Back to Europe for the first time in a year! (SFO-LHR)

It is finally time: my first trip to Europe since moving out in August 2022.  I scheduled my trip to take place between a flex day at work and a federal holiday (Juneteenth).  I was able to leverage these two free days off to schedule an 11-day vacation for only 5 days off work.  When I checked in the day before, I saw that the flight was already delayed because the inbound flight was delayed.  Given the amount of padding that they put in flight schedules, I was not overly concerned.  I flew on G-XLEG, an A380.

After work, I took BART to SFO Airport, which was always my plan, but when I wanted to leave for the airport, there was a wreck on the highway and so traffic across the Bay Bridge was insane.  It took me just under an hour to SFO by BART but it would’ve been 90+ minutes by car (compared to just 26 minutes in the middle of the night).

I got off BART at the international terminal and proceeded to the BA check-in counter.  It was separated into four sections: First Class (and Oneworld Emerald), Club World (and Oneworld Ruby/Sapphire), World Traveller Plus, and finally World Traveller.  Between TSA PreCheck, Clear, and a big red priority stamp on my boarding card, I was through security in just a few minutes and proceeded directly to the lounge.  I was hungry, so I was looking forward to some lounge food.

Given the size of SFO airport, there are actually quite a few lounges here that, in theory, I could use, including the JAL Sakura and Cathay Pacific lounges, but the former is only open through lunch and the former is completely closed still.  If the Cathay Pacific lounge ever reopens, it will be my preferred lounge here.

British Airways’ lounge at SFO is nothing special, probably because BA only has two flights per day that are 4 hours apart.  Earlier in the day, the BA lounge is used as a Priority Pass lounge, and the main difference, in my understanding, is that the food and drink offers are more minimal when Priority Pass holders are welcomed.

The lounge had two buffets on opposite sides of the lounge: a warm buffet:

And a cold buffet:

One plus to the lounge is that there is, in fact, a separate First Class Dining Area.  The bad news is that it’s only open to First Class travelers and not Oneworld Emerald members.  I had hoped there would be some separation for Oneworld Emerald vs Sapphire like at some outstations, but no such luck here. 

There was also a self-service drinks area in the forward section and a tea station in the back.

I selected some food from the warm area, including the chicken cacciatore, roasted vegetables, and “creamy” polenta.  Then from the cold area, I tried some sandwiches and the pecan dessert (and fruit).  None of it was particularly good.

Finally, there was also the option to order food to be delivered to your table via a QR code.  BA had introduced this feature during the pandemic, and I’m happy that it has stayed around.  I ordered the clam chowder option, which was served in a bread bowl, as is standard in San Francisco.

It also wasn’t very good.  I haven’t eaten buffet style in a BA Business Class lounge except when I had to try to fix my Bucharest flight, but this definitely wasn’t as good as one finds in the Galleries First lounge in London.  But the signature cocktail station was a lot of fun.

After eating my appetizers, I made my way to the plane!

I boarded the aircraft toward the end of boarding as per usual.  The A380 is so large that it was boarded from both gates A6 and A7, which was fun to watch.  There were three separate jet bridges being used, one for the upper deck and two for the lower deck.  I boarded through door B for the upper deck and turned left to 52A.

Since I booked the upgrade pretty late, I was unable to score the best two seats in the house: 53A or 53K, so I settled for 52A, which is a standard rear-facing Club World window seat. 

On average, Club World seats are worse than the new Club Suites, but the rear-facing upper deck A380 seats with the cubbies along the side are as good as the Club Suites in terms of comfort. 

My favorite part of the rear-facing seat is the take-off roll and watching the airport go by. 

Shortly after takeoff, I was brought a warm towel, which was followed by a glass of champagne with a bag of nuts.

You’ll notice that I brought a pair of American Airlines Flagship First slippers that I got on my flight from New York to London in 2020.

I didn’t take pictures of the menu on the flight, but I always try to keep the menus from my flights, so here are some post-flight pictures:

Next came the dinner service, which was served in three courses.  BA’s Club World dining concept is a single tray with table cloth that remains with you and each main dish is traded out.  First, the tray was delivered with the sesame seared tuna starter.  The tuna was excellent.  I was really impressed with the seasoning: it had a strong flavor to it without overwhelming the tuna.

Second, the tuna plate was traded out for the salmon dish.  The salmon was cooked properly and had a great citrus glaze on it.  I wasn’t the biggest fan of the side dishes served with it, but they were appropriate for the dish.

Finally, I had the fruit plate as dessert.  It was very small as is standard at BA.

The IFE screen swings out of the center divider.  It was a bit dated, but perfectly workable.

I then changed into pajamas and converted the seat to bed mode.  I used one of the A380’s forward lavatories to change, and I’d forgotten just how huge they are.

The big plus to these older Club World seats is that the seats do not slot into each other like more modern seats, so you have way more leg space and are not forced into as quite as specific an orientation. 

When you’re in one of the window seats, you have great privacy, and on the A380, lots of space along the side as well.  The downside is the lack of direct aisle access, but I did not find that to be a problem, since I slept through most of the flight.  This was the first time that I had taken a flight from California to Europe since 2015 and my first time doing so in business class (on any airline), and the extra time compared to an East Coast flight definitely improved my ability to sleep and arrive well-rested.  The standard The White Company bedding was provided.

After the best night’s sleep I’ve ever had on a plane, it was time for breakfast about 90 minutes before landing.

Breakfast was served in two courses, with a starter of fresh fruit (which was much larger than the dessert’s dinner) and a main.

I selected the French toast as my main.

One plus side of evening flights from the West Coast is that they generally arrive in the afternoon in Europe so you don’t have to be awake as long on your day of arrival.

However, as per usual, I was unable to use the arrivals lounge, haha.  Most of the times that I have been eligible, it was closed because of the pandemic.  This time, I couldn’t use it though because we didn’t arrive until after it closed (at 14:00).  Maybe one day I’ll get the chance to check it out.  There was almost no line at passport control when I arrived in Heathrow, but my “priority” bag was one of the last to arrive, so it took me over an hour to get out of the airport and onto the tube.

In summary, I’m very pleased with my decision to upgrade on this flight for only $405 to get a flatbed on this 10-hour flight.  The BA lounge was nothing special and very crowded.  The food wasn’t great but it was much more substantial than one would find in an Admirals Club (2/5).  The rear-facing Club World seat on the upper deck of the A380 is still a personal favorite (5/5).  Without the side-storage, though, it would be a bit of a different story.  The meal services were great, but the experience was unremarkable (4/5).  The flight attendant working my side was very friendly and provided solid service (4/5).  The IFE system was a bit dated and the “WiFi” was pretty poor (3/5).  Overall, the flight gets an 18/25, with the main hits being the WiFi and poor lounge experience.

This part of the ticket cost $867 in World Traveller Plus, but since I paid for it on my Chase BA Card, I got 10% off, and so I paid $780 for WTP and then $405 to upgrade to Club World (which I also put on my BA Card).  BA awards tier points and Avios on its own flights based on the cabin you travel in, if you pay cash for an upgrade.  That means that I earned 140 Tier Points and 13 420 Avios, instead of the 90 Tier Points and 10 736 Avios I would’ve earned otherwise.  I’m not actively in need of more Tier Points currently; the extra Avios are worth around $35, which reduces the net cost of the upgrade marginally.