But as a result of this, the prospect of any flight over a couple of hours long being made in economy is something that fills me with horror and is to be avoided wherever possible. Sadly my family don't see things quite the same way that I do, and to be fair, the prices to the Caribbean have been extortionate this year. I'm told it's the result of a late Easter meaning less skiers, and more sun-seekers upping the overall demand. In practise it meant that economy this year was more expensive than PE was for us in 2013, and so simple economics won out. As for using some of my hard earned miles, anyone want to guess how many redemption seats were available over the holidays? Yup...
So, having decided we wanted to go back to Antigua, it was also clear that BA was going to be a lot cheaper than VS. No chance of all of us getting into the lounge at Gatwick given their strict +1 policy, but never mind, we'd be staying over at the Hilton and getting up late for a leisurely breakfast so no big deal.
Everything was booked long in advance with one of my preferred TAs, and the BA benefits were immediately obvious as I was able to pick my seats within 10 minutes of making the booking. What's more I didn't even need to know my flight PNR, because the BA website has a fairly handy feature where the flights you have booked immediately show up on your exec club home page. I know in theory the same is true for Virgin's website, but... well, let's not go there, ok...
Another benefit with BA is that gold status lets you pick pretty much any seat you want - including exit rows. Only the bassinet positions are off limits (fair enough). Unfortunately, exit rows don't work that well for us with the cherubs in tow, but there looked some good seats at the front of the WT cabin, so we grabbed them, and over the following 6 months, no attempt was made to kick us out of them...
So, fast forward to 24 hours before the flight, and OLCI was completed painlessly (if a bit blearily by me as I'd just done the redeye back from NY), and we were on our way to the airport to drop off the car and head to the hotel.
As it turned out, the Hilton was so rammed over the holiday weekend that they gave us executive lounge access to compensate for all the faffing around in getting our room prepared. OK, what that basically meant was free Cava and chicken wings, but a nice touch anyway.
The next morning we sauntered over to the North Terminal, having checked our bags the night before. Very quickly through the premium security channel, and straight over to Cafe Rouge for breakfast, where I got some nicely runny eggs benedict. Boarding was on time and we were on board without any drama. Sadly, also without any 'magic beeps' at the gate either, but heigh ho...
The layout of the 777-200 is quite interesting - there are large CW and WT sections, but only a very small WT+ cabin, so very little chance of an upgrade even if this wasn't a packed holiday flight. Although to be honest, I didn't look at the WT+ seats as being anything like as good as VS PE (this is 'old' WT+ to be fair), and as we walked through the cabin, my wife commented that she was very glad that I hadn't paid to upgrade to 'those seats'. Lucky me, domestic averted.
But at the point where WT+ becomes WT, the position of the aisle shifts inwards, as it moves from 2-4-2 to 3-3-3 layout. To accommodate this, the first row of WT is only 2-3-2, meaning that the next row has 2 aisle seats with nothing in front of them. One of which I sat in. Oh yes. Acres of space
The bulkhead seats in front weren't bad either 
Take off was on time, and the flight started well - the seatbelt sign was barely off when the FSM came over to introduce herself to me, welcome us on board, thank me for my continuing loyalty etc etc
No actual offer of champagne, but a nice touch even so. Could see her chatting to a few others in the cabin, so guessing that all golds and maybe silvers, bronzes etc were getting the same treatment.An efficient drinks run swiftly followed and I had an obligatory rum and coke, just to ensure that I got acclimatised to my destination...
And really, this set the tone for the flight. For once, I skipped the IFE, as I'd seen everything I wanted to on my NY trip the previous week. Instead, I put my noise cancelling headphones on, took my shoes off, stretched out and dozed (quite successfully) for a couple of hours before lunch. It really was a very decent seat, and actually felt a lot less hemmed in than my UCDS seat on Virgin the day before. How sad is that...
Lunch was a remarkable success for all of us - every one of the options was decent (cottage pie, Thai chicken curry, veggie pasta bake) along with a good leaf salad, millionaire shortbread pudding, and a drinkable South African pinotage. There was no need for us to resort to our emergency supplies to feed the cherubs.
More dozing (possibly even a little actual sleep) followed, and before I knew it, we were starting our descent. I'd completely missed the afternoon tea run, so can't comment on what was offered there. Landing was smooth, although my cherubs commented on the lack of love hearts being offered, guess they are too used to flying Virgin...
As we landed, we could see we had just been beaten by a flight from the US. Uh-oh... we remember from last year what immigration is like here, and we were right. Although we were among the first WT people off the plane, it was still a good hour before we got through the queue, and I felt sorry for those at the back of the bus because it would have been considerably longer for them. ANU is in the process of building a larger terminal and it really can't come too soon. Still, at least we weren't waiting for our luggage for once. And the lady that stamped our passports commented that she did the same last year. Small island!
So, verdict: probably one of my best long haul flights in Y, helped considerably by the choice of seat, decent food, and a good crew. When it works it works, and BA did an excellent job here. 5 stars across the board.
RC
There are virtually no perks and the seating is far from satisfactory. From my own personal experience, I'd prefer BA econony to the exorbitant price VS charge for their PE any time. Like you say the economy is comfortable and we felt there was also plenty of leg room. Even without any status, Our crew we so friendly and efficient 
