Review of British Airways flight from Washington to London in Premium Eco

Hello and welcome to a new series of Flight-Reports!
As the American Airlines AAdvantage program has gone fully revenue-based in 2017, I knew my mileage earning rates would go down compared to previous years. Gone are the days of earning 100% Elite mileage bonuses based on distance flown; however, the new program still has some sweet spots allowing for decent accrual of Elite Qualifying Dollars (EQDs), Redeemable miles (RDMs), and Elite Qualifying Miles (EQMs). One of those sweet spots can be found flying certain oneworld partners in Premium Economy, at least, when decent fares are available. On partner airlines, EQDs are calculated as a percentage of the distance flown, rather than actual dollars spent (minus taxes), as is the case when flying AA or purchasing flights through AA.
Based on the mileage earning chart below, it is easy to see why BA Premium Economy is a sweet spot. Premium Economy has the same EQM earning rate as Business and First class and only a slightly lower EQD earning rate than Business class, whereas Premium Economy fares are often less than half discounted Business class fares.

Also, unlike travel on AA, which earns RDMs for AAdvantage members based on the fare paid, RDM earning on BA is still distance-based, though discounted Economy may only earn 25 or 50 percent of distance flown.
Below are the AAdvantage award mileage (RDM) earning rates for AA:
AAdvantage® member – 5 miles for every U.S. dollar
Gold member – 7 miles/U.S. dollar (40% bonus)
Platinum member – 8 miles/U.S. dollar (60% bonus)
Platinum Pro member – 9 miles/U.S. dollar (80% bonus)
Executive Platinum member – 11 miles/U.S. dollar (120% bonus)
Considering that British Airways often offer reasonable fares in Premium Economy, the earning rates can be advantageous, especially for AAdvantage Elite members who earn a bonus. For my first big trip of the year, I found a decent $1,720 Premium Economy fare from Washington, DC to Dubai to go visit a friend over the U.S. Presidents day holiday weekend. Being that Economy fares were about $1,300, in my opinion, the $400 premium is well worth it for the additional comfort and improved service. That's about an additional $100 per segment, with each segment being around 7-8 hours.
Now, let's talk mileage earnings. For IAD-LHR-DXB-LHR-IAD, the actual distance flown round-trip is 14,194 miles. Had I been flying AA, my mileage earning would have been purely revenue-based. Out of the $1,720 I paid for the ticket, only $1,275 was actual fare, the rest being taxes. I would have therefore earned only 1,275 EQDs (Elite Qualifying Dollars) for this trip–I will need at least 6000 EQDs this year to maintain Platinum status for 2018. As a Platinum member, I would have earned only 10,200 RDMs (1275 X 8), which is less than one RDM per actual mile flown. A bad deal, to be sure!
Below was my actual mileage earning rate for a Premium Economy ticket on BA bought directly through britishairways.com. As you can see, the earning rates are much better.
EQDs = 2,840 (20% of 14,194 miles flown) - That's more than double the 1,275 I would have earned buying through AA.
RDMs = 22,712 (14,194 miles flown + 60% Elite bonus) - Again, this is more double the 10,200 RDMs, I would have earned through AA
* On a sad note - Under the old pre-2017 program, I would have earned 28,388 RDMs (14,194 miles flown + 100% Elite bonus)
EQMs = 21,292 (14,194 miles flown X 1.5 EQM rate for Premium Economy)
Either way you cut it, the AAdvantage mileage program just isn't what it used to be. It was by far the best loyalty program of the Big 3 U.S. carriers, now it's only just average. However, in my case, going British Airways Premium Economy, helped to take much of the sting out of program devaluations.
On to the report! Below is the routing, obviously going through BA's LHR hub:

• Washington IAD ✈ London LHR | British Airways, A380-800, Premium Economy [THIS REPORT]
• London LHR ✈ Dubai DXB | British Airways, B747-400, Business Class [CLICK HERE]
• Dubai DXB ✈ London LHR | British Airways, B787-9, Premium Economy [CLICK HERE]
• London LHR ✈ Washington IAD | British Airways, B777-200, Premium Economy [COMING SOON]

On this beautiful sunny winter day, I arrived at the airport a little over 2 hours before departure. I had one bag to check, but there was absolutely no line at the Business class/oneworld frequent flyer Elite check-in.
After dropping off my bag, I quickly made my way to security, which was also surprisingly uncrowded for this hour.
Love that iconic Saarinen terminal!

After security, I took the underground train to the B concourse.
This suspended aircraft greets you as you arrive into the concourse coming off the escalators from the train.

The British Airways lounge is just to the right after coming off the escalators. I only spent about 15-20 minutes there, as I wanted to do some lounge-hopping, and didn't take many pictures. Also, I was sitting across from famous TV political pundit Tucker Carlson (Hey, it's DC!) and didn't want him thinking I was some weirdo stalker.
I've previously covered the BA Galleries lounge in more detail here.

After two glasses of champagne, we headed out to discover the new Turkish Airlines lounge.

TK had recently opened a brand new lounge here at IAD, I believe their only self-run lounge in the U.S., and I'd heard really good things about it. Unfortunately, I'm not a Star Alliance flyer, so chances were slim that I'd ever get to check it out.
Then, a few weeks before the trip, Priority Pass announced that the Turkish Lounge at IAD was joining the program…awesome!
Conveniently, the Turkish lounge is actually right across from the BA gates, whereas the BA galleries lounge is a few gates down.

That would be a lovely addition to my collection! ^^

The Turkish lounge is much smaller than I thought it would be, but it is quite pleasant. It helped that the lounge wasn't particularly crowded.

Nice view of a Qatar Airways 77W from the lounge, with the beautiful main terminal in the background.

