Category: British Airways

British Airways’ Impressive World Traveller Plus

~ Alvin ~ Leave a comment

Hello from London! I’ve flown back to university after a short trip home, and did so in British Airways’ premium economy. While I’ve always wanted to try British Airways’ premium economy in order to try all premium economy products flying between Hong Kong and London, in this case I didn’t really have a choice, due to the limited award space availability between Hong Kong and London during the new year. This is also the reason I flew British Airways’ 777 over their A380, as I personally would’ve preferred the latter.

British Airways Boeing 777 Hong Kong Airport

My predictions for the premium economy products flying between Hong Kong and London was that British Airways would come rock bottom, though I came off this flight very impressed. British Airways is a strong contender for having the best premium economy product between Hong Kong and London. Since I’m a bit behind on trip report writing, I figured I’d briefly share the things I was impressed by, though expect a full report to follow within the coming month.

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Help Me Get To Italy This Summer

~ Alvin ~ 3 Comments

My parents have always wanted to go on a cruise, and we’ve decided that this summer is probably the time to finally do so. I live in London now – though as luck would have it, I need to be in Hong Kong near the end of June, whereas the cruise occurs during the second part of July. I’m finally trying Cathay Pacific’s A350 premium economy from Gatwick to Hong Kong in June 2020, which I’m really excited about – stay tuned for that. Since I’m trying British Airways’ premium economy in January, I’ll have tried all three airlines’ premium economy products that fly direct between Hong Kong and London by then, which I’ve vowed to do for the longest time.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Premium Economy

Right, back to Italy. Now, I’ve checked award space on American AAdvantage and Cathay Pacific, and have had no luck in either direction (Etihad has award space for two, but I don’t have enough miles for four passengers, and they don’t fly from Venice). The four of us need to fly into Rome and out of Venice, and I’ve narrowed my options down to the following.

Now, since my dad is travelling, we’re trying our best to get ourselves in a premium cabin with a maximum of one connection each way. Here are the options I’ve found:

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Review: British Airways Galleries Lounge Brussels Airport

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Introduction: Home QSuite Home
Plaza Premium First Lounge Hong Kong Airport
Qatar Airways 777 QSuite Business Class Hong Kong to Doha
The Sad State of Transit at Doha Airport
Qatar Airways 777 QSuite Business Class Doha to Amsterdam
Hilton The Hague Family Suite
The Hotel Brussels Panorama Suite/Superior Twin Room
British Airways Galleries Lounge Brussels Airport
Qatar Airways 777 Old Business Class Brussels to Doha
Qatar Airways 777 QSuite Business Class Doha to Hong Kong

We had arranged an airport transfer, and made it to Brussels Airport at around 1:45 PM. We first needed to run some of our items through tax-free, though unfortunately we had to deal with some condescending people at the tax refund counter. This isn’t a fault of Brussels Airport and rather is just a result of lower-class EU culture, since I’ve heard horror stories in multiple places across the EU from people of almost every race; the bottom line is that you need to keep your mouth shut and lay all your goods in front of the tax refund counter like a buffet.

Apart from the tragic state of what tax refund officers have become, Brussels Airport was quite pleasant otherwise, and we were checked in all the way back to Hong Kong (though they had a hiccup during check-in, as we were holding Hong Kong passports and the system indicated we were Chinese, and they needed to confirm that Hong Kong was indeed part of China – how ironic, given the situation here). I found the airport to be quite efficient, and the staff were also much friendlier than I’ve experienced at other European airports. We were also able to go through fast-track security, so we took advantage of that, and were through in less than 10 minutes.

Afterwards we headed towards the British Airways Galleries lounge, which was located by the B gates shortly after immigration. The lounge is located a level above the main terminal, so I found the curved stairs that headed up towards a variety of lounges.

British Airways Galleries Lounge Brussels Entrance

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How Was British Airways’ Club World and Club Europe Amenities and Service?

~ j ~ Leave a comment

In my last instalment about my recent experience with British Airways in their Club World and Club Europe cabins, I’m going to be talking about the amenities, the entertainment and the service aboard my flights, which interested me for a few reasons. First, British Airways recently introduced new bedding and amenities from The White Company, a British bedding and lifestyle company. This was incredibly impressive, especially considering that most airlines (Cathay Pacific, I’m looking at you) have some pretty lacklustre offerings when it comes to bedding.

IMG_3374.jpgBritish Airways Boeing 777-200ER Club World Cabin

This was also going to be my first chance to directly compare British Airways’ “newly hired” Mixed Fleet crew, who are supposedly much younger and less experienced, as well as British Airways’ veteran Worldwide Fleet crew. I’ve heard a lot that Mixed Fleet crew tend to be less experienced and professional, while Worldwide Fleet crew are generally better, so I wanted to see if this was true.

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How Good is British Airways’ New Club World and Club Europe Dining?

~ j ~ Leave a comment

In my last post, I talked about my experience with British Airways’ Club World and Club Europe hard product. To my surprise, I found that the seats weren’t quite as bad as most people have made it out to be. With that in mind, I wanted to follow up on that post by sharing some of my thoughts about British Airways’ new Club World and Club Europe soft product offerings, especially considering the recent upgrades that have been made.

