BA296 Chicago O’Hare to London Heathrow
Fall fun in the Windy City
In this adventure:
- Still trying to keep it different
- Great. A Broken Down Coach…
- Cathay Pacific Lounge, Heathrow Terminal 3
- AA99 London Heathrow to Chicago O’Hare (Main Cabin Extra)
- Avid Hotel, Chicago O’Hare
- Hyatt Regency O’Hare
- Airplane Art from the Hyatt Regency O’Hare
- Table for One – Time for Food
- Trying a different Deep Dish Pizza (Pequods)
- Night-Time fun with the iPhone 14 Pro
- Return to much busier Chicago O’Hare Terminal 5
- BA296 Chicago O’Hare to London Heathrow (World Traveller)
- A Coach, A Coach. My Kingdom for a Coach
- Not the end, for 2022… maybe…
British Airways BA296 Chicago O’Hare to London Heathrow
British Airways BA296
Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner
Seat 32K, World Traveller
3953 miles flown, 20 Tier points earned, 2,965 Avios Earned
I boarded the plane and was welcomed by the crew. I was directed down the back, I and began my hike.
This being my first time aboard a Boeing 787-10 for British Airways, the first thing I noted was a brand new cabin installed – the Club World Ying/yang product was gone, replaced with the new Club Suite (Collins Aerospace SuperDiamond Suite) with doors installed on it.
Because this is the 2020s and if your business class suite doesn’t have a door, who are you, exactly?
Moving down the cabin into World Traveller Plus, I was happy to see Recaro PL3530 long-distance Premium Economy seats installed.
Finally, in World Traveller, new seats again – this time the Recaro CL3710 seat in its glory, in a 3-3-3 configuration. The aisle seat had been taken, and after a little encouragement (as well as stowing my bags in the overhead bin, I made it to my seat.
I’ve written about the CL3710 extensively on Economy Class and Beyond – so this would be my first time actually taking it for a long-haul spin. We’ll finally see if my prognosis of it on the trade show floor is different than onboard a long-haul aircraft.
Whilst BA has set this for a 31” seat pitch, it didn’t feel like it, with plenty of legroom in front. Also, the use of a split table is a nice thing to see.
Sadly, one thing that wasn’t nice to see was the lack of air distributors installed on a brand-new long-haul aircraft.
COME ON PEOPLE. REALLY?
This is just annoying at this point in the game. This aircraft isn’t even two years old, and they couldn’t be bothered to get the air distributors fresh out of the factory.
Air vents are a very personal thing, but I prefer to have one – as some of us run a little hot on a day-to-day basis – so having cool air to remove some of the heat is a wonderful thing.
TAP A330-900neo next door.
There’s a lot more that’s new aboard this aircraft – including a revamped IFE system, which I explored for a few minutes before the aircraft went to boarding completely.
In-ear headphones are supplied (in the BA donation bag if you need to find them).
Eventually, the aircraft pushed back, and a manual safety demonstration was carried out.
With it complete, our aircraft taxied around O’Hare, in search of a departure runway.
Etihad Airbus A350-1000
American Airlines Boeing 737-800
FedEx Freighter taxing past
Eventually, we were allocated a spot, and the Rolls Royce Trent TEN engines spooled into life, lifting the Boeing 787-10 into the sky.
The aircraft made a circle past O’Hare, before striking out west and above the cloud layer, leaving the windy city behind.
O’Hare from the Air.
The city from the distance
One more view of the city…
And into the cloud layers.
Of course, the row in front of me took this as the perfect time to fully recline their seat. Thank you so much, not even an “excuse me, please”.
Oh well. I dived into the IFE system and found Bob’s Burgers. Good enough to start this long-haul flight with. The system itself is very fluid – which is nice to see, with a capacitive touch interface. It has the main features you’d expect, as well as a sales channel for the airline.
And a much-updated user interface
Sell everything!
Bong.
Well the Recaro CL3710 has seat great recline it seems. This is fine…
Another Grand re-re-re-e-opening. This is fine.
The moving map interface was provided by FlightPath 3D – a big win for this company to provide the geodata and mapping functions.
It’s a much more modern interface than I’ve seen on AA or BA before – so this was a breath of fresh air (although I’ve seen it deployed on Panasonic equipment with Finnair before).
That’s part of the joy of open ecosystems (with vendors deployed hardened operating systems – such as Android). You can develop an app, and in theory, an airline can add it to their inflight App Selection as needed.
There was also a USB-A port provided at the IFE console, which had a reasonably fast charge rate – I suspect it is on 2 or 3 amps, but enough to charge an iPhone 14 Pro rapidly. There’s also a double audio jack output – but thankfully, BA uses standard single pin headphones for their economy class passengers.
