It may have been almost two months since BA brought me out to London, but I still have some good material waiting to see the light of day. Today it’s a tour of the new British Airways First Class which is being rolled out to the fleet as we speak. I visited a mockup in the airline’s seat testing center in an overgrown hangar at Heathrow. Please excuse my horribly corny jokes, which were even worse than my usual corny jokes thanks to my not sleeping very much on the flight over the night before.
As you can see, it’s really well-done. The most impressive thing to me isn’t the seat but rather the ambience that they’ve managed to create in the cabin. The window shades just really change the feel for the better, along with several of the other touches. BA specifically avoided the completely private suite with walls like many competitors. Some will like that while others will hate it. Of course, most of us will only see the inside of this cabin if we’re redeeming miles, but if you’ve got ‘em, this looks like a good way to spend ‘em. (If it weren’t for that pesky fuel surcharge . . .)
I know it’s been a month, but I’ve still had a few posts on the backburner from my London trip. You didn’t think I’d stop posting without something on Heathrow’s Terminal 5, did you? I spent a fair bit of time in the terminal and it is an impressive place, for the most part. Of course, it was absurdly expensive to build, but as I wrote on BNET, the price may have been justifiable in this case. Shocking to hear me say that, I know, and I’m sure there were ways to cut down on cost, but much of it was unavoidable.
Most of you know Heathrow as that awful place where congestion is such a part of life that your plane has to circle a couple times on arrival and when you do arrive, your bags immediately get lost. That’s why British Airways was so focused on building Terminal 5. Heathrow’s previous arrangement had Terminals 1, 2, and 3 in the central terminal area between the two runways. Terminal 4 was on the south side of the airport, completely away from the other three. BA’s long haul operation was in Terminal 4 and its short haul operation was primarily in Terminal 1 and that meant trouble.
The long distances made for all sorts of problems. Yes, bags got lost frequently and connections were long and painful for people as well. Terminal 4 was a nightmare because being on the far south side meant that to get to and from the north runway, BA airplanes had to cross the south runway. That was a very time-consuming process at an airport that operates at maximum capacity. The parking areas were also very tight, so like Delta at JFK, BA had traffic jams between its own airplanes that caused delays.
So BA worked with airport operator BAA to build a more than £4 billion new terminal to the west of the existing central terminal area. That became Terminal 5. Why didn’t they build Terminal 4 there? Well, there was a big sewage treatment plant and that had to be relocated along with a bunch of other stuff. That’s one of the reasons that the terminal was so expensive. There was a ton of site prep work.
But now Terminal 5 is built and it’s a great place. There is the main terminal area T5A and then two satellites connected by an underground train, T5B and the soon-to-open T5C. I arrived in T5B, as do most of the US flights, and found that the scale of the terminal was not noticeable upon arrival. You are shuttled through a series of escalators and trains, and when you finally come out, the arrivals area is a very small place with just a couple of shops. There are in-terminal connections to the Tube, the Heathrow Express train, the Sofitel Hotel, and a ton of buses that take you all over. It works very well, though the up and down of the escalators can be somewhat confusing after a long flight.
The departure level is where you really sense the size and feel of the terminal. The ticketing area is enormous and it lies in a huge open space. The concept has you check in at podiums and then keep walking through to a wall of shops at the back. Security sits on both sides, and I’m told that if the line on the left side is long, go to the right where the premium check-in areas are. Those may be shorter.
Once through security, you come in on a mezzanine level above the departure areas. There are a couple of shops and restaurants up top but much of the action is down below. Once you descend to that level, you get that trademark Heathrow shopping experience where you’re completely overwhelmed. It’s just crazy how much shopping they are able to shoehorn into that place. If you’re a fancy pants flier, you can head to the right where the bulk of the lounges are in the terminal. This is one place where the smooth flow is interrupted. Instead of just walking from the mezzanine into the lounge, you have to go down and then back up to reach that area. Goofy.
