BRITISH AIRWAYS FIRST CLASS LONDON TO PHILLY BA 67 LHR-PHL 英國航空头等客艙倫敦飛费城

APRIL 19, 2016

BRITISH AIRWAYS BA 67
LHR - PHL
DEPART 12:45 pm
ARRIVE 15:35 pm
Seat 2K First Class
BOEING 777-300


FIRST LEG:
APRIL 19, 2016
AMS - LHR
BRITISH AIRWAYS 
BA 429

AIRBUS A320

LAST LEG:
APRIL 19, 2016
PHL - SFO
AMERICAN AIRLINES
AA 759

AIRBUS A321

The return trip from Amsterdam was booked with American Airlines miles on mostly British Airways flights. 57,500 miles from SFO to AMS business class then 85,000 miles for first class back from AMS to SFO, which I thought was quite reasonable. However, got bled out by the British Airways infamous tax and fuel charges which amounted to $1000+ USD. 

 3 legged flight plan started with a less than one hour flight from Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. Impressive that most Asian and European airlines still serve a rather substantial meal for flight under an hour. China Airlines and EVA both serve from Hong Kong to Kaoshiung (45 min flight) even in coach.

On this British Airways flight meal service was so quick the flight attendants were pretty much throwing the dishes in the air and playing catch with each other.
 

BA 429 from Amsterdam to London Heathrow

West coast of Amsterdam

Depending on the time of the day, BA serves an almost full breakfast, a light lunch, afternoon tea, or dinner, very classy. Lunch was a moderate portion, which was perfect.

lunch is served!

close up of lunch

Right before we hit the British East coast, I caught a glimpse of a giant cluster of wind turbines in the middle of nowhere. They popped out from the ocean with no land in sight. There were a few boats hovering around them. We assumed they were doing maintenance on them.

power generating wind turbines in the middle of the ocean

where the wind turbines were

Transiting as a first class passenger was a breeze through Terminal 5 at Heathrow. I pretty much walked past every check point with no line. Headed straight to the British Airways first class lounge (Concorde Lounge) to see what it's like. Service was not super warm but efficient. A number of a la carte items to order from. I of course ordered the full English breakfast, again. Just like Hainan Chicken Rice from Singapore, I JUST CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF THEM! My appetite is not small. So I asked the wait staff who brought the breakfast to me for some smoked salmon on the side.

Worth noting is that all British Airways lounges share the same wifi password. I didn't have to re-enter it since the BA lounge in Seattle.

yet another full English breakfast at the British Airways first class lounge, blood sausage included!

asked for a side of smoked salmon to go with the giant English breakfast

my usual drink

Flight departed from Terminal 5B, which was a quick train ride and a few escalators away. There's only a couple of shops and maybe one restaurant and no lounge (GLA on FlyerTalk corrected me that there's a smal and quiet lounge at T5B, I just did not spot it, I tried). Most of the shopping, restaurants, and lounges are located in the main T5. Get your shopping, eating, and lounging done before you head over to T5B and T5C!

passengers waiting for board flight heading to Philly at Terminal 5C

The first class cabin was well appointed and maintained. The color scheme was classy and subtle. There's no over the top design theme nor loud colors. The understatement and restraint in design is very British. Flight attendants were very friendly all the way but not as personable as Cathay Pacific or Singapore Airlines'. The reading lamp provided a homey feel to the cabin. China Airlines' new business class cabin also added a reading lamp at each of it's business class pod.

First Class cabin

First Class pod, very similar to Cathay Pacific's business class hard product

quite roomy with some privacy

TV screen flips towards you just like Cathay Pacific's business class's

overhead storage available

semi private view

I'm most intrigued by the powered window shade device. Although it prevents one from planting one's face right onto the glazing of said windows, it is a fun and classy mechanism to play with. The blue glow provided by exterior daylight and the blue hue of the shading device was a welcoming sight - sort of a source of mood lighting.

powered window shade closed

powered window shade half open

Champagne was poured before flight took off. Drink and meal service started with warm mix nuts. Service was even paced, not rushed nor slow. Again, very friendly flight attendants.

warm nuts

table setting

Amuse bouche came in two pieces of delicate offerings. They were not listed on the menu. First one was a sort of cannoli with a very mild cream cheese/mascarpone in a green tea flavored mini waffle cone. The second one was a sun dried tomato with edible just about to bloom pansy and raw onion rings (yuck). I think raw onion ruins everything.

