LHR–MCT–LHR BA First Class
December 2016

1. LHR-MCT
I used my annual concessionary BA ticket to get a week of winter sunshine in The Sultanate of Oman. Although these tickets are described as ‘bookable’ the reality is that most of the time one travels ‘stand-by’ and one is never truly certain of actually getting on the plane, never mind where one will be seated onboard. And although the tickets are described as ‘free’, one still has to pay the premium passenger taxes, which on this route amounted to £150 each.

So we got to Heathrow Terminal 5 on Monday 19th December 2016 in plenty of time to catch the 19:50 BA079. At check in we could not be given a seat, as the flight was “slightly over down the back”, so we went through security on a standby boarding pass, and after eating at the disappointing Plane Food, we made our way to gate B38 via the underground transit service.  Once there, after the flight had closed, we were given boarding cards for First Class.  These concessionary tickets do not allow access to the BA lounges, so we just stayed around at the gate.

Boarding was smooth, though delayed by 10 minutes because the caterers were still stocking the galleys. We were welcomed at door 2L and personally escorted to our seats, 1K and 4A, and offered a drink (Champagne for me, Bucks Fizz for Mr. A). The aircraft operating was B777-200 G-RAES, a relatively old example powered by two huge GE90 engines, but the cabin looked fresh. The front and rear cabins were full, but there were some spaces in Business.  Muscat only became a direct BA service in the 2016/17 winter schedule, having previously operated ‘behind’ Doha.  This was good news for us, as trying for 2 sectors on a stand-by ticket is even more anxious.

The First product is an evolution of the original product I helped introduce in the ’90s. Seats are laid out 1-2-1 and total 17 in First on this aircraft type used on the Gulf routes. The seat is a reasonable width, though narrower than competitors, a good length, soft and comfortable. My window seat was at c35 degrees to the fuselage, looking at two windows coverable by an electrically operated shutter blind, a good metre away. So when seated during flight you can’t really look out of the window, as it’s so far away from your eyes.

Keen to get as much sleep as possible on this 7 hour overnighter, I only ordered a cheese course and a glass of port (Warre’s 2000 Colheita Tawny, pretty smooth 7.5/10) once airborne, which was served promptly and efficiently taken away when I was finished. My decision to avoid a full dinner meant I escaped the really disappointing menu; more of which later..

However my meticulous plans to create slumber time were ruined by a very noisy and uncontrolled two year old in the cabin! It took his parents more than 2 hours to stick a dummy in his mouth to shut him up. I really don’t understand why (other than greed) BA doesn’t have a minimum age for children in First (or even in Business come to that), and so too did the Cabin Services Manager I spoke to about it.  Then the parents decided to have dinner (11pm UK time, 2am Oman time) and the cabin crew decided that the main cabin lights be kept on until they finished. This is not a sensible thing to do, as the bright lights affect those trying to sleep, even with the comfortable eye masks provided. And if you’re lying in 1 A or K, next to the galley, the smell of food cooking (being heated) are also very non-conducive to sleep. Eventually, after my moaning, the lights were dimmed 4.5 hours into a 7 hour night flight!  The child made noises all night, and I reckon I slept/dozed for just half an hour.

I prepared myself for breakfast by changing out of the well fitted sleeper suit provided after take off. On returning to my seat I had to ‘unmake’ my bed myself, which is not what should happen in First. (BTW I found the bed dressings confusing. The crew place a quilted seat protector over your seat and place a duvet on top. But The protector didn’t look comfy or clean enough to sleep on, so I slept on top of the duvet, and they didn’t give me a blanket to cover myself with.)

The breakfast menu was a typical Full English plus continental items affair. I was irritated by the menu’s description of a “traditional English breakfast of …, grilled turkey bacon, ….”.   Someone tell me when it became traditional in England to eat turkey bacon?! This is the UK flag carrier, on a flight from London, so proper bacon should be used. The airline doesn’t bow to halal rules when it comes to serving alcohol on board, so why does it avoid pork?
I declined the Full breakfast but ordered a “Warm turkey bacon roll with tomato ketchup”. It was horrible 0/10.

On approach to Muscat the horrible infant was blissfully asleep, but neither parents nor crew wanted to disturb him, so he slept on in his flat bed seat through landing and taxiing, which is in contravention of international airline laws. But because I was just “scum on a cheap ticket” I’m not allowed to raise my concerns with the crew (I’m not even allowed to press the crew call button, or to receive wash bags, and I have to wait to order my food, to see what’s left after the real passengers and the crew have had their choices).

We landed ten minutes ahead of schedule and taxied past the under construction new airport terminal, to park off stand at the current terminal. We were bused to ‘arrivals’ and were early in the queue for “Visa on arrival”. It was OMR 11.00 for the two of us. If you’re going to Oman, check out what you’re not allowed to bring into the Sultanate: All of your bags are screened on arrival, and Mr A was stopped because he had a pair of binoculars in his case. They only let him through because they weren’t ‘night vision’.

Overall flight experience 3/10 which of course would have been higher if I had experienced the lounges, and if I had been able to sleep.

2. MCT-LHR
Returning on Boxing Day the flight was very light and consequently we were checked into First Class straight away. We went straight to the gate prior to boarding a bus, where there was a more thorough security screening than the one on going ‘airside’. I had to remove my shoes (they didn’t provide seating for those of us less able to stand) and everything went through an x-ray. As I got through the other side I saw the security guards talking to 3 arab men who had tried to take through a litre bottle of water and a bottle of some other liquid. I laughed to myself, having been in that situation myself, but was then amazed to see the guards wave the men on, still with their liquids!  I was moved to speak to the (apparently) most senior security guard, who told me, “the men have promised to drink the drinks before boarding”!