There are two large Club World and First Class lounges that also welcome BA’s elites. They’re large, light, and have a ton of options including things like food and champagne bars. Then there’s the Concorde Room. This room is only for First Class passengers and it is old-school. It uses a lot of dark wood, has a fire burning, and is a very quiet place unlike the other First Class lounge. It’s traditional British luxury at its best. The room has a full service dining area and an excellent balcony area where you can look over the little people down below. It also has a couple of private day rooms for those with long layovers. Unfortunately, I wasn’t allowed to take any pictures in any of the lounges.
Back with the normal folks, I found there to be plenty of seating. T5A is where the domestic flights go from so you see a lot more narrowbodies there. To board, you actually descend another level to the gate itself. It flows well. If you need to go out to the satellites, you descend to the train which takes you there. There are some shops and a lounge (on T5B) for people, but you shouldn’t go out there unless you know your gate. Once you go out to T5B or C, you can’t come back to T5A. It’s happened before and apparently required BA’s staff to step in to help figure out a way out without going into the customs area.
Underground, there are apparently several stories of a baggage system that does what Denver’s system was supposed to do before the airlines gave up on it. The result is that lost bag numbers have plummeted and on-time percentage has spiked. When the snow/ice storm hit in December, BA had to cancel scores of flights like the other airlines, but while other terminals had to set up tents to deal with all the stranded passengers, BAA built Terminal 5 to have enough extra space that it wasn’t necessary.
According to BA, the cost savings have been so huge in terms of improved on-time performance, shorter taxi times, and better baggage numbers that it is easily paying for itself, even with the large increase in costs at the airport. In that sense, the savings justify the insanely high cost. Could they have shaved a billion off the place with a less grandiose design? I would assume that there could have been more savings and I wish they would have taken advantage of them. Then maybe airlines like bmi wouldn’t feel so much pressure to drop shorter haul flights because the costs have gone up too much.
But Heathrow is still constrained with two runways and the government has opted to ignore the problem and refuse a new runway. That means Heathrow will continue to see more and more long haul at the expense of short haul so the cost doesn’t have as much of an impact in those cases. For passengers, the experience is certainly a good one, and it’s nothing like it used to be.
I left off yesterday as I prepared to board BA flight 001 to bring me back to the US. No reason to keep you waiting. Let’s get back to it.
[Note: BA arranged the flight and accommodation for me without charge, but that in no way guarantees them positive press.]
January 19, 2011
British Airways 1 Lv London/City 1250p Arr Shannon 210p
London/City (LCY): Gate 24, Runway 27, Depart 2m Early
Shannon (SNN): Gate 108, Runway 24, Arrive 12m Early
G-EUNA, Airbus A318-112, British Flag colors, 14/32 Seats Filled
Seat 1K
Flight Time 1h3m
I was immediately greeted by Cat, our purser. Cat was excellent. She was very welcoming and had one of those infectious smiles the never went away the entire flight. I took my seat in row 1 and put my bags in the overhead bin. Then it was time to explore the seat.
Unlike BA’s backward/forward Club World seat, this is in a traditional 2-2 configuration across with everyone facing forward. The seats do go completely flat, marrying with a small footrest that sits at the far end of the seat. There isn’t a ton of storage overall, but there was plenty of storage for a camera, drink, etc on the armrest and in a little cubby hole. I liked this better than the traditional BA Club World seat.
There wasn’t anyone else in all of row 1, so I took the window on the right side, where I had been told the best view of London would be.
We headed out on time and taxied down the runway to turn around so we could depart to the west. (There isn’t a taxiway to get you down there so you use the runway.) London/City is also unique in that it has a steep angle for departures and arrivals, but we had no trouble meeting that requirement with our light load.
