“World’s best business class”, a name infamously synonymous with BA F. One may argue that’s no longer accurate, as Q-Suite and emergence of many Asian carriers in J surpass BA F’s offering. How do they really fare, and is it as “businessey” as people claim? I’ll let you be the judge of that, on today’s trip aboard BA F from London Heathrow to Washington Dulles on their Dreamliner. BA F has one of the greatest redemption rates due to its high frequency flying to multiple US hubs. Although I was lucky enough to snatch this one today, I can confidently say this will the one and only time I fly internationally into Dulles, not at all the fault of BA. For DC natives, you may know the reasoning, but I’ll save that for the end.
Let’s go!
I arrived aboard AF on its domestic business class into T4 at LHR. I had not flown out from T5 since back in 2022 where we arrived from the city, so it took some figuring out on how to reach T5 from T4. Although the numbers are adjacent, it’s quite a long journey since you must first take the train from T4 to T2/T3 before changing trains to reach T5.
As the giant blue screen indicates, T5 is BA’s home and a warm welcome to it.
BA has a dedicated F check-in area located on the very right side, distinguishable from a far by its golden lights and contrast to the entire terminal.
Inside, there is a resting area in the center with complimentary drinks, surrounded by the 20 or so check-in desks. There were more passengers than I expected, but unlike CA’s premium checkin area at PEK that almost always has a line due to its lack of kiosks, no wait needed for me today.
After confirming my US address and documents, I was directed to the private security area within the F space. Identifiable by the navy red. The F check-in area was quite solid, its refurbished walls adding a sense of exclusivity and luxury. Immediately after security is the famous F tunnel guiding you to the lounges.
This was only the second ever time I’ve flown BA outside of Europe, the first being on Economy back in 2019 when they still operated the A380s between YVR and LHR. My only memory of that flight being an elderly couple asking to swap seats with me despite almost 50% of the entire plane being empty, I guess that’s why the giants no longer fly that route. The lovely agent near security asked if this was my first time, after confirming she suggested I ignore the F lounge and head straight to The Concorde Room, along with directions on how to navigate through. Awesome!
I was immediately greeted with a familiar scene from all the BA F reviews I’ve read/watched, the horse-lamp.
Reaching The Concorde Room meant navigating through the F lounge, which was absolutely jam-packed.
Upon reaching The Concorde Room reception, the lady asked which lounge I was looking for, the South wing, or one of the others. I showed her my boarding pass and immediately sprung out of her seat like she saw a ghost. She apologized (I guess for her earlier nonchalance, which really wasn’t a big deal) and began promoting all that The Concorde Room had to offer. She mentioned some private rooms and incredible dining, sounds good to me!
Immediately, you could tell the décor was on another level.
There was a massive bar which always had at least three-four people chatting with the bartenders, ad a huge lounging space.
My favorite architectural element was the overhead lighting, and as another blogger mentioned this lounge may not feel as the more glitzy and glamorous, but feels more like a private club with all the traditional British elements.
Having never been here before, I sat down in the indoor dining section, which was all empty except one other passenger.
My seat.
This was the lunch menu, keep in mind dessert had its own.
I must have been here for no more than 5 minutes, and was asked three times (twice by the same gentleman) about any allergies. I then remembered seeing an outdoor section on the videos I’ve watched, and did a quite look-around spotting it in the distance.
After double-checking I could also be served there, I took my things and headed out. I personally was not a fan of the initial dining area, other than the privacy. The lounge is so beautiful with incredible furniture, sitting here felt like you were trapped inside a box with Disneyworld right outside.
Ah yes, much better here! ! Not only far more natural light, you get great views of the tarmac and if you head to the rightest side of the terrace there’s a lovely view of live takeoffs.
There are also three slightly more private seating areas divided between the blinds.
I was initially offered the breakfast menu but after double-checking lunch was served after 11:30 and it was now 11:33, the waiter returned with the lunch menu, identical to the one offered inside. I must admit I was a noobie when it came to where and when I could eat here, with all the gentlemen in full suits I didn’t want to stand out more than I already was.
After placing my order, I headed over to the toilets. There are around 10 unisex toilet booths as opposed to divided sections. These were showing its age and a big step down to the lounge. I later read up on multiple reviews asking for a refurbishment of the toilets, on the bright side they were constantly being cleaned and spotless throughout.
Heading back, I took some more shots of the furniture and architecture.
There was a display of some unique Concorde memorabilia.
