Around the world part 1: San Francisco to London

Here begins my next exciting Thanksgiving trip: my first around the world trip! Like a lot of my trips, this trip started at San Francisco International Airport.  This initial flight was supposed to be from San Francisco to Phoenix to London so that (a) I’d arrive a bit earlier and (b) earn an additional 40 Tier Points on BA.  However, I woke up to a 3-hour delay on my Phoenix to London flight due to a late inbound aircraft.  I had booked my flight through American Airlines and saw they still had a seat available on the direct flight to London.  I called American Airlines and they were able to swap me to the direct flight due to the delay.  It meant that I’d arrive at about the same time in London (with the delay) but have a full 6 hours shorter travel time.  However, the only seat left was 12F in the middle of the cabin.  This would be my first time in the new Club Suite without a window. 

This was my first trip after moving to the edge of BART, but I was still able to take BART all the way to the airport.  I had slapped my BA number onto my booking and so was able to use the First Class check-in line, not that there was much need because there was no line. 

On previous San Francisco to London flights, I have visited the BA lounge.  This time, however, I decided to visit the Cathay Pacific lounge because it had somewhat recently reopened.  I had read that it didn’t have the same, newer design that the Cathay Pacific Lounge had in San Francisco.  And this old design was definitely inferior. 

The lounge’s opening hours are based around when Cathay Pacific flights in a given day, and so I actually arrived only shortly after it had opened that day.  So the nicest part of the lounge was how empty it was. 

The lounge was separated into a handful of sections that mostly had armchairs but also some workstations.

The next part of the lounge was the dining area, which was set up with fixed tables and stools and generic tables and chairs.

The food offering was a buffet, with a combination of cold cuts and cheese and a small buffet.  The options were predominately American-style.

But the lounge did have a solid drinks offering.

In the next dining room over had an additional small buffet that had some small sandwiches and salads, as well as more drinks.

I selected a handful of items from the smaller buffet and grabbed a table.  I also poured myself a bottle of Asahi to officially mark the beginning of my vacation.

Shortly before boarding, I did end up going to the British Airways lounge because our aircraft was stationed at gate A5, which meant that we would be able to board directly from the lounge.  I ended up boarding among the last from the lounge, and when I entered the jet bridge queue, I was escorted past the chaos to door 1 and boarded through First Class.  Like on my previous Club Suites flight to New York, I really noticed how First Class barely looked any different from the Club World cabin.  That speaks to both how much of an improvement the Club Suites are and that their First Class (even with the door) needs work.  Luckily, BA has said they’re planning to offer an upgraded First Class when they retrofit their A380s with the new Club Suite.

That all being said, this Club Suite would be more than sufficient for this 10-hour flight to London.

Shortly after taking my seat, I was offered a pre-departure glass of champagne.  British Airways both a champagne from France and a British sparkling wine, which seems appropriate to me.

Waiting at my seat was a new style Club World menu.  It was the same trifold design but with a new exterior.

The cocktail and other drinks list was as standard:

A full three-course meal service was offered on this flight for dinner and a two-course meal for breakfast the next morning. 

Service started with a water served with a snack mix.  On the one hand, it’s unimpressive to serve the snack mix in the bag, but on the other hand, I wasn’t in the mood to eat it, and so I took it home with me.

The person sitting beside me in 12E noticed that I was taking a lot of pictures and struck up a conversation with me about planes and San Francisco and everything.  We compared our meals, and he thought it was funny that I ordered both the salmon appetizer and salmon entrée.  But I’ve previously had the balik salmon and know that I like it, and I can’t turn down a salmon teriyaki, especially with sticky rice.

However, we were having such a good conversation that I forgot to take a picture of the salmon teriyaki!  But I can say that it was largely comparable to the salmon teriyaki: that I had in 2023 when I flew American’s Flagship First Class from London to JFK.  It’s pretty well known by now that American’s Flagship First has similar/the same catering as a good Business Class.  But this is just another data point that American doesn’t do much to differentiate their First Class from Business Class.

For dessert, I ordered the chocolate lava cake.  It was just ok.  I would’ve rather had an American Airlines sundae.

After the meal service concluded, I chatted with my seatmate a bit longer and then got ready for bed.  Unlike on the A380, BA’s 777s don’t have special bathrooms, so I changed into pajamas in just a regular bathroom.

I slept pretty continuously for over 6 hours and woke up while the breakfast service was in full swing. Breakfast was served in two courses, and I started with the fruit appetizer.  The fruit was crunchy, which I’ve grown to expect from BA.

And then for the main course, I ordered the full English.  This was the saddest Full English breakfast I’ve ever had.  But I didn’t want to get the pancakes again after my last SFO-LHR flight on BA.  I should’ve just gotten the pancakes though.

The number of liberties taken with a Full English Breakfast here is “impressive”.  The tater tots were mushy, the eggs were dry, the sausage was bland and fatty, and the tomatoes were overcooked.  I guess that’s what happens when you reheat something 9 hours after it was loaded on the plane. 

Unfortunately, due to not having a window seat, I wasn’t able to watch us land in London, which is one of my favorite landings given London’s nice cityscape.  However, it was overcast (as per usual), so I probably didn’t actually miss that much.

Having now taken this flight several times in both directions, and comparing it to flights to the East Coast, I find that business class is way more worth it on overnight flights from the West Coast. West Coast flights are 9+ hours long because from the East Coast to London is often only 5 or 6 hours, which isn’t enough time to get any real sleep given the take off and landing time.

In summary, this British Airways Club World flight to London was just average.  The most important part of flying Business Class is getting rest, and I definitely did that, so the goal was fulfilled.  The ground experience at SFO was uninteresting but fine (3/5).  Not having a window seat was a bummer, but the best part of the Club Suite is that I could swap onto the flight the day of and still have a decent seat (4/5).  The service on the flight was just ok; interactions with the crew were minimal (3/5).  The dinner service was good, but the breakfast was remarkably bad (3/5).  The free messaging and movie selection the flight were good, however (4/5).  Overall, this flight gets just a median score of 17/25. 

This is the return portion of my Milan to London to New York booking from June.  That meant that this Club World flight cost around $1 000.  However, because I did a last minute flight swap, the actual cost of the flight was not available to British Airways, and so I earned Avios for this flight based off the distance chart for a fully flexible Business Class (J) ticket a total of 20 130 Avios, which is double what I think I would’ve gotten based on price.  Though I’m not entirely sure how they apportion the pricing to the various tickets.  Either way, I’m not complaining because I came out ahead.  I earned the standard 140 Tier Points either way.  In addition, I earned around 3 600 Bilt points for the booking, for a total return of around 31%, which is amazing really.