IMG_3374.jpgBritish Airways Boeing 777-200ER Club World Cabin

Last year, British Airways rolled out a new service style for their Club World cabins, which was created in collaboration with Do&Co. While the service initially included an elaborate trolley service, this was cut back in favour of a simpler hand-delivered tray service for convenience. In the meantime, British Airways have also rolled out improvements to their Club Europe dining. Having heard quite good things about both of these meal service enhancements, I was excited to give it a go for myself.

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British Airways’ Club World Seat Is NOT THAT BAD!

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British Airways’ “Club” business class cabins are some of the most extensively reviewed products out there, and the consensus seems pretty simple: it’s not that great. The current “dorm-style” Club World cabin has been panned by everyone and their mother and their Club Europe product is little more than an economy seat with a blocked middle seat and free food.

IMG_3374.jpgBritish Airways Boeing 777-200ER Club World Cabin

However, on a recent trip, British Airways offered some really compelling fares to Europe from Bangkok, so I decided to bite the bullet and try the product out for myself to see how the product fared, especially when compared to some more highly regarded competitors such as Cathay Pacific and Finnair.

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FINALLY: British Airways Reveals Industry-Leading Business Class Product

~ Alvin ~ Leave a comment

I love the trend that airlines are moving towards higher-end, more space-efficient, more private business class seats. A few years ago I took my first flight in a reverse herringbone seat, and was in awe at how much space the seat provided. Nowadays, reverse herringbone seats are more or less middle-of-the-road, as more airlines have come up with superior seats. I’ve ranked all of the “original” ones here, though will need to try the QSuite (in August) as well as China Eastern and Delta’s A350s.

Cathay Pacific Boeing 777 Business Class 

The above list is what I thought I had to try prior to today, but as of today I need to add one more to the list – British Airways’ new Club Suite.

Here’s a video of the new suite:

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British Airways Fires All Hong Kong-Based Cabin Crew

~ Alvin ~ Leave a comment

Despite making a profit, British Airways has decided to close its outstation at Hong Kong by October 31, 2018. This won’t affect their two flights to and from Hong Kong, though it means 85 Hong Kong-based cabin crew are losing their jobs. British Airways has justified this change by saying that the Hong Kong base has been “commercially unviable for them”.

British Airways Boeing 777 Hong Kong Airport

I’m quite surprised by this news, considering Hong Kong’s quite a big market for British Airways, and it makes sense for the airline to hire local workers as well. At the same time this makes sense. Having ground crew at Hong Kong means they’ll have to comply with Hong Kong’s labor laws and costs, which are ever-increasing, and the airline didn’t see this as a worthy investment.

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5 Underwhelming Business Class Products I Really Want To Try

~ Alvin ~ Leave a comment

Over the years I’ve been pretty fortunate to try some awesome business class products. I’ve long booked flights based on convenience, though a couple times I’ve been able to go out of my way and try some new business class products as well. Qatar Airways’ awesome business class comes to mind. Over the next couple of months I’ll also get to try a few other business class products that have also been well-liked over the years, and I’m expecting some pretty good flights.

On the other end of the spectrum, I find it very interesting when I try airlines that talk a big game, though deliver an underwhelming product. So far the airline that has done this the most throughout my (rather limited) sample size is Lufthansa (as far as longhaul flights go). Their business class seats aren’t the best, their catering is appalling, and their service culture wasn’t great the last time I flew them (fortunately that has improved since, though the subpar business class seats and catering remain).

img_5495Lufthansa Airbus A380 Business Class Seats 24H and 24K

Now that I fly with parents I’d like to make sure we try some of the best products at optimal values. However, since I’m a year away from flying alone multiple times a year, I’d like to make a point to fly as many products as I can. Simply flying amazing products won’t allow me to properly see the market average and evaluate a product fairly, so here are some of the products that I think will balance out the amazing products that I’ve been able to try so far.
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Review: British Airways A321 Economy Class Amsterdam to London

~ j ~ Leave a comment

Introduction: Flying The Nordic Shortcut to Europe
Cathay Pacific 777 Business Class Hong Kong to Bangkok
Oriental Residence Bangkok
Finnair A350 Business Class Bangkok to Helsinki
Hilton Helsinki Airport
Finnair A321 Business Class Helsinki to Amsterdam
Hotel Des Indes The Hague
Hotel Le Royal Luxembourg
Sofitel Brussels Le Louise
Andaz Amsterdam Prinsengracht
British Airways Lounge Amsterdam
British Airways A321 Economy Class Amsterdam to London
My Bloomsbury London
Finnair A350 Business Class London to Helsinki
Finnair A350 Business Class Helsinki to Hong Kong

We started heading towards our gate as boarding was called in the lounge. Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport is notoriously poorly designed and difficult to navigate, and it took a good 15 minutes of navigating a series of walkways before we eventually made it to our gate just as pre-boarding was starting.

IMG_0818British Airways Amsterdam Airport Boarding Signage 

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