We launched and made a right turn, giving me a great view of the Olympic Park. Then we stayed low and slow for a little while, probably vectoring through the maze of London airport traffic. Here’s a 2m45s video:
Soon, Cat came back with the other two flight attendants and they started an appetizer service. I had a tasty smoked trout and opted for a mimosa to start the day.
The service was constant throughout the flight, but in subsequent passes, the crew had more time to stop and visit. Cat and the others were expert at quickly learning if customers wanted to talk or be left alone and they adjusted their service accordingly. I, of course, always want to talk to airline crews so I spent a lot of time with them.
It turns out that the City crew is actually Gatwick-based. The Gatwick base is smaller and this crew gave off a looser vibe than I what I traditionally expect from a BA crew. It struck the right chord with me and appeared to with the other customers as well. I’m told the flight has a lot of repeat customers so it ends up feeling more like a corporate shuttle.
After my snack, I had another mimosa and decided to play around with the onboard mobile offering.
Unfortunately, the US still won’t allow mobiles to be used within US airspace. British Airways doesn’t allow voice calls but it does allow texting and mobile web use (GPRS). But since it can’t be used in the US, our mobile carriers have been slow to agree to the system. So far, only AT&T does it, and I don’t have AT&T.
So the good folks at OnAir, the company that offers this, gave me a SIM card from another provider so I could use the service. This was fun. I booted up the phone and was off and running. While I couldn’t receive email on my Blackberry, I could use the web and text message. If you follow me on Twitter (@crankyflier), you saw a handful of tweets throughout the flight. I liked being able to stay in touch for anything urgent but not having full internet access to encourage me to work.
Soon we were descending into Shannon over green hills, blue water, and a lot of sheep. We landed and touched the gate at 158p. That’s when I started timing things.
After getting off the airplane, we were escorted through the empty terminal to the US pre-clearance area. Nobody was there and we all sailed through. I was confused when I saw that you had to put your bag through an x-ray machine but there were no metal detectors. You had to take your shoes off but you could leave everything else as is. Very odd.
At 208p, I was out of customs waiting to board. There’s a small area with plush chairs dedicated to BA customers for use while we waited to reboard. Why couldn’t we get on right away? Well, the cabin crew has to go through the same formalities but they have to wait until we’re all off the plane. So they got through after us and then hopped onboard to clean things up and prepare the next flight.
The flight crew (not cabin crew) actually stays in Shannon for the night, so our old crew left and a new one came. At 223p, we were ready to board. Cat welcomed us back on the airplane and we all took our seats again. At 238p, we were back on our way, ready for the 7 hour flight after a 40 minute stop.
January 19, 2011
British Airways 1 Lv Shannon 255p Arr New York/JFK 525p
Shannon (SNN): Gate 108, Runway 24, Depart 17m Early
New York/JFK (JFK): Gate 1, Runway 4R, Arrive 27m Early
G-EUNA, Airbus A318-112, British Flag colors, 14/32 Seats Filled
Seat 1K
Flight Time 7h
Once we were in the air, things started to happen quickly. Cat and friends came back and asked if I wanted a personal video player. I did, so they pulled aside the armrest which revealed an arm to hold the player. Then they plugged in the player and I was on my way. (They use the separate player because it’s lighter than a built-in unit and weight counts on this flight.)
Once that was up and running, they came by and served the meal. I opted for a good chicken dish and I decided to have some wine. I actually decided to have a lot of wine, assisted by the fact that my glass never seemed to be empty.
On the first flight, I had asked Cat if she knew if we would have a smooth crossing. She said she didn’t know because we’d get a new flight crew in Shannon but she’d ask then. So I asked her again upon departure and she had the best answer ever.
“Do you just want the captain to come out and talk to you?”
I think you all know the answer to that one. Five minutes later, the captain walked out with his turbulence plots and showed me what was expected. We spoke for about 15 minutes and I was just floored. You don’t see a captain do something like that on just any flight. Amazing.
