BA296 Chicago O’Hare to London Heathrow – CLUB SUITES
Surprise, Surprise!
It was time for another surprise on top of the surprise I got when the upgrade landed in my lap when I checked in for my flight home.
And yes, it involves a very new product for British Airways. But will the inflight service add a cherry on top?
In this surprise-laden adventure
- We all know the drill by now… don’t we?
- The early morning road to nowhere (and Heathrow Terminal 3 first thing in the morning, with an equipment change shock)
- Morning Lounging at the Cathay Pacific and American Airlines Lounges
- AA87 London Heathrow to Chicago O’Hare – Main Cabin Extra
- Into the USA and The Crowne Plaza O’Hare
- Hyatt Regency O’Hare
- Airplane Art Special from the Hyatt Regency O’Hare
- Various nibbles around Chicago
- An Instagram Trap? Coffee at Brü
- Chicago Classics: Giordano’s Deep Dish Pizza
- Enjoying a Chicago River tour… in the rain
- Back to O’Hare and the British Airways lounge
- BA296 Chicago O’Hare to London Heathrow – Club World (Club Suites)
- Racing across Heathrow… but where’s the coach?
- To onward surprises
Let’s see what business class product awaits us.
BA296 Chicago O’Hare Terminal 5 to London Heathrow Terminal 5
British Airways
Boeing 777-200ER
Seat 6K, Club World (Business Class, Upgraded from World Traveller Plus/Premium Economy)
3,953 Miles Flow, Revenue Value £290.79
2,327 Avios earned, 90 Tier Points earned.
The crew welcomed me on the Boeing 777, directed me forward, and then left.
Left? This is turning from very rare to rare for my experiences.
Heading into the narrow aisle, I noted that the old flying dormitories (where British Airways crammed eight people across in the past), had been replaced with the newest seating product British Airways has – Club Suites.
Club Suites.
These are in the classic reverse herringbone style, built on the Collins Aerospace SuperDiamond seat.
I’ve had luck sleeping in the past on the old BA Club World seats, so I was really looking forward to getting a decent inflight snooze on this 777.
I popped my bags in the overhead bin and looked around the seat.
Once again, we have the seat front and centre, finished with some rather elegant stitching, with a BA Antimascara on top. To the side, there’s openable storage, with flip-top storage. Inside one of these was the IFE Controller, with power outlets.
Pillow on the seat, with bedding and headphones.
To the side, there was a bottle of water and a new amenity kit.
Amenity Kit and Water
The seat itself, as I noted is based on Collins SuperDiamond – a seat that I know that I can sleep on.
As for the seatbelt, it’s a two-part unit with a lap belt, with an over-the-shoulder belt, used for take-off and landing. And it’s also got very limited stretch. I’m ok with this – I’m not a great fan of the seatbelts with airbags built-in.
Looking into First Class… at this point, you’re paying for service quality over the seat, given how long the PRIME seat has been in service.
Power is located in one of the closeable hatches, with two USB Power and earphone outlets on the right…
And mains power in front.
There’s also a screen near your thighs – this controls the seat and the positions you can put it in.
In Take off/landing configuration
Configuring the seat – taken in flight
Touchscreen controls are a mixed blessing – for a lot of people, it’s a fine and elegant way to control a seat. I would prefer a little tactility knowing what buttons I’m pressing when I’m adjusting a seat.
Finally, the thing that makes a Club Suite a Club Suite is a door that you can close, once unlocked by the crew in the air.
With people settling in – myself included, the crew came with welcome drinks – orange juice and champagne as well as the menus. I noticed the crew were very patient and helpful – be it to some passengers with special requirements and jovial when needed.
It’s good to see a crew adapt on the fly.
You all know what I went for.
Boarding continued apace, with it completing well within departure time. However, it seemed there were issues with the loading sheet, with the computer going down.
Probably a SWISS A340 parked next door to us, along with an EVA Air Boeing thing.
This carried on for 40 or so minutes, nixing our planned early arrival, but all things being equal – especially with the tailwinds – we should be landing on time at Heathrow.
During this time, the crew took orders for dinner. Whilst this was the last flight of the day, there were still plenty of passengers who were choosing to dine that evening. Again, the crew helped with choices where needed, advising on menu items (including a starter that had been loaded that was extra).
Hot towels also arrived. I needed this time after walking around the city.
With the loading systems back online, our Boeing 777-200ER pushed back and the safety video played. This is the latest generation of the video, which has a lot less dated humour and thus helps convey the information.