Back at the terrace, I placed my lunch order and headed over to the small buffet selection. On one side there were some cold cuts and salad, the other featuring alcoholic options, separated by a beautiful flower arrangement.
Back at my seat, I ordered a diet coke and the Pommery Cuvée Louise 2008 Champagne, deliciously vintage.
The dining area was quite empty at this hour.
For my starter, I went with the Salmon Tartare.
To be frank, I wasn’t too impressed with the starter options. Nearly half of the choices were salads and the tartare was quite disappointing, very bland and nothing special.
. I also waited a good 20 minutes between my dishes, so I fetched some snacks from the buffet area. A solid block of parmesan cheese with traditional British ham. I’ve never had black cheese crackers like these, quite unique.
After noticing the two gentlemen next to me receive their mains after arriving far later, I asked the waiter about my Bacon Chop to which he just nodded and walked off. It came a good 15 minutes later, one must assume they simply forgot initially.
On the bright side, this was much better than the salmon. It also came with a side of mashed potatoes with crispy onions. The meat was slightly bland and didn’t come with a sauce, but some salt and pepper worked wonders.
Being three glasses of champagne in, I genuinely thought I was tripping when I saw this light-blue BA living outside. I searched it up and found it to be an eco-friendly promotive livery. Something about seeing special liveries in different colors never fails to mesmerize!
I was then given the dessert menu.
I’ve recently discovered my newfound passion for ice cream ( I know, I’m decades late to the party). I ‘ve never disliked it but only recently realized just how great it is (I promise I’m not 5 years old). I ordered the Treacle tart with honeycomb ice cream, along with some ginger cookies.
I must admit, I had no clue what ‘treacle’ meant, I just saw the ice cream and my eyes lit up. My bad but I’m not a fan. The cake was so salty to the point I just couldn’t finish it. The ginger cookies and ice cream were solid.
After my meal, I headed downstairs to purchase an adapter after being informed that none were available at reception. I still had a good three hours to kill here, and went with an iced americano.
There were now far less customers in the main area than before, and I took this opportunity to gather some more snaps for my review. I genuinely felt too shy to do so earlier with all the suits and ties around.
Really is a British high-end space, after all. The entire lounge also reminds me of some a posh British family’s living room in TV series.
The sofas and fireplaces really emphasize that feel, an extremely unique approach to your most exclusive lounge.
I then found something called a “white americano” listed on the menu which peaked my curiosity and decided to give it a go. Turns out just to be an americano with extra milk, eh I think I’ll stick with black coffee.
Being too shy to ever approach the busy bar, I simply asked a passing waiter for a glass of my favorite whisky, the Johnny Walker Blue Label.
Sitting in the lounging area, I’m not exaggerating when saying I saw at least one burger pass by every few minutes. I knew I had to give it a go. This burger was great, for someone who generally doesn’t understand the excitement most feel towards burgers in the general, I must admit it was delicious.
The chips, however, were not as piping hot and crispy as you would hope, but the burger more than made up for it. I don’t like all the vegetables (lettuce, tomatoes, what have you) that usually come with burgers, luckily this one was all meat and all fun (and perhaps not too healthy).
With just under an hour until boarding, I did a final lap around the lounge which was now at its lowest capacity since I entered. I finally gathered the courage to approach the bar not to order anything, but to take a picture of this bell I was eyeing every time I passed!
To sum up my hours at the Concorde Room, it was generally positive. I didn’t mind that the lounge was less glitzy than some other F lounges, the living room feel with its furniture was uniquely British. The food did leave some room for improvement. Frequent visitors seem to occasionally criticize Concorde Room’s food options with some even arguing the F lounge offers a better buffet selection and those who praise the food here are only first-time visitors never trying the F buffet. I did enjoy the burger and bacon steak, but the dessert and starters were quite disappointing. I never tried out the showers or the private rooms my receptionist recommended. Regardless, a solid space to spend a few hours with unlimited drinks and food on offer.
Finally, it was time to head over to my gate, A10. Unfortunately, I quickly learned this would be a bus gate as we descended escalators.
A shuttle bus rolled up and we scattered inside as they took us a good 10 minutes out from the gate.
Of course, the upside to a bus gate it the ability to snap your jet from the tarmac, a beautiful 787.
Upon stepping into the cabin, we first passed by the infamous BA Club World seats where you get some lovely (and definitely not awkward) face to face time with your neighbors, before entering the 8-seater F cabin.
I shared this picture with a buddy who’s not too familiar with aviation, and his immediate response was “this looks like a pretty decent Business seat, not bad BA!”
