Review of British Airways flight Reykjavík → London in Business

We live in Iceland and we decided to go on holiday to Hokkaido, in the north of Japan. I booked our flights in September 2022, a very short time after Japan had lifted all covid related travel restrictions. I usually book my flights in two separate bookings whenever I go from Iceland to Asia: I first go to Oslo and then from Oslo to Asia. The reasons is that flights in business class from Oslo to Asia are usually much cheaper than from Iceland. But this time the price was very similar so I booked the following flights under the same booking issued on a Japan Airlines ticket:

Keflavík to London LHR, British Airways
London LHR to Tokyo HND, Japan Airlines
Tokyo HND to Sapporo CTS, Japan Airlines
Sapporo CTS to Tokyo HND, Japan Airlines
Tokyo HND to Helsinki, Japan Airlines
Helsinki to Keflavík, Finnair.

I received e-mails from Japan Airlines about flight changes on 22nd December 2022. The outbound flights were changed only by a few hours but the return flights were changed from a daytime flight to a night flight and in the wrong order: the Tokyo to Helsinki flight was booked on an earlier departure than the Sapporo to Tokyo flight. It was impossible to accept the changes or modify the booking on-line or in the app. There are no public Japan Airline offices in Europe. There’s only one call centre in Europe, in London, and it’s open only for a few hours a day, I never managed to talk to anybody. Japan Airlines called me in April 2023, almost four months later, and told me about the new itinerary over the phone and I was asked if we accepted the changes. Not very high-tech.

The good thing about flying British Airways from Keflavík to London is that departure is at 10.40, hours later than Icelandair, so there’s no need to wake up in the middle of the night. Keflavík Airport is usually quiet around this time as most flights leave earlier but with increased passenger numbers Icelandair and other airlines as well have more and more flights.  

There was a dedicated Club Europe (business class) check-in desk. There were only four other passengers in front of us but they were very slow to check in. Then the man working at the desk just left without saying a word when it would have been our turn. We were eventually checked in at the economy check-in desk which also took quite some time.

Keflavík Airport is being extended once again. Works are progressing quite quickly.

Fast track security was available. 

You go through a large duty free shop after security.

The roof of the main terminal building.

There's only one lounge at Keflavík Airport, the Icelandair lounge. British Airways' business class passengers and BA Gold members have access. 

We only had ten minutes at the lounge. You can find more detailed descriptions of the lounge her 

We passed passport control quickly. Priority boarding at the gate was available then we were bussed to the plane. The view from the bus:

Our plane today was G-TTNE, an A320neo, built only four years ago.

British Airways has a typical Eurobusiness cabin, called Club Europe, with a configuration of 3+3 economy seats with the middle seats being blocked. I’m sorry but I didn’t take any photos of the cabin as almost all seats were taken.

This flight had nine rows of business class which is unusually high. Business class was almost completely full: load was 33/36. There was no curtain between business class and economy.

There was a pillow and a blanket waiting on the seat. There was no welcome drink.

Some passengers seemed to be flying from Iceland to the US with BA/AA via London. It's a bit strange for me with so many direct flights from Iceland to the US.

An expected flight time of two hours and 30 minutes was announced.

We left our parking position at 10.50 for a scheduled departure time of 10.40. We took off at 11.03.

Here's the menu card. A choice of three hot mains - very good for an intra-European flight.  

The choice of drinks.

Drink service started about 20 minutes after take-off. Service was slow with a high number of passengers and a personalised service (Would you like ice or lemon with your drink?). I asked for a coke and got two. I also got some packaged nuts.

Meal service started 45 minutes after take-off. Service was once again very slow. I recently flew with Turkish Airlines four times in a narrowbody aircraft and service was completed (i.e. passengers finished eating and everything was cleared) by the time British started meal service. Meal service was poorly organised as the three cabin crew had to rearrange the layout on every tray and remove the cover from every item. Moreover, while the cabin crew was very polite, some of them seemed not to have experience in narrowbody business class service.

Chicken would have been my first choice but it was not available by the time service got to my row. I had roast beef which was OK.

Roast beef, sun dried tomatoes, Parmesan crem sauce.  

My family members had pasta and chicken.

Ricotta cappellacci, panna mushroom sauce 

Grilled chicken, potato au gratin, asparagus, kale, jus.

Meal service was completed one hour and 50 minutes after take-off. I had some (very) black tea after that.

Despite all the above comments British Airways clearly upgraded its meal service. The choice was good (although they ran out of some items), there was no cost cutting in the catering and the meals were well thought out. The service protocol was however most likely designed by people who have never worked as cabin crew.

Snacks were offered from a basket about 30 minutes before landing but I didn’t take anything.  

Some nice views before landing: 

The Dorney Lake kayaking course.

Windsor.

The Queen Mother Reservoir.

Seconds before reaching the runway.

Welcome to Heathrow, the home of British Airways.

We landed at Heathrow at 14.36 at runway 09L and were at the gate at 14.43 for a scheduled arrival time of 14.40.