Review of British Airways flight London → San Francisco in Economy

Overview:
This was the final flight of ours on the way home back to California. How we got it was weird, but all that mattered to me was that we got it. This was my first flight on an Airbus A380, and I was really happy after landing. This was also my first time on British Airways. This flight solely was going to happen because of the very late arrival from Brussels. Here, folks is where the real thrill happens. I will be comparing it to the United 787-9 product I used on my first flight. Yes, it would make better sense to compare AA vs BA or UA vs LH, but what I got was a UA and BA, so I will be comparing that to see which one is better between LHR and SFO. Here is the summary of all flights on my trip to Italy.

United 787-9 SFO-LHR: https://flight-report.com/en/report/29301/United-UA901-San-Francisco-SFO-London-LHR
Brussels A320 LHR-BRU: no review
Brussels A319 BRU-FCO: no review
Brussels A319 VCE-BRU: https://flight-report.com/en/report/29303/Brussels-Airlines-SN3208-Venice-VCE-Brussels-BRU
Brussels A320 BRU-LHR: https://flight-report.com/en/report/29304/Brussels-Airlines-SN2093-Brussels-BRU-London-LHR
British A380 LHR-SFO: you are here

How this started

After we arrived 25 minutes late from Brussels, we had to really rush from our gate to security. We were able to pass security pretty quickly despite the long lines. After that, we ran up to the United ticketing counter in T2 to check that we were on time for UA900 to SFO. However, they said that they had already unseated us and given up our seats. So that's where we hit panic mode. We asked the agents there for alternative options. United gave us the option of taking the later 787-9 flight to LAX and then take a short flight to SFO, in which we would arrive at 9:00p.m. Another option would be on a 767-400 to ORD and then a 757-200 to SFO, in which we would arrive at 9:30 p.m. I liked neither of those options, and neither did my mom, who had injured her hand earlier. So we went to the Brussels Airlines counter, where I thought that they would put us on Lufthansa to Munich and then to SFO, or on Swiss to Zurich and then on to SFO. However, I was surprised when they gave us the option to go on BA287 directly to SFO. My parents decided on BA287, because it was directly from LHR, which would be easier than going to another airport. I remembered that this was their A380 flight to SFO, so I was really excited. They gave us voucher passes to use the lounges in T2, because we had a three hour wait, and would want to use the lounges. We decided to go to the Lufthansa Senator lounge nearby.

Lufthansa Senator Lounge LHR

I was hoping to go to the Singapore Lounge, but that was quite a walk away, and that wasn't going to be very nice, so we settled for the Lufthansa one nearby. This review is comprehensive since I had come here on the way to Italy as well. The Senator Lounge at LHR is one of Lufthansa's main non-German European ones, so I did expect it to be pretty good. When you walk in there is a lot of newspapers, lots of seating areas, and quite a bit of food as well. The breakfast options include cereal, tomatoes, mushrooms, bacon, fried beans, eggs, bread, ham, cheese, etc. For lunch, there was curry chicken, rice, broccoli, etc. I had chicken curry and rice. There was also a self-service drink area as well.


The extensive food options at the LH senator lounge LHR

The lounge also has great views of runway 27L, which gives you great views of planes taking off and landing. Since I had a very short time in the lounge, I did not manage to take very many pictures.

Qantas A380 LHR going to MEL via DXB

After only 35 minutes in the lounge, we had to take the Bus transfer from T2 to T5, BA's flagship LHR terminal. Coming and going, I had used the Lufthansa Senator lounge for a combined 1 hour and 10 minutes. However, in that time, I thought that the lounge was quite good for a regional lounge, and I would recommend it if you are using T2 in LHR for a tight connection.

LHR transfer between terminals

We went back down to the bottom of T2 in order to take our bus to T5. The bus ride takes about 9 minutes between the two terminals. I thought that the bus ride was quite fun itself, as you are able to see all of the air traffic at LHR from your own perspective. LHR is one of the best spotting airports in the world, if not the best.

After the bus ride, we were taken inside T5. We were sent to the British Airways desk to get our boarding passes for our new flight. The person at the counter was very nice and quite fun to talk to as well, which is something you usually don't see. We were given the option of booking in the lower deck or the upper deck, so we chose the upper deck. There were no window seats available, but that doesn't come as a surprise because we were a last-minute addition and the window seats are very popular. The person at the counter was really nice and got me and my whole family to be seated in the aisle in row 72 on the upper deck. I chose seat 72G because it had direct aisle access, something that would be quite nice to have. She gave us our boarding passes and we went on to security. The security was quite quick, as we got through with no hassle at all.

Onto the LHR terminal 5. As I said before, it is BA's flagship terminal at LHR, and it looks quite sleek, too.


