Review of British Airways flight London → Denver in Business

introduction

I had two weeks off work - well, 14 days - and a desire to go and see a new state or two. So, a trip to Denver and a drive around to Utah, Arizona and New Mexico was planned!
I would fly Club World both directions as I was not sure if I had to work the day after the return flight.
I would be making use of British Airways Holidays' Double Tier-Points offer and used them to book 5 nights of hotel on this trip. This was a purely cash purchase in a desire to try and regain some of the airline status I had pre-pandemic.

the airport

I arrived at Heathrow Terminal 5 at about 09:20, a 40 minute drive from home. Having checked-in online, the first order of business was to check my bags in which was seamless, and I was then off through security. Once again, fast.

I had an inkling that this may be a bus gate departure as we were scheduled to be on G-XWBS, the newest A350-1000 in British Airways' fleet. We had originally been scheduled a different aircraft, but they were swapped over and I could see that G-XWBS was last seen at a bus gate, 573 to be precise. Anyway, I decided it was worth a trip over to the superior T5B Galleries Club lounge. Once again I made my way to T5B via the foot tunnel, knowing that I would probably need to make a return trip to get to gate A10 if my suspicions were correct.

On my way into the lounge I enjoyed this view of another of BA's A350s basking in the Monday-morning sunlight.

The lounge was busy but I found a spare table. Unfortunately it was underneath the departure gate information which I had missed when I chose it; it took me a while to work out why people were stopping next to me all the time!

I got some work done in the lounge and had a few soft drinks, but didn't have any food. WiFi worked well despite the lounge being busy with lots of people on their laptops, expected for a Monday morning!

As predicted, at about 11:20 the gate was announced as A10. Back to T5A I went, through the tunnel, and to A10b. With an international departure to Washington Dulles at 10a, it was a busy area and the gate staff were keen to make sure that nobody was getting on the wrong bus.

There were a significant number of wheelchair-using passengers on-board, and some time was taken to allow them to safely get on-board the accessible transportation. I was the first person on-board the second bus to take us out to the aircraft, and quickly snagged the seat at the front of the bus for the trek over to the aircraft.

In front of our bus you could see one of the accessible transport vehicles for those using a wheelchair.

the flight, boarding

I was the first person off the bus and it was a quick climb up the stairs, boarding via the 1L door - nothing quite like boarding an almost brand-new aircraft from stairs! Much more exciting than a jet bridge.

I am a fan of 9A and 10A on BA's A350s for their dual-windows, and I settled myself down in 9A. As this aircraft was basically brand-new, and had done less than 10 rotations so far, everything was in immaculate condition. Not sure if it had a new-plane smell, but either way it was a great feeling.

We had a decent view out to G-TNEB, also an almost brand-new A321neo which was only delivered to BA on Christmas Eve 2023. It was parked at stand 572 awaiting its next assignment.

We then experienced a short delay whilst waiting for three things to happen:

1. passengers requiring wheelchair assistance to get on-board
2. their wheelchairs to be stowed safely away in the hold (pictured)
3. a replacement third-pilot to arrive as the one who was rostered could not make it to the airport.

In any case, it was a relatively short delay and we were on the move by 12:50.

And here's a niche fun-fact… because the plane was so new, planefinder didn't know who we were. Despite the plane being a few weeks old, they hadn't updated their database yet. Every other plane tracker I tried was fine!

the flight, airborne

Once airborne the cabin crew continued their task of getting our drink and lunch orders noted down. They had started doing this during the boarding process and the wait, but with a full cabin it was taking a while.

As a pre-lunch drink, I went for the Citrus Burst mocktail which was very nice. I had requested a Sprite with lunch but this was served at the same time, along with an extra can.

I was wearing a bright red jumper, hence the red colour on the reflective things in this image.

I had chosen the roast beef carpaccio as the starter, which was very nice. The farro salad was also quite nice, if a little too cold maybe. The usual BA bread was nice too, and I made use of the sun streaming through the windows to head up the butter slightly.

