Review of British Airways flight from New York to London in Business

Introduction

Welcome to the next segment in another transatlantic series of flights. 

Like every year, we flew back to Europe for the Holidays, making a few days' pit stop to visit family on the East Coast on the way. As this would be our first time flying out of JFK since British Airways re-located to Terminal 8, I was looking forward to seeing the new facilities and lounges. 

routing

Reviews in this series:

check-in & lounge

After dropping off the car at the Rental Car Center, we took the AirTrain one quick stop to Terminal 8. 

Though we were travelling in Business, our oneworld Emerald status gave us access to the more exclusive Premium Check-in facility, which I believe used to be the Flagship First check-in area. It is accessible to British Airways and American long-haul First class passengers as well as oneworld Emerald status holders. 

It's a chic and well-designed space. Overall I like the modern yet warm aesthetic. 

It feels more like a lounge than a check-in area. 

There are no loud baggage conveyor belts here–staff take bags away by hand, which has a premium hotel feel. AA and BA have definitely done a nice job with this premium check-in experience. 

Upon exiting the Premium Check-in zone, it leads right to the TSA Pre-check lanes, which is very convenient. 

We headed right to the lift leading up to the new premium Chelsea and Soho Lounges. 

The Chelsea Lounge is the most exclusive, reserved uniquely for American Airlines or British Airways long-haul First class passengers, as well as those with invitation-only-level status (AA Concierge Key or BA Gold Guest List). This is the equivalent of the Concorde Room, BA previously operated at Terminal 7. 

The Soho Lounge is accessible to top-tier oneworld Emerald frequent flyers along with First class passengers for all other oneworld airlines. This is the equivalent of the BA Galleries First Lounge. The former AA Flagship Lounge has been re-branded as the Greenwich Lounge and is located in a different part of the terminal. All other premium passengers—Business class passengers and oneworld Sapphire frequent flyers—have access to the Greenwich Lounge. 

The Soho Lounge is large with plenty of seating areas and tables, and importantly, there are large windows, which is one thing missing from the more-exclusive Chelsea Lounge. 

It wasn't terribly crowded despite the busy evening departure bank to Europe. 

There are convenient phone booths towards the back of the lounge, where one can take calls without bothering others. 

There's a good variety of fresh food and hot dishes from the self-service buffets, a step above the typical Flagship Lounge fare. However, there is also a good selection of food that can be ordered and delivered to the table. 

Champagne can be ordered from the bar or to the table from your phone through the QR code at each table. There were several premium champagnes on offer, which change often from my understanding. This evening there were 5 different champagnes, including two rosés. I enjoyed a few glasses of Laurent-Perrier Brut Rosé.

As mentioned, there is a QR code at each table, which leads to a menu where dishes can be ordered and delivered to the table. 

Being a joint American Airlines-British Airways lounge there was a good mix of British and American fare, as well as international dishes. 

And desserts, though there wasn't a huge selection. There were more desserts available at the buffet. 

I helped myself to a few items at the buffet for the appetiser and then ordered the Fish and Chips with mushy peas for the main. 

Though it's nothing fancy, it was very good and I like the addition of the mushy peas, which is so British. It also came with a side of malt vinegar, which I appreciated. 

The ice cream cookie sandwich was surprisingly huge…my son just made a mess of it haha ?

Our flight was showing a little 10 minute delay–no big deal, it gave us a little more time to enjoy the lounge. 

boarding

The gate was a quick walk from the lounge. By the time we got there boarding had already begun with Group 1 so we joined the queue. 

First time on a 787-10, exciting! We were welcomed on board by a very cheerful cabin crew. 

Though I generally prefer smaller cabins, there aren't any mini-cabins on the very long 787-10.  There are two Business class cabins: one with 6 rows and one with 7 rows. Still better than the super long main Business cabin on the A350-1000 and 777-300ER. 

Though I'd never been on a 787-10, I'm very familiar with British Airways Club Suites from flying the BA A350-1000 regularly in and out of my home airport of San Diego. There was no apparent difference between the seats on the 787-10 and the A350-1000. I expected that the seats would perhaps be slightly narrower than on the A350 due to the narrower fuselage of the 787, but that was not the case—the seats were just as wide and spacious. If anything, it's possible that the aisles were a bit narrower to accommodate the width of the Club Suites on the narrower fuselage—but it wasn't noticeable.  

