BA 011 LHR-SIN
21:15 17:45+1
Once upon a time, BA decided to have a 50% off sale on reward tickets for a one week period in all cabins, and even let you use it in conjunction with its equally useful 2 for 1 Companion voucher. Somewhat of a marked difference between a rival carrier we shall refer to as Virgin, where the Companion voucher is of limited use.
Sadly we didn't have a 2 for 1 voucher handy as I haven't been using my BA AmEx for a while, so haven't reached the required 10k of spend in a 12 month period. Moving forward, methinks this will change. For those not familiar with the Companion voucher in the BA format, it is used in conjunction with reward seats and not full/high fare revenue tickets. So a Club World reward to North America is 100k Executive Club miles (+ taxes/fees which I'll grumble to in a moment), and if you have a 2 for 1 you can use that in conjunction with your reward seat for another reward seat on the same flights and cabin for the cost of the taxes/fees for the 2nd seat.
Anyway, we looked at a number of options of what to do with our holdings of miles as the sale was too good to pass on, and we had been leaving it late in the hope of a good Upper Class sale over Christmas or the New Year (which is yet to materialise). I say 'holdings' as Executive Club has the concept of a 'Household Account' where miles can be hoarded together to use for rewards, and fortunately we had already created the account earlier in the year. So with a balance of around 100k miles between us from the few BA flights we've done in the past few years we had a few options if we were to slum it in Club World. A certain someone wanted to go back to Asia, but this was tricky as flights to Asia in Club World are normally 160k miles, 80k each in this instance so we were a bit light unless one of us was to abscond in the others suitcase; probably not too hard at a BAA airport as the former shopping concierges and perfume ponces are too busy barking at passengers with utter contempt and rudeness and playing 100ml Liquid Nazi. We dwelled on the dilemma on the way home in the car on the first day of the sale, and I piped up with the revelation that I have a brewing pot of Starwood points that I could potentially transfer over to BA and hope that they arrive in time. The Cheshire cat grin that emerged on Sarah's face was somewhat indicative of her approval for the idea.
Planning had to be put on hold as we were hosting one of my family for the evening as he was en route to the airport the next day. Next morning at an awfully early hour of 9am on a Saturday, I was up and transporting my sibling to Oxford train station and completing another errand before returning home. Well in the tide of change, Lady Sarah had awoken from the boudoir not long after and had rushed to go and check availability for various Asia routes on BA in my absence. So no sooner had I walked through the door on my return, I was informed in regimental style that there was availability for 2 Club World seats to Singapore over Christmas with suitable dates either side. So that was written into stone then as far as the Household was concerned.
So I researched over on FlyerTalk to see what the average transfer time is as Starwood quote the SLA of 'up to 28 days'. Recent reports were showing that transfers were taking 3-5 days, so it was looking promising. Absolute Worst case scenario was that they turn up late, and we'd use them in the future with a 2 for 1 voucher. With that Lady Sarah was off, and booking her ticket at a cost of 80k miles (as reward seats can be cancelled/changed without penalty) as we thought it is more likely for a pair of reward seats to go than a solo seat. One e-ticket in her inbox a mere moment later, and one happy camper. Now the waiting game to hope my points arrived. Well a few days passed, and then 'ker-ching' they were there in my account. So all work was halted, and I rushed to book my seat hoping that there was still availability for me. Bugger, the outbound date of 23rd December had gone. Double bugger, oh well there was availability for 2 the next day that meant we would spend most of Christmas Day in the air. So I booked my seat and then logged in to change Sarah's ticket, which was a wonderfully simple online process. The BA online portal is very good, and is far more reliable and detailed than the current VS offering. Might explain why I have never booked a ticket online at virginatlantic.com. The new and updated e-tickets arrive and we are all set. Now to sort out the hotels....