We were bused to the aircraft, B777-200 G-ZZZA, the first 777 delivered to BA in 1996. It took a long stroll down memory lane, as I had been responsible for buying the Full Flight Simulator to train the pilots of the new aircraft, and then handled the procurement of the galleys from Tachikawa near Tokyo and the Trash Compactors from a small company near Los Angeles.
On board the cabin crew made several announcements about two items left in the gate lounge. I was surprised there wasn’t an arabic speaker in the crew to try to summon the passengers. This and a late bag being loaded meant the plane left about 15 minutes behind schedule, but technically that’s ‘on time’ and there would be plenty of chance to make up the time en route. Or so I thought. Once airborne I turned on the ‘moving map’ display only personal screen and noted that it was saying we would arrive in London an hour late. I asked the CSM to clarify this, as no announcement had been made by the flight crew about any delay. He later confirmed the late arrival, and, following the ‘moving map’ I soon realised why: the flight crew had filed an unusual, longer route to London.  Westbound gulf services usually fly north over Iran, then into Turkey, over the Black Sea, the Balkans and into northern Europe, descending over Germany and Holland towards Kent. But our flight headed due west, across The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, over the Gulf of Aqaba into Sanai and onto Cairo, then up over the Med to Greece, then Albania, Italy, the Alps and through France to UK landfall over Sussex.  Being on the Spectrum, I fretted about this strange route and the fact the crew didn’t make any announcement about it or the delay it was causing, all through the rest of the flight. Would I make my bus connection at Heathrow? Would transit passengers miss their flight connections?  I couldn’t believe a supposedly professional airline could just blankly avoid telling their passengers what was happening.

For this flight Mr. A and I were seated on the same side of the plane, in 3K and 4K. I chose the starboard side because on a westbound daylight flight the sun will be sining on the port side throughout the 8 hour journey. So views of the ground are better from the starboard side.  Once again we were personally escorted to our seats, fussed over and given a pre departure glass of unchilled bubbles. After take-off the flight attendant came round to see what we wanted for lunch. I told her we would like to eat 2 1/2 to 3 hours after take off. In BA First you can eat whenever you want to. However she told me they had “just put all the food in the ovens and turned them on, so they would be ready in just 45 minutes”. And to top it off she said we couldn’t actually order our lunch until she knew which dishes were left over!

The menu was terribly disappointing for a First class offering: four starters, five mains, two desserts and a cheese plate, each of which was described in one line, and none of them sounded particularly appealing. There’s no hype or bluster, no famous chefs involved in the recipes, which some might appreciate, but I found it all rather dull. So it was that I ended up ordering smoked salmon followed by steamed salmon.  And they seem to have ditched canapés in First!
BA’s First ‘demi suites’ are meant to make it possible for dining ‘a deux’, but the table slides around of its own accord and can’t be positioned to be equally distant to the main seat and what they call ‘the ottoman’ where ones guest sits. And the main seat is far too low.  The guest (Mr. A) gets to have a much better view out of the window, because the ottoman/stool is so much closer tot he window than the main passenger.  But he can’t vacate the stool without upsetting the table.

The smoked salmon starter looked very good; a brilliant orange red fillet without any veins or fat at all, which made me wonder if it was wild. But when I had finished and saw the orange red dye all over my plate, I realised this was as far from a wild fish as my granny’s goldfish!
My main of “steamed salmon with a lemon and cream sauce and crushed new and sweet potatoes” was OK, as was my dessert of “Arabic coffee tiramisu” but First class food should be better than OK. And it should be noted that both of the white wines we tried, and the black muscat dessert wine, were, like the Champagne before take-off, not chilled. Later in the flight I visited the galley to check the chillers, which were all working, it’s just the wines were not stored in the chillers!  It should also be noted that the wines I tried lacked the big flavours normally selected for airlines (to overcome the cabin-dulled taste buds).  Wines score 3/10

Uninformed, the cheese plate substituted a danish blue in place of the promised stilton and the cheddar was lacking the “full flavour” promised on the menu. Quite disappointing.
Later in the flight, maybe an hour and a half from London, we were offered Afternoon Tea. When I flew a lot, I used to love the BA First class afternoon teas; in particular the scones.  My request for a cappuccino was met with a turned down face from the FA, and she told me she would “make one if the machine was working”. Afternoon Tea was “an individual selection of sandwiches featuring: prawn mayonnaise, chicken tikka, turkey ham and egg mayonnaise”. Each one of the sandwich fingers contained a regimented 2mm of filling, and each was quite horrible! I skipped the patisserie offer and went for “Plain or lemon scones served warm, with preserves”.  There was no sign of a lemon scone, the scones were not warm and they hadn’t risen properly. Overall score for the food: 2/10

Our approach to Heathrow was tediously slow. I tried to freshen up before landing, but found the sinks in the lavs to be filling up with water. When I told a FA her demeanour made it so clear that she didn’t care in the slightest, because her flight was nearly over.

We parked at what seemed to be the furthest away stand at Terminal 5 and headed to arrivals, desperately checking my watch for our connection, which we made, thanks to the fact that for the first time in 32 years of arriving on BA at Heathrow, my ‘priority’ tagged bags were actually among the first on the carousel.

The hard product in British Airways’ First cabin is pretty good and competitive (unlike its Business product) – the seat, for example, forms a very soft and comfortable bed. But the softer parts of the product, like catering and customer service, are not good enough. I put this down to miserly cost-cutting, which in turn has a bad effect on staff morale.