Let's Just Go

My first long-haul experience with British Airways in Club Suites

I booked this trip 7 months before the flight day, and was very much anticipating my next long haul trip. Time counted down, the day had come, and I travelled over to Heathrow Airport with bags in tow, ready for my trip over to Hong Kong and beyond!

British Airways flights mainly depart from Terminal 5 at London Heathrow – with a smattering of Iberia flights too – with only a few BA flights departing from Terminal 3. I made my way over to Terminal 5 to check in my luggage, to the large check-in desk array at the North end of the terminal – where there is a dedicated Business Class check-in area.

The Economy check-in is towards the middle of the terminal, with First class check in at the South end of the terminal.

My bag was dropped with the very friendly check-in agent who said she had never been to Hong Kong before, but was looking forward to going some time, and I made my way through Fast-Track security.

Very recently, Heathrow completed it’s upgrades at Terminal 5 – so now all of the scanning machines are the new type, which means you can leave your liquids and laptops in your bag whilst they are all scanned – and liquids can now be up to 2 litres in size. It really helps NOT having to open up bags, put everything in different trays for separate scanning and so on – a big time-saver!

I was quickly through to the departures area, and made my way to the South Lounge at London Heathrow. You can read more about the Departure Lounges at London Heathrow here. I charged up my devices, downloaded some articles on PressReader, and had a glass of the daily smoothie and some water, also topping up my water bottle to the flight.

I tend to get super dehydrated on long-haul flights so always try and drink water regularly – even if it means more trips to the loo!

My gate was called, as Bus Gate A10, and I made my way down to get on the bus over to the remote stand. I had used Flighty app to track the plane that was assigned to my flight, and saw it landed and parked up on a remote stand. Sometimes, planes do move around the airfield, but this time it hadn’t, and was still on a stand close to Terminal 3 at Heathrow.

I boarded as the last off the bus, taking some time to take some photos – when do you ever get to be that close to an aeroplane usually!

I put my rucksack and coat above me, I found a very thick and plump pillow along with bedding set (blanket and mattress protector) in the seat already, and very soon I was offered a choice of champagne or orange juice as a pre-departure drink, and offered menus to read through – my order would be picked up just before takeoff.

The suite was really comfy, the seat must be kept upright for takeoff and landing and you must wear a 3-point safety belt (similar to a car!) for takeoff and landing, although in the night and upon lowering the seat to bed mode, you can use one safety belt only.

To the right of the seat is the door, which can be closed once the aircraft is in the air, but must be stowed in case of emergency on takeoff and landing. To the left there are three cabinets – one at around eye height, containing a small Amenity Kit and 500ml water bottle. My headphones are resting on the 2nd shallow cabinet, which can hold headphones, and shallow items, and the menu is on top of the 3rd cabinet, which is fairly deep and contains a universal plug socket, 2x USB-A charging points, and can hold a couple of bottles of water and deeper items.

The screen is a fairly fast responsive touch-screen, with a handheld mini screen and remote tucked away in the larger 3rd cabinet. This can show the interactive map at any time, even whilst playing media on the main screen. Sadly BA have not fitted the in-plane cameras so you can’t see a view below or above the plane – but you can view the position on the moving map, which sometimes has facts about the takeoff and destination cities.

I was then approached to take my dinner and breakfast order – menus below. Any drinks were available to order with the meal, which was nice, as I did fancy a chamomile tea to help me drift off to sleep! What would you order?

Boarding was complete, and it was soon time to take off, which was a little delayed – we were parked a fair distance from the runway. Upon taking off, the A350 was speedy but efficient and the noise inside the cabin was minimal – a really recommended aeroplane to fly on!

Within a few minutes we were climbing steadily and over Europe – with big fluffy clouds getting smaller below, and my home already hundreds of miles away.

Service started around 50 minutes into the flight – whilst I was enjoying watching some Glastonbury highlights on the entertainment system – with a hot towel and a round of drinks.