Now hotel choices were never going to be a chore as such, as there are Mandarin Orientals' in both Singapore and Kuala Lumpur but there is the choice of how to split the nights between the 2 destinations in conjunction with the flight times. In the end we decided on 2 nights in Singapore, then onto KL for 2 nights, and then back to Singapore for another 2 nights. One of the AmEx centurion benefits is a free night at most MO's for the main cardholder, and the main supplementary card holder so that meant we could split the bookings so we could buy 3 nights, and get 3 free. So time to phone the zoo in Brighton for the AmEx rates for the various room categories; the MO webpage opened across both screens so I could double check that they were quoting me for room types that exist after their cock-up in Shanghai earlier in the year. Well obviously the zoo had its Saturday staff in as it wasn't exactly plain sailing as they couldn't understand why I was asking them to check the rates as they seemed out of line with the normal MO rates they follow. Eventually the correct rates and room types were yielded and duly noted down by me so I could discuss them with Sarah. In the end we plumped for a Park Suite at the Singapore MO which seemed quite a good rate for a Suite of $544SGD + taxes, which works out ~ 320/nt. As for the KL MO, we opted for a Executive Park View which was being quoted at 896MYR + taxes, which was worked out at ~200/nt. Worth noting here that due to our poor economy management by the current Government, the exchange rate against the SGD is down about 50% in the past 12 months, and about 30% against the MYR. Of course, I didnt fully realise this until we had actually arrived in Singapore on the first day! Anyway, time to call the zoo back for a 2nd time to make the bookings. Cue the next part-timer, who proceeds to quote me different rates altogether and struggles to understand the free night benefit and my follow-up query on the rate disparity at the MO in KL. Time to speak to a supervisor and have another moan about the staff being 'fresh off the streets' and not ready for the prime time. Shell bookings were made, and a commitment for them to follow-up in the next couple of days regarding my queries. The sooner AmEx get a good online portal where customers can see the FHR and promo rates they are entitled to, the better. AmEx staff sometimes really don't do themselves any favours, if they don't know the answer to a question they have a nasty tendency to make one up or try and fob the customer off. Anyway zoo rant over.
So there we have flights and hotels booked; 160k miles lighter, my Starwood account raped for 60k points, and a couple of trips to the zoo for a few expensive hotel bookings that the zoo makes a nice commission on.
SCENE: The Mannion residence day before the flight, and waiting for online check-in to open.
The minute hands sweeps by, and Sarah grabs her laptop and proceeds to attempt check in so we can secure our good seats upstairs on the 747 whilst I continue to play the Xbox. The first crack appears as Sarah exclaims a small outburst of What! The room is then turned blue by me with an almighty outburst of 'Terminal 4, what do you mean Terminal 4?'. There on the check-in screen is a friendly reminder in red, that the flight to Singapore will be departing from T4. Ahh yes, the mother of all cock-ups, Assumption. We had blissfully assumed we'd be flying from T5, and be gracing the relatively new Galleries lounges and using the Elemis travel spa. Oh no, we'd be flying from T4 which by all accounts is akin to a closing Woolworths branch as it has been stripped bare since BA's move (or part move should I say now). And then it dawned, 'Hold on, didn't they close the Lounge complex when they moved? Colourful language was flying round the room like it was the 'hot new' style of Ugg boots. A plea for help is quickly posted over on FT in the BA forum by Sarah, and in true helpful style we had a positive response very quickly. There is one BA lounge left down at Gate 1 - the sigh of relief. Given the choice of sitting in the general departure lounge or cancelling the flights, well.
Next day, my friend drops us both off at T4 (as he has the fun of borrowing my car whilst we are away) and given the cost to park for a week at Heathrow is close to the price of the average semi in Hull it's a rather fair deal. Well the Russian Supermarket raiders had obviously finished with the local Woolworths, and proceeded onto T4 - it looked closed and all boarded up. To get into the terminal you had to go down via the car park, and then back up when in the shell of the building. Inside there were major building renovations going on and lots of painted white board surrounding vast areas of the check-in area. We walked down to the Club World check-in and checked in very quickly as there was no queue at all, and proceeded over to Fast Track. First encounter with a BAA 'security' person. who has the sole job of waving around a small clear plastic bag and saying 'Any liquids?' I did wonder if that was his extent of his command of the English language. He did look slightly perplexed when we walked to the end of the roped area to approach the entrance of the Fast Track area. I pre-read his look of 'Are you stupid?' with a two word answer of 'Fast Track', to which I got a two word reply of 'Business Class?', and I countered with a 'Yes'. If there was a GCSE for BAA English, I would have just A* it. So through the Fast Tracportcullis and tragedy. Someone has left one of the barriers between the cattle area open and the sheep are flowing into the Fast Track area. Now given my still shock of the state of the terminal and the mere fact that I wasn't using T5 in all its new 'found it's groove so lets spunk m's on an advertising campaign telling everyone that we've fixed the inadequacies caused by piss poor planning' glory, I decided to stay calm and use the time to people watch. It's Christmas Eve, and there are a worrying number of brats running about. Do I fall to my knees now and pray to Allah that none of them are going to be sat upstairs within a crying/screaming/tapas bar distance of me? I was then distracted by the growing trend in haircuts, security screeners haircuts to be precise. BAA must be running an internal competition akin to 'Employee of the month' for most outlandish haircut to be witnessed in any terminals - judging by the T4 entrants, they are a sure fire each-way bet at the local turf accountants. No shoe carnival today, and laptops stayed in the bags so not too much of a chore aside from the waft of the wand to check me for a second time for any stray bottles of water as that would be catastrophic to the sale of a new bottle from a merchant of choice within the terminal.
