Review of British Airways flight from San Diego to London in Business

introduction

Hello and welcome to another series of oneworld transatlantic Business class flight reviews. These flights took place over the 2022-2023 Christmas Holidays–as usual, I'm very behind in posting!

For these outbound flights, I was able to work out a longer layover in London as my son really wanted to see London at Christmastime–it really is magical around the Holidays. It also worked out for the AvGeek in me, because one of the later flights we could take was operated by a widebody! Not to mention that the long-haul full-flat Business class seats would be welcome after a long transatlantic flight and a few hours of touring in London.

Routing

Flight reviews in this series:

Check-in & lounge

As usual for long-haul international flights, we arrived at the airport about 3h before departure.

San Diego’s Terminal 2 wasn’t too crowded as we were flying a little before the bulk of the Holiday rush.

There was no wait to check in through the Club World/oneworld Sapphire/Emerald lane.

The BA ticket counters were decorated for the Holidays with cute travel-themed garlands.

We’d already checked in online, so just needed to drop off out baggage. A very friendly and cheerful agent had us on our way in less than a minute and gave my 3-year-old son some British Airways Christmas stickers, which was a nice touch.

The TSA pre-check security lanes were complete empty, so we were through to airside in less than 2 minutes.

San Diego’s old and dark Terminal 1 will soon be replaced by a brand new Terminal. Once construction is complete SAN will have 2 modern and airy terminals.

We headed towards the Aspire Lounge, located on the opposite side of the terminal from the British Airways gate.

There was a line of about 10 passengers waiting outside, and just as many inside waiting to enter. There are currently only 3 lounges at SAN: A Delta SkyClub, a United Club, and the Aspire Lounge which serves as an American Admirals Club, Alaska Airlines Club, and is the designated Business class lounge for British Airways, Lufthansa, and Japan Airlines—and as if that weren’t enough, the lounge also accepts Priority Pass and American Express card holders!

Once we were able to enter after about 15 minutes, it was very crowded, as expected. There were maybe 2 single seats available in the entire lounge, and even some people sitting on the floor. An absolute zoo!

With the high levels of post-pandemic travel demand, San Diego desperately needs another lounge.

As we were looking for seats, a lovely couple offered us their seats as they would soon be leaving. I was very appreciative of the kindness.

My son was hungry, so we got him a little bit of everything. As you can see it’s nothing exciting or particularly high end, though mostly fresh items, which is decent by US lounge standards. 

Several complimentary wines, beers, liquors, and spirits are available at the bar. Including California sparkling wine.

Although I often get annoyed at how crowded this lounge is, I’m always impressed by how friendly and professional the lounge staff are. And they appear to have low turnover as I often see familiar faces—which helps to turn what would be a negative experience into a positive one. 

One of the staff came specially to us to give my son a cup of fruit on a stick made to look like Santa Claus. So cute and so very considerate!

Boarding

As the British Airways gate was on the opposite side of the terminal from the lounge, we headed out about 15 minutes prior to boarding time. 

We were right to leave the lounge early as it’s definitely a haul with a toddler in tow, and the BA gate is the very last gate on the end of the terminal.

Though the flight would be mostly full, there was very little crowding in the gate area, which makes for a more pleasant boarding experience. 

Following special assistance pre-boarding, Group 1 was called, which consists of Business class and oneworld Emeralds.

The A350-1000 is a long aircraft 

We were the first to arrive in the 3-row mini-cabin behind doors 2R/L

My seat in the last row.

When flying the BA A350-1000, I prefer seats in the quieter mini-cabin and always like the last row for more privacy and quiet as there is little traffic in the aisle on this end of the cabin with all lavatories and galleys located to the front.

As I’ve mentioned in previous reviews of the BA A350-1000, I love the new Club Suites, but they are difficult for travelling with young children as there is only a small opening between seats in the centre—which can be closed with a privacy screen for those travelling alone. 

The Club Suites are a huge evolution from the previous generation of Club World as they not only afford direct aisle-access, but also have closing doors.

While the doors aren’t particularly high–and I’m still torn as to whether I care about doors in Business class or if it's mostly gimmicky–I will say that the cabin design is chic. I do like the doors for sleeping, but usually have them open any other time. 

Always a fan of the BA bulkhead designs

Entertainment screens are a nice size.

A look at the Premium Economy cabin just behind us, equipped with the latest generation of World Traveller Plus seats. 

A full-sized pillow, blanket, noise-cancelling headphones, and a padded seat cover were already at each seat upon boarding. 

Menus were distributed shortly after settling in.

Soon thereafter came welcome drinks with a choice of champagne, orange juice, or water.

As mentioned earlier, screens are a nice size and also have a crisp image with good resolution. 

Legroom is very good, as one can expect with full-flat seats. These customised Collins Super-Diamond seats with doors are spacious and have a 2m (78 in) long sleeping surface when fully reclined in bed mode. 

 Seat controls on on the side console.  

A lid on the side opens to reveal a storage area housing the in-flight entertainment controller, a universal power outlet, the headphone jack, and two USB ports. This is also a good place to put phones.

Another small storage area

There's yet another storage area which contained a water bottle and also has a mirror. 

Let's have a look at the menu. There's a decent wine list with 2 different champagnes. For dinner, there are 3 choices of appetisers and 3 choices of mains, which is now finally back to pre-pandemic levels. There are also 3 choices of dishes for breakfast prior to landing.

