5 Jan 14
1715-0905
Boeing 777-200
3 class
World Traveller Plus
3 rows; 12-14
2–4–2
Seats 14AB
Booking
We booked direct with British Airways (BA). Usually we would book online but we wanted to upgrade the outbound flight from World Traveller Plus (WTP) to Club World (CW) using Avios points. This can easily be done online but we wanted to book as soon as the upgrade became available which was before the return flight was available to book. To do this we had to phone BA who allowed us to book the outbound flight, including the upgrade, with a hypothetical return date and the facility to make one free change to our ticket. Once our return date appeared on the system, I had to phone to change our hypothetical return date to the one we actually wanted. We then had to pay the small difference in cost between the 2 dates (or, if it had been cheaper, BA would have refunded the difference).
It cost £32 each to choose our seats and we did this straight away in order to reserve one of the sets of 2 seats, as the WTP cabin on this configuration only has 24 seats.
Baggage Allowance
The WTP baggage allowance is 2 x 23kg but with BA if you travel in more than one class on your booking, you get the higher baggage allowance for all flights in that booking. The CW allowance for checked baggage is 3 x 32kg (officially 3 x 23kg but BA waive the ‘heavy bag’ fee for CW passengers, allowing up to 32kg per bag). So, as we were travelling in CW on one leg, our allowance for both flights was 3 x 32kg. We didn’t need it on this occasion but it is a good benefit for BA to offer and one which I’m surprised Virgin doesn’t match.
Check-in/Bag Drop
Because of the current construction work at Denver International Airport, the rental shuttle dropped us at Terminal East at the arrivals level but we needed to be in Terminal West departures. We made our way up one level and across to Terminal West. The signage at Denver isn’t particularly good, there doesn’t appear to be anywhere central which tells you where the different airline check-in desks are – you have to take a guess, and then pick up the signs further down and re-trace your steps as necessary. This isn’t very convenient at the best of times, but when you have luggage in tow and the area is busy, even less so. Because it was so crowded I left DH waiting in the central area with the luggage while I went to find where the BA desks were – once I spotted a sign for them, I went back for him.
The BA desks were at one far end of the check-in area and took some getting to, through a huge crowd of people queuing for another airline who appeared reluctant to leave any space for people trying to move further down the terminal. As we approached the BA area, a lady standing inside the BA barriers asked if we were travelling BA and then asked the crowd to let us through. We had checked in online and it didn’t take long to drop the bags as we were the only passengers in the whole BA check-in area at the time.
Security
As we were flying from an A gate we walked across the bridge instead of catching the train. This meant we went through the separate security on the bridge rather than the main security area.
Terminal
With a few hours before flight time, we headed upstairs in the terminal, found a seat in a quiet area and made use of the free wi-fi alongside a few other passengers enjoying the area to read and sleep, with some sleeping on the floor. Well, it was a quiet area until a woman discovered what a nice quiet area it was and encouraged her 2 small children to run up and down at full tilt from one end to the other, screaming at her and one another, for over 40 minutes! Wonderful for them to let off some steam, I’m sure, but a complete lack of consideration for other travellers on the mother’s part.
Boarding
Boarding was due to commence at 1640 so we headed down to the gate around 1630. When boarding commenced they first called for “anyone needing assistance or a little more time to board”, followed by Business Class and those with certain frequent flyer status. After that it was BA’s usual policy of by row number from the rear forward, which means that WTP boards last of all, after Economy, despite having paid for a supposedly premium product. It’s only 3 rows – why can’t they call WTP straight after Business Class?
In the event it seems that only ourselves and 2 others in WTP complied with the boarding policy because by the time we boarded the other 20 people were already seated, even though we first at the gate after the announcement. Call me a cynic, but I find it difficult to believe that all 20 genuinely met the criteria for early boarding! Next time I think that we will also be in need of “a little more time to board” if for no other reason than to avoid finding ‘our’ overhead locker already full with luggage from the Economy seats in the cabin behind.
Scheduled departure was 1715 but we didn’t take off until after 1800, initially due to a problem with closing the door and then needing to be de-iced.
Cabin
There are only 3 rows in WTP on this version of the 777 (3-class). Rows 12-14, with 8 seats across configured 2-4-2. We were in 14AB, the back row. This is our preference as it means we have no-one immediately behind us.
The seats were comfortable but the In Flight Entertainment (IFE) screens were very small and the picture quality poor. The IFE was AVOD with a fair selection of video and audio, but not up to the IFE we had on the outbound journey. I don’t know if the difference was down to the aircraft (outbound was 4-class 777) or if it’s different between CW and WTP.