Then, around 20 mins later, the starters were served. I chose the smoked salmon and avocado dish, as I felt like something cool and fresh to start with – the dish was incredibly tasty and did not disappoint!

The salmon was absolutely delicious and complemented very well with the creamy avocado and light pepper cream – the rolls were also warm and tasty with the butter melting straight into them. The romesco salad was also superbly tasty with the charred vegetables – a solid and very filling start to the meal!

The main course was still tasty but definitely not as tasty as the starter for me – the beef being a little tough, the broccoli very well-cooked and falling apart, the oyster sauce brought the dish together a little more, but the dish was overall somewhat tasteless – and a little disappointing, considering how good the starter had been.

Unfortunately at this point, I was very full and did not even attempt to try a dessert – it would have made the journey very uncomfortable!

The crew however were really pleased to be on this flight and very positive. Nothing was too much trouble, at any point in the flight – including helping me out when the person sitting in front of me took my seat bedding from where it had been stowed above my seat, and refused to use his own – they superbly asked him very kindly to pass back the unused bedding kit that was in his pod (and he was attempting to take home with him…)

Once the bedding had been secured, it was then time to get some rest. BA provide you with a seat-cover and blanket for the journey, along with a very fluffy pillow. The pillow and blanket are brilliant – the pillow is large, fluffy and supportive, and the blanket is warm, light yet very temperature regulating and generous in size. I am a very wriggly sleeper and unfortunately couldn’t get the seat-cover to stay on the seat itself during the more horizontal parts of the flight. The seat itself is made of sturdy and durable material but I somehow managed to friction-burn my elbow whilst getting comfy to sleep – mainly as the seat cover didn’t stay on!

The atmosphere was also very drying – I left a bottle of water near me for sipping whilst awake between sleep segments, and this was finished by the morning. I tend to drink a lot of water normally, but being on the flight felt like lots of moisture was being removed from my skin and

I took a trip to the bathroom to brush teeth before sleep. I am usually a disturbed sleeper on a plane, and really enjoy opening the window-blind to take some sleepy shots of a dazzling world below, in a country I have never been to before. However this flight, I tried my utmost to sleep and rest – I could then spend the evening discovering more about my next location.

A few woozy hours followed, some sleep was had, lots of rest was taken, and I awoke around three hours before landing at Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) as the aeroplane inhabitants were being prepared for waking and breakfast.

Our window blinds were allowed to be cracked open a little, as by this point it was light outside – around 12 midday Hong Kong time. A quick wakening bathroom trip and a wet-wipe wash was useful at this point – I also brought some very minty toothpaste which definitely helped to awaken my senses!

It was then time for breakfast – I had chosen the vegetarian option the night before.

This was just the breakfast starter – if there is such a thing! I very much enjoyed the lime wedge to squeeze over the fruit – it felt very much refreshing on such a long flight.

In its wonderful location knowledge, my phone says that this breakfast was taken over Sichuan province in China, near to the city of Chengdu! If that is the case, I would have expected a little more chilli and spice… sadly lacking this time 🙂

Plates were collected and we were soon 30 minutes from landing, sweeping in to Hong Kong landing towards the East, with a superb view of the mountaneous islands, and coming in over the HK-Macao-Zhuhai bridge – more on that in another post, but it is the world’s longest bridge, at just over 34 miles!

This approach to HKIA is particulaly beautiful if the weather is playing ball – as you get to see the blue hues of the sparkly South China sea and various remote and mountainous islands on the way. Some of them even line up very well with the window…

And with a small plonk, we were now landed at HKIA, taxiing to gate, and telephone data returned, devices chirped into action and we were once again on solid ground. I prepared for the next part of my trip by downloading some directions, whilst on the plane…

Here’s my flight track for the flight – taking a little longer than in previous years, as Russian airspace is closed to European airlines, so a large diversion South is required:

Altogether, a great, comfortable experience, with very positive and helpful crew, who felt energised and happy to be doing their job – and a comfy seat from which to watch the journey happen.