Coinciding with Imperial Airways’ 80^th anniversary of flights to Hong Kong, Nick Walton journeys to London on British Airways’ flagship A380 and finds attentive service is diminished by poor design and a lack of innovation.

Background

British Airways presently operates 10 Airbus A380 aircraft, with a further two to be delivered. The airline operates the superjumbo on many long-haul routes, including between Hong Kong and London Heathrow, in a four-class configuration.

Check-In

I checked-in online the day before our flight but was unable to secure a window seat, all of which had been very quickly snapped up. I later find out why. The cheerful crew at Hong Kong International Airport check in my luggage and direct me to the Qantas Lounge, which at HKIA remains a favourite, thanks to its balance of hospitality, ambience, and innovation. Even when it’s full there’s still room to breathe.

Boarding

Boarding an A380 is no easy feat, especially when boarding a British Airways superjumbo, which has both economy and business allocated across both decks. Club World’s 97 seats (by comparison Emirates has 76 in business on its A380s, Air France has 80 and Qantas has 72) occupy one cabin on the lower level (44 seats), and two cabins on the quieter upper deck (25 & 28 respectively). The lower deck features a 2-4-2 configuration in a rather controversial ‘yin and yang’ configuration that has window and centre seats facing backwards and aisle seats facing forward. Upstairs this changes to a 2-3-2 configuration but still with the window and single centre seats facing backwards.

Centre seats on the lower deck become boxed in by the privacy screens of the aisle seats on either side and are very cosy indeed (fine if you’re with your better half but not ideal if you’re next to a stranger). Window seats, although clumsily positioned, offer the most privacy. British Airways has also opted not to offer the lounges or stand up cocktail bars found on Qantas, Emirates, Air France and Korean Air’s A380s.

The Seat

I find a lot lacking in BA’s A380 business class seat. While the world’s first lie-flat suite was revolutionary at its time, it’s now a very stock standard 20-inches wide with a pitch of 72-inches. My aisle seat feels narrow and incredible exposed, a point confirmed by several sharp elbow bumps during the flight as people and trolleys pass. Thanks to the yin and yang configuration I’m face-to-face with a scowling elderly French woman occupying the middle seat to my left. She is clearly not impressed with her rear-facing middle row seat and her glare, only an arm’s reach away, is scathing. We both pretend not to repeatedly press the button to activate the privacy divider (it’s thankfully activated once we reach cruising altitude).

There’s also no real ergonomics at play either; cheerful crew serve glasses of chilled Taittinger Brut champagne, flimsy but appreciated hot ‘towels’ and curious cloth sacks filled with travel-sized Elemis products, but where’s the handy little shelf on which to balance my drink? I mean, even a Ford Pinto has a cup holder. In a sacrifice to minimalism, I’m forced to balance everything in my lap, the water from the towel seeping into my jeans as I slug back my drink rather than savour it just so I can sort myself out while the seatbelt sign is still off.

Starved for Storage Space

I plug my phone into the USB port at the seat base only to find there’s nowhere easily accessible to place it, save for a shoe draw at the seat base, or on the precarious armrest, which will almost certainly feed it to the ravenous chair’s mechanics as soon as I turn my back.

Each seat boasts a 12-inch personal monitor (by comparison Emirates, Air France and Korean Air offer 15-inch monitors on their A380s), through which travellers can access the airline’s Thales inflight entertainment system. I know some regular travellers get hot and heavy over entertainment offerings but I found the BA selection to be very reasonable, with box office hits, new release movies and a few classic tv shows. Unfortunately, despite being reset by the crew, the system keeps skipping and freezing any channel I select so I eventually give up and use my tablet instead, opting to use my own real noise reduction headphones over the clunky plastic-fantastic ones offered. British Airways is yet to introduce wifi connectivity inflight.

Dining – Champagne Supper

British Airways has traditionally set high benchmarks for inflight dining, partnering with British culinary icons like Twinings and Fever Tree to present comprehensive, innovative menus by head chef Mark Tazzioli. Our late-night Champagne Supper (a light menu designed for late departures) of parma ham, figs and grilled artichokes, with (rather curiously) California sushi, is matched with two delightful champagnes (the lovely purser, seeing I like my bubbles, sneaks me a taste test of the Dom Pérignon from First) and two great wines. This is followed by a delectable pan-seared chicken breast with Café de Paris sauce and braised fennel. I decide to skip the tempting apple and berry pudding, opting instead for a glass of Warre’s LVB 2009 port and the chance to sleep.

Crew vs Design

Unfortunately, another real downside of the cabin’s clumsy design is that the crew seem to struggle when reaching guests in middle seats. While those on my return flight will make the additional effort to serve from the end of the seat and thus offer a wholly more comfortable dining experience, those on the outbound flight decide to take a shortcut, ensuring plenty of uncomfortable moments as they repeatedly activate the privacy screen release, dropping the plastic screen with a sudden crunch that unsettles my headphone-wearing neighbour even further. Each time crew serve her I’m treated to armpits in my face as I try to melt into my seat back, frustrated, my personal monitor blocked. Seeing me attempt to manoeuvre out of the way each time actually softens my neighbour, who offers a sympathetic smile. She also decides to skip the 2 am ‘breakfast’ on approach to London.

For those with a craving in the middle of the night, British Airways offers the Club Kitchen, a snack cupboard in the business class galley that offers drinks and an assortment of nuts, chips, ice cream, pastries and chocolate bars. In addition, the Twinings Tea Room menu is laced with great brews by the famed tea house, all available on request.

Sleep Mode

We depart at midnight and are due to arrive at 4.50am so sleep is imperative. When I go to change for sleep I find that the lower business class cabin enjoys the same bathroom size as economy, while in the cabin above, the bathrooms are, by comparison, palatial and far easier to prepare in. Window seats upstairs also have additional under-window storage, so it’s little wonder they are snapped up so quickly by British Airways frequent fliers.

Set for sleep I convert my seat into a perfectly-comfortable 6ft bed (which isn’t exactly enhanced by a wafer-thin pillow and scratchy blanket) by lowering the ‘ottoman’ extension bolted to the bulkhead, but I encounter the same problem experienced by many online reviewers: after being sat on so many times the extensions are weak and collapse under the weight of my feet with a loud thunk. The seat then needs to be reversed so that the extension can be pried back into position, ensuring a fitful, frustration-filled sleep. A gracious cabin attendant helps me the first time it collapses, shaking his head and smiling as he tries to reset the extension against the bulkhead.

Conclusion

While we have British Airways to thank for the creation of the lie-flat seat in business class, its A380 product simply makes no sense, from the lack of practicality through to its levels of sheer invasiveness. Despite great service and brilliant dining, every forum online is obsessed with which seats on the BA A380 to fight for and which to avoid, which begs the question, why should one passenger paying the same fare benefit so much over another? The yin and yang product might have wowed the world when it was introduced in 2000, but today’s savvy consumer demands a bit more balance.

British Airways Club World Hong Kong to London return from US$7,860 per person. www.ba.com

Note: The Art of Business Travel travelled as a guest of the airline

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