As it was completed, it was time to taxi around the O’Hare field, with the darkness of the field, and the bright lights guiding us around
LOR Polish Airlines Boeing 787
Aeromexico Boeing 737
The aircraft taxied over the north of the field, where it was allocated a runway.
With no wait, the aircraft took to the sky.
With a tight bend into the sky, our aircraft headed north to Wisconsin up to Canada to begin the 7-hour journey to London.
The fabric divide between First and Club.
The IFE System remains one of the Thales TopSeries systems that were previously installed on the 777s. It’s fine enough, but it is starting to show its age in terms of speed and performance, compared to some modern systems.
Noise Cancelling Headphones are provided that interface with the IFE system. These are unbranded – so less of a target for the souvenir hunter.
On the plus side, British Airways signed for Paramount Plus. That means we have Star Trek to enjoy on the IFE system. Again, they’ve loaded tasters of seasons (rather than full seasons) onto the system – I guess it’s to ensure people buy Paramount Plus when they land, but given you can complete a series of Lower Decks in 4 hours or less, or even Discovery/Strange New Worlds in clocks under 10 hours a season, it does seem to be a strange decision.
Lower Desks Season 4 was loaded, along with Discovery Season 1 and 2, and Strange New Worlds Season 1 and 2 – well a few episodes of them at least.
Let us be honest. Whilst we all might want to end up on an Enterprise, Discovery, Excelsior, The Titan or another top-link starship, there’s something nice about doing the grunt work of the fleet – My dear people, meet the California Class USS Cerritos.
And it’s canon – Mr Boimler and Rutherford are in the fleet museum on Athan Prime. What do I mean? This classic clip from Star Trek: Picard.
Just listen for the leitmotif of your preferred classic Star Trek.
And we’re still not talking about Star Trek: Prodigy. Fine. Although I’m still annoyed at Paramount cancelling Lower Decks after Season 5.
It seems the crew of the Ceritos might find out the answer to the why of the Space Koala. WHY IS HE SMILING? WHAT DOES HE KNOW?!
As for onboard connectivity, whilst the SSID for the Wi-Fi was present, I had no luck connecting to the Wi-Fi. In the past, this is typically an Intelsat (ex Gogo) 2Ku service, providing connectivity for around £15 on transatlantic legs. Which is good value.
When it works.
Sadly, this day, I would have no connectivity – and besides, it’s a night flight – connectivity is very much at the bottom of the pile of needs.
Nonetheless, the crew were out of the traps quickly, combining the aperitif service with the main meal, so that people could maximize their their sleeping time.
The bi-fold tray deployed – it slides completely under the monitor/leg cubby.
First up is the starters tray. This comprised of a small salad, an individual bread – and for the main starter, marinated king pawns with avocado salad, carrot and ginger dressing.
Yes, BA it seems still can’t count beyond two for king prawns. There were two pieces of lettuce, with the avocado being at the base. The prawns were delightfully bouncy and fresh, whilst the lettuce was passable.
As for the avocado… nope. My mind still can’t work out how to get around it after all these years. It’s a wonderful carrier item, but no something would actively go out of my way to eat.
Served to the side was my BA Gin Fizz. Hey. I might as well keep on going how I started. It provided a nice fizzy lemony bite to change up the flavours (and trust me – I get tired of tonic water after a while).
Next up was the main meal – I selected the Cajun Chicken with cheddar potato gratin, jalapenos, charted sweetcorn kale, and red pepper with thyme juice. I admit, I was close to selecting the Cod Masala as an option, but here we are.
I overheard the crew advise that the cajun spice might be strong – but I’m going, to be honest, the spices were a lot more subtle than they sounded, with a longer burn, rather than the initial hit of chilli that can put people off things – that makes it rather rounded out.
Finally was the mango desert with the cutest softest piping of meringue on the planet.
Pictures of this make it larger than it was – but a lovely sweet note to end the meal.
With the meal complete and the trays collected, I put the tray back in its hiding hole and closed the suite door.
The modern version of the “Please do not disturb” sign.
Hey, if I’ve got a door, I might as well use it.
With Anson Mount reciting the Star Trek Herald, I fell asleep, getting a good four hours over the pond.
This is where the Colin SuperDiamond and its derivatives just work – you can put the bed into a fully flat position, get a pillow, and blankets if you feel like it and just let nature take over. Good foams make a hell of a difference, as well as suitable seat covers. Combined with the privacy options, I’m struggling to think of business-class flights where the SuperDiamond have let me down.
