So this was an interesting one.
My booking was originally in World Traveller Plus (or Premium Economy), and the equipment used by BA was supposed to be a 787-800 Dreamliner. A couple of months out from travel I had an email from BA confirming my seats had changed, reflecting the change from the gorgeous 787 to the rather 'meh' 777. I say 'meh' because BA's 777's are all really old and tatty, some of which are approaching 20 years in service. There wasn't much I could do about this, other than complain via the Executive Club customer services line, which, to my surprise, credited with me a 5000 Avios as an apology for (what I called) a downgrade of aircraft.
Anyway, cut to t-minus 24 hours before departure, and I was checking online. My seat changed again. To 3A. Three. Alpha. Which, to be honest, confused me, because I'd never been given an upgrade before, and initially thought it was a mistake. But sure enough, it checked me in, I quit the app, restarted it, and it still said 3A. So I quickly went over to seatguru and took a look at the pros/cons of the seat, because let's face it, BA's Club World long haul cabin is universally loathed unless you're in one of the very few-and-far-between good seats, like 64A/K on the 747-400 upper deck. (To be fair, I've never actually flown it, but it always looks cramped, having to look at someone you might not know during take off, meal service and landing is really odd and having to climb over another passenger when they're in lie flat mode is frankly inexcusable... but I digress.)
BA fly a number of different 777's in their fleet, with varying configurations, and I continued to be confused about the seat. 3A was showing as a First seat on the 777 I thought I was on (as the corresponding World Traveller Plus seat was different on the other types), and so I put it down to some strange glitch and that I'd probably be plopped back in World Traveller Plus on boarding. No biggie; it's what I'd paid for, after all.
But no! On flight day (yay!) I took myself over to LHR T5 (which I absolutely love flying from) and the check-in agent confirmed my seat, and printed out a paper pass, just to be doubly sure, and directed me towards the BA Club World lounge in the main terminal building. I was generally underwhelmed (after having been in the Concorde Lounge only a couple of months beforehand). It was really, really busy, and absolutely overrun with children who were all running about screaming and shouting. I find this to be unacceptable as I generally take a dim view of children misbehaving in an adult environment (like restaurants or pubs). I stayed for about an hour, trying to read, but gave up and went for a wander around the shops instead, to look at things I can't afford.
I headed to my gate over in the C-satellite, taking the little subterranean train in a few minutes. Arriving at my gate, with boarding already underway, I went down the airbridge after a final documentation check, and was greeted by the (very young) cabin crew. I was taken to my seat... which was in (declassified) First class. First! I was blown away - the space! I was genuinely so thankful and excited about being able to properly stretch out and relax before my trip.
The seat itself was incredibly wide and comfortable, though the suite as a whole was looking a little tatty around the edges, with numerous scuff marks, old-looking carpet, chips on the metalwork and bobbles on the upholstery. But still, I shouldn't complain; I had two windows to gaze out of and a huge screen (thought this was covered in fingerprints... I had to clean this myself!) BA do really need to get better cleaners on board and do more regular deep-cleans of their aircraft; they're often really grubby, even the new fleet additions. The screen also has to fold away for take off and landing, thus the IFE isn't available gate-to-gate. I gave the seat itself a spin, using the easy-to-use dial to see what it was like, before resetting it to take off position. I couldn't reach the ottoman with my legs outstretched, so the legroom was amazing. I was pleased that the personal mini-wardrobe closed properly (unlike my trip to KUL in First on the 787-900), but sadly the suite didn't have a huge amount of functional storage space, which felt quite impractical, as I had to keep getting up and down to get things out my hand luggage.
The amenity kit was a good quality, handsome leather bag embossed in silver and filled with all manner of useful (and usual) goodies from The White Company. I always appreciate a lip balm stick being included as my lips get so cracked on long haul flights - yuk!
I was offered a very nice glass of champagne (which went down well) by the crew who were really friendly, chatting with me and what-not (as well as advising me that I would be receiving Club World service and food, not First) before we pushed back to head over to Toronto.
And indeed he was correct, the service was the same as Club World. If I had paid cash for it, I would have been on the phone to BA as soon as I'd gotten home, as to be honest, despite the crew being friendly, most aspects of the service were just sloppy and unrefined, though the food was tasty and presented well (to be honest I generally really like airline food no matter what class!) A prime example of this sloppy service was being asked if I'd like a drink (a gin and slimline tonic, of course), to have that arrive no sooner than 15 minutes later, and once that was done, not be offered another for two hours. Feeling a shade thirsty, I pressed the call bell to order another. Nobody appeared. I pressed it again. Nobody appeared. After a whopping (and unacceptable) 40 minutes of seeing just how long it would actually take for someone to see what I needed, I got up and asked for it myself while the crew were in the galley chatting. Which, yes, I could have just done myself in the first place, but that's not the point. The cabin was only 3/4 full, too, so the crew were hardly rushed off their feet.
The flight to Toronto was otherwise smooth and uneventful, with a good amount of IFE content to keep me entertained, and we arrived bang on time to be greeted by an immigration hall to rival even the worst US airports (I'm looking at you, Miami.)
All in all, a good flight with a very friendly (if forgetful) crew, in a very comfy (if slightly tatty) suite. But, I really can't complain too much, because I was supposed to be way back in World Traveller Plus, and I only paid £700rtn to end up sitting in a First class seat.
I wonder if the declassified First is a sign of things to come for BA. I read more and more often about airlines that are really thinning out their First Class hard products in favour of more advanced and boundary pushing business classes, much like Qatar's Qsuite or Delta One. This is evident in the new BA A350-1000 having the new Club Suite (which I really want to try) and no First class.
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