I settled in to watch some movies and found that the seats were really comfortable. In fact, I thought the recline position was more comfortable on this seat than on the regular Club World. The bed seemed good, but I really didn’t spend much time in that position since it was a daylight flight. I kicked back and watched some movies while texting and tweeting over the mid-Atlantic. Pure awesomeness.
Cat and friends kept coming back frequently to check on me, and every time I would get into a conversation about something or other. It was just a great, familiar feeling that made the flight go by very quickly.
Soon we were over Canada and I was dreading the end of the experience. About an hour and a half out, I had my last touch of British class with a traditional English tea. We started with some finger sandwiches and tea along with clotted cream, scones, and a donut. It was delicious.
As the sun started to set, we began to head down toward New York. They collected the personal video players on descent and buttoned up the cabin. It was a beautiful day with several thin cloud layers reflecting the remaining sunlight.
We touched down and then taxied for a few minutes before docking at gate 1, the same gate Concorde used to use. But instead of walking into customs and immigration, we walked off like a domestic passenger into the gate area. Even with a bathroom stop, it took right around 10 minutes for me to be at the AirTrain, waiting to take the subway into the city.
The experience went by so fast. The math makes a lot of sense for those people who are in Canary Wharf. You would probably need to leave the area 2.5 hours before departure to get to Heathrow but you could leave 30 minutes before departure to get to City. Even with the Shannon stop and the slower cruising speed of the A318, the time savings is there. And the convenience of the whole thing makes it worthwhile.
I’ve only purchased a business class fare once, but I actually found myself thinking about how many thousands I would be willing to pay for this experience again. Of course, not living in New York, it makes little sense for me, but it was still that good. And it certainly lives up to the flight number.
After a short but productive time in London, it was time to head back to the States. But this wasn’t an ordinary return. For the second time in my life, I was taking British Airways flight 001. Last time, it was on Concorde. Could this flight live up to the flight number? It actually did. The flight from London/City to New York/JFK was easily one of the best experiences I’ve had on an airplane, but that report will have to wait tomorrow. Let’s talk about why this flight even makes sense at all.
[Note: BA arranged the flight and accommodation for me without charge.]
I knew it would be a good day when I opened the shades at the Four Seasons in Canary Wharf and saw this incredible view of London and the Thames:
Canary Wharf is the main financial district in London, and it lies to the east of town. The area isn’t very large nor is it distinctive. It has none of the charm of the London you imagine; instead it’s just a towering mess of glass and steel. But it has one very important thing: rich bankers. And the Four Seasons makes them feel right at home, as you would expect from the luxury brand.
Canary Wharf’s buildings are plastered with names like HSBC, Bank of America, Barclay’s, Citi, and more. The number of people traveling between there and New York on a daily basis is high, but Heathrow is all the way on the other side of London. It’s a pain to get there and it takes a long time. That’s why BA started looking at City Airport.
City Airport lies just a 5 minute cab ride or 20 minute train ride from Canary Wharf. It is surrounded mostly by water, right on the Thames River. Because of its geography, its runway doesn’t even hit 5,000 feet. That’s less than half the length of a runway at Heathrow and it’s even shorter than the notoriously short runway at John Wayne/Orange County.
That restriction means that only smaller airplanes can fly to the airport and they can only go short distances. Up until recently, all routes went within Europe. You’d see a lot of flights to key markets like Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Geneva, Milan, and more. But a couple things changed that made a new service a reality.
For one, the airport arranged it so that the A318, the smallest member of the Airbus narrowbody family, was certified to fly in. That opened up the possibility of new routes because of its long legs, but there was still a problem. There wasn’t much room to actually park the airplanes.
So City went ahead and actually built a raft to sit on top of the water and act as a terminal extension. This not only provided a small lounge area for a longer haul flight, but it also created a large parking apron for these airplanes.
After I left the Four Seasons, I made the short journey via the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) over to City Airport to meet with the airport’s chief, Richard Gooding. While looking out over the airport, he confidently explained that the airport is simply executing on its master plan.