For the main course, I had heard lots of good things about the butter chicken curry, so that was my first choice.

It was very good, although I removed the paneer stuffed red pepper as I am not a big paneer fan. The rice was fluffy and the sauce was much better than your usual supermarket-takeaway curry, more on a par with a typical Indian restaurant in the UK.

Note that the serving tray was slightly chipped, and I was lucky to avoid getting a nasty cut from this. I pointed this out to the cabin crew when they collected it, and they were grateful as it was very sharp.

And for dessert, the crunchy chocolate bar was my choice of the day. Wow, if I could buy this in a supermarket I would buy a tray-load!

It was almost 4pm GMT by the time the meal service was finished, almost 2.5 hours after take-off. Not the fastest service I've ever experienced on BA, but on a new aircraft with what seemed to be a few teething issues it was perfectly acceptable.

Now time to take in some views…

About 6 hours into the flight, ice-creams were offered and gratefully accepted. These were from Jude's, which was a brand that I had not heard of before. The taste was good and I liked the branding, very classic.

For a flight in March, I was surprised to see the hand wash and moisturiser in the bathrooms were… Merry Christmas themed!

Unlike last year's flight to San Diego, the door actually worked on my seat today. So, I took advantage of the fact it could be closed and closed it. Excellent. Not that it offers much privacy though when the seat is in an upright position, it is much more beneficial at night.

And now for more views which I enjoyed whilst browsing my way through the more heritage British Airways and predecessor-themed section of the IFE.

My constant complaint about this flight was the WiFi. I paid for it early on in the flight, but then it seemed like the system was reset and I was advised by the cabin crew I would need to pay again. Annoying, but then it really struggled to work properly for the rest of the flight. I took screenshots of every time it was not available and sent these to IAG Connect on landing, who promptly refunded me for both charges. Great customer service by them.

No pictures of afternoon tea I'm afraid, but I wasn't feeling too hungry and was aware that I would be looking to eat in Denver near to my hotel later. So whilst I was served the full spread, I just ate the scone and the Opéra cake. Interestingly, everyone in the cabin from rows 1-6 were offered a choice of the meat/fish or vegetarian option, but not those towards the rear of the larger cabin; not sure about the smaller Club World cabin, but seemed odd?

Soon we were approaching Denver, landing on 16L (I believe)…

… and a quick taxi past the masses of United planes onto our gate, A37.

I was quickly off the plane as we disembarked from the L2 door. A fairly lengthy walk through the terminal to immigration, but I queued for maybe 30 seconds before an officer saw me. No passport stamp, no fingerprints taken, no questions, just a photo and a verbal welcome to America along with a piece of laminated paper with an E on it.

After a 15-minute or so wait for my bag to appear on the carousel, it was time to exit the airport. I handed the laminated E to an officer as we left the baggage collection area.

Bonus : Click here display hide

Whilst I was picking up a hire car for my journey, I always prefer to do this the following day as I've found that the experience is much nicer mid- to late-morning than just after the major international arrivals!

I chose to get into Denver city centre using the metro line which runs to the airport. At a cost of $10, this seems really expensive if you are just making the one journey. I couldn't get the contactless card readers to work, so I had to buy a paper ticket and almost missed the first departure. However, I made it with about 30 seconds to spare and it was relatively efficient. I didn't feel much safer knowing that the conductor had a baseball bat which he carried through the train just as we left the airport station. Wtf?

I was staying at the Courtyard by Marriott Denver Downtown, which was a short walk from Union Station where the train arrived. I only had to sprint across one 6-lane highway I couldn't find a way to cross otherwise, which is better than most places I've visited in the US with the exception of San Diego. After check-in and the necessary check of all toiletries etc, I headed out to the Larimer Street area for dinner.

A really lovely meal at Osteria Marco on Larimer Street, I would recommend this.

On my walk back to the hotel I walked past this massive climbing wall at the adjacent student welfare center for the universities in the area. My hotel is actually on the wider university campus area and students worked in the hotel-affiliated restaurant on the complex.