BA194 IAH-LHR 5 JAN 12 (WORLD TRAVELLER PLUS)

Here is the return trip report from Houston.....

So during our awesome stay at the beach house on the Gulf Coast of Texas I decided to check the BA website to ensure everything was in order. As on our outbound trip the offer of an upgrade to WTP was available for £149 pp. We declined this on the outbound but decided to take advantage of this for the return . I went on to cancel the additional baggage we had booked for the return for a full refund (very easy to do on the BA website) and used that towards the upgrade

24 hours prior to the flight there I was sat ready to complete OLCI and got all the way through to seat selection when I saw that our party of 6 was split across the cabin ! Not great as we had a 7 year old sitting on his own! At this point I decided not to complete the OLCI .

With this to sort out we made the decision to get to IAH early to Check in. We arrived 3 hours prior to departure to an empty ish check in area and was seen immediately . I explained the situation to our very friendly agent who then sorted it out and sat us all together -awesome effort!!


Now I do know that this probably means that 6 people have had their seat requests changed but this is a continuing debate on this awesome forum!

As we had a little while to burn we went hunting for somewhere to eat and found Ruby's Diner an awesome place for a bite to eat! If you're ever in IAH I recommend it for great quality authentic American Fayre at reasonable prices.....

Rubys Diner IAH - Awesome pre-flight food.JPG (39.41 KiB) Viewed 3555 times

Did not realise that flying WTP does not bring the pleasure of priority boarding....shameful !

BA 747 ready to take us home.JPG (28.83 KiB) Viewed 3555 times

When boarding was called it was quite slow but this was made up by a very enthusiastic welcome, by name, at the aircraft door - great stuff . First impressions of the WTP cabin was that the seats were comfortable but not leather-like VS, the legroom and width felt on a par with VS (very nice compared to WT) - also the cabin was pretty small with 30 seats in a 2-4-2 configuration.

A poor picture of the WTP cabin.JPG (35.87 KiB) Viewed 3555 times

Menus handed out, pilot informs us of a 8 hour 20 minute flight time and we taxi for 15 minutes for take off approx 20 mins late.

The menu.JPG (25.61 KiB) Viewed 3555 times

When up in the air we are introduced to the FSM and services on board. Our WTP CC were really attentive and served drinks with a smile .



Dinner orders also taken for Beef or Pasta.
Dinner was served about 50 mins into the flight and OMG it was great!! I chose the fillet of beef which was absolutely gorgeous and apparently is from the Club World menu - awesome !!

Very nicely presented dinner tray.JPG (38.73 KiB) Viewed 3555 times

A very decent meal - tender beef fillet in a spinach buttery sauce!.JPG (46.47 KiB) Viewed 3555 times

Served with a proper napkin and cutlery (yes i did get excited about that !) More wine served without request or funny looks (!) and it looked like this was £149 well spent!!
Time for a little sleep, me thinks !

.....5 1/2 hours sleep later and we are 40 mins away from LHR - time to get stuff organised ready for landing. Oh by the way, I missed breakfast but my friends told me that I missed nothing special !

sunrise before landing (through a scratched window).JPG (21.17 KiB) Viewed 3555 times

After one quick circle over Bucks we start our approach to the west runway. Seemed like we landed a little quicker than usual and when full brakes were applied we certainly felt it !!
A quick taxi to the gate, priority release for exit & friendly good byes from the CC .

So in summary then: BA WTP was a hit for a bargain price and positively comparable to VS. Check in & CC friendly and very efficient throughout. All in all a very pleasant experience

Another great report, thanks for posting.

You definitely secured a result with the WTP upgrade!

[buns]

Thanks for providing this TR, which will no doubt aid many folks who are thinking of opting for WT +

For me, I personally think the PE product overall stil has the edge, but cost will become an increasingly important factor and your upgrade price is tempting

buns

Thank you for the great TR and pics.

Thanks once again for a great TR.

Your WTP experience echoes mine out to BDA last Sept, and I'm beginning to see some really competitive moves by BA on certain fare types and upgrades.

Out of interest, is it the fact that the VS/PE seats are leather that you like, on the design of the seat? I do have my own views on this, but would be interested in your thoughts.

Well Concorde for me I quite like the leather seats and the overall purple theme of the VS PE as opposed to the WTP cabin that just looked like the WT cabin with larger seats. I also think VS have it with the priority boarding and drink offered on board as a welcome! However, the food in WTP was great....so I think you are right it will be the price that decides which way to go!

A great pair of TRs, Petmadness, thank you. And yes, that steak does look good.

And, in reference to your age point in the outbound, I knew I was getting old when even BA cabin crew looked younger than me!!!!!!
BOO HOO.

Thanks for a great TR and a real insight into how WT+ has developed. A couple of years back, I was always put into WT+ on flights to/from India with work and I could never get my head around (other than the seat) not really any difference in service to that offered in WT.

Nice to see things are starting to change.

Jon

Thanks for a great trip report, very interesting! I agree with you about priority boarding.

I was recently pricing up a trip and was offered WTP for just £14 more than Y!