Spring break to Europe! Part 1: BA

For our next flight adventure, we’re heading to London on British Airways.  As readers will know, this has been a very common method for me to get to Europe since I moved to San Francisco in 2022.  In the case of this trip, my destinations were London, Paris, and Manchester, so this flight, once again, made a lot of sense.  This trip was effectively spring break for me and comes with a new long-haul airline for me: Aer Lingus on the way back.  For those keeping track, this is my 4th time flying directly from the SF Bay to London since 2022.  I flew London to San Jose in First Class on a 787-9 when I moved, then back in June 2023 on an A380, followed in November 2023 on a 777-200, then in November 2024 on a 777-300ER (though I did try to take a different route on that one).  This flight was operated on a 777-300ER as well, so I expected it to be very similar to my November 2024 flight.

It turns out that this flight would also be extremely similar to my June 2024 flight from London to New York because this flight was operated by the same aircraft: G-STBE (but this time I was in 7K instead of 5K).  I liked 5K better.

Since I had booked this flight as an award ticket on BA, I wasn’t eligible to earn any miles, so I added my British Airways Gold number to the booking (likely one of the last times that I’ll be using this status).

I’ve gotten sufficiently lucky the last few times flying this route that BA is using the gate attached to this lounge, which means we were able to board directly from the lounge, and the plane was parked right outside the lounge.

The British Airways lounge at SFO is very consistent in its offering; the food and drinks on offer were similar to my previous visits.  At this point, I’ve tried out all the Oneworld lounges at SFO, so if I want to check out a new (upscale) lounge, I’ll either need to fly United Polaris or Air France/KLM. It looks like I could use the China Airlines or Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse through Priority Pass sometime. Maybe I’ll do a full SFO lounge crawl review sometime.

A buffet consisting of chicken, vegetables, rice, and curry was on offer, which I skipped in favor of just of just a snack from the salad/cold bar.

While the hot buffer looked fine, I was more interested in the chilled buffet. At least for me, the food on offer there is where the BA lounge shines.

When I first got to the lounge, I was checking out the online menu, which usually has some additional small plates of hot food.  However, I took slightly too long, and the menu stopped being available at 8:30 pm:

Oops.

Oh well.  So, I just grabbed a bit of dessert from the cold bar and a glass of bubbly.  I’ll be eating on the plane anyway.

I wasn’t in a particular rush to board, so I took advantage of the lounge clearing out to get a picture of the main area:

All things considered, even while empty, this is not my favorite lounge design.  I find it just a bit dull, and it seems like the layout could be better optimized.

One on the plane, however, everything felt much classier, with the sleek Club Suite seats.

Shortly after boarding, the purser came around to introduce himself and to chat briefly.  We talked about the trip I was embarking on, and he provided me the menu for the flight.

British Airways catering these days (at least out of San Francisco) is decently consistent, with three choices each of starter, main, and dessert/cheese for dinner and a set of three choices for breakfast.  Nothing about the food choices were unique to this flight; it could’ve easily been a BA flight to anywhere (at least anywhere in the US)

I don’t know a lot about wine, but I do wish they had more than one British wine on offer.

Since this is an intercontinental long-haul flight, I opted to take two selfies with my seat:

I appreciate the use of the shoulder strap over an airbag in the seatbelt because the shoulder strap is only needed for takeoff and landing (whereas the airbag is uncomfortable at all times).

Over an hour after takeoff, the meal service began, and it began remarkably slowly.  I think service in this mini cabin was slightly faster than in the main cabin, but not substantially so.  Though, I imagine that those in the back took quite a while to get there first course given the time between courses for us.
I selected the balik salmon again as a starter, and it came served with a small amuse-bouche salad and a bread roll.

Next came the pan seared grouper filet.  The grouper filet was served boilingly hot; I almost burned my tongue just from breathing in the air around it.  And the filet was as bland as it was hot as were its accompaniments. 

Finally for dessert, I selected the cheese board.  I don’t think any of the cheeses counted as British, but the plate was actually very good.

After the meal service ended, I got ready for bed.  On my way to the lavatory, I noticed that they had set up a snack selection, which included drinks, chips (crisps), yogurt, and fruit.  Now I know where the flight attendant got me the fruit to go with my pancakes a couple years ago.

The Club Suite is usually pretty good for sleeping, but this particular seat had a large gap between the upper and lower parts when in lie-flat mode.  I squished in the (joke of a) “mattress pad” that BA gives you, which mostly solved the problem. 

They also kept the cabin very warm, so overall, I didn’t sleep very well.  But when your flight lands at 4 pm, there’s not a lot you have to do upon arrival beyond have dinner and go to sleep, so I guess it’s fine.

Speaking of having a flight land at 4 pm, at around 1/2 pm UK time, breakfast was served.  It started with orange juice, chia pudding, fruit, and a pasty.  I also ordered a coffee. 

Having learned my lesson last time with the full English breakfast and generally not liking egg dishes on planes, I ordered the crepes.  They were definitely better than the last time I had these on BA, but pancakes/crepes just don’t reheat well in plane ovens after having sat around for 8+ hours.

As our flight approached its end, the purser came around one more time to thank me for flying with British Airways.

In summary, British Airways remains my preferred way to fly to Europe (especially London).  The BA lounge is consistently a good offering, and I’ve consistently gotten good service from the BA ground staff (4/5).  The seat on the plane was good, but the gap in the seat was particularly problematic this time around (3/5).  The service on the flight was friendly and well-done but very slow (4/5).  Aside from how ungodly hot and bland the fish was, the rest of the meal was pretty good, but the main course was just so bad (3/5).  The IFE on offer was great, and the (texting) WiFi was actually decently useable for once (4/5).  Overall, this flight gets an 18/25, which isn’t a great score, but it’s above the baseline.  Realistically, it’s also possible that I’ve gotten familiar enough with BA’s long-haul business class that its scores are reverting to the expectation value.

I booked this flight using Avios and a 2-4-1 voucher directly with British Airways. The voucher came as a perk of having spent $30 000 on the Chase British Airways Visa Card.  Since I flew alone, it cut the Avios price of the ticket in half but the taxes and fees remained the same.  I paid using that same Chase BA card, which offers a $200 credit toward the taxes and fees of a BA reward flight starting in the US.  My total cost was, therefore, 45 000 Avios and $375 for this flight (and earned around 1 000 Avios back from the credit card rewards).