Viva Las BAcon - British Airways BA295 London Heathrow - Chicago O'Hare

Viva Las BAcon! British Airways BA295 London Heathrow – Chicago O’Hare

Trip Report Index (it’s long):

BA295 London Heathrow Terminal 5 to Chicago O’Hare International
British Airways, Sold as AA6195
Seat 39K, World Traveller. Boeing 747-400
3,953 miles flown, 3,953+3,953 Avios Earned, 35 Tier Points Earned

The photos:

I headed down the jetbridge, and was welcomed aboard the “Queen of the Skies”, and directed down the left hand side of the plane to my home for the next 9 hours – seat 39K

Legroom at this seat wasn’t great, but wasn’t bad considering this was a bulkhead

At the seat was a blanket, pillow and amenity kit

The plane filled out quickly, with World Traveller (Economy class) filling up pretty quickly (including my row… and pretty much the whole plane).

However, even though the plane loaded quickly, some passengers didn’t make it past the deadline – requiring their bags to be offloaded. Along with a ground delay, my connection in Chicago was beginning to eat away without me realising it.

But still, it was a nice way to kick back for a while.

Eventually, our plane was given permission to push back, and it was away we went for a short taxi around Heathrow, heading to Runway 9R for a powerful take off.

Those doves get everywhere.

With a take off from 9R, the plane ascended, and then turned past Heathrow, and begun its track across the pond and to Chicago.

Heathrow below

Climbing out

As the climb out was continuing, and the crew released, the Cabin Service Manager popped by to introduce herself and thank my for flying British Airways (the joy of being a gold at the back of the plane) – and also to check if I needed anything else (well… apart from a Club World seat… but there was no point in asking for one of those whilst in the air!).

Drinks followed, with me going for my usual flying drink:

Only bottle of vodka though. It was enough.

The day continued as the blue sky and clouds continuing to look pretty.

Lunch followed with a choice of pasta or chicken. I went for the chicken as it sounded reasonable. And it was.

Tray – for those who have allergies, one of the things I love is the fact that BA print what allergies on the food foil.

Curried Style Coleslaw

Chicken Casserole with Potatoes and Peas.

Lily O’Brien Desert. Mmm!

Ok, we have an interesting tray here. Again, with lots of allergy labels (for those who do suffer with allergies, knowing what you are consuming is an important thing). The curried coleslaw is what I’d call “inspired” (not terrible, but not expected – nicely spiced though which suits high altitudes).

Meanwhile the chicken casserole for an in-flight meal was very filling – with a lot of chicken in the dish (as opposed to chicken chunks you can count), with the potatoes and peas not over-cooked.

The Lily O’Brien Orange Chocolate moose was very delectable. A very nice sweet note (oh, and a subnote to any US Airline: this is what is called a desert. Not the cookie you supply).

Wine was also offered and taken, and… wasn’t memorable. It was white and that’s all I can tend to remember.

With the tray cleared down, it was time to kick back. Or rather since this is economy class – stretch the legs into the bulkhead and leave the seat upright.

IFE is provided by flipout units in the bulkhead and seatback screens behind. Sadly, this 747-400 had the old IFE system installed. Not good as it does have limited content… however, it has content I like. So a mixed bag really.

Taken much later during the flight.

Time to get a few zzzs whilst the world kept on plodding on outside.

A bit of disturbed rest, but rest none the less, I finally roused as the plane begun crossing Canada. With some lovely scenes outside

With time ticking on, the second service begun – which would be a sandwich combo.

So we have a Chicken Caesar sandwich, a dark chocolate two-fingered KitKat and a coffee. Not overly creative in the least, but it was presented well. The sandwich was fresh (which on some flights, can be a real challenge!), and the coffee was hot.

I’ve seen better pre-arrival services (least of all from British Airways with their Afternoon Tea service), but this isn’t overly bad.

As clear-down was in progress, I changed the phones time… and then compared it to the IFE screen. A bit of simple math showed my connection time had vanished from 1 hour 40 to 1 hour 15.

This could be very interesting when I landed at O’Hare.

The route into Chicago took us on a far north track, coming in over Wisconsin as opposed to flying over Lake Michigan, allowing the countryside to melt into industrial.

Soon enough, the plane was secured for landing, and a sight appeared below me. Runways? Yes. We were flying over O’Hare.

Errm. Down there please!

Midway Airport in the distance

The plane continued to track out towards Lake Michigan and past the city of Chicago.

South Shore

A swing around the lake, and the plane finally lined up to land at O’Hare.

North Shore

Quickly enough, the undercarriage was lowered, and it was time to land with a reasonable thump on the tarmac.

However, there was an extremely long taxi from the end of the runway back to the International Terminal.

The cargo ramp.

That connection I had? It was dropping further. Taxi took another 15 minutes to get to the gate at the International terminal, dropping it down to just over an hour (or 1 hour on the dot by the time I got off the plane).

Soon enough, the plane finally hit the gate, and I thanked the crew as I begun one of the fastest connections that I’ve done.

Ever.

Overall: Not bad at all. A reasonably rounded service aboard this British Airways 747 across the pond. The food was of a pretty good quality, with the crew friendly. Pre-arrival snack was a tiny bit of a disappointment (mainly as I was looking forward to the afternoon tea), but I’ve had worse. The seat isn’t bad in the least (with the headrest being rather good for leaning against) and the IFE wasn’t bad. Rather passable really.

Next: 1 hour International to Domestic connection at O’Hare? Impossible? Possible (just!!!)

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Viva Las BAcon – British Airways BA295 London Heathrow – Chicago O’Hare

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