[Note: BA arranged the flight and accommodation for me without charge, but that in no way guarantees them positive press.]

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.

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.

See the rest of my photos from the trip

[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.

If you don’t remember the details of the service, read my original post on the announcement and my interview with Woody Harford, formerly of BA. Now, before people start filling the comments saying that London/City isn’t convenient for them, remember this isn’t for everyone. It’s actually not for very many people at all. If you work or have meetings in or near the Docklands (eg financial types) and you fly business class, then this is great. If not, it probably shouldn’t even be in your consideration set. That’s why each airplane only has 32 seats – it’s a relatively small target.

The buzz so far is that BA is delivering (except for that mechanical delay yesterday). You can see a lot of what people are saying on Twitter under the hashtag #bacity. (And you can see an interior shot here.) The airplane is equipped with OnAir mobile phone service, so the UK folks on the first westbound flight were tweeting away in the air. Unfortunately, US mobile subscribers can’t use their phones yet, but according to BA, T-Mobile subscribers will have access by next spring. One thing to note – voice calls aren’t allowed – web and SMS/MMS only.

Now the big question is whether enough people will be interested in this service to shift their business from Heathrow. There is enough financial business in Canary Wharf for that to happen, but will the suits make the switch? Let’s think about this.

On the eastbound, it’s easy. Both flights are nonstop from New York, so if you have business in the Docklands, you can get there much, much faster. Even if you’re in row 8 (the last row on the plane, funny), you’ll still be off the plane and in your office in less than 30 minutes. And now BA has partnered with the nearby Marriott to offer complimentary gym and shower access to make up for the lack of arrival lounge. So you can now freshen up first if you want as well.

I’m even told that you’ll fly through customs and immigration on arrival because they do some sort of pre-clearing based on the passenger manifest. When you arrive, they just need to make sure you actually are the person on the manifest.

On the westbound, the value proposition is a little dicier since it involves a stop in Shannon. In fact, Virgin Atlantic decided to throw down on Twitter on the first day of operation:

@British_Airways #bacity #VS45 is about to overtake you! We left London 90 mins later than you but we’ll be at The Peninsula bar ,NY first!

Only one problem with that. It wasn’t true.

@VirginAtlantic VS45 lands: 16:28 BA1 lands: 16:39. After immigration, BA will be at Peninsula well before you! Not so smug now? #bacity

Yes, the BA flight arrived early, and after they have a better handle on this, they might adjust block times. But let’s break it down for someone in Canary Wharf using conservative numbers based on block times.

It’s effectively a wash . . . if all goes right. But there are tremendous advantages to the BA service since there are fewer things that can go wrong.

You don’t have to worry about traffic problems getting to Heathrow or the inevitable Tube delays either. You can also arrive at London/City much later than at Heathrow so you don’t have to wait around. Lastly, when you arrive in New York, you don’t have to worry about the varying times required for customs and immigration on any given day. You just walk off the plane and you’re there, so the arrival time is more reliable. Don’t forget that you’re also on a plane with only 32 people, so it’s like having the same privacy you get on the upper deck of a 747 without the riff-raff below. Pretty sweet.

By the way, the only reason I’m singling out Virgin here is because they seem to want to pick a fight. The same comparison applies to BA’s service from Heathrow as well. If you’re in Canary Wharf and you’re going to fly in business class, this service seems like a no-brainer to me. BA may steal from their own Heathrow passenger pool, but they should also be able to steal from their competitors as well.

So now that the early reviews are positive, it remains to be seen if enough people will actually use the service. I would imagine that word of mouth should help in a situation like this. I only hope I get the chance to try it myself sometime.

[Original Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/eisenbahner/ / CC BY 2.0]

Woody: It will be a flat bed business class seat that will deliver all the benefits of our new Club World seat. I can’t guarantee it will be that particular product, but it will deliver all the benefits.

Cranky: Do you have an exact start date?

Woody: Not yet.

Cranky: I assume it’s dependent upon when you take delivery of the A318s.

Woody: You got it.

Cranky: Do you know anything about pricing yet? I assume it won’t be cheap.

Woody: We’re not looking . . . this is part of an overall premium product portfolio from BA to serve travelers. It will be priced appropriately but no specifics yet. The bottom line is that there’s nothing we sell that I think is “cheap,” but it will always be priced with value in mind. Over the coming year, there will be an opportunity for a range of products in premium pricing to compete and fill aircraft.

Cranky: Will you be able to make the westbound trip nonstop?

