Second order was therefore to fire up the company travel website to see what form of torture I would have to endure to get there. Selecting “by price” yields the opportunity to fly a variety of carriers via a variety of cities across Europe. Selection “by schedule” yields TAP or BA direct, but selecting “see cheaper alternative” yields a VS / Delta combination via JFK. Having just achieved Silver again, my immediate thought was “miles ahoy!” As they say though, the devil’s in the detail and the small print here read 6 hours to JFK, 4 hours in JFK and then 10 hours to Sao Paulo. Stacking that up against 11.5 hours BA direct and the wrath of MrsPJH had I declared I would be leaving Sunday morning rather then Sunday evening lead to me clicking the “Select” button against the BA option thinking “it can’t be that bad, can it”?
I’ll confess, having been brought up on this site with the rough and tumble of the VS v BA debate, I was not expecting much. Something old fashioned, possibly Dickensian in treatment (“More?!”) overlaid with a class system redolent of a golf club in 1950’s Surrey? This image was only reinforced by the lack of a pay / Priority Pass lounge in T5 which smacked a bit of “you’re either part of the club or you aren’t, and if you’re not, don’t believe the grubby notes you clutch in your hand will make a difference”.
So, how was it? Let’s begin with the positives.
- Even being a no mark, no status, Economy flyer I could select my seats in advance presumably due to some arrangement with our company travel agent
- A great little App
- Terminal 5 was a breeze. May have been because it was a Sunday, but everything was efficient and unhurried and a decent pint of Broadside at a decent price was available in one of the bars. That made up for the lack of a lounge.
- There was enough room in the boarding area, with a bit of cheeky VS presence showing that BA doesn’t have it all its own way in T5.
- Boarding was well organised and most people followed the instructions, even though it was clear that the vast majority of passengers were heading home and English (the only language of the announcements) was not their first language.
- To describe the member of the crew who served us throughout the flight as charming and engaging would be doing him an injustice. This is nothing to do with the fact that all his drinks offering consisted of two bottles of spirits or wine, and he freely offered seconds. He had a smile and a conversation or quip for everyone in
his section. (Memo to self: send note to BA, though perhaps without mentioning his generosity)
- Sweet potato curry was an inspired menu choice.
- A request for a nightcap in the galley was addressed with a “Certainly sir!” and no feeling that in being there you were disturbing any form of crew social.
- Celia Imrie was running the crew and making announcements. All that was needed was Susie Blake to have been making statements like "We'd like to apologise to passengers from the North. It must be awful for them." and life would have been complete
- I managed about 5 hours sleep, on and off.
And the negatives?
- It was Economy, but that’s not BA’s fault
- It was 11.5 hours in Economy, but again I can’t blame BA
- It was pretty shabby
- Entertainment selection wasn’t great, though I did take in “What We Did In Our Holidays”, “Monuments Men” and a couple of episodes of Modern Family.
- Putting the IFE control in the arm of the seat was an act of colossal design folly, possibly by somebody very, very skinny. Shift while trying to sleep and you’d find the screen springing into life, the reading light coming on and the crew being summonsed by the call bell. Occasionally all three at once.
And so it was that I arrived in Sao Paulo in, all things considered, pretty good shape (even after the BA breakfast, which I had consumed before I remembered “the Honeylamb experience”) ready to practice the only Portuguese I am confident with – “Bom Dia” and “Obrigado”….
A long time since I flew Economy in VS, so I can’t compare, but a short time since I flew Economy on EK and BA, on this showing, BA was well ahead.
Last edited by pjh on 30 Jan 2015, 21:37, edited 2 times in total.
We can get better, because we're not dead yet
