Flight: British Airways BA117
Departure airport: London Heathrow (LHR)
Arrival airport: New York JFK (JFK)
Aircraft: B747-400
Date: 24th December 2016
Duration: 8hrs
ETD: 0820hr
I have not flown Boeing 747s in ages and it was nice that my flight to New York was on this Queen of The Sky. I was looking forward to it since the day I bought the ticket in November. British Airways ran a Black Friday Sale in late November and I snapped up the ticket plus accommodation in Hyatt Grand Central for about Β£1600 return. Normal price for First Class ticket for that time of the year over Christmas (the last time I checked) was nearly Β£11 000! I thought that was a bargain considering the flight was from Jersey (via LGW/LHR) and included accommodations for 2 nights in central Manhattan and 1 night in Sofitel LHR Terminal 5. Most importantly, the trip gave me 500 Tier Points with British Airways and nearly 35 000 Avios points!
Check In: I arrived at the First Class check-in desk at about 7am after checking out from Sofitel Hotel Terminal 5 (I will review this later). The check-in was straight forward and the lady behind the desk was really pleasant and asked me if I was familiar with the Concorde Lounge at Terminal 5. I made my way through security and the process took me about 5 mins in total. I turned left after the security into the Concorde Lounge.

The Flight: The journey from LHR to JFK was about 8 hours. The stewardess took my food order as soon as we were at cruising altitude. I was still full from breakfast at the Concorde Lounge, so I decided to have a Beef Steak Ciabatta with a pot of tea. I watched a couple of movies and managed to catch 40 winks. I woke up few hours later and the stewardess asked me if I want an afternoon tea. Obviously, I can’t say no to that and I was looking forward to have an afternoon tea on BA First. The afternoon tea consisted of a selection of finger sandwiches, a selection of mini cakes, scones, strawberry jam and clotted cream. You can’t go wrong with an afternoon tea on British Airways. The rest of the flight journey was unremarkable.
Verdict: Don’t get me wrong, I love British Airways First Class products and service. I think they have an excellent level of attentiveness and an exceptional service to match. Everything about BA First Class is about Britishness (and quality), from the design aesthetics to the construction of the menu. But there are a lot of competition our there and BA needs to up their game if they want to be on the top again. I think they should use fully the concept of ‘Britishness’ to their advantage and use this to attract customers especially from the Far East. Anyway, British Airways IS the pinnacle of Britishness and it is, in a way, part of the British institution.