UPGRADED! With miles =): british airways

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.

FIRST LEG:

APRIL 14, 2016

SFO - SEA

ALASKA AIRLINES

AS 313

APRIL 14, 2016

BRITISH AIRWAYS BA 052
SEA- LHR
DEPART 13:25 pm
ARRIVE 06:45 am (next day)
Seat 17G Business Class (Club World)
BOEING 747-400 (744)
(This is essentially the 10G seat on 777-300ER, the 747-400 has been discontinued)

LAST LEG:
APRIL 15, 2016
LHR-AMS
BRITISH AIRWAYS
BA 430

These flights were booked with AAmerican AAirlines AAdvantage miles on American's website with a combination of Alaska Airlines, British Airways, and American Airlines flights. First class on Alaska and business class on British Airways costed 45,000 AA miles. First class on BA and AA costed 57,500. Both factoring in the 5,000 miles each way promotion by Barclays AVIATOR AWARD REDEMPTION BONUS in early January 2016. It was quite reasonable in terms of miles, but with BA redemption, there's always a hefty tax/fuel charge so I ended up paying $1,000 USD. It's still a bit cheaper than paying for coach tickets for the same itinerary.

AA miles were accumulated by getting the Barclay's Aviator credit card promotional bonus and just using the credit card exclusively for about a year.

The San Francisco to Amsterdam itinerary started with Alaska Airlines first class flight from San Francisco to Seattle. Check in was easy and not crowded. Going through security was relatively painless with TSA Pre.

Alaska's first class wasn't much to brag about. Seats looked like Cathay's premium economy seats. Flight was short, didn't care that much.

Alaska SFO-SEA AS 313 07:00am

Flight attendant kept telling us how much the customers love the granola they serve during breakfast and that they'd pay money for them and bring a pound or two home if possible. I took one bite of it and I decided not to ever try eating granola again. It wasn't tasty for one, and there's this burnt taste, plus some grain/nut in it was extremely hard I almost broke a tooth. Not impressed by Alaska first class at all but it got me to where I had to be.

Breakfast granola - meh

It was quite a hike and required a short ride on the underground train to the international terminal. The lounges were one floor up from the gates. I located the BA one after purchasing some sushi for lunch. Lounge was nice clean and spacious, though it got a bit crowded an hour before departure since there were many who were on first and business classes, a rough estimate of 80 persons. The cold salad bar had very fresh vegetables and a few very well prepared sandwiches - not shrink-wrapped.

BA lounge in Seattle

Before long, it was time to board. It was complete chaos with no lines forming, everyone just crowded in around a couple of ground crew. I stared blankly into space and waited for my turn, out of the way, probably completely zoned out because I woke up at 4am that morning to catch the 7am Alaska flight. Out of the blue, one of the ground crew member tapped me and said me I could board immediately without waiting. He must had seen my boarding pass or recognized me from the lounge? I gladly complied and got on the plane.

The cabin was very clean and understated. I usually like the slightly minimalist design of BA cabins. It's also rare to see a semi-designed light fixture hanging from the ceiling of an airplane, but there it was! Similar effect of the little reading lamp in BA first, it adds a tiny little bit of comfort to the eyes.

As you can see on this BA business class cabin, the passengers were mostly from a specific demographic group.

Club World cabin overview

I quickly settled into my seat 17G. I could not get any window seat online before and during check-in. Apparently, BA makes you pay money to reserve a business class seat in advance. On first class it's free though. Due to the very unique configuration of the business class cabin, I studied very hard to select seats that no-one had to walk over me to get to his/her seat. There were a few of them, you'll get what I mean from the SeatGuru seat map. The seats were alternating facing forward and backwards. You'd be very awkwardly facing a stranger in very close proximity in many of the seats. Luckily, the flight was hardly full and all seats around me were empty, except all the window seats.

Club World cabin overview

BA was able to cramp 8 lie-flat seats in each row. Privacy was compromised but there was a privacy divider during non meal times. I would really need to experience it to see how awkward it can be but I didn't have to find out this time! Yay!

The ottoman doubled up as a magazine rack when in its upright position. When it's time to sleep, one would turn the lever and fold it down to complete the fully lie-flat bed.

Seat 17G

Pre-departure drinks were quickly served and the flight attendants were extremely friendly but professional.

Seat 17G

Meal service commenced shortly after take off. Although the proximity of the seats and the high density of the cabin didn't make it feel especially luxurious, the food made up for it.