Review of British Airways flight San Diego → London in Business

introduction

Hello and welcome to another series of transatlantic flights from San Diego. As a oneworld loyalist, since moving to Southern California, this British Airways flight has become our regular shuttle between our two countries. Surprisingly, for such a large city (the 8th largest city in the U.S. by population), San Diego only has two daily transatlantic services: the British Airways flight to London, and a Lufthansa flight alternating between Frankfurt and Munich hubs depending on the day. I suspect that the proximity of gigantic LAX and SAN's geographical location in the extreme southwest corner of the U.S. may be factors that drive down demand from SAN. 

I'm happy that we have this solid oneworld option from SAN and that it's usually operated by the beautiful new A350-1000 with BA's flagship Club Suites product. 

routing

check-in & lounge

We arrived at San Diego Terminal 2 about 3 hours before departure as I prefer not to be rushed or stressed with the increasing summer travel crowds. 

This was the busiest I think I'd ever seen the BA ticket counters this early before the flight, but luckily the Club World queue moved quickly.

Though the airport was generally busy, the TSA pre-check lanes were quiet and we were through in minutes. 

Getting to the Aspire lounge there was a very long queue to enter. This is very typical in my experience as it's the only third party lounge in Terminal 2, serving most airlines except for Delta and United, which have their own lounges. The Aspire lounge also accepts Priority Pass and several other programmes, so it's almost always crowded.

They really need to build a new lounge or expand this one, because it makes for an unpleasant start to the experience when flying in long-haul Business class. As I've mentioned before, the Aspire lounge is fine as a Priority Pass lounge–where the standards are pretty low in the U.S.–but it's not at an international business class level.

After about 20 minutes of waiting, we were finally able to enter, and it was unsurprisingly very crowded. 

Luckily, we were able to find a table as some people left as we were arriving. 

All that wait for some very mediocre food and cheap sparkling wine. The food options consist mostly of snacks, salads, cheese cubes, and cold meats–no hot options. This is well below normal international business class standards. 

To be fair, flights from the West Coast to Europe are long enough that there's enough time to eat on-board and still get a decent amount of sleep. The lack of decent food options in the lounge would be a much bigger deal on short red-eyes from the East Coast to Europe, where many people prefer to have dinner in the lounge and sleep through the short 6-7h night flights. 

One thing I will say, which I've mentioned in several past reviews, is that the staff in this lounge are always lovely and do a great job with the limited resources they have. 

boarding

As usual, we left the lounge about 10-15 minutes before boarding as the British Airways gate is the last gate on the end of the pier on the opposite side of the terminal, so it's a bit of a long walk.

The BA gate is at the far-end of this concourse. 

Boarding had just begun as we arrived at the gate. We were able to queue up and board immediately in Group 1. 

On boarding through door 2L we turned right into the Club World mini-cabin.

On the BA A350-1000, we always select seats in the rear mini-cabin as it's much quieter and offers more privacy with only 3 rows of seats compared to the very long main cabin with 11 rows. 

Pre-placed on each seat in Club World are a large pillow, bedding from the White Company, and Noise-cancelling headphones

Seats in Business class are laid out in a spacious 1-2-1 configuration, allowing direct access to the aisle for all seats–a big upgrade from BA's older Club World seats that were typically in a 2-4-2 configuration. All Club Suites have closing doors and the seats recline to fully flat 2-metre long beds in sleep mode. 

The seats have plenty of storage space 

And multiple power outlets and USB-A ports to keep electronic devices well-charged. The only thing that is missing is a USB-C port. 

Legroom is very good, as you'd expect, and the foot space is quite roomy when the seat is in bed mode.

Shortly after distributing the amenity kits, cabin crew come through the cabin with welcome drinks–a choice of champagne, water, or orange juice. 

Food menus were then distributed in the cabin. BA have now mostly gotten back to pre-pandemic service levels now with 3 options of appetisers and 3 options of main dishes. 

the flight

Despite a completely full flight, boarding finished early and we were ready for an early departure. 

On-time push-back from the gate. 

The safety video played as we taxied.

The BA A350-1000 is the largest aircraft to visit San Diego, as we don't get many wide-bodies here, aside from some United 777-200s, Delta 767s, JAL 787-8/9, and Lufthansa A350-900

Nice views of the waterfront and downtown as we lined up for takeoff.