It has lots of duty-free shops, such as Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, Burberry, Harrods, as well as popular British restaurants. T5 is really big so much that it has three separate terminals, A,B, and C. Most of the Inter-European BA flights depart out of the A side, and the International ones out of the B&C side. Our flight, 287, was going to depart out of the C side, the only part of T5 that supports A380s. After walking around in T5 A for a while, we needed to go to T5 C, and the only way to do that was by the underground train. There are trains coming every 5 minutes, and the ride between T5A and T5C takes about the same amount of time. The train and the station was very crowded, so I couldn't take any pictures.

Once we got to T5C, we walked around to gate C63, where I got the first look of our A380, G-XLEG, delivered to BA in September 2014, making it a 3-year old aircraft at the time of flight.

British Airways A380 LHR

As I said before, my mom injured her hand the previous day, so BA was very nice to give us priority boarding even though we had literally zero OneWorld status. Not only that, but there also would be an in-flight doctor that they had assigned to us in the case we needed him. What class!

However, our flight was being quite delayed. It was originally supposed to depart at 3:05. However, we were first delayed to 3:30, then to 3:35 and then to 3:45 and then to 4:10. However, unlike Brussels Airlines, they gave us reasons. The gate agents said that they had to take this aircraft out of one of their maintenance hangars and bringing it to the gate took a while due to the heavy traffic at LHR, so that delayed all of the pre-flight checks of the aircraft. This did mean that I got to planespot a bit longer.

Malaysia Airlines A380 LHR

However, boarding eventually commenced at 3:45 and we got to board pretty early directly to the upper deck.

Cabin and Seat

On the way to my seat, I managed to see a lot of the upper deck of British Airway's A380.

British Airways Club World(business) A380 upper deck


British Airways World Traveller Plus(premium economy) A380 upper deck

British Airways' A380s are configured with 469 seats. World Traveller/ Economy has 303 seats split between the main and upper deck, with a 3-4-3 configuration on the main deck and a 2-4-2 configuration on the upper deck. World Traveller Plus/Premium Economy has 55 seats all on the upper deck in a 2-3-2 configuration. Club World/Business has 97 seats split between the main and upper deck, with a 2-4-2 configuration on the main deck and a 2-3-2 configuration on the upper deck. First class has 14 seats on the main deck in a 1-2-1 configuration. Below is the seat map for the A380.


Anyways, onto my seat, 72G, a World Traveller aisle seat on the upper deck of the A380.


The seat had a standard pitch of 31 inches and was 17.5 inches wide. Also included is an adjustable headrest, both in height and width, meaning that you could move it up and down very easily. Each seat has a power and USB port right in front of it. On the seat was a blanket, pillow, and earbuds. Just like the United flight on the way out, I decided to use my own earbuds. However, I used the pillow and blanket extensively, as they were super comfy, unlike on United, where the pillow and blanket were both quite thin compared to British Airways. Also, the seat itself was made out of cloth rather than the leather on the United seat. This seat was like an armchair and was super padded, so it was comfortable for the whole 10hr 50 min of the flight, unlike United, which was super thin and got very uncomfortable for the last 5 hours on the way out. The seat reclines quite a lot as well, and it stayed reclined unless you reset it back to the standard upright position. This was much better than on United, which would go back into the upright position if you even slightly moved, which was really irritating. The tray table on British Airways was a two-fold, which was quite cool as well.


The British Airways cabin is very blue and gray, giving it a cool, luxurious feel, and very traditionally British. Also, during the boarding process, British Airways plays medieval British music, which was quite nice as well, and it kinda reminded me of reading Shakespeare's Classic Macbeth with audio in my British Literature class in school.

We pushed back from gate C63 1 hour and 5 minutes late, and took off from runway 27R after a 20 min taxi. The A380's takeoff is very quiet, and throughout the whole flight, there was not much sound from the four massive Rolls-Royce Trent 900s in the cabin. This was the quietest flight of my life, and the A380 is very smooth in-flight.

Compared to United: Overall, this seat was way better than the one that I got on United. This one was really comfortable, and for the whole flight. United's got very uncomfortable for the second half of the flight. British Airways' recline was about the same as United's, but it stayed in the position you set it to be rather than being set back to upright even with the slightest movement. The blanket, pillow, and headrest were all way better. The cabin was very nice, and had a luxurious feel, while United was just O.k. and basic. The boarding music was quite soothing as well, and United had literally no boarding music at all. Think Rolls-Royce vs Lincoln. In terms of the two aircraft, both were quite nice, but I like the A380 quite a lot more. It was overall a way quieter and smoother plane, but the 787 is quite nice as well with its dimmable windows.

Inflight Entertainment

As I mentioned before, the IFE is a very important component to me. This one was about 9 inches, and had an on-off switch and a home button. It was a touch screen, just like United. However, this one was a bit slower to respond, as you had to wait about 5 seconds after touch or you could just touch the screen harder. The good news is that there is also a remote to operate the IFE if you feel like it. There was a good selection of movies and tv shows, both american and international, however, there wasn't as much selection as there was with United, and the IFE is a bit more British themed, which means that they put more British entertainment instead of American entertainment. A cool thing with this IFE was that you could put subtitles on some movies, which are quite a great help, something that United didn't have. Below are some of the movies that the British Airways IFE has.


