Spring trip to the East Coast (round 1: London to Miami) on an A380 in Club World

For spring break this year, my parents invited me back to Miami.  Before COVID, my parents and I used to go to Palm Springs each March to go watch the Indian Wells tennis tournament.   Because of COVID, we haven’t been able to, so instead we decided to go to Miami because a) it was less likely the tournament would be cancelled and b) it’s closer to Virginia if it got cancelled.  It did not get cancelled; I’m hoping we’re largely past large events getting cancelled on short notice.

I booked a flight from London to Miami and then back from Washington DC on British Airways in Premium Economy.  I joined my parents in Miami last year to play some tennis, but I scheduled that trip a bit differently.  Specifically I flew to Boston then to Miami and then to LA.  This time, I’m headed straight to Miami, and next I’ll head to Boston and then DC.

I specifically booked the 2:15 pm flight from London to Miami (BA209), which was scheduled to land at 8:10 pm in Miami.  I used 30,000 Avios to upgrade to Club World (Business class), which a bit higher than the normal upgrade of 20-25,000 Avios.  I needed to use more Avios because the flight was on an off-peak day, which is a bit of a strange quirk of how British Airways charges for reward flights.

Since my flight was late enough in the day, I had a chilled morning before heading out on the Tube to get to the airport.  Upon arrival at Terminal 5, I made my way to the far side of check-in to access the BA First Class check-in.  In short, Heathrow was a zoo.

Even the First Class area had a line out the door.  And then another long line at security.  I was informed at check-in that the flight was delayed until 3, which then became more like 4. 

Upon arrival into the lounge, I learned that the online ordering/delivery system wasn’t working that day due to an IT problem.  I was informed that normally it is still working; it was just that day in particular.  To get food, I had to go to the kitchen and for drinks, I had to go to the bar.  Neither of these was a problem in the slightest; I think I actually preferred going to the kitchen to get the food, since the line moved very quickly and the food came out just as quickly. The salad was exactly what you’d expect, and the curry was surprisingly good (I don’t usually like katsu curry-style dishes). The soup was simple and relatively good. The nachos were a lot of fun, but by the time I got to the brownie, I had overdone it a little, haha.

Visiting the bar was also fine; there was no line.

After having a nice meal in the lounge, I headed over to the C satellite terminal once the ‘go to gate’ notification came on the screen.

In the C concourse multiple A380s were parked beside ours, which was great fun. 

Like check-in, the gate area was also a complete zoo.  While the gate itself was capable of housing an A380 and had the necessary jet bridges, the gate area was not really well-equipped, haha.  People were standing everywhere and spilling into the walkways and other gates.

I boarded the plane through the top deck’s jet bridge and turned left for my seat, which was 53K.  I had read other reviews online about how great the upper deck A380 Club World seats were on British Airways, and I was not disappointed.  Everyone else in Club World had been given a welcome drink, but I guess no one noticed when I boarded because I wasn’t offered one.

The sloping of the fuselage on the top deck meant that the window seats were noticeably set off from the walls and so the empty space was instead filled with storage lockers.  These cabinets meant that I was able to keep my bag with me in the window seat.  And since I was in the last row of Club World, I had direct aisle access.  I had never faced backward on a plane before, and it was surprisingly fine.  I can’t sit backward on trains or in cars, but planes are fine.  As long as the flight is smooth at least, I guess, haha.

Aside from the lockers, the seat was a standard Club World yin-yang seat.  The IFE screen popped out from the side and had an OK selection of movies.  There weren’t a lot of new releases, and most TV shows only had a few episodes of a given season, rather than an entire boxset.  Takeoff while facing backward was interesting because I felt like I was sliding forward, rather than being pushed back.

About an hour after take-off, dinner was served.  Since the flight was scheduled for 2:15 pm, I would’ve called it lunch, but to be fair, by the time dinner was served, it was after 5 pm, so I’d agree that it was dinner at that point, haha.  I selected the chicken pie and some white wine.  Before dinner service came through, they came around for drink orders.  I ordered a citrus burst, but it was never delivered. The triple bread roll is always a lot of fun. I also enjoyed the cold cauliflower starter, which was nice and refreshing. The chicken pie was surprisingly good, but I guess that’s to be expected when it’s basically just crunchy bread and chicken, haha. It was also the first pie I’ve ever been served ‘in Britain’ that didn’t burn my entire mouth. The chocolate dessert was as good as all the other times I’ve had it on short haul flights, but it didn’t stand out in the same way because the rest of the meal was pretty good. The cheese course was similar to that I had on American Airlines’ Transcontinental Flagship First last year but with higher quality British cheeses.

Once I got my meal, I ordered the citrus burst again and this time received it.

I really enjoyed being able to look at the engines during the flight.

After dinner, I reclined the bed and took a two-hour nap, which was great. 

About 2 hours before landing, they came around with the light refreshment.  I selected the sausage roll, which was appropriately spiced and crunchy. It was served with Tyrell’s crisps (which I couldn’t eat) and carrot cake, which was just alright.

Certainly not the fanciest food I’ve been served on a flight.  It seemed more like a snack after a night out, rather than after a flight, and it definitely had a distinctly British vibe, haha.

After landing, we deplaned by row number, which meant that we were some of the first off the plane.  The ground experience in Miami was equally chaotic as the experience in London.  We had to wait a considerable amount of time for the first bags to arrive.  They were supposed to be delivered to claim 4.  Then claim 2.  Then they decided it’d be both claims 2 and 3.  There was a (very) British Airways flight attendant there waiting for her bag, who was either very amused or very frazzled by the baggage delivery. 

In summary, I thoroughly enjoyed this long (for east coast) transatlantic flight.  Given how busy everything was on both sides of the flight, I’m happy nothing actively went wrong.  I had a very good meal at the BA Gold lounge and was able to find seating easily, since I was travelling alone (4/5).  Despite the IT problems, getting the food was still easy (and arguably faster).  The upper deck window Club World seats were as good as I’d read (5/5).  The food was decent, but not exactly up to par with what one would expect for business class (3/5).  The service matched the meal; it was a bit hit or miss (3/5).  The in-flight entertainment was similarly fine; the wi-fi was good (and the messaging pass is a good value), but the movie selection was only alright, and I really do think at least some wi-fi should be included with a Club World ticket (£5 on top of a nominally £2,000 ticket just seems like a bit much of nickel and diming) (3/5).  I had a very nice flight, but the experience just lacks some polish, especially given that travel is largely back to pre-pandemic levels (18/25 overall).

From a points perspective, I paid for a Premium Economy ticket with my Amex Platinum card, so I earned 5x Amex Points (around 3 800).  I earned 8 872 Avios from the flight itself as well as 90 tier points.  The total points are worth around $169, for a return of around 22%, which is great.