Review of British Airways flight from Boston to London in Business

Introduction

On Saturday morning (the 12th October) I woke up in my hotel in Hyannis, Cape Cod, to an email where British Airways was telling me my flight number had changed. Curious! Ah, they've changed the flight number because they've cancelled the A380 rotation on the BA212/213 for a number of days including the day I was supposed to fly home - the 14th.

Never one to miss a trick, it was time to use British Airways' poorly A380 fleet to my advantage and voluntarily offload myself to get an extra day to spend exploring Boston.
I had been a bit tight with my flight schedule as I can only book 14 days of holiday and I wasn't able to get the flights to return in time for potentially having to work on the 16th; but with days off confirmed all the way up until the 19th I was able to come home a day later.

Getting to the airport

I had booked and stayed at the Hyatt Regency Boston Harbor (booked through Avios Hotels to earn some, uh Avios) on the Monday night, which was truly amazing with some stunning airport views. I left my bag with the concierge during the day.
I had taken the MBTA ferry to Long Wharf that morning, and 22,000 steps later having explored much of Boston, I took the ferry from Central Wharf (South) back to the hotel.

Bag duly retrieved, I waited for the hotel shuttle bus to take me to the airport. It was only a 20 minute wait, which I took advantage of and changed my clothes and packed them back into my suitcase rather than having them in my rucksack.

The airport

There was no queue in the Club World line when I arrived at the airport at approximately 19:00. I dropped my bag off (the check-in agent gave me a First priority bag tag, which was a bit of a novelty) and headed straight to security. They have the modern style of scanners so it was a quick process to get through.
I then headed to the lounge, not before walking past this British Airways A380 (G-XLEK) which was operating the first BA212/213 rotation that week. It was ready to push back, and I actually watched it push back as I walked down the corridor.

The lounge

The lounge is really easy to find, you can either go up some stairs or just take the adjacent lift.

The lounge had a great selection of hot and cold food options in the buffet. Plus a great view of a Lufthansa A380 on stand with the aforementioned BA A380 waiting to taxi out for departure.

Boston also has a lounge menu you can order from by scanning the QR code at each seat. This had some great options, and I chose the fish finger sandwich and a Sprite.

The Sprite was delivered in about 45 seconds!

And the fish finger sandwich soon followed. It was really tasty, hot, and a great dinner.

I also had some salad and fruit but I forgot to take pictures of this.
The dessert options were also good, brownies and cookies being my choice. This was from the buffet.

Perhaps the coolest part of this lounge is the ability to board from the lounge itself to gate E12.

Soon our chariot for the evening departure was pulling onto stand. G-VIIB, a 27.9 year old Boeing 777-236(ER) which has been with BA its entire career. Configured as F8 C49 W40 Y138 since 2020, it has the Club Suites which BA is fitting to all its aircraft over time.

Soon it was time to board through door 2L, a process handled through the lounge. I took advantage of the large lounge bathrooms and boarded quite late.

On board

I settled down into my seat, 10A, which is the second row of the larger Club World cabin. I stashed the pillow and bed cover on the footstool and placed my other possessions in the overhead locker.

Menus were distributed at this time as well.

I always love the Speedmarque logo on the front wall of the cabin, it's a really nice touch.

The jetbridge was soon detached and we were on our way.

Although the quality of the map at this resolution made it fairly useless. Come on BA!

During taxi the in-flight lead/manager who was looking after my part of the cabin came round and asked if I was interested in dining - no - and if I wanted to be woken for breakfast - also no! He said he would wake me up as late as possible if I was not already awake.

The flight

The departure from Boston on this clear night was truly stunning, and the photos do not do it justice. We took off on 33L, which is a bit of a length taxi, but the turn to the south and then the east gives you a stunning view of the Boston skyline.

I put the seat into bed mode as soon as possible, and I was reclined and asleep after only about 20 minutes. The door is a bit of a gimmick on day flights, but on night flights it is brilliant for keeping the seat area as dark as possible.

The next thing I knew we were just south of Swindon, having woken up on my own accord. The IFL was around to give me some orange juice almost as soon as the seat was not reclined - it was like he knew…

It was a cloudy day in south England, but the GE90 (with that excellent logo) was powering us towards Heathrow.

A few loops of the holding pattern and we were soon lined up on 9L and coming in to land.

On the ground

Back at Heathrow and the first thing was that the jetbridge failed - looked like a flat tyre or similar. We had a bit of a wait whilst the ground manager found some chaperones to keep us pointed in the right direction. The door was kept open during this time so we at least had some nice fresh air.

When we were allowed to leave the plane, it was a great view of the main T5 complex and the vast GE90 which had carried us from Boston.

Arrivals lounge

The Arrivals lounge at T5 is a bit of a hidden gem, it's really worth not eating on the plane and getting breakfast here if you can. There were perhaps 10 people in the entire lounge when I arrived.

Just to prove how quiet it was…

A much more normal breakfast of yoghurt, orange juice and a pastry whilst waiting for my lift home.