I’m still struggling with an answer at the time of publication.
Waking up, it felt like I was an hour away from London. Thankfully, a crew member noticed I was awake quickly, and offered a breakfast service.
There’s a world outside. It isn’t filled with hurt and pain but with undiscovered wonder. All you have to do is open up sometimes.
This was a choice between an Egg and Bacon muffin or a Menemen, fetta cheese and spinach wrap.
I went for the carnivore option. Although I miss the BA BAcon rolls you used to get on long-haul flights.
This was served with a croissant and a coconut chia seed putting with granola, strawberries and blueberries.
I’m going to be honest – I skipped the chia putting. It’s something that I’ve struggled with in texture terms, let alone taste.
The croissant tasted passable – it won’t beat a basic one out of a French bakery, but it will do at a pinch to add a flakey texture to the morning. Moving onto the Egg and Bacon muffin, it’s reasonably well filled – with the eggs looking fluffed up, whilst the bacon was very much of American levels of crispiness, rather than a British level.
Then again, back bacon is far better than streaky bacon.
This was devoured with very little concern to the world. Thankfully the coffee and water helped a lot in getting through the slightly dry muffin. It’s certainly not the best, but for a pre-arrival snack on a transatlantic flight, the best one can hope for these days.
Checking on the map, it was clear we had crossed the Atlantic, with the aircraft crossing multiple jetstreams overnight as we closed in Heathrow on a very southerly approach to the United Kingdom, crossing the southern tip of Ireland before making landfall over Brdiged, Cardiff and Bristol – indicating we would be approaching Heathrow from the South West.
At least England’s green and pleasant land was green.
The crew were busy up to the 20-minute marker, ensuring business class passengers were serviced and had everything that had been tidied down – and it’s good to see a crew interact with passengers and customise the service to their needs – rather than sticky stick to the rule book.
The arrivals video also started for those who were landing or connecting at Heathrow Terminal 5.
With our aircraft going south of London, we were placed in a stack for arrival. Our Boeing 777-200ER did two laps of the stack, before being released for landing.
Heathrow traffic can be a pain – especially when your aircraft is delayed and has to slide in to try and get a gate.
This can have other consequences – such as the gate you had turning from something convenient to a hard stand and a bus.
A key difference between FIRST and Club World: The Speedmarque is lit up differently.
Exiting the stack, the aircraft made a few more turns, with it making a North Windsor approach, rather than a River approach.
I guess I need to take more flights to Heathrow to get some of those city approaches. I miss out a lot.
With ease, the Boeing 777-200ER landed at its home base of London Heathrow Airport (with both video and photos).
The aircraft went pretty far down the runway, with it peeling off the runway near the Terminal 2 complex – which also means a long taxi back to Terminal 5.
It’s good enough to watch some of the arriving traffic.
British Airways Whale taxing home.
Hmmm. The Qantas whale isn’t parked this far south normally…
United Airlines Boeing 767-300ER
A selection of Stars.
Cathay Pacific 777-300ER and the Terminal 3 Complex.
Time to taxi back
British Airways A321neo
Lufthansa A320neo
Our aircraft slowed as we approached Terminal 5, taking the first exit – indicating we would be either getting a gate at Terminal 5C or a hard stand. I looked to my right, and there was an empty stand with a jetbridge. That looked good. I then saw where it was… right on the far end of Terminal 5C
No… surely not.
You bet- the aircraft turned for the gate. I primed myself for the aircraft cardo – It looked like I would be getting the morning version of an extended workout, whether I liked it or not.
Oh well. Considering I had just over an hour to make the coach… I should be fine… shouldn’t I?
Oh, sweet summer flower. You don’t know what the hell is ahead of you.
With the engines powered down and more than a few people needing customer assistance to exit the aircraft, I gathered my stuff together quickly and prepared to end my experience at the Club World Suites
I thanked the crew for their excellent service and headed into the chaos that awaited me.
Overall
British Airways presented its best foot forward on this flight, with its newest product, along with some of the friendliest interactions with its staff. Combined with reasonable catering, it was a superb flight, with friendly service.
The only fly in the ointment was the Wi-Fi system being down. On an overnight flight, that’s not so important… but I’d be a little annoyed on a daytime flight.
Next:
It’s time for one last surprise. And no, I’m not talking about baggage delivery speed at Heathrow.
That was the least surprising thing…
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