From Rio to London: A Sky-High Journey on BA 248 Dreamliner
On the way to South America, we flew from London Heathrow direct to Buenos Aires on the BA 245. Being quite a late flight, which was slightly delayed too, it wouldn’t really have been a fair review as we didn’t take dinner because of the timing and really just slept/relaxed for most of the flight. That said, being a Boeing 777 it did feel quite cramped and very dated - probably with flying Qsuites with Qatar on the last few long haul flights means any other airline has really big shoes to fill.
On our return, though similar timing overnight (which is great for trying to sleep) it seems fairer to be writing this review of the British Airways 787-800 Dreamliner, though I believe the new configuration/design (direct aisle access, yay!) won’t start until mid 2019. We’ve opted for seats 3A and 3B, reason for always trying to choose the rear of the Club World cabin when travelling as a couple, is to (1) get two seats only together (as opposed to being 2 of 3 or 2 of 4 in the middle depending on the aircraft); and (2) so that one passenger doesn’t have to step over another seat to get aisle access.
Check in was straightforward, there were a few counters allocated for business class but none for first as not operated on this route. We were checked in within a few minutes and advised to proceed to the lounge, through airport security and upstairs. The lounge at Rio is the GOL Premium Lounge (the furthest possible location to get to) - nice facilities and didn’t quite seem to match the budget credentials I’d assumed of the airline. We didn’t eat as the food didn’t look that appetising, but overall it was an ok lounge, albeit rather strange black toilets.
The flight left on time, boarding from gate C64 at the larger of the two Rio airports (Galeão International - GIG). There were boarding queues for groups 1-5 plus the assistance lane, which every airport in Brazil seems to have. For the elderly, this was allegedly for anyone over 80, but with quite a big queue, sprightly 60 somethings were boarding quickly and some carrying some quite considerable hand luggage and backpacks. Didn’t look like anyone was actually over 80 at all but no one seemed to bother.
We got a nice welcome and recognised as both being gold card executive club members. Our seats were fine, in this configuration there are only three rows in the front Club World cabin, and a further two rows in the second cabin in front of World Traveller Plus. It feels so much more spacious, though still a narrow-bodied jet, compared to the Boeing on the outbound flight. Though not radical in terms of design (hoping radical comes later in the year, and would love to feel the same excitement and optimism/looking forward to review new Club World as I did for waiting to fly on the Qatar Qsuite) it’s a good space, and the only obvious drawback is that passenger in 2A is going to have to step over one of us to get out. There is so much more headroom than the outbound flight (I kept hitting my head getting out of my seat in 5A to Buenos Aires), bigger windows and more spacious overhead bins which are at both sides of the aircraft and two on each facing side in middle.
I always like to make sure that I have a donation for their Flying Start charity, I sometimes arrive on board with spare currency in bags, it’s going to such a worthy cause.
The window shades are electronic and all three at seat 3A adjust in sync (nice touch) so only need to adjust one to make them all darken or lighten. There was no Wi-fi on board, again what seemed to be unheard of a few years ago now seems to have become the norm for some airlines.
There were two washrooms, one at the front of the cabin and another in the bulkhead area between the two Club World cabins. Both were spacious and (to start with) clean. The toilets are so much newer (obviously as you’d expect with a much newer aircraft type) though the (one piece) door was very flimsy and a bit awkward to navigate as it opened on a pivot, presumably to allow it to open partly in/partly out, not folding as previous doors. Throughout the flight, the toilets didn’t really look as if they were maintained very well, one had no cups and ran out of hand towels, both floors very wet, charitably I’m hoping passengers were just splashing water from the sink! The toilet at the front kept randomly flushing despite the button not being pressed or indeed waved at and was missing the actual button.
Only one of us was offered a drink on boarding - water or the smallest glass of champagne I’ve ever seen, and we were given a breakfast card for pre-arrival to decide whether you wanted to be woken at 1hr 30mins before arrival for a full breakfast, 50 minutes for a wake me up beverage service or maximise sleep to 40 minutes when final preparations for landing would be invoked.
There was the usual Elemis amenity kit, with moisturiser, lip balm, roll on, a pen, toothbrush, toothpaste, earplugs, socks and an eye mask. There is the separate White Company blanket, throw and the thing that I never really work out what it’s meant to be (I’m assuming a mattress cover type thing) but (1) there is no padding in it whatsoever, (2) has the weirdest shape and (3) is never big enough to even cover part of the lie-flat bed. While nothing like the Qatar Qsuite, the seat is comfortable, has the pull out drawer for keeping some of your possessions and a decent sized TV screen (though now usurped by many airlines, not just Qatar).
Even although everything is quite new, the configuration still feels old - can’t wait to see what the new arrangement is. (Update - as we actually land and mobile service resumes, one of the first things I see online is that BA have announced some details of new Club World - direct aisle access for all).
On take off (at 22:25 with an expected flying time of 10hr 45min), the sound quality of the safety video was extremely poor - it kept cutting out and stalling, surprising for such a new aircraft. BA if you read this, please remove David Williams’ “overacting” from the video - I know it’s meant to be a joke, but does something so (personally) annoying not actually alienate passenger’s attention rather than surely the intended purpose of getting people to watch and pay attention? I absolutely loved Little Britain so no offence intended David!
The meal choice was good, as were drinks though I only ever really have maybe one glass of fizz and after that the most daring beverage of choice is sparkling water with a slice of lemon and maybe a green tea (and the ubiquitous British Airways energiser smoothie) in the morning. It took about two hours from take off for the meal service to be complete and we bedded down for a few hours sleep.
Having had a decent meal, we didn’t really need snacks but the (grandly titled) “Raid the Larder” if they still refer to it as that, was situated at the galley area just behind us (now see it’s been rebranded as Club Kitchen). There was a choice of fruit juice in cartons, soft drinks in the fridge area with wines, a box of Cadbury mini chocolate bars and some crisps, biscuits, nuts etc. Nothing amazing but still nice to have something there if you want it.
We had selected on a form when boarding the aircraft whether we wanted to be woken for breakfast, or be left to sleep. The flight, being scheduled for 11hr 10mins was due to land in London Heathrow Terminal 5 at 12:10 in the afternoon, so I assumed (with Argentina and Brazil only having a three hour time difference from the UK) that I would try and maximise sleep and have something to eat in the lounge on arrival. Despite the breakfast noise, I did manage to stay partially asleep until the announcement at just over 40 mins to go and 250 miles to London’s Heathrow Terminal 5.
All in all a good flight, cabin crew were ok and the aircraft new, spacious and comfortable. The flight routing was mainly 11.9km up at 39,000 feet - we arrived at the terminal 5C arrival stand on time.
