Review of British Airways flight from San Diego to London in Business

Introduction

Hello and welcome to this short series of transatlantic flight reviews.

Like every year, we headed back to Europe for the summer because we've become those fancy people who use seasons as verbs 🤣

Kidding, of course! As French expats, most of our family is in Europe so it's nice to spend some extended time "back home" when the kid is out of school thanks to remote work.

As usual when departing from San Diego, we flew British Airways in Club World. With the San Diego route doing well for BA, frequency to London was increased to two daily flights for the past two summer seasons, giving more choices. As we always book these summer flights well in advance, the earlier flight was originally to be operated by a 787-9 with the old Club World cabins. Womp womp…all said, we've been lucky not to have had any old Club cabins in several years. 

I wasn't too worried about it as figured it was so far down the road, at the time of booking, that we'd likely have an equipment swap or a recently retrofitted 787 with Club Suites. It turned out to be the former!

To my pleasant surprise, several months out, our 787-9 was upgraded to a 777-300ER! With 40 more seats on the 77W than the 789, that's quite an up-gauge in capacity, especially in premium cabins were there are a whopping 76 Business class seats vs an already-respectable 42 Club seats on the 787-9! 

This is one premium-heavy configuration!

It turns out that the first daily departure was upgraded to a 777-300ER for the whole summer season–a nice indication that the San Diego route is performing well. As we've recently gained two new international carriers at SAN–KLM and COPA–it seems there's a bright long-haul future for us San Diegans. I hope this growth continues, as competition drives down prices and brings more choices in the market. I would love to see Iberia at SAN in the future since we spend time in Spain every summer, but I know it's highly unlikely as they serve LAX, just up the street. 

Routing

Reviews in this series:

Check-in & Lounge

We arrived at San Diego airport Terminal 2 about two and a half hours prior to departure on a beautiful early summer day. It had been a particularly cloudy and gloomy May and early June so now that it was finally nice, we were leaving for several months 🤣

The British Airways counters weren't too busy with no long queues for any of the positions. 

We had access to the First class check-in counter thanks to our British Airways Gold/oneworld Emerald status. 

Oddly, the First class check-in had more passengers waiting than Club World, especially considering how huge the Club World cabin is on the 77W. 

Check-in was quick and efficient as we'd already checked in on the ever-buggy British Airways app and just needed to drop off one checked bag. 

We then headed to the TSA Pre-check lane which was surprisingly busy! I'd never seen a queue that long at SAN, but it moved quickly and we were through in less than 10 minutes. 

Once through security we headed to the Chase Sapphire lounge. Although British Airways First and Business class passengers are invited to the Aspire Lounge, it's almost always overcrowded and sub-par for long-haul Business class, in my opinion, so I usually avoid it. 

There was no wait to enter the Chase lounge, unlike the Aspire Lounge. While the Chase Lounge often does have a short wait during busy periods–usually early morning and late evening before the red-eye bank–I've never waited more than about 10 minutes. We were able to take the lift right up to the lounge–during busier times, agents add guests to a wait-list near the lift on the concourse level. 

We were welcomed back to the lounge by a friendly agent. With a lot of travel so far this year we'd been to this lounge about 3 or 4 times in the past month or so. 

The beautiful wall of surfboard art is right by the entrance on the left. 

There's a bar and restaurant section when continuing into the lounge after reception. 

Though there had been no wait to enter, it was quite busy so we had to go on a hunt for 3 seats together.

We were able to find a quiet corner in a section behind the wall of surfboards. 

As I've reviewed this lounge several times in the past I won't go into too much detail, but there is a decent spread of food at the buffet as well as made-to-order meals that can be ordered through the QR codes at each table. 

We could see our plane from the lounge, the Alaska 737 and Air Canada CRJ looks tiny in comparison. 

Boarding

The Chase lounge is closer to the international gates than the Aspire lounge, so we only headed out about five minutes before boarding was due to begin. 

Boarding had begun early and was in full swing by the time we got to the gate so we queued up for the priority boarding lanes on the left. 

We passed by the Air Canada CRJ-900 on the way down to the jet bridge.

The jet bridge was quite backed up. Between the 8 First class seats, 76 seats in Business class, and all oneworld Emerald members, it's not surprising that there were so many people in Group 1. 

#BoardingNotBoarding

As we saw on the seat map in the beginning of this review, the Club cabin is huge on the 777-300ER. The 76 Club Suites are laid out in a spacious 1-2-1 configuration, giving direct access to the aisle for all passengers. 