Woody: No, it will be a one-stop service to refuel. It’s not been determined where it will be yet. [I read your earlier post.] You have a very interesting point in terms of Ireland [and the ability to pre-clear immigration there].

I discussed this with Mark Ahasic, and he said that “pre-cleared flights from Ireland are still required to arrive at an international airport with FIS for Customs inspection of bags.” So, even if BA can clear people in Ireland, they’ll still need to go through customs. I suppose BA could set up a dedicated line that would speed them through if they wanted, but it wouldn’t be exactly like walking off a domestic flight.

Cranky: How long will you have to be on the ground to refuel?

Woody: We’re looking at a 40-minute refuel time. Throw a couple of US immigration and customs inspectors and you never know.

Cranky: With the refueling stop, will it still be compelling?

Woody: Yes. You’ll be on the airplane on your way home instead of stuck in a traffic jam on the M25. The block time will be in the same neighborhood as it will take for someone fly out of Heathrow.

Robin actually had some exact block times for me. “Total journey time from New York to London City is 7 hrs and 10 mins and it will be nine and a half hours the other way round. If you compare this with a 747 on our JFK-LHR service then the times are 6 hrs 55 mins and 7 hrs 40 mins respectively.” So the A318s slightly slower cruise speed means it’ll be a 15 minute longer flight on the way east. That’s no big deal. But westbound, we’re looking at 1:50 minutes longer. Is it worth it?

Well it depends upon where you’re starting in London. If you’re in the Canary Wharf/Docklands area, it’ll take less than 30 minutes to get to the airport and you only need to be there 15 minutes prior to departure. So you could leave your office an hour before your flight and still have time to spare.

If you fly out of Heathrow, you probably need to be there no less than an hour before departure, and that’s probably cutting it very close (this is in Business Class, however). Then it takes a little under an hour in no traffic from Canary Wharf to Heathrow, so let’s say it’s an hour and a half in normal traffic. (Please correct me if I’m wrong.) You’re then at a wash in terms of time spent. If they can somehow work out pre-clearance in Ireland, then you’re net positive.

Robin also mentioned that they will treat London/City and Heathrow as coterminals. In other words, you could fly one way to London/City and the return from Heathrow if you’d like, and it will be treated like a roundtrip flight for pricing purposes. So if you really don’t want to stop for fuel on the way home, you can still take advantage of the service on the way to London.

Cranky: Where would you like to fly in New York?

Woody: As you well know, there’s an overall New York area slot review process. We can’t say . . . it’s one airport or the other [JFK or Newark]. We own and operate our own terminal at JFK. We have great latitude with what we can do at that facility. We also have a fantastic facility at Newark that we’ll be growing and improving. We’ll be happy to fly out of either airport – we’d prefer to fly it out of JFK.

Cranky: What about Teterboro?

Woody: We don’t have any facilities at Teterboro and I don’t know what facilities they have in terms of customs and immigration.

Cranky: Will you consider it?

Woody: Doubtful. The other benefit of flying with British Airways in this scenario is that if one of these planes has tech problems, we have 11 other services to London out of New York every day.

Again, Mark Ahasic set me straight on this one. The Port Authority has decreed that no aircraft over 100,000 lbs can operate there, and the A318 tips the scales near 150,000 lbs at max weight. Even if there wasn’t a weight restriction, the Port actually prohibits airlines from operating there. Oh well, it was a nice idea.

Cranky: How will you achieve 15 minute check in a JFK or EWR?

Woody: The way we’ll construct it will be to get people through in 15 minutes. At the end of the day, we have a host of new things coming into JFK and Newark in terms of online check-in and kiosk check-in. We will enable people to really move quickly through the processing part of the journey. The bottom line benefit of this whole thing is time management.

Robin mentioned that the 15 minute check-in time was for people carrying hand luggage only. I’d imagine that on a flight like this, there won’t be too many people checking a bag, but you can assume you’ll have to get there earlier if you do. Maybe 30 to 40 minutes, I’d guess?

And that was that. Oh yeah, one more question from a friend of mine.

What the heck does an A318 look like?

Think of an A319 or A320 that ran head-on into a wall and got smushed. In the process, it’s tail grew a little. Ah, forget it. Let me just show you a picture.

It’s really just a shorter A320 narrowbody aircraft.

I’m still really high on this service, even with a westbound stop, and I think it will do well. There aren’t that many seats to fill here, and there should be enough demand.