amuse bouche 1

amuse bouche 2

Starter was seared scallops with jasmine tea and mango gel, pea puree and shaved asparagus salad. You may also choose from these other starters:
- Fivemiletown Dairy goat cheese beignet with pea veloute and sesame oil
- Cream of wild mushroom soup
The salad was served to everybody, nothing to write home about.

seared scallops

I had the seared fillet of North Atlantic cod with a sorrel cream sauce, chervil and lemon cous cous, braised fennel and herb oil. There's also a few mini Romanesco broccoli pieces thrown in for looks. Didn't ask what the green twigs were, I'm going to say they were foraged wild chives, haha. Or an ocean grown cousin of "crested floatingheart" I had in Southern Taiwan called "water lotus", 水蓮. I was hoping that the piece of cod was a tiny bit bigger but was very happy with the taste, texture, and presentation.

Added: the green twigs were Samphire, thank you GLA and orbitmic on FlyerTalk for the clarification! Always learn something new!

Other main courses include:
- Seared fillet of Aberdeen Angus beef with roasted shallot puree, herb polenta cakes, tenderstem broccoli, truffle and red wine jus
- Breast of corn-fed chicken with chicken crackling, pickled rhubard, wilted chard, buttered Jersey Royal potatoes and chicken jus.
- Smoked tuna Nicoise salad with quail egg and black olive dressing

pan seared cod with green things around it =)

Dessert was a lemon and semolina sponge pudding with lemon sauce and what felt like a flash frozen cherry. The red ribbon looking thingie was a clear sugar tuile that's soft and thin like paper. No idea what it was and how it's made. It was yummy and helps cut through the tartness of the lemon sauce. Yes, a reverse food psychology in my head was going on since usually citrus helps cut through heavily textured and tasting things like PORK BELLY or heavy New York style cheesecake.

Other desserts available were:
- Caramelized apple parfait with salted pecan and caramel sauce
- Madagascan vanilla ice cream

dessert

 I was pleasantly surprised at how sophisticated the meal was. I enjoyed everything and had no complaint.


Switching quickly to something more technical:
All the controls and jacks were well maintained and cleaned. They didn't show much age. The noise-canceling headphones provided looked very plastic and cheap. I didn't try them on since I brought my own BOSE.

IFE controler

seat and light controls

powered window shade control and audio jack

audio jack (two prong)

2 USB jacks

Right before landing, there was a tea service instead of breakfast. It made sense since we landed mid afternoon. The finger sandwiches were very good. The cucumber sandwich was one of the best I've ever had. I was asleep when the scones were served. One of the lady flight attendant walked by and asked "Did you not have any scones?!?!" I sheepishly said, "No, I wasn't given any." She ran back to the galley and came back with couple of mini scones, Devonshire cream, and strawberry jam, "You MUST try some scones, it's just not proper." I'm not really a scone person but the little scones were fine. They were served warm and were moist enough.

afternoon tea - Darjeeling and finger sandwiches

scones with Devonshire cream

Bone China by Wedgwood for British Airways

One big plus was the personal coat closet for each first class pod. It came in handy this time. There's also a smallish shoe compartment at the bottom of the closet. It's a bit of an added luxury, though not extremely roomy.

personal coat closet

came in handy!

personal shoe compartment

After the luxurious British Airways flight, I transited at Philadelphia. Went through customs and immigration here since it's the first port of entry in the US of A. With global entry, it was a breeze.

Domestic American Airlines first class on an Airbus A321 is not super comfy. It felt like a Singapore Airlines coach seat with maybe an inch more width. The recline was minimal. I could've used a much better seat for this 7 hour flight but it got me home to SFO. Meal service was quite decent. There were ice-cream sundaes served after the meal but I didn't have any because of lactose intolerance. After serving all of first class passengers, there's still a ton of ice-cream sundaes left. The flight attendant started secretly waving at the first row of coach passengers inviting them to eat ice-cream hidden inside the galley. She's so nice!

Dinner served on American Airlines flight from Philly to San Francisco

almost economy style "First Class" seat on AA 759 PHL to SFO. 7 hours of torture

British Airways' first class product on a Boeing 777 was solid and the food was above average. However, the taxes and fuel charges were astronomical. I would most likely look into other award redemption options if I were flying across the Atlantic again.