After turning right on boarding the aircraft we passed through the very-long second Club cabin. 

There are three Business class cabins on the BA 77W. A 3-row mini-cabin just behind First class. A very long 11-row cabin, which I prefer to avoid. And finally a small-ish 6-row cabin towards the back. As there were no three seats together in the 3-row mini-cabin, I went for the second best option with the 6-row cabin. 

And as usual I selected seats in the last row for more privacy and a quieter experience as there's almost no foot traffic in the back rows with lavs towards the front in this configuration. 

The smaller 6-row cabin is still quite large considering how spacious Club Suites are. 

British Airways' Club Suites are a customised version of the popular Collins Aerospace Super Diamond seat model with closing privacy doors. 

And here we are at our seats. Note that the last row at the windows is row 23, while the last row of centre seats is row 24, but that these rows are actually aligned. It's easier to see what I mean from the seatmap at the top of this review as the BA seat map in the booking flow–and "Manage my Booking"–would lead one to believe they are not. 

Our cabin ended up completely full and I didn't really see any empty seats in the larger Club cabin either. 

As I was putting things away and getting my 6-year-old son settled in, a very friendly member of the cabin crew greeted us and offered welcome drinks. As she saw I had my hands full she offered to place the drink at my seat, which was very sweet.

At each seat is a large pillow, bedding, and amenity kit, all from The White Company, as well as a bottle of water and noise-cancelling headphones. 

Two of my favourite things together–bubbly and a wing view 😆

Continuing the seat tour, there is a storage compartment in the side console which also contains a 110v universal power outlet and two USB-A ports, as well as the in-flight entertainment remote. While these cabins are rather new, it's a shame that BA did not opt to add USB-C ports, as these are much more useful these days. Yes, I have an unnatural obsession with in-seat charging ports due to my stage-4 battery anxiety 😉

On the side you'll find the seat and suite light controls. 

Legroom is fantastic and, at 1m78 (5'10"), it's nearly impossible to touch the ottoman while in the upright position. Seats convert to fully flat beds with a 2m (6'7") long sleeping surface. 

There are several small storage spaces throughout the seat. 

Let's have a look at the menu as boarding wraps up. As usual, there's a decent wine list and nice meal options. the Do&Co catering is rarely disappointing, if sometimes lacking in variety for those of us who fly BA often. 

For dinner there are three options for appetisers, as well as mains. While the options are fine, I wish BA would bring back the pre-order function they had pre-pandemic as there were more choices. I understand that's asking a lot of BA's current IT systems, which are held together by UHU Gluesticks, paper clips, hopes and dreams…

The Flight

Boarding wrapped up quickly on this very full flight and doors were closed for an on-time departure. 

The safety video played on individual screens as the aircraft pushed back from the gate and began to taxi out. 

Views of downtown San Diego as the aircraft taxied to the runway. 

Off we go on this clear cloudless day.

As soon as we took off the flight time showed a very fast 9 hours to Heathrow! That's unusually fast for this route, with flight times closer to 10 hours in this direction. 

Showing an arrival time over an hour early! Will we actually arrive that early or have to do the usual holding patterns and lose all that extra time? We shall see!

Gorgeous views of Mission Bay and Mission Beach on the climb out. That amusement park in the photo below is Sea World. 

Shortly after takeoff the Wi-Fi was available once the aircraft passed 10,000 ft in altitude. 

Let's have a look at the different Wi-Fi packages. 

Full streaming-capable Wi-Fi is free only in First class. 

For everyone else there are several package options for purchase.

Member of the BA Club frequent flyer programme have access to free messaging throughout the flight. 

For everyone else, the Messaging-only plan is £2.99 for just 1 hour or £4.99 for the full flight. 

Full streaming-capable internet access starts at £4.99 for 1 hour, £11.99 for 4 hours, or £19.99 for the full flight.

I usually go for the full flight pass on these longer flights to and from the West Coast. From the East Coast, where flight times are barely 6 hours, I often just get the 4 hour package, if I even buy Wi-Fi at all on a short night flight. 

I don't know if this is new or if I've never paid attention before, but there was a whole section on the Wi-Fi portal about the in-flight entertainment content. 

At first it looked like you could stream the content on your mobile device, which is always a nice option to have in case of a broken or buggy screen. 

However, it turned out to be just film trailers.  

Luckily I've never had any issues with a buggy or broken IFE screen on BA, unlike Iberia or American. 

The screen is large with a crisp HD image and tons of content. The only criticism I have is that the user interface is only available in English or Spanish–the content itself is available in many dubbed languages, however. 