The airport’s goal is to continue to serve major European destinations for those businesspeople in Canary Wharf. That’s how it can actually close for 24 hours from midday Saturday until midday Sunday without causing a ripple. But it’s more than that. Much of the development surrounding the Olympics is happening in this area, and even after the Olympics are over, the population in the catchment area will continue to grow with this new infrastructure in place.
Apparently, London/City along with several airlines looked at the possibility of service from London/City to the largest market for those bankers, New York City, for some time. Though I wasn’t told which airlines were interested, I can only imagine that Air France was one considering its large presence at the airport. But in the end, BA was the one that decided to move forward.
This service was no small investment. BA didn’t own any A318s so it had to purchase two of them just for this service. It wanted an all-business class service, but its existing Club World didn’t work on the airplane. So a new seat was designed that fit better and was lighter. Only 32 went onboard.
In the end, the biggest difficulty was around what to do on the westbound flight. The airplane could easily fly from New York to London/City but the short runway prevented that on the return.
In the end, BA settled on a stop in Shannon, Ireland. Why Shannon? Well I’m sure the airport was hungry since it had lost a lot of service over the last few years. And Ireland was particularly attractive because it, like Canada, has pre-clearance for US customs and immigration. That means that passengers could get off the airplane in Shannon and go through customs and immigration while it refueled. Upon arrival in New York, customers could just walk right off the airplane as if it were a domestic flight.
The stage was set, but then the economic downturn hit. BA was just about ready to go but it thought about whether to postpone the service in light of the banking meltdown. It didn’t, and within a few months the service was actually profitable with two flights per day.
The flight continues to do well today, and I can see why. It’s one of the most pleasant flying experiences I’ve ever had; about as close to a private jet as I could imagine.
Once I was done with Richard, I walked over to the terminal and used a kiosk to get my boarding pass. It’s an incredibly small terminal and they’re doing some work in there that makes it feel claustrophobic, but ultimately the goal is to improve the speed of passing through the airport. Travelers can arrive 15 minutes before BA’s New York flight and make it onboard.
I sailed through security and entered into a small concourse area with a couple shops and restaurants. To get to the BA gate, I had to walk down a long, sterile concourse until I found a couple of strangely-numbered gates. Going downstairs, I found a ground-level lounge with some snacks and drinks along with comfy chairs.
When I walked in, there was a gate agent waiting to check my information. He was very friendly and told me that there were only 14 people on the flight (it’s usually between 15 and 20, I’m told) and my seat had nobody next to me. After heading back upstairs to use the restroom, I came down to find it was time to board.
Walking out on the ramp, I saw both of BA’s A318s sitting there. One would operate our flight 001 while the other would operate flight 003 later in the day. I was excited, but I really didn’t realize how cool it would be. For that, come back tomorrow and I’ll have, as Paul Harvey would say, the rest of the story.
It’s been a couple of years since British Airways and I first tried to set up a trip to see the airline’s new Terminal 5 at Heathrow and now, it’s finally happened. I have plenty of cool stuff that I’ll post here in the next couple weeks, but for now, let’s start with the trip out in Club World, BA’s business class. This trip was provided by BA without charge.
BA was the first to put a flat bed in business class, and after a refresh 5 years ago, it’s still a good product today. My one complaint? The storage situation around the seat could use some serious help.
January 16, 2011
British Airways 278 Lv LAX 355p Arr London/Heathrow 10a
Los Angeles (LAX): Gate 120, Runway 25L, Depart 7m Early
London/Heathrow (LHR): Gate 546, Runway 27R, Arrive 20m Late
G-CIVS, Boeing 747-436, British Flag colors, ~99% Full in Back, ~75% in Biz, ~50% in First
Seat 20K
Flight Time 10h
Though I had checked in online and had my boarding pass, I still decided to arrive two hours early. No need. I cruised through security and found myself in the oneworld lounge at Bradley in just a few minutes.