Although the 3 rows are in a separate cabin, between Business and Economy, there are no toilets in the cabin and you have to use the ones back down in the middle of the Economy cabin. Although I did occasionally see someone from WTP and, indeed, from Economy, head through the curtains presumably to use the Business Class toilets, there are signs on the forward bulkhead which clearly say that lavatories are to the rear.
14DEFG were occupied by 2 adults and 2 children. Initially, I thought the chap in 14D was travelling alone as he studiously ignored the child sitting next to him, but it did eventually become apparent they were a family. Other than the IFE, there appeared to be little attempt to keep the children occupied and no attempt to settle them down to sleep. Both children appeared old enough to be expected to behave with consideration for those around them, but they shouted and screamed their way through most of the flight mostly, it seemed, simply for attention from the parents who were obviously able to tune it out. A fairly constantly crying baby in the bassinet position in the first row of Economy just added to the cacophony.
On flights like this one, our Bose headphones are worth their weight in gold!
Service
There are no dedicated cabin crew for WTP, in general the cabin is treated as the first 3 rows of Economy. However this crew were friendly and efficient, which hasn’t always been our experience when flying BA. In fact, they were an improvement on the crew looking after CW on our outbound flight. In addition to the drinks and food service, they did regular water/juice runs throughout the night.
Food
There was one drinks run followed by the dinner service.
A printed menu card listed 2 choices; the entrees in WTP to/from LHR are taken from the Business Class menu. We both wanted the steak but from previous experience didn’t hold out much hope of getting it, being in the last row of the 3. However, we struck lucky – no thanks to the FA from the other aisle asking our FA if he had any steak left and being handed one. Trivial perhaps, but we did think that our FA should have asked all his passengers for their preference first before handing anything over to the other side. Bread was offered from a basket.
There were some inconsistencies between the trays. As the FA put DH’s tray in front of him, he spotted that it had plastic cutlery on it which he immediately swapped for the WTP cutlery wrapped in a cloth napkin. But there were other differences between our 2 trays – DH already had bread on his, wrapped, and his dessert was in a commercial package whereas mine was in an airline container. As I looked around the cabin I could see a mix of the 2 types of tray so obviously some inconsistency in the preparation of the trays for WTP.
As airline food goes, the steak was okay, as was the bread. Other than that I didn’t touch anything on the tray. As always, I shouldn’t have bothered as it just becomes a nuisance having the tray sitting there until it is cleared away.
The best part of ‘breakfast’ was the cardboard box it came in. The box contained a cold, rock-hard thing masquerading as a croissant, jam, a granola bar and a packet of ‘craisins’ – cranberries pretending to be raisins. Real raisins, which I would have eaten, must cost too much for BA to provide!
We were offered tea, coffee or orange juice.
Why do they bother at all? From a quick look around me, more must be wasted than eaten.
Arrival
Despite the late departure we had made some time up and the pilot originally expected us to land at 0910. But then there was a delay due to congestion and we circled over the London area for 30 minutes before landing at 0940. Presumably due to the delay, we parked at a remote stand so had to be bussed to the terminal. Exit from the aircraft was through door 2 and the crew didn’t control it very well. We were queuing in the lefthand aisle with CW and WTP passengers, being held back by crew who were allowing CW, WTP and Economy passengers from the righthand aisle through first. We were the last 2 passengers to make it onto the first bus.
Using the electronic kiosks we were through Immigration fairly quickly.
It took some time for the luggage to start to arrive and we waited about 35 minutes before all ours turned up.
Some chap challenged DH over one of our bags. I can understand that he may have had an identical bag and didn’t know that we had checked the barcode. I’m just not sure where he thought his bag would have picked up a bright orange paracord tag on its handle between him checking it in at Denver and it arriving at Heathrow. Then again, I never cease to be amazed by the number of people who don’t appear to know what their own luggage looks like.
We headed straight to the Sofitel for our car and were on the road by 1100.
Summary
This flight got us from A to B. The WTP seats are comfortable and offer more space than Economy, but it isn’t a truly premium product when compared to Virgin’s Premium Economy despite being a similar cost.
But BA have the advantage of their extensive route network and offer the only direct flight to Denver from the UK. So if we want to fly direct, it has to be BA. There is effectively no competition, so no incentive for BA to improve their product.
We will fly with British Airways again but it isn’t something I will look forward to. It’s just a necessary inconvenience to get from A to B, little different than my daily commute to work by rail.
