PaulST
Established Member
- Joined
- Feb 12, 2014
- Posts
- 1,196
Hi all, I’m visiting the UK and several other places over the next 3 weeks and subsequently booked with quite a few different airlines and will endeavour to post a few video flight reports.
My second flight was with British Airways (my first ever with them) and my flight was the second time they’ve operated a 787-9 on the BA6 route (NRT to LHR). To be honest, one of the reasons I flew from SYD to LHR via NRT was to try out the new 789 (and I got pretty cheap flights too J…)
Things began with boarding which is humoursly bad. BA seem to have two boarding lanes, one for everyone with no status at all, and the other for any kind of status. So OneWorld Rubys have the same access that OWEs and First class pax.
The greeting as we boarded was very warm and I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised, as I’d expected fairly poor service. After that welcome, my expectations were realised, though, as everyone was very cool and task-orientated (as opposed to pax orientated). A classic example would be closing my screen (which swings out) for take off. Instead of leaning across, smiling and explained what she was doing (like any normal FA would), she simply leant across and closed it without saying anything or making eye contact.
The FA actually assigned to my area was OK but the service was fairly slow (the flight left NRT at around 1pm and lunch wasn’t served for about an hour and a half (I was at the front of the J cabin too). The food and drink was OK although there was a large gap of 6-7hrs between meals when I barely saw any FAs. I understand that was our time to sleep, but you should still see them (especially as it was during the afternoon so a lot of us were awake).
I’ve only just reached OWE so I’m not sure what I should be expecting, but both QF and EK have given a special Platinum greeting on smaller domestic (and short haul international) flights while no one here introduced themselves personally. The J cabin was half empty too so it’s not like they were flat out busy…
The layout is reasonable although I suspect I’d have been more claustrophobic if someone was in 7B and I would have had to keep the divider closed. I found the buttons to move the seats required a lot of pressure to respond and the actual movements were slow. There was no massage function either. But otherwise, it was fairly comfy and very private. Almost too private as my dishes weren’t removed for ages after my second meal and I suspect it was because the FAs just didn’t see them.
The 787-9 is a great aircraft, and the one we flew was built earlier this year so everything was quite fresh and clean. I’ve just spent 9hrs in the air flying from SYD to HND in a QF 747 and I must admit that I was really impressed by how much quieter the Dreamliner was. My nose is quite sensitive to dry air and the higher humidity in the 789 was really noticeable.
The IFE was pretty good although I will note that the screen doesn’t angle down so if you’re semi-reclined, it’s a bit difficult to see the screen. Otherwise, there was fairly decent contend and the screen with bright (a dark screen is often an issue I find) with good audio.
Over-all, I felt let down with what I’d expect for a business class flight. The service just wasn’t there. I’ve got two more flight with BA (777 F LHR-DOH and 767 Y EDI-LHR) so it’ll be interesting to see how that goes. I’ll be sure to report how they go as well.
[video=youtube;Uc_pY-IiXdA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc_pY-IiXdA[/video]
My second flight was with British Airways (my first ever with them) and my flight was the second time they’ve operated a 787-9 on the BA6 route (NRT to LHR). To be honest, one of the reasons I flew from SYD to LHR via NRT was to try out the new 789 (and I got pretty cheap flights too J…)
Things began with boarding which is humoursly bad. BA seem to have two boarding lanes, one for everyone with no status at all, and the other for any kind of status. So OneWorld Rubys have the same access that OWEs and First class pax.
The greeting as we boarded was very warm and I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised, as I’d expected fairly poor service. After that welcome, my expectations were realised, though, as everyone was very cool and task-orientated (as opposed to pax orientated). A classic example would be closing my screen (which swings out) for take off. Instead of leaning across, smiling and explained what she was doing (like any normal FA would), she simply leant across and closed it without saying anything or making eye contact.
The FA actually assigned to my area was OK but the service was fairly slow (the flight left NRT at around 1pm and lunch wasn’t served for about an hour and a half (I was at the front of the J cabin too). The food and drink was OK although there was a large gap of 6-7hrs between meals when I barely saw any FAs. I understand that was our time to sleep, but you should still see them (especially as it was during the afternoon so a lot of us were awake).
I’ve only just reached OWE so I’m not sure what I should be expecting, but both QF and EK have given a special Platinum greeting on smaller domestic (and short haul international) flights while no one here introduced themselves personally. The J cabin was half empty too so it’s not like they were flat out busy…
The layout is reasonable although I suspect I’d have been more claustrophobic if someone was in 7B and I would have had to keep the divider closed. I found the buttons to move the seats required a lot of pressure to respond and the actual movements were slow. There was no massage function either. But otherwise, it was fairly comfy and very private. Almost too private as my dishes weren’t removed for ages after my second meal and I suspect it was because the FAs just didn’t see them.
The 787-9 is a great aircraft, and the one we flew was built earlier this year so everything was quite fresh and clean. I’ve just spent 9hrs in the air flying from SYD to HND in a QF 747 and I must admit that I was really impressed by how much quieter the Dreamliner was. My nose is quite sensitive to dry air and the higher humidity in the 789 was really noticeable.
The IFE was pretty good although I will note that the screen doesn’t angle down so if you’re semi-reclined, it’s a bit difficult to see the screen. Otherwise, there was fairly decent contend and the screen with bright (a dark screen is often an issue I find) with good audio.
Over-all, I felt let down with what I’d expect for a business class flight. The service just wasn’t there. I’ve got two more flight with BA (777 F LHR-DOH and 767 Y EDI-LHR) so it’ll be interesting to see how that goes. I’ll be sure to report how they go as well.
[video=youtube;Uc_pY-IiXdA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc_pY-IiXdA[/video]