As usual we took off heading west over the Pacific ocean before turning back inland heading northeasterly to cross the North American continent to reach Europe. 

A flight time of 9h20m would have us arriving a half-hour early into Heathrow–but that's often not reliable as, more often than not, there are arrival delays into London due to air traffic congestion. 

Beautiful sunset colours as we continue to climb. 

As we climbed over 10,000 feet, the Wi-Fi became available. 

There are messaging packages from GBP 2.99 and full browsing and streaming packages from GBP 11.99. A full flight package is GBP 19.99

Overall speeds are decent, though there are typically a few dead zones in coverage towards the poles on these flights with very northerly routes. 

The in-flight entertainment system is smooth and intuitive. You can use the touch screen in front of you or the touchscreen remote to select content. There is tons of content in multiple languages from movies, to series, to documentaries, games, and children's programming. 

I like the option of having the moving map on the remote as content plays on the main screen. 

My 4-year-old son always enjoys the many children's games. 

Let's have a look at the main Club World cabin before the dinner service begins. It's nice, but veeeeeery long.

I much prefer the much smaller and more intimate mini-cabin. 

About a half-hour after takeoff, the service begins with an aperitif. Champagne for me. 

Cheers!

As per usual protocol, my son's Child Meal was served first, which is always convenient for me. The child meals in Business on BA always look good, but there's always way too much food for a younger child. I find that there's usually even more food than the adult meals.

This is just the appetiser! 

For my appetiser, I went with the prawns, which was delicious and well-presented

Marinated king prawns
Lettuce, avocado salad, carrot and ginger dressing

Appetisers were accompanied by a small lime labneh and farro salad

For the main, I chose the Cod. There's almost always an Indian-style dish in the options on BA and those are consistently good, in my experience, but it would also be nice to see more interesting options than essentially just chicken, fish, or vegetarian. Though BA have elevated their catering over the past year, the options haven't been particularly exciting, especially when flying long-haul Business several times a year. I'd love to see some more interesting proteins like lamb or duck on the Club World menus. 

Nevertheless, the fish option was very tasty. 

Cod Masala
Mustard rice, seven spiced broccolini, fried onions

For dessert I had the cheese plate. Being French, it's culturally ingrained in my brain that cheese should be a separate course on its own, and I generally don't like having to choose between cheese or dessert. However, in my experience, cabin crews on BA are very accommodating and it is possible to have both, but they usually have to check to make sure there is enough since cheese is not catered to be a separate course. 

I wasn't terribly hungry so I was happy with just the cheese plate this time. Plus the fruit, chutney and accompanying port that I had added notes of sweetness. In my experience, BA have some decent British cheeses in Club World, especially the Blues. I always enjoy discovering cheeses from other countries–I know how French that sounds; there's no hiding it  ?

Kindred Sharp Cheddar
Reypenaer VSOP Aged Gouda
Buttermilk Blue
Served with grapes, caramelised walnuts, mango chutney

For those who may have skipped dinner, or are hungry later on, there were snacks and drinks available throughout the flight in the galley between the two business class cabins.

I slept through most of the rest of the flight and woke up 45 minutes before landing. The Club Suites are very comfortable in bed mode and the bedding is quite nice. Though I don't really care about having a door in Business class in general, it does help to feel more isolated when sleeping. All these factors make for ideal conditions for a good restful sleep onboard. 

It was full daylight out as it was midday by this point. 

Though I'd slept through the breakfast service, the lovely cabin crew kindly offered to heat up a tray for me, but I declined and just had a cup of coffee. 

arrival

As we got closer to London, the flight deck announced delays into Heathrow and the usual holding patterns–no surprise there. It was funny to see other aircraft doing the same holding loops. 

What was originally meant to be a half-hour early arrival, due to favourable winds, got progressively pushed back due to holding. 

The bright side of being put into holding patterns during arrival delays into Heathrow is the nice views of London one gets if it's clear enough. 

"Look kids Big Ben, Parliament"

After quite a few loops, we were finally cleared for landing about a half-hour later. 

At this point, our half-hour head start had completely melted away. 

Taxi time was short, luckily. 

In the end, we were 8 minutes late into the gate–LHR is definitely back to pre-pandemic traffic levels at this point. 

The jet-bridge was attached to door 1L, which meant going through the forward Business cabin to exit. 

We had plenty of time before our connecting flight, so the small delay had no impact.

Welcome to London Heathrow Terminal 5!