Background
Do you want to deal with the elephant in the room? Yes? Well, here goes. Business Class travel on British Airways is easily affordable, right? No? Let me explain..
Many frequent fliers would tell you that there is no novelty in flying airline premium classes anymore. It has nothing to do with complacency on the part of the frequent flyer of course, they do after all get used to flying often and on the corporate dime in business class. No, the reality is that there are a number of ways to travel with BA cheaply in Business and First these days, not least of which by using Avios, BA's frequent flyer points currency.
As a long time customer of Barclays Bank's high net worth team, the kind folks there send me an annual BA cabin upgrade voucher, providing I pay with Avios when redeeming. So, with a visit to see my friend in the Middle East, I decided to fork out some Avios, paying for a seat in World Traveller Plus (BA's version of Premium Economy), but combined with the Barclays upgrade voucher, enabled me to fly Business Class (or Club World, as BA calls it), for no more than the standard round trip World Traveller Plus Avios (120k Avios points), plus a small amount of mandatory tax and carrier surplus fees.
Left to right: inflight entertainment, the view from 37,000ft and the privacy door of Club Suite
Check In
Check in was a strange affair. I always use the app to check in to BA flights but because I most often fly domestically in the UK or around Europe, I had forgotten about the need to have a document (passport) check. The app gave me a boarding pass so it wasn't until I reached the F Wing that I was denied entry. I then had to go seek a check in agent to check my passport before returning to go through F Wing security.
It's worth remembering, if you travel light as I do, never checking a bag in, that most long haul flights require a document check. I'll remember next time.
The Lounge
With a British Airways Business Class ticket you will be invited to wait out your departure in the Galleries Club lounges. There are two in the main terminal 5 but I think that the 'B' gates lounge is nicer - it's quieter and it's certainly cooler. The main terminal can get very warm at times and the lounges are not immune from this.
As a BA Gold Executive Club member, I can also use the First lounge which I did today. The food here isn't much better / different to what you'd find in the Business lounge and it can be equally busy. I have fed this back numerous times to BA and it's hopefully on Sean Doyle's list of things to improve.
Those flying in BA First or holding Gold Guest List status can use the Concorde Room, which is where things are as they should be.
Boarding
Boarding was a hassle. BA allocated two flights (ours plus JFK) to one gate. With JFK passengers running late and the usual lack of any real leadership at the gate, we missed out slot, which was the start of things to come.
Once boarded though, I was impressed with the Club Suite and with BA's new much improved menu, which now includes a greater variety of cocktails and a welcome improvement in food choices, particularly the pre-landing snack.
Food and Drink
Top left, the prawn salad starter, followed by stuffed chicken and cheese board. Pre-landing snack mushroom.
I ordered a glass of champagne for my welcome drink, followed by a Johnnie Ginger cocktail
To me, this is where BA has most improved in recent years.
According to today's menu, we had a choice of three dishes for each of the three main courses plus a choice of two dishes for the second meal service.
At the height of the cost cutting under former BA CEO Willie Walsh, a fun size chocolate bar was served as the second meal service in economy on long haul flights to New York. The media loved it of course, it made for a great headline, but it showed how far BA had sunk in the race to cheapen costs. Those days are gone thankfully.
The attentiveness to keeping my cocktail glass topped up was also commendable!
Verdict
Most long-term BA flyers are well aware of the impact to brand-BA under the dark years of the brutal Willie Walsh (former BA then IAG CEO) dictatorship. Thankfully those days are gone, but his legacy persists. You cannot quickly undo such changes that Walsh and his sidekick successor Alex Cruz did to the airline, although the new boy Sean Doyle (current BA CEO) is trying and has been very open in the media regarding his frustration with the lack of focus on his customers - everything from IT outsourcing to catering which has had a negative impact on the customer experience.
Today's flight proves how far the airline has come under Doyle's leadership, but proves also that Doyle still has his work cut out for him in the years ahead. Stopping short of naming Walsh specifically, Doyle stated recently that the cost cutting under his predecessor didn't just extend to the product, but that it also shaped a nasty culture of disillusion amongst BA staffers from top to bottom - many of the airline's most experienced staff simply walked away as Walsh sought to rid himself of higher earners within the company, leaving very inexperienced cabin crews in his wake.
The gate issue today, resulting in a three hour delay to our arrival into Doha, shows that there is still a noticeable gap in leadership when it comes to getting the planes away on time. Boarding gate management is one of the biggest headaches I regularly suffer as a BA customer - the staff at the gate try their best but are often ill informed by the airline and have minimal direction.
That said, I was impressed overall with today's flight. I like the Club Suite (I never really had a problem with the flat bed that Club Suite replaced, but Club Suite brings BA up to date), the food is so far ahead of what we saw under the Walsh/Cruz regime and the crew certainly had a spring in their step.
Sean Doyle has promised investment in all aspects of BA that is currently letting the side down. Everything from a new mobile app, to a simplification of the approach to customer treatment, will help.
Has BA finally turned the corner? Well, if today's flight is anything to go by, as a frequent BA flyer, we have a lot to look forward to.
Flight Facts
Aircraft Type: Boeing 777-200
Flight Duration: 6h47m (9h30 inc. delay)
Price: 120,000 Avios plus £350 taxes, using a Barclays Bank Premier upgrade certificate
Seat Configuration: 1-2-1
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