can't recall seeing names on BA Aircraft any longer – I remember the older 747-200s were named after cities. Aah well

I fervently hoped that “Tubular Bells” had not just landed as this would mean being stuck behind a queue of 300 or more in the Immigration hall, which is not fun. The rain was falling lightly but this was luckily only a passing shower as this would have made our egress rather interesting given there are no airbridges. We parked up and there was a short wait while the steps were driven to the aircraft. Two sets of steps were deployed and so we F passengers had our own staircase. Due to my seat position I could have been first off the aircraft, but I preferred not to .

Once we (the F passengers) had reached the bottom of the steps and had made our way partly across the tarmac the remainder of the passengers were released down the second set of stairs. I made good use of the head start and legged it with the other F passengers for the Immigration Hall. Sometimes there is a steel band just before the entrance to the Immigration hall welcoming visitors to the island. No sign this time around, either due to the time of year (off-peak) or perhaps the credit crunch. There was just a cadre of individuals holding signs with people's names on them.

You will have noted that steps are still used for boarding at BGI, though there is a rumour of a future refurb which will introduce airbridges – I really can't see how that would work though. With steps you are able to get up close and personal with the aircraft in a way that is just not possible with an airbridge. I daresay that even the most jaded frequent flyer gets a thrill in walking up or down the steps and looking across at the monstrous GE90 engine just a few feet away. Unless you're lucky enough to be an airport worker, you'll never get this unique experience at major international airports.

Continuing with my report, immigration formalities were very quick, less than 1 minute in my case and I then resigned myself for the usual 20-45 minute wait in the baggage hall. I was stunned to see the conveyor burst into life after 10 minutes and both my bags popped out together about 2 minutes afterwards. Fantastic! The service has definitely improved since my last few trip about 6 months ago. During my stay I read in the local paper that the airport had recently received some type of international award.

A truly terrific start to a two week holiday with my return trip in F to look forward to.

I've read a fair few FT trip reports and posts on the BA forum now, and have noted the comments and observations both good and bad about the BA F product. The bad comments tend to revolve around inconsistencies of some crews and the general state of the cabin. I really couldn't fault the crew on my flight. I felt well taken care off and pampered from the moment I entered the aircraft and the crew seemed genuinely friendly and approachable yet professional. The cabin was clean and I couldn't spot much evidence of significant wear and tear – mind you the 777 is a newer aircraft than the 747.

The food was lovely and I drank a record 6 glasses of Pol Roger along with the brandy in the lounge, yet was able to walk off the aircraft unaided! I got at least 4 hours sleep on the flight which I find difficult to achieve in this daytime flight even in Club World. The seclusion and the general ambience of the cabin was superb, though the fact that it was only a third full certainly helped.

A few further observations on the F cabin and experience. I loved the subdued mellow lighting and the general atmosphere of privacy and quietness in the cabin. The window seats are especially private and you can lose yourself in your thoughts without being distracted by other passengers in the cabin. Though the 747 upper deck comes somewhat close in terms of privacy, it is just not the same. There is also a subtle change to the engine note - more of a whine and the deep drone during take-off is (sadly) missing. Once the curtain was closed off I felt in a completely different world and I could feel the stress and pre-flight jitters draining away. The seat is very comfortable and easy to adjust if you're accustomed to the Club world seat. I can't comment on the IFE as I generally don't use it.

I found that the observations on SeatGuru and SeatExpert were spot-on in that there was considerably more cabin crew traffic through my aisle. However as I mentioned earlier the “A” window seats give a superior view for Barbados landings and takeoffs.

Was it worth it? I can honestly say that after the flight I did not come away with the feeling that I'd wasted my money. At the top of my list of wants for the perfect flight are seat pitch and privacy. Club World satisfies my seat pitch requirement. If you want privacy in addition to seat pitch you have to pay for it, and F satisfies both counts very nicely. I could sit back, relax and daydream without that “cooped up” feeling – I felt literally as if I was in my living room. The lower passenger to toilet ratio and the individual attention and service also worked for me. I might have had different feelings on the matter if I'd had a “bad” crew though!

I realise this trip report has gone on for some length so I'll be wrapping things up shortly. I hope this report has gone some way in conveying my excitement in flying F for the first time (sort of). Now that I've done F it saddens me a bit in that I'll probably never again experience the same level of excitement and anticipation in future trips. I envy those of you who have this to look forward to.

That's it for now. I'm still working on the trip report for my return leg and will post it when complete. Any constructive criticism (other than on the length! ) to help me in future reports would be valued.

I've included pics of the menu in high res below. I'm happy to type it all out if you're unable to make out the writing. I'll update with the wine list shortly.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3604/...af75a1e3_b.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2577/...638301b1_b.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3623/...7c2ec6a6_b.jpg

Wine list photos:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2571/...147bafd7_b.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2429/...d1e5d6a3_b.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3494/...dd3094a1_b.jpg

blawson

Thanks - a really enjoyable read.

baggageinhall

A fantastic trip report.

Can I make a suggestion however, in respect of your links to if you change the URL tags to IMG tags, those of us who have images enabled in posts can see your fantastic pics without having to click on each one.

My first BA First trip looks like it has been pushed back to Nov or Dec so I am living vicariously reading BA F TR's.

Euan

Great report.

ylwae

Very entertaining! Thank you for taking the time to write it up.

But do you suppose this...


...might have had anything to do with this ?

pb3

A fair and valid observation but most likely not.

I am familiar with the side effects of alcohol overindulgence, though I quickly hasten to add that my experiences were mostly in my teenage years a while ago

I'm sadly an expert in the area of air sickness as I've been there done it several times. While the medication is effective it does not entirely prevent it and I need to proceed very cautiously. Strangely I don't suffer from this on shorthaul flights.

The nausea as usual was out of the blue without warning. Once it was gone I was able to eat the entire meal and continue to drink alchohol, and indeed 4 of my 6 glasses of Pol Roger were after the episode.

camsean

Thanks for a detailed trip report.

Sounds like a great couple of flights, which is very fitting for first.

Flyingfox

NIce report!

The BA F product is seriously past it and with luck maybe they will improve that outdated seat.

I have to say that the food just does not look like F class food, presentation-wise.

At least you took the noise from the child in stride!

MorganB

Thanks for the lovely trip report. I have a BA F trip coming up in two weeks so I really enjoyed getting the sneak peek to my trip. Did you like the Sennheiser headphones? Tell me more about that amp! It sounds like your pre-trip jitters are similar to mine. I find myself looking for tickets / passport / iphone / ipod etc incessantly.

BA1321

Really nice report! Thanks for taking the time to share.

ylwae

That's a bit unusual! Most people with standard air sickness can't tolerate much in the way of food or alcohol. You must have something special going on .

gba

Nice report, I look forward to hearing about the return. Have a great vacation!

kimala koala

Brilliant report...thanks for sharing.

That rack of lamb looks gorgeous...my mouth is watering.