As boarding wraps up, the cabin is readied for departure. 

the flight

We pushed back from the gate at exactly 7PM, which was 35 minutes delayed from the original scheduled time due to the late arrival of the inbound aircraft.

After a nice and short taxi, as is usual for SAN, we were off.

Just a bit over 10 hours to London tonight. 

After taking off over the Pacific Ocean, we made a sharp u-turn to head back eastbound–there are always nice views of downtown San Diego and Coronado Island from the left side of the plane. 

Once in the air, the Wi-Fi became available. 

There are several different Wi-Fi packages available. Messaging-only plans start at £2.99 and full internet costs £11.99 for 4 hours or £19.99 for the full flight. On a 10h flight like this, the full-flight package is the better value. 

I went for the full-flight pass. Speeds were decent–I was able to upload photos, browse social media, and stream videos with no issues, and even got some work in. 

There was a hot towel service shortly after takeoff. 

The High-life in-flight entertainment system always has a good amount of content with hundreds of films, series, documentaries, music, games, and lots of children's programming. Most content is also available in multiple languages. 

My son enjoyed playing children's games on the IFE.

Quick visit to the forward cabin. It is veeeery long with 11 rows of Club Suites–I much prefer the quieter mini-cabin. 

The meal service began with an apéritif. I love that BA always have a rosé champagne option. 

Club Suite doors are always locked in open position for taxi, takeoff, and landing. Cabin crew come through the cabin after takeoff to unlock them.

Here's what the doors look like when closed. As you can see the doors aren't very high, their value mostly lies in affording additional privacy and quiet in sleep position.  

As delivery of the appetiser course usually takes a while on the A350-1000 due to the very long cabin and only one galley at the very front, cabin crew regularly come through the cabin for drink refills as we wait. 

Checked out the IFE some more while waiting for dinner. 

I landed on Bullet Train, which was a cool movie. Incidentally, I'd get to ride the Bullet train myself less than two months later! Flight-Reports to come (at some point, haha).

After a previous experience waiting an excessive amount of time for dinner–due to being in the last row of Club–I made sure to ask for my son's child-meal first to that I could help him eat and then put him to bed as it was getting close to bed time. 

The flight attendant working my section was very sweet and surprised me with the appetiser course only minutes later! Once again, BA's child meal is impressive. Very nice, well-balanced, and tasty, though the portion was too large for a 3-year-old as usual.

When the flight attendant brought the main course she laughed and was a bit embarrassed to show that it was another chicken dish. She said something like "Sorry about that! It's almost the same as the appetiser innit? haha"

 I guess there was a sale on chicken breast  ?
Either way, my son enjoyed both dishes and ate them without any fuss. 

Once I got him to bed, it was my turn for dinner. The timing worked out perfectly.

Appetiser Course:

Sliced roast beef
Asparagus, Parmesan cheese, tartar sauce
Lime labneh and farro salad 

Main Course:

Cod Masala
Mustard rice, seven spiced broccolini
Fried onions

Everything was delicious and well-presented. The fish was perfectly cooked and the sauce was very good with the perfect level of spice. It was nice to see BA finally return to pre-pandemic catering standards after more than two and a half years of simplified service. 

For dessert, I went with the cheese plate, which I enjoyed with a lovely Port wine.  

After dinner, the bar area in the galley between the two Business class cabins was set up with drinks and snacks, including fresh options. These are available throughout the night.

One of the best things I like about overnight flights from the West Coast to Europe is that they're long enough to have a full nights' sleep. 

I did wake up for a short time in the middle of the flight and was treated to a beautiful display of dancing Northern Lights. Unfortunately, speeding along at 650mph in pitch blackness over Northern Canada did not make for ideal conditions so I only managed one horribly blurry photo!

After a nice rest, I woke up as we were about an hour from landing, right in time for the breakfast service. 

Once again, the meal was properly coursed out and nice quality, including warm pastries.  

For the main I had the English Breakfast, as I almost always do on BA. It was very good and a nice portion. 

The whole way through the British Isles from Ireland to England was a thick blanket of clouds, typical for that time of year. 

The cabin is readied for arrival.

arrival

Although we were already running late due to our late departure from SAN, there were additional delays into Heathrow due to the rain and low ceiling, so we went into a holding pattern, as is so common when arriving into London.

The arrival time kept creeping up as we made circles in the thick clouds.

Once we finally landed, it was a long taxi to T5, passing every other terminal on the way.

Arrival time continued to creep up.

We parked at T5 Concourse B - One of the midfield satellite concourses.

We ended up pulling into the gate a half hour behind schedule. Despite the favourable winds, we did not make up any time on our departure delay due to arrival delays into London. 

One of the nice things about sitting in the mini-cabin is that we were only 3 rows from the door, so we were off rather quickly. As we had planned to go into the city between flights, the half-hour delay was cutting into that time, so we hurried along to the train for the main terminal. 

Luckily, there was surprisingly no wait as the UK border and we were on our way!

Off to the Heathrow Express we went!

Perfect timing as we only had to wait a few minutes for the next train.

Paddington Station looking beautiful at Christmastime. 

We had just enough time to walk around central London for a bit and go for a ride on the London Eye, which was the main attraction my son had asked to see.

 In the end, we still had plenty of time to make it back to Heathrow to catch our onward flight to Madrid. That review coming up in the next Flight-Report.

Thanks for reading!