This lounge is new and is a huge improvmenet over the old one. I remember flying BA back in 2002 during the first big winter rain that year in LA. The old lounge was leaking live a sieve and it was dark and overcrowded. This one is bright, though oddly long and narrow, and had a nice, mellow vibe.
About an hour before our flight, they called boarding so I headed down to the overcrowded gate area, a hallmark of the Bradley Terminal. The new Bradley Terminal project is now well underway and it towers over the existing boarding gates.
I hopped onboard my second 747 in a month and I was surprised to see this one looking a bit tired. The seats were in good shape but there were scuff marks that showed these seats had been around for awhile. The traditional yellow onboard lighting probably didn’t help either. (BA is getting mood lighting on its newer deliveries.)
I took my seat in the last row of Club; the best seat I could find since there were no windows available upstairs. The reason I like this seat? It faces backwards but there’s no seat behind so you have more privacy and it’s easier to get in and out.
After sitting, my coat was taken and I was asked if I wanted any newspapers or pre-departure drinks. I just had water and sat back to explore the seat.
The first thing I found was the serious lack of storage. They put a laptop drawer at the bottom right, but that’s hard to access from the bed or reclining positions. And that’s the only storage spot around. There’s no place to rest your phone, a camera, a book, etc where it’s easy to access.
Soon we were pushing back for departure and the captain told us it would be a long crossing thanks to light winds. Not bad since I could use some sleep.
I started off watching a movie and then dove into dinner. The smoked salmon appetizer was a fantastic start. I opted for a cold chicken salad with garam masala and mango chutney for my main course, and it was good but nothing overly special. Then again, I’m not a big airplane food guy anyway. After a sad looking cake dessert (which tasted better than it looked), it was time for bed.
Since I can’t sleep on an airplane, “bed” means Ambien. So I got comfortable, popped a pill and hoped I could fall asleep. It turns out, I had one of those restless sleeps where you aren’t quite sure if you’ve been sleeping or not. Delightful. But I woke up over 6 hours later and felt pretty good, so I must have done better than I thought.
The bed itself was good but it had some issues. It didn’t seem to go fully flat but then when I lied down, it pushed into position. The footrest was temperamental and a couple times during the night, it changed position on me. (Since it’s controlled manually, it was easy for it to shift.) I’m guessing these were issues specific to my seat and not the seat in general.
An hour and a half before arrival, the lights came on and they came through with fresh fruit, tea, and my favorite, the bacon sandwich. Everyone should have a bacon sandwich. (Ok, maybe not El Al.)
I filled out my landing card, got everything together and after doing a couple mandatory Heathrow holding pattern loops, we came in to land in a very dark and rainy London. We sat for 15 minutes waiting for someone at our gate, but then we were off into the terminal.
The new terminal 5 looks really nice but it’s like a maze. A lot of upstairs, then downstairs, then upstairs again. (I’ll have more on this in a future post.) Customs and immigration was easy, and then I went to the highlight of the process: the arrivals lounge.
After going through customs, you can go upstairs to BA’s arrival lounge. This large lounge has relaxation and work areas, a full breakfast bar and the shower room.
In fact, there are 94 different shower rooms, and I was given “Red 1.” The room was small but perfectly functional. I found a little door within the door where you could put your shoes and clothes to be shined and pressed. I popped them in and hit the valet button and soon enough they were whisked away.
The shower was amazing with a rainfall head and side jets to basically melt the airplane-nastiness off your body. I didn’t want to get out. But I did and my shirt and shoes were back in pristine condition. I listened to the radio while getting ready (you can pick your station in there) and then it was off to the Sofitel right next to Terminal 5 where I spent the first night.
I have plenty to share over the next week including my flight back to JFK on British Airways flight 1 from London/City Airport, so stay tuned for that.
