June EuroTrip Part 4B: London to New York (Club World)

After exiting the lounge and scanning my boarding pass at the gate, it was time to begin the final part of the journey: heading to my friends’ wedding! 

I boarded the plane through door 2 and then turned left into the mini Club World cabin.  My flight was on BA’s 777-300ER, which is its biggest twin engine aircraft (and second only to the A380).  In this cabin are three rows of Club World seats (5-7).

Ahead of the cabin is the First Class cabin, which is shown below.  It’s only marginally larger than the Club Suite.  When I boarded my November flight to London (coming soon!) I actually confusing the two cabins, and even now when I was writing this article had to double check which was which.  The pro tip I learned is that the First Class cabin has orange mood lighting, whereas the Club cabin has blue mood lighting.

Interestingly, American Airlines only has two rows in their business class cabin on this same aircraft type, even though both aircraft have reverse herringbone-style business class cabins.  Comparing the seat maps suggests that the reason for the difference is that AA’s Flagship First seat is a bit bigger and AA has Business Class lavatories forward of the door. I have to assume the lavatory placement is the main difference, but I’m not entirely sure.

I was in the first row of Club World, but I didn’t really have any extra room because of the wall in the front.  I don’t know what the purpose of that space is, but I assume it’s just because this seat is old enough that monetizing this space as a “Business Plus” product wasn’t the norm when it was developed.

That being said, I had plenty of space:

After I had settled into my seat and before takeoff, the lead flight attendant came around and introduced herself to me and informed me of our flight plan that day.  She was lovely to talk to, and I informed her that I had just celebrated my 30^th birthday in London and was heading to NY for a wedding, which she thought was ‘brilliant’.

Waiting at my seat was the standard Club World menu for the flight.  BA still does not have pre-ordering for the flight unless you require a special meal.

The cocktail list was standard:

And the main meal looked similarly standard and appropriately British. 

The wine list was available on the back of the menu.

Service was started with a drink: I ordered a Citrus Burst mocktail, which was served with a packet of mixed nuts.

Next came the starter course about 15 minutes later.  The standard BA tri-bread was served with a small dish of beets and apples.

I selected the prawn salad as my starter, which was nicely plated.  It was served cold, which was refreshing. Each food item was largely independent of the others, so it would’ve been hard to mess up this salad, haha.

For my main, I selected the stuffed British chicken.  The way it was presented didn’t look very stuffed to me, but I can’t really complain because it was well-cooked and not overly dry.  And realistically, this is how British food is supposed to look.

After the meal service, I settled in for a nap because I had a long day ahead of me once I landed.  I even skipped the dessert in favor of sleeping more because none of the options really appealed to me.  As cliché as it sounds, the American Airlines sundae is my favorite dessert in the sky.

I slept around 3 hours, and when I woke up, the lead flight attendant came by to take my drink order and to also give me a birthday gift!  I got a handwritten card and an amenity kit from first class, which was extremely nice of them.  For better or worse there was no singing, haha.

For my light pre-arrival meal, I ordered the mushroom sandwich.

The sandwich was pretty basic and a bit small, but given the short flight duration, it’s not that surprising because there were, realistically, only a few hours between the meal services anyway.

In summary, I had a great flight to New York.  The ground experience in Heathrow on British Airways is always solid, and I hadn’t given the B gates Club lounge enough credit in the past (4/5).  The Club Suite was great for a day-time flight, especially with a small nap thrown in (5/5).  The service on this flight was excellent; I felt well taken care of (5/5).  The meal service was good but not particularly memorable (4/5).  And the in-flight entertainment was standard and nothing special (3/5).  Overall, this flight gets a respectable 21/25. 

This ticket was booked as part of a larger itinerary from Milan to New York and back to Madrid (which I took in November). I earned Avios based on the prorated price of this ticket, so I earned 7 018 Avios and 140 Tier Points. In addition, I earned around 4 000 Bilt points, for a total return on spend of around 15%, which is about average now. The lower return on spend is definitely pushing me to swap to American Airlines as my loyalty program.