There was internet aboard this Boeing 787-10, but as this was a night flight – I intended to try and get some sleep and thus passed on the Wi-Fi sale.
For those who want to convert from US Dollars to LizzyCoins/DishyRishiTokens, that’s cheap now
At least it was a lot more competitive than what AA charged – with AA charging US $29 (£24.50 at the time of writing) for a flight pass, vs £12 on BA.
The first catering pass of the flight arrived, with an offering of drinks and snacks. I went for a Gin and Tonic (mainly as I’m over Vodka for a few weeks still), with a choice of Tanqary or Aviator Gin.
I chose the Ryan Reynolds gin. It seemed to taste ginny – and with the cold tonic water, it hit the spot. This was served with some Penn State Pretzels.
Although if you want larger bags, head to Costco.
Yep. Just head to Costco. They’re waiting there for you if you want to recreate that part of the in-flight experience at home.
The meal service followed thereafter, with a choice of chicken or pasta. I went for the chicken option, which was chicken in a sauce with vegetables and mash, served with spouting seeds as a salad, and a chocolate moose.
The tray.
It seems plastic flatware has been swapped for wooden ones too.
Well, it’s a little different in terms of sides, but a reasonable – if better-portioned – meal than what was offered on the way out by American Airlines
. The mash wasn’t too soggy, whilst the chicken was firm enough and the vegetables were not absolute mush – so these are all good things.
A bottle of water was also given, along with a chocolate pot thing for dessert.
Of interest was the side dish – which was sprouted seeds.
Well, that’s different for a salad item. I wonder what the cost of that was in quantity and the savings of that versus lettuce leaves (also, I’m back to the Spiderverse in IFE terms).
The service was cleared down reasonably quickly. With both my row and the row behind me cleared, I said excuse me to the person behind me and reclined my seat. By some magical chance, I also had a blindfold on me too – allowing me to try and get as much rest as I could.
The passenger that was sat in the end seat also had moved off – I didn’t know if they were returning so I stuck to sleeping in my own space
It must have worked to a point because, by the time I had woken up, our aircraft must have been over Ireland, as EssieJosie spotted me going past.
Ireland is down there. Honest.
.@EconomyBeyond hope you saw me waving 🤭🥰✈️ pic.twitter.com/PgqfCk1AWn
— Essiejosie ✈ (@Essiejosie) October 18, 2022
Wales underneath
It was also time for the breakfast pass, with a choice of a cheese muffin or a ham-based muffin. Sadly, it seems either the crew ran out of time, or there was an issue with one of the oceans, as the ones being served were cold.
Hmmm.
This was also served with coffee in a vain attempt to wake me up, with it hardly making a dent.
I would have to look into that when I arrived back at Heathrow to get some go-go juice in me.
As I worked through the cold muffin, the captain came on the line, to advise of conditions at Heathrow and that the welsh coast was outside – indicating we were not that far from Heathrow.
Giant aircraft invading British airspace! Film much later on.
The cabin was cleared down as the aircraft descended from its cruising altitude, as prepared to join the Heathrow stacks.
Then came a call that no one likes – If a Doctor or medical professional is on board, can they make themselves known to the crew?
It’s a call no one likes, as you never know if there is someone who can respond.
Nonetheless, it seemed our path into Heathrow was set, with the plane not required to stack, but just to vector in.
Cabin during decent.
With ease, the Boeing 787-10 touched down at its home base of Heathrow.
The aircraft taxied off the runway with haste, as it seemed we had a medical emergency on the aircraft.
Peeling off the runway.
Hello, Terminal 3 and Control Tower.
British Airways A320 peeling off
Air France A321 arriving.
We were directed straight to a gate – without any delay due to the medical emergency aboard.
Our aircraft was allocated a gate at the far end of Terminal 5 B – good enough for a place to park.
Turning towards the T5 complex
Passing a parked 777.
Parking up.
The crew asked us to remain in our seats after the seatbelt sign was extinguished to allow the paramedics board the aircraft unhindered.
Even the jetbridge team were seemingly quick, docking the aircraft to the terminal. There was a short wait, and then we were allowed to disembark.
With that, I gathered my items and headed for the exit -thanking the crew on my way.
Overall: It seems that British Airways Boeing 787-10 is a major step up from the others that are in the fleet, with new products across the board (apart from the First Class “Prime” seating, which has been in flight since 2015), with a refreshed passenger experience. Along with a friendly crew, it seems to be a good product.
There were some minor failings in the food service (with a sandwich that was meant to be served hot), but otherwise, it was well delivered.
And having an extra seat next to you is always a benefit.
Next: A Coach, A Coach. My Kingdom for a Coach.
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