With security cleared, time to head on over to the Gate 1 lounge to await our fate. Well tickle me surprised, the Gate 1 lounge was actually quite nice. They should rename it to 'Better than practically all Priority Pass lounges lounge' Plenty of seats to choose from, free pour drinks including Champagne (and Rose*), selection of hot foods and free wi-fi. Camp David was set up and food consumed, along with a test of the NaCL also known as the sh*t that was apparently Rose champagne. We both had a selection of the foods on offer including the yummy chicken noodles, and soup.
I decided to go have a quick look round the terminal at the shops, as I'm partial to a bit of retail therapy; I'd also fulfilled the prophecy of always forgetting something, and had left my shaving foam at home so needed to pick some up at Boots. Now a good portion of the shops were gone, and you do have to worry when the Caviar Bar merchant is boarded over. So BAA, and 'premium' duty free - are they seriously on crack? I have never seen such an overpriced array of stuff in all my life. If the prices are duty free, I must live in a seriously cheap part of the UK. The prices were truly obscene - 10 for a 300g box of Celebrations, or two for 18? Right-o, obviously they have enough mugs paying those special prices. I saw a bottle of Champagne I'd ordered the day before as part of a gift set for a pair of friends, and it was more there in Duty Free without the rest of the gift set! Fortunately Boots doesn't display such stupidity and has prices that would correlate with the High St. So picked up my merchandise and back to the lounge for a short while before boarding. Quick mention that there is no waiter service, its all self service. And please, someone tell me why BA do the same as VS and have the Daily Mail in the lounges? Is it there in case they run out of toilet paper or they get a Z-lister in? Unless they are being paid to have it available, someone needs a slap and quick.
At last, our flight was beginning to board (though no call in the lounge for flights, unless youre holding up the plane) and we start the walk to the gate. Now maybe I shouldnt whinge, as the gate that was allocated has meant I have completed my training for Bay to Breakers in May in one hit the gate must have its own postcode and Sovereign status given its proximity from the lounge. Efficient and quick boarding as First, Club and Gold customers are pre-boarded. Upstairs we are greeted by the new Club World seat (known as Next Generation Club World NGCW).
Sarah modelling the NGCW seat:
So what to make of NGCW well the seat is very comfortable and noticeably wider than its predecessor (though still not the School bus seat of the new J and F cabin on SQ). Do like the recline options, and found that when I wanted to sleep later on, I could recline back up a fraction so Im not perfectly flat. More comfortable than UCS for sitting in, thats for sure. The in seat power is just a normal US plug socket, so most people should be able to use it. There is a useful draw that you can store things in easily. Dont like the foot stool its not very solid and you cant use it as a seat which is a shame as Sarah and I like to sit together to have dinner when we fly and can easily do this in UCS. The table is a bit flimsy too, and not as solid as UCS. Sarah was in seat 62A which faces backwards but would be ideal for a solo traveller as its one of the few seats where you dont have to step over anyone to get in and out as it is adjacent to the emergency exit. I was sat in 62B which is on the aisle and facing forward (its 2-2 on the upper deck), but the person in 63A has to step over my foot stool to get out to the aisle.
We were handed over a GJ special, an amenity kit! And my, this had a little substance to it but then a fresh turd has more substance and use than a cheap shoe bag. Inside, some Elemis toiletries (and guide), toothbrush, socks, and eye shade in a small cotton bag that I will reuse. Menus handed out with a note saying that there would be some traditional Christmas offerings on the flight. Here is the menu as described by BA:
Dinner
Starters
- Smoked salmon with beetroot and horseradish
- Potted Sage Deby & Coastal Cheddar with red onion marmalade
Salad
- Fresh seasonal salad served with vinaigrette
Main
- Fish pie of smoked haddock, cod and prawn
- Roast turkey with parsely puree and red wine jus
- Jerusalem artichoke mousseline with vegetables and blue cheese cream sauce
- Chilled main course salad of winter-spiced breast of chicken
Dessert
- Chocolate log with cranberry compote
- Caerphilly and Y-Fenni cheese with Duchy Original oatcakes
- Selection of fruit
- Chocolates
The options easily outperform the VS culinary offerings but again, a third world famine relief centre has more food choices than VS UC at the moment. But shock, there was no soup option (or gloop as weve lovingly come to call it after the coining of the term by Dr. Vipond). So I skipped starter and ordered the Turkey option. It was passable and had a good moistness to it, though for some reason BA serve the food in these bowls that dont give you enough room to move and I like to be able to cut my food without risk of sending food items across the cabin.