The IFE also has a very nice inflight interactive map. The map is 3D, showing the plane moving across the flight. Also, you had very many views possible, like the tail, cockpit, front landing gear, left and right wing. When using these views, it shows you all the cities that are in near proximity in whichever view I was using. That way, I knew if I had Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Sacramento towards the right and Toronto towards the left. I used the map quite a bit during the flight, as it is very fun to play around with, and I used both the wing views upon landing in SFO. The stream is animated, however, unlike other A380 operators like Lufthansa, Air France, and Emirates, who all put live stream tail cameras, which are the real deal. Still, this was quite nice, especially compared to United's map, which was the bare bones most basic inflight map possible.


Compared to United: Both have a good selection of Movies and TV shows, but United has just so much selection that it makes British Airways' look a bit small. Both are touchscreen, but United's responded instantaneously while it took about 5 seconds on British Airways. However, British Airways cleverly solves this problem with a remote for faster response. Also, British Airways has the option of putting subtitles on some of its movies, which United doesn't have. The inflight map on BA, while not a full-blown live stream camera, was quite nice with its animated, moving 3D views, and the tail view is quite fun to use. United's map is very basic and not fun to use. Overall, I'd say that the IFE on United and British Airways are the same all things added up.

Food

British Airways for a long time has been known for top quality food. About 2 hours into the flight, we got our first meal service, which was dinner. There were two options, chicken or pasta. I chose chicken, which I found out was an amazing dish. The dish was a chicken casserole in ale sauce, served with bread, cous cous salad, chocolate pudding, and water on a plastic tray with plastic cutlery. In fuller detail, it is chicken breast covered in ale sauce, with a side of mashed potato. I took one bite of it and I loved it. The chicken was cooked perfectly, and the ale sauce added flavor. The mashed potatoes were right on the spot, cooked well and tasted delicious.


3 hours after dinner, the crew gave everyone snack boxes. The boxes had popcorn, "crisps"(signature British chips), and a Twix bar. The popcorn tasted like any popcorn does. I had not tried crisps before, but after eating these, I truly loved them. The Twix was good like always.


1.5 hours before landing, I was quite surprised when they gave us a second snack, but hey, more food the better. This snack was a cheese pizza roll, which was quite good, but it tasted better than something I would get at a local supermarket.


Compared to United: The food on British Airways and United are in two different worlds. The food I had on this flight was amazing, especially the main dinner service. It was well cooked and tasted very good, while on United, it was literally the some of the worst food I have ever tasted. British Airways also perfectly executed its snacks, giving lots of them and being very good. The snacks on United were literally a small turkey sandwich that I would find at a local supermarket, and a small pack of M&Ms.

Bathroom and Cabin Crew

At some points, I needed to use the bathroom. I used the bathroom near the back of the upper deck. It was a large bathroom for economy class standards, but just as basic as a normal economy bathroom. It was very clean and usable.


After using the bathroom, I decided to have a little chat with the cabin crew. They talked about British Airways future plans, which include taking delivery of new A350-1000s in 2020, while also introducing a new club world class. They said that the A350-1000s will be replacing a lot of their aging 747-400s, which they will start retiring soon, as well as older 777-200s. The chat was quite fun, as they were very funny and even joked around with me, too.

After the chat, I asked if I could use the A380 grand staircase and take a walk down to the lower deck. They said sure, just unlock the gate to it. I took a walk down it and went into the lower deck economy sections. However, I was not allowed into the business or first class sections.

British Airways A380 Grand Staircase


British Airways A380 economy main deck

I walked up and down the A380 staircase about 5 times during the flight, and it's a great way to get some in-flight excercise.

Compared to United: The bathroom on this flight was slightly larger, but that was solely because this was an A380 vs a 787. Aside from that the bathrooms were the same, basic, clean, and usable. However, the main difference comes in the cabin crew. This cabin crew was very nice as they had smiles on their faces the whole way there, and you can tell that they want to make sure your flight on British Airways is as enjoyable as possible. My chat with them was quite fun too, and they even joked around with me a bit too. On United, the cabin crew was very robotic and when I chatted with them, they clearly did not want me to be there as they rushed their answers to get me away. Overall, I liked the cabin crew on British Airways a lot better than the United Cabin crew.

We landed at SFO at 7:00 p.m., 40 minutes late. We had about a 15 minute taxi to SFO international terminal A(Oneworld, Skyteam, Asiana and Avianca from Star Alliance, and non-aligned carriers). We arrived at gate A9 next to a China Airlines Boeing 777-300ER. We walked quickly to customs and immigration, which were quick despite the long lines. Amazingly, our luggage had made it from LHR.
Here is a final parting shot of G-XLEG, which I will remember as the first A380 I ever flew.

British Airways A380 SFO