Review of British Airways flight from London to San Diego in Business

Introduction

Hello and welcome to the fourth and final part of this series of flight reviews. 

Like every year, we travelled from San Diego to the East Coast and Europe to spend the Holiday season with family. In this final instalment we'll cover British Airways A350-1000 Club Suites on a long daytime transatlantic flight. I've reviewed the BA A350 Club Suites several times in the past, so I won't go into too much detail.

Routing

Flights in this series

Transit & Lounge

Having just arrived from Madrid a little behind schedule, we now had just about two hours between flights. 

We still had time to pop in to the lounge for a bit so we made our way to the South Lounges. 

Our oneworld Emerald status gives us access to the British Airways First Lounge, with slightly improved amenities over the Business class Club Lounge. 

While the lounge was busy, it's large and there was plenty of available seating. 

The most notable improvement in the First lounge over the Club lounge is the availability of several champagnes, whereas only Prosecco is available in the Club lounge. 

As it was about lunch time, we had a quick light meal in the restaurant section. There are plenty of fresh options and hot dishes available, which I've covered in many reviews in the past. The restaurant section was pleasantly quiet, unlike the main lounge. 

Boarding

As our flight to San Diego would be leaving from the C concourse–which requires taking the underground train from the main Terminal 5 A concourse–we left the lounge about 15 minutes prior to boarding. 

Pre-boarding began shortly after we'd arrived at the gate. I was surprised when they called for families with children under 12 year old! Wow, I already felt BA were generous by allowing pre-boarding for children 5 and under, but 12? I'm not sure if this was a one-off thing, or if this is a new policy–it's not clear as the BA website doesn't actually state a specific age. Either way, since my son was 5 years old at the time of the flight, we would have been good to pre-board–though being in Priority Group 1, we'd board early either way. 

As usual at Heathrow T5, pre-board passengers' boarding passes are scanned and then we wait in a separate, quite spacious, holding area with seating until the aircraft is ready. There is usually only a few minutes' wait. 

There was a great view of our beautiful A350-1000 from the pre-board holding area. 

As we were invited to take the escalators down for boarding, I was surprised to see the jet bridge was not attached to the aircraft!

It appears there was a mechanical issue with the jet bridge so we were led down a flight of stairs to the tarmac level, which isn't ideal when carrying cabin baggage for both myself and my son. 

On the bright side, I always love aircraft views from the tarmac! My AvGeek satisfaction is greater than the inconvenience of lugging bags up and down stairs 🤓✈️

One of the main advantages of boarding early is getting some clean cabin shots with no passengers in seats for flight reviews! Hah. 

It's also good to have a few extra minutes to stow all bags and get settled in when travelling with children. As a frequent BA flyer, my 5-year-old son knew exactly where his seat was without my having to tell him–basically because I always select the same seats in the last row of the Business mini-cabin.

Business class would be completely full on this flight. Since 2024 BA fly twice daily to San Diego in the Spring/Summer season, but honestly, with loads like this on a random day in January, they could probably fill two daily flights even in winter. 

I walked through the Premium Economy cabin to get to my seat on the other aisle as it's just right behind. 

And here we are at my seat. Bedding, noise-cancelling headphones, an amenity kit, and a water bottle were pre-placed at the seat. 

Club Suites, a huge improvement over BA's old forward-backwards Club World seats, are laid out in a spacious 1-2-1 configuration, allowing for direct access to the aisle for all passengers. 

BA Club Suites are a customised version of the popular Collins Aerospace Super Diamond model with the addition of closing privacy doors. 

There's a massive amount of legroom and seats lie fully flat in bed mode to create a 2m/79in sleeping surface. 

The seats are well-designed with lots of small storage compartments.

The in-flight entertainment remote, headphone jack, and several power sources are located in another storage space. While each seat has a 110v universal power outlet and 2 USB-A ports, there are unfortunately no USB-C ports, which are much more useful these days. That's really the only major thing missing considering how new these cabins and aircraft are. 

Shortly after settling in friendly cabin crew came through with a selection of pre-departure beverages: water, juice, or champagne

Menus were distributed a short time later–let's have a look.

On these longer flights to the West Coast there are two full 3-course meals with multiple options of appetisers and mains. As usual, there's a decent wine list and a good selection of other drinks. 

The Flight

The ground boarding situation did not delay our departure and we were ready to go on time. 

The new safety video played as we taxied to the runway. I like this one as it's creative and shows some beautiful parts of the UK but also features actual seats and safety equipment. Sometimes I find it problematic when safety videos are too abstract, but this one finds a good balance. 

Taxi time was short and we were off. 

Flight time was a shorter-than-average 9h57m

Such a short flight time should get us in well ahead of schedule. 

The Wi-Fi was available once the aircraft climbed over 10,000ft.

BA offer free Wi-Fi to First class passengers, access is paid in all other cabins. 

All passengers can take advantage of free messaging; however, provided they have a BA Club account number. 

Those without a BA Club membership will pay between £2.99 and £4.99 for a messaging package.

There are two packages available for full streaming-capable Wi-Fi: £11.99 for 4h or £19.99 for the full flight. 

Checking out the IFE, there's plenty of content, including movies, TV series, music, podcasts, children's programming, and a very nice looking interactive flight map. 

There's a modern touchscreen remote where content can be selected. It's also possible to have the flight map on the remote while content plays on the main screen. 

The apéritif service began shortly after the aircraft had levelled out. 

My son's pre-ordered child meal was served first, which is always appreciated in case I need to assist. The appetiser course of chicken breast was nothing exciting, but appropriately sized and healthy with a good amount of vegetables. 

The main course was Macaroni and cheese and broccoli, which was a nice change from the usual chicken with pasta. 

For my first course, I selected the salmon of the three options. It was well-presented and full of flavour. Dare I say it was almost restaurant-quality. 

Smoked salmon and avocado timbale
Olive tapenade, Claudio sauce

I stayed with fish for the main course, which was also quite delicious. While beef can often be hit of miss on BA–or any airline–the fish is almost always a good bet. 

Apple cured Hampshire chalk stream trout
Artichoke sotto, roasted fennel, and courgette

For dessert, I went for the cheese plate, as I often do. I'm rarely hungry enough to ask for both cheese and a dessert, so I like that the cheese plate also has some sweet items on it. A nice port paired well with the plate. 

The lights were dimmed towards the end of the meal service so the cabin was in complete darkness. I'm usually not a fan of being in the dark on day flights, but I did take advantage of it to have a little nap. 

Snacks and drinks are available throughout the flight in the galley between the two Business class cabins.

A pre-arrival meal was served about an hour and a half prior to landing. I opted to skip the appetiser course as I wasn't very hungry. 

Rosemary roasted British chicken
Sweetcorn mousseline, broccolini, 
Honey and thyme roasted carrots, parsnip

Almost there!

Arrival

With favourable winds, we were due to arrive 45 minutes early. 

The cabin is readied for landing.

We landed early and pulled in to the gate 46 minutes ahead of schedule. 

Last view of my seat on disembarking. 

Bags were delivered surprisingly quickly, and with Global Entry we were through in just a few minutes–the first out from the flight!