Photo of said Turkey dinner:
For the Decker/Howard Long types of the world, here is the wine list might as well be in Latin for me:
Wine List
White
- Windy Peak Chardonnay 2007, Victoria
- Pouilly-Fume Les Pierres Blanches 2007, Domaine Masson-Blondelet
Red
- Peter Lehmann Cabernet Merlot 2005, Barossa Valley
- The Hedonist Shiraz 2005, Mclaren Vale
- Crozes-Hermitage la Petite Ruche 2007, M. Chapoutier
Champagne
- Charles Heidsieck Brut Reserve
Had a play/look at the new IFE which is a touch screen AVOD affair, and there is a good selection of films though they are not quite as fresh/recent as VS offerings but do offer a nice selection of classic films such as Forrest Gump and 2001: A Space Odyssey, that Sarah enjoyed. System is responsive and no problems at all using it. CSD is doing the rounds, and has read her manifest. Addressed by name, and a quick chat with some good empathy and not a sense of doing it for the sake of it. Staff so far have been as expected: professional, courteous and older.
Got halfway through The Dark Knight, and felt like a little snack so paused the movie and decided to investigate the raid the larder/Club Kitchen concept. My, what have we here? A fridge with wraps, sandwiches, yoghurts, juices, cartons of soup, smoothies and salads. Then there is a tray section with some meals that can be heated such as chicken tikka, shepherds pie, pasta. There is a rack with some crisps and savoury snacks, and a basket of snack size chocolate bars and cakes, and finally the jackpot a box of Krispy Kreme donuts. Well smack my arse and call me Charlie, there were still several of them left when I opened the box. Soon sorted that problem out, so I relieved the box of 2 of the faithful and proceeded back up the stairs. Now in true paying attention style, one of the crew was sat on the crew seats having a gander at the paper. He looks up and sees my stash and without hesitation, Would you like a plate for those, and maybe another cup of tea with milk and sugar?. After stepping over my chin, I confirm that would be fabulous. Now contrast that behaviour to times when crew have been sat in the crew seats reading a Z-celeb rag of choice, and the whole world could pass them by, including a child and divan base.
I changed into a VS sleep suit Id brought along as they dont hand out sleep suits in Club World, and Sarah went for the double prong of wearing a BA First sleep suit from our trip last Christmas. Bedded down for some sleep there is a thick blanket, but no duvet. Sarah normally struggles to get much sleep on flights but slept for hours, and it wasnt for the lack of a bar either. I did miss the bar (of UC) somewhat but was still in shock at the Club Kitchen as that is a really good thing to have for longer flights, and I can help myself without having to play the game of hunt down the crew. At this point I noticed another item, that there appears to be more room in the cabin in a height perspective. I dont tend to fly upstairs on Virgin as I have a tendency to bang my head on the overhead storage which is a feat on its own as Im no 6 footer. NGCW on the other hand seemed to have slightly smaller overhead storage but was fine as the passenger on the window side have their own two compartment bins. No problem dropping my laptop bag and another bag in there. Managed to get some sleep, and with the non-flip over seat, I was able to slightly recline back up from perfectly flat which is my preference. Woke up and did some more reading, and decided it was time for another cheeky visit to the Club kitchen for some chocolate bars; on the way to the stairs to go down to the Club Kitchen I notice the basket next to the magazines where bottles of mineral water had been. Quite fancied another bottle of water as Sarah keeps telling me that I should drink more water on flights as they tend to really dry my skin out. At this point, one of the crew immediately emerges from the stables/top galley and asks if Id like anything. I asked for a water and they noticed that the basket was empty and offered to go and get me one and bring it to my seat. Marvellous, and back to the Club Kitchen escapade. Down the stairs and immediately left its there and Im thinking how many bars can I get away with, or do I go for a healthy option of pasta? Mmm, bugger it, two bars of chocolate should see me through to the breakfast that was due in an hour or so. So quick covert check of the area, and the run is done and back in my seat with the stash of chocolate and my bottle of water arrives moments later. Quick bit of work whilst listening to the IFE jukebox and it was then breakfast time.