On each seat were a large pillow, a bedding set—including a mattress pad and comfortable duvet from the White Company—noise cancelling headphones, an amenity kit and bottle of water. On these shorter transatlantic flights from the East Coast, the menus are also pre-placed at each seat, rather than being distributed later to save time. 

Club Suites are a modified version of the popular Collins Aerospace Super Diamond seat model with the addition of a door. Laid out in a reverse-herringbone patter in a 1-2-1 configuration, all seats in Business class have direct access to the aisles. 

In the side console you'll find the in-flight entertainment remote controller, a headphone jack, a 110v universal power outlet, and 2 USB-A ports. The only thing missing is a USB-C port, but these cabins were designed slightly before USB-C became generalised. 

Legroom is very good as can be expected. When laid fully flat, seats convert into a 2m (78") long bed. 

Pre-departure drinks were served as boarding continued–the usual choice of water, orange juice, or champagne. 

Let's have a look at the menu. The evening menu on shorter East Coast flights is slightly simplified compared to what I'm used to from the West Coast. There are less options of appetisers, which is fine as the service needs to be quicker given there are 3 less hours in the air. I was a bit disappointed to see that 2 of the 3 options of mains were exactly the same as our last Eastbound transatlantic on BA a few months prior. 

the flight

Despite a bit of a late start to boarding and the announced 10 minute delay, boarding wrapped up quickly and we pushed back from the gate close to on time. 

The safety video played as we taxied to the departure runway. 

Being on the tail end of the busy evening transatlantic departure bank, taxi time wasn't as long as it can get earlier in the evening, where a 45 minute taxi time can be pretty normal. 

We taxied for less than 20 minutes and were off.

Ouch, only 5 hours 49 minutes flight time into London…that is short! Not as short as it gets, as I've had sub-5-hour flight times on this route with crazy jetstreams in the past. But being more used to the longer 9-10h flight times from the West Coast, this is rough for a night flight—very little time for sleep. 

The moving map is not the same interface as I'm used to on the A350-1000.

Checking out the in-flight entertainment as the dinner service begins. There's tons of contents in multiple languages: Movies, series, documentaries, music, games, and children's programming. 

It's also nice to be able to view the map on the handset while viewing content on the main screen. 

The flight attendant working my side of the cabin was very friendly and super attentive. He pro-actively came over to tell me the contents in the child meal for my son ahead of time. Knowing that BA's child meals in Business are always too big for my four-year-old son, I asked for just the main to avoid any waste, in case the appetiser could be of use elsewhere. 

Just the main and dessert with a small side of crudités was plenty of food for a CHML, no need for an appetiser—which was also chicken apparently, so no big loss there. 

For my appetiser I had the prawns, which was tasty with bold flavours and very nicely presented.

Marinated king prawns
Avocado salad, carrot and ginger dressing

For the main I went with the Cod Masala. I've had this dish several times on other BA flights and it's always a good option…the problem is that it's been on the menu so often. I would really love to see more frequent changes in the menu and a greater variety of proteins. I've said this before, but I'd love to see lamb or duck more often, just something more interesting that the usual chicken, beef, or fish. Nevertheless, the Cod was very good, well-spiced, and perfectly cooked. 

I hesitated with the Christmas Dinner option as that was something different, but it just sounded so heavy and we'd eaten in the lounge just a few hours earlier. 

Cod Masala
Mustard rice, seven spiced broccolini,
Fried Onions

To finish the meal, I had the cheese board with a port. I wasn't hungry enough to ask for cheese and dessert, but it's usually not a problem to ask for both, since for us Frenchmen, cheese should technically be a separate course before dessert. 

For some reason the Wi-Fi never worked. I checked several times throughout the flight, and it was always unavailable. I asked our flight-attendant about it, as we chatted a bit after the dinner service, and he'd heard it had been happening to some aircraft recently, that there may have been a satellite outage. 

Not a big deal on such a short flight, but it was curious. 

With less than 4 hours flight time left to sleep after dinner I skipped breakfast and slept up until the last possible minute when seats had to be returned to the upright position for landing. 

It was cloudy and stormy with low ceilings that morning, so no good views of central London, just a quick glimpse of Twickenham stadium coming out of the clouds. 

 Not sure I'm a fan of this over-simplified map look. 

It was a quick taxi time to Terminal 5. 

Despite a short 10-minute delay originally announced in JFK, we had departed on time and arrived early into Heathrow.