Around the corner from the main room, there is a smaller quieter area with a bar.
I had read in some reviews, back when the TK lounge first opened, that there was no champagne, so I asked the bartender if that was still the case and luckily, the TK lounge is now serving champagne :-)

The buffet back in the main area.

The food offering is quite good for a U.S. lounge, with hot and cold options.
Lamb kofta, rice, and lentils

Proof that the TK lounge has champagne :-)

This is the main room of the lounge–as you can see it's not terribly big, but it is a nice space.

Turkish Airlines branding is everywhere, including the chairs.

Right about when boarding was due to begin, we headed out across the way to our gate.

At IAD, A380s are boarded from two adjacent gates. British Airways use gate B42 for lower deck boarding, and gate B44 for the upper deck.

Even though I've been on A380s dozens of times, I still get excited! #AvGeek #SuperNerd
This would be my first time on a BA A380, however. Squeeeeee ^^

Since we were on the upper deck, we waited at gate B44. There was only one other couple ahead of us. As people started queuing up, a BA agent checked boarding passes to make sure people were in the correct line.

Surprisingly no line yet for the main deck at gate B42.

British Airways are proud of their A380. Yes, it is the only A380 service between Washington and London, but it's certainly not the only A380 service at IAD–Air France and Emirates also operate scheduled A380 services at Washington-Dulles

Boarding begins just a few minutes late; however, judging by the amount of people in line for boarding at gates B42 and B44, the flight will not be full.

And in case you didn't know by now that you'll be flying on an A380…here you go ?

Walking through the Club Wold (Business class) cabin in a 2-3-2 configuration on the upper deck,

The relatively large World Traveller Plus (Premium Economy) cabin.

Our seats in the last row.

I often like to sit in the last row as I find it offers more privacy and I don't have to worry about reclining my seat in anybody's face. Having the lav right behind wasn't really a problem as there was a curtain between the WTP cabin and the lavs.
Unsurprisingly, compared to other BA aircraft, the A380 has by far the largest Premium Economy cabin in the fleet.

Nice, spacious cabin.

The biggest advantage to a window seat on the upper deck, in any class of service, is the extra lateral space due to the width of the fuselage. That extra space allows for practical storage bins along the windows–a great place for laptop bags and coats.

In the last row of WTP, there are two bins available for lateral storage.

The seat pitch is 38 inches, about the same as domestic First class in the U.S. Seat width is about 20", also similar to U.S. domestic First class.
Unlike, the older generation of World Traveller Plus seats, the new seats have double armrests for more lateral space and much deeper recline.

As I had suspected, the load was on the lighter side and boarding was completed well ahead of schedule. The WTP cabin was about 2/3 full.

Beautiful sunset colors out the window.

Shortly after everyone has settled into their seats, the friendly cabin crew pass out menus and do a pre-departure drink service.
Water and orange juice were offered. On some WTP flights in the past, I've seen sparkling wine offered as well. I'm not sure if this is only available on certain flights, or if this has been discontinued altogether.

Pleasant mood lighting.

The IFE is available gate-to-gate.

As usual, I set my screen to the moving map.

We push back about 5 minutes early.

The safety video plays during taxi to the runway.

And we're off for a quick 6.5 hour hop across the pond!

The WTP cabin with mood lighting shortly after takeoff.

Premium Economy passengers are provided with the same noise-cancelling headphones as you'll find in Club World (Business class).

There is a good selection of movies and TV series in several languages, though I would say the content is not as extensive as the IFE on American Airlines, especially when it comes to music selection.

About 15 minutes into the flight, the crew are out in the cabin for the apéritif service.
Sparkling wine is available; it is a Spanish cava–a bit on the sweeter side, but drinkable. I believe Pommery champagne was previously served in WTP, so this seems to be some evidence of cost-cutting.

Cheers!

Let's have a look at the menu.

There are two choices of mains–beef or pasta, nothing terribly exciting, though the beef dish with truffle risotto sounds good.

The dinner service begins as we make our way up the Eastern seaboard along the coast of Long Island, New York.

Although beef can often be a gamble on planes, that is what I went for. Premium Economy meals are a hybrid of Economy and Business class meal service. The main dish along with the glassware and cutlery are inspired by Business class, while the rest is the same as Economy.

Although the portion of beef was on the small side and, unsurprisingly, a bit overcooked, the dish was quite tasty overall.

Crossing over Cape Cod, Massachusetts during dinner.

Flying over the southern end of Nova Scotia as dinner service wraps up and the lights are lowered.

I fell asleep shortly after, but woke up for a little bit as we were over the middle of the Atlantic. Cabin crew were making their way through the cabin with trays of water and orange juice. It is always nice to avoid having to go back to the galley.

I slept a good 3.5 hours altogether. The seat recline in World Traveller Plus is quite deep for a premium economy seat.
Breakfast was served as we neared the west coast of Ireland.

Unlike dinner, which has a more premium feel, the breakfast was a purely economy-style affair.
Cute box, though.

Contents of the breakfast box: Cream cheese filled pretzel bread and a granola bar. Nothing terribly exciting, but it was fine considering it had only been about 4 hours since dinner.

The lights came on as the cabin crew prepared the cabin for landing.

Starting our descent over Wales.

Time for some loops over London

Surprisingly, we were not put into a holding pattern, as is so often the case arriving into LHR.

Not sure why the IFE showed London City Airport, but not Heathrow.

We parked at T5C, which seems to always be the case when I fly into LHR from the U.S.

Nice bulkhead design in WTP.

The first row of WTP on the A380 has a nice amount of space. I was surprised the seats looked to have not been occupied upon disembarking.