Breakfast order was taken, so I decided to change back in to ensemble from my sleep suit in the interim. Breakfast selection as per BA menu:
Starters
- Chiled fruit juice
- An energising fruit smoothie of raspberry and cranberry
- Fresh fruit
- Greek yoghurt with winter fruit compote
Bakery
- Selection of warm breads and breakfast pastries
Main
- Scrambled eggs, Gloucester Old Spot bacon, Cumberland sausage, saut_ed mushrooms and tomato
- Tomato omelette with rosti potatoes and saut_ed mushrooms
- Waffles with apricot compote
Photo of the omlette that Sarah opted for:
I opted for the first option as wasnt too keen on the other two. Again the BA bowl strikes again good portion of food and sausages that didnt look like they had been procured at the Iceland party food counter. Now for those that may have read one of my previous trip reports, I typically skip breakfast on VS flights as the bacon wouldnt be too far out of place for a Convent with its dryness. No issues here, again the food has a good moist texture to it and a few shovels later Im finished and chugging down my umpteenth cup of char. Did I mention that the cutlery has a good density to it and isnt likely to be susceptible to Uri Geller anytime soon? Food is quickly cleared away, and time to fill in the landing cards for Singapore.
The cabin is quickly tidied ready for landing, and I have another quick read of the papers I have amassed at my seat. Do love a good quality newspaper, but the broadsheets can be an absolute bitch to control when in a seat. With that, we have landed at Singapore Changi airport. The airport of airports. Its now close to 5:30pm on Christmas Day and immigration takes about 45 minutes due to only a few desks been open. Whilst stood in the queue, Im thankful that some of the others havent been near me during the flight . We call them unruly children and parents with no spatial awareness. We are in a secure immigration hall, and there are screamers, there are the brats, there are crawlers, the running wild and there are the familiar parents blissfully not giving a toss and still carry on with their Parky chinwag. Now when a little unruly brat falls over and starts to cry, dont expect any sympathy for me. No I dont think your child is cute, and I do wish you hadnt fornicated multiple times. Those 45 minutes felt like hours let me tell you. Eventually we were stamped through and quickly collected our luggage that was already on the belt. Off to the nearby taxi rank for a quick 10 ($20SGD) ride to the Mandarin Oriental.
All in, a very encouraging flight in New Club World and one that pleasantly surprised me and would be enough to cause some interesting choices in the future when booking flights in our household. As a quick recap/scorecard:
Pre-Flight
BA Gate 1 lounge was good, and had the necessary features for a good lounge but its not a Clubhouse. Did miss Cowshed, and the lack of waiter service is a minus point. I like to spend some time in the lounge, so the advantage here would be for Virgin but BA arent that far behind in reality. Having visited the T5 Galleries complex in November, thats a nice lounge setup too but again no Clubhouse.
Unable to comment on pre-boarding here as we were among the last few to the gate, but then VS has a very chequered history with this
Flight
Do like the seat for sitting, and managed to get some good sleep. The reading lamp is good and unlikely to cause me serious head injury unlike the VS offering. Good power options with the standard 2-pin plug socket. The amenity kit! Can we say more?
Dont like the table or the foot stool VS scores better here. Do prefer the VS duvet as opposed to the thick blanket in NCW.
Did miss the bar, but didnt miss the recent episodes with it been dominated by off-duty crew/staff taking it over.
Loved the Club Kitchen concept such a simple idea, and worked well for me.
The crew controversial time, but I found the BA crew to be very professional and Im wondering if its to do with maturity. There wasnt a single member of crew working in the cabin under 30, if not 35. They all seemed tenured, seasoned professionals that had obviously really earned their stripes and didnt want to go back to short-haul. Great awareness as per the examples in the TR, and a CSD that read the manifest and came round to every passenger to do an intro and have a chat. Got the impression that its a privilege to work in Club World, and you have to prove that you can consistently deliver a high level of service.
IFE on par with VS. BA seems quicker and more reliable, but selection was a little more dated.
I didnt like the look of the downstairs config of 2-4-2 in CW, but upstairs with 2-2 was really good.
Overall compared to the flight we did last year in Club World (old product) on a 777, the NGCW offering upstairs was very good and one I wouldnt hesitate to use again.