As mentioned, there's a ton of content including hundreds of films, TV programmes, documentaries, music, audio books, games, and children's programming. 

Once at cruising altitude, the evening service began with a hot towel as usual. 

A quick visit to the lav prior to the meal, where products are also by the White Company. 

Much like the amenity kit which also features the White Company's SPA Restore products. 

Man this flight is going by too fast! I'll have to skip breakfast if I want to get a decent night's sleep. I almost always do unless it's a very long transpacific flight. 

Service began with an apéritif and a small snack. Both IAG sister airlines Iberia and Aer Lingus do better with their pre-meal service in Business than BA, in my opinion–Iberia does a small tapas service with olives, cheese, and bread sticks, while Aer Lingus have a nice canapé service. Considering that even American and Alaska serve warm nuts in a ramekin on domestic flights, I've always found BA's pre-meal service underwhelming. The drink selection itself is always decent, however. 

On a positive note, I noticed that the cabin crew specifically came to the last row to take our dinner orders first, then worked their way back from the first row. I assume that the fact that we're all three BA Gold and in the last row had something to do with it to ensure we'd get our first choice. This was very much appreciated and I don't ever expect special treatment as I know there's always a risk of not getting a first choice meal when selecting seats in the rear of the cabin. 

As usual with seats in the back of such a long cabin, it takes longer than average to be served the different courses. Luckily, the cabin crew were top notch and were out regularly in the cabin refilling glasses as we waited, which always helps to pass the time. 

As always, my son's pre-ordered child meal was served first, which is always helpful. BA's child meals are usually very nice so I was a surprised at the poor quality of the first course–a dry cheese sandwich! Literally just a slice of cheddar between two dry pieces of white bread…seriously!? Absolutely pathetic to serve a prison meal to a child in Business class…Not acceptable. 

I feel like there must have been an issue with the catering in San Diego as this is just not typical for BA in my experience. 

Luckily, the first course for the standard adult meals was much much better!

Appetiser Course:

Smoked salmon and avocado timbale
Wasabi crême fraîche

Quite delicious with bold flavour thanks to the Wasabi sauce. I enjoyed the first course with a nice Côte de Provence Rosé with a lovely colour.

#RoséAllDay

For the main course, I stayed with seafood, ordering the prawns. It was also delicious and well-presented with nice Thai flavours. 

Main Course:

Grilled king prawns
Spicy green coconut mixed vegetable curry,
steamed jasmine rice

For the last course I went with the cheese plate. I could have also asked for dessert, but I was too full. I was particularly happy to see Roquefort on the menu as it's from my region of France. 

A selection of artisan cheese served with savoury crackers and fig jam
Kindred Sharp Cheddar
Queso de Cabra Rosy goat's
Roquefort

By the time the dinner service was over there was only 6h41m of flight time remaining. 

Time to get some sleep! Luckily the lights were turned off shortly after the meal service. BA include a small mattress pad with the bedding, which helps with comfort.

The seats recline to a fully flat 2m (6'7") long bed, plenty of space for most adults, and huge for a 6-year-old.

I like to put on shows I've usually seen to fall asleep to since I'd probably pay more attention to something new. 

I always like the option to have the flight map on the remote control screen. 

I slept like a baby for the rest of the flight and didn't wake up until it was time to bring seats back upright for landing. So I managed to get a decent 6 hours of sleep, which is great. I'd much rather get a decent sleep and skip the breakfast service, especially since I can grab some food in the lounge later. 

We did the usual holding pattern circle or two over the English countryside prior to being cleared for landing. 

Cabin ready for landing with the pleasant blue mood lighting. 

Even with the short holding pattern we were due to arrive over an hour early! Those are the kinds of crazy fast tailwinds you expect more in the winter than summer!

As usual I'd selected a seat on the right side of the aircraft for the good views on landing and they were especially glorious on this sunny summer morning!

We did a circle over the city and actually came back around to get the good view again!

Tower Bridge, the Shard, St. Paul, The London Eye, Big Ben, Parliament and Westminster Abbey, all these famed London landmarks were clearly visible on approach. 

And of course Buckingham Palace and St. James Park. 

Taxi to the gate was short as T5 is well positioned at the end of the runway when landing in this direction. 

We arrived at the gate 1 hour and 7 minutes ahead of schedule! And yes, there was actually a gate available–no wait! Miracles do happen.

Last view of the cabin on deplaning. 

Then it was off to transit security and to the lounge to grab some breakfast. 

Thanks for reading and see you for the next one!