In 1936, when Imperial Airways launched flights from London to Hong Kong, the journey took a week. Eighty years later travellers can fly the route in 12 hours with Imperial’s modern incarnation, British Airways, aboard one of the world’s most sophisticated aircraft. By Nick Walton

Boarding

A runway closure earlier in the day and peak hours at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 meant long delays at the Club World check-in, as well as at the ‘fast track’ security line, where staff seemed overwhelmed. British Airways’ South lounge was also at capacity. Fortunately, we didn’t have long to wait until boarding the Airbus A380 at Satellite Concourse C.

The Seat

British Airways a member of oneworld, do a lot of strange things with their A380, including scattering Club World business class and World Traveler economy class seating across both upper and main decks (the only A380 operator to do so). The upper deck is quieter, more intimate, has larger bathrooms, and has less seats, each with better storage. They are understandably snapped up quickly, leaving an obvious experience disparity.

I’ll admit I’m also no fan of British Airways’ ‘yin and yang’ seat configuration (2-4-2 downstairs and 2-3-2 upstairs), which has aisle seats facing forward and middle and window seats facing backwards, clearly to allow for 97 business class seats (in comparison Emirates has 76 on its A380s, Air France 80 and Qantas 72). These seats are completely lacking in ergonomics; unless you have an upper deck window seat, there is very little storage space and nowhere to put drinks or phones unless you deploy the dining tray. Then there’s the uncomfortable proximity of an opposite-facing passenger (at least until the plastic privacy screen is activated). However, my main deck window seat offers more privacy than those on the aisle and with nothing but a bulkhead ahead, there were no other passengers to step over.

The Flight

A smiling cabin attendant named Tina served glasses of Taittinger Brut champagne and dished out dinner menus. Unfortunately, there was nowhere to put the glass of champagne as I read the menu so it, and a cloth bag amenity kit with products by Elemis, went into the small storage drawer at the seat base. As charming as crew were, they still took the shortcut and passed menus, drinks and the kit across my neighbor’s seat and through the gap left by the open privacy screen, rather than from the front of the seat, forcing my neighbour to wiggle out of the way each time, as I had on my previous flight.

Dining

British Airways has always taken pride in the quality of their meals – what they refer to as Height Cuisine – and this flight was no exception. The dinner service began 90 minutes after takeoff with hazelnut and herb-crusted Fivemiletown Creamery goat’s cheese with celeriac, kohirabi, rosemary compressed apple and a pomegranate anise dressing; followed by a seared British beef fillet with roasted new potatoes, onion soubise, carrots and a bourguignonne sauce. Both were beautifully presented, perfectly proportioned and, finally, served from the seat front. I skipped dessert, instead opting for a selection of Stilton and Somerset camembert cheeses with fig relish, matched with a spot more champagne and an episode of Absolutely Fabulous on the surprisingly small 12-inch personal monitor (Emirates, Air France and Korean Air all offer 15-inch monitors in business).

After contorting myself into PJs in the economy-sized bathroom, I converted my seat into a supremely comfortable 6ft-long lie-flat bed by pulling down an ottoman seat bolted to the bulkhead. The only problem with the bed is it prohibits access to the only in-seat storage and I worried my phone, connected to both earphones and a USB charging cable, would be swallowed up by my seat. Crew handed out bottles of water but again, there was nowhere to put them. As it was afternoon in Hong Kong as we approached I skipped the ‘breakfast’ offering.

Summary

British Airways’ crew are charming and its culinary offering is on par with any other leading airline but a clumsy seat design and an ambitious configuration do make it harder to relax, be served, and reach those little inflight essentials on long-haul flights.

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

Note: The author travelled as a guest of British Airways

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