My apologies for not getting as many full shots of the cabin upon boarding as I hoped for, as I was the last one in and all 7 other seats were occupied by that time. I did manage to get some more upon arrival.
Here’s the first look at my seat, 2K at the window. Immediately, the black color scheme is striking. Although I’ve generally preferred a whiter colored cabin than a darker one, it works here. Waiting at my seat was a menu card, two pillows, a small fleece blanked on the ottoman, and headphones.
The elegant logo is located on at the back of the F cabin, in arms!
Sitting down, there is lots of space even when I fully extend my legs onto the ottoman.
One thing you won’t lack here is storage space. There are three separate storage cabins at your seat, this was one located on your side, also where the IFE controller, headphone jack, and charger ports are hidden. (I guess technically it's not a stowage space given the sign, but no one seemed to mind.)
Immediately above this is a second storage area along with a mirror on the side, I used this primarily for my documents.
The black lamp works well with the seat color scheme, but some may perceive the plastic as relatively cheap material.
Finally, the third and largest storage space next to the ottoman.
. The fleece blanket “available for hugs”, I quickly opened this up and spread it over my legs.
Looking behind, there really is no distinction between this and a regular J seat on most carriers. The two pillows were appreciated. A coat hook was also located on the side, but I couldn’t get mine to open.
From this angle you can tell that despite not having a door, these seats offered quite some privacy with the long walls. I couldn’t see anyone else when leaning back in my chair, nor could I see anyone else when leaning forward.
There is also a reading light against the left-side wall.
A quick preface on the soft product, and the overarching point I hope to convey on today’s flight: BA F crew were outstanding. I’m unsure if its some prejudice against BA coming in, or the mixed reviews I’ve heard about this product, but perhaps my expectations were rather low coming in. Oh how I was wrong. There were two crew members working the F cabin, one lady and one gentleman, along with the cabin manager who made an occasional appearance. The lady was incredible kind and professional throughout, and so was the gentleman with a bonus of humor and not being afraid to crack some jokes with me. Looking back, this crew definitely cracks the top 5 of all time, and more than helped shine the soft product despite a less-than stellar F hard product.
The lady came by to introduce herself and to thank me for flying with BA. I asked if I could keep my backpack under my footrest and she confirmed. She then took drink orders and came back shortly with some champagne, warm nuts, a water bottle, and the amenity kit.
She then returned with slippers and a “sleeping kit”, just the way she referred to pyjamas.
Shortly after, the in-flight cabin manager came by to introduce herself. She later returned to inform me my backpack, which just got the green light from another crew to keep under my footrest, needed to be placed in the overhead bin. Slight inconsistency there.
The giant logo at the front was very cool.
Time now, to check out today’s menu! The menu was labelled a la carte, but I ended up passing out after dinner service so didn’t have the chance to experience whether I could have ordered more at any time.
Now, onto the beverages.
The seat controls are located on the right of your seat. If you zoom in, the right side’s icons are honestly slightly confusing as to what they’re referring to. I can see the green one is for takeoff and landing, but the other three left my sleep-deprived self puzzled for a bit.
I then took a visit to the toilet, only one at the front of the F cabin for eight passengers. Luckily I only had to wait my turn near landing, but I must wonder whether waits would be frequent on a longer journey. The toilet was on the weaker side in terms of F amenities offered, nothing more than a small bottle of spray.
The toilet was also already dirty this early on, but I’m assuming the crew hadn’t had a chance to clean up since they were still doing introductions and handing out amenities.
The amenity kit, a unique color.
The BA F headphones are co-branded with Meridian. The rectangular shape is intriguing, and although I only used them for an hour or so, the noise-cancelling was solid. They really are digging deep with the black color scheme, more on that with the amenity kit unboxing.
I then checked out the IFE, which is done on your controller. The actual offerings were decent, not as strong as those on US carriers. There were movies and TV in various languages, and a highlight was having entire box sets of certain TV seasons as opposed to most airlines that offer only a select few episodes.
A huge red flag, however, was the actual controller was extremely sticky and there were liquid stains when I first picked it up. The controller was also quite unresponsive, often needed multiple clicks before registering. I was glad the WiFi worked and that most of my journey was spent asleep, as this was getting quite frustrating to pilot. Since the controller was located in one of the storage bins, I decided against placing anything there in fear of the liquid remnants being present. Points off there.
Shortly after, the intriguing safety video began to play as we taxied.
The cabin lights were also dimmed ahead of takeoff.
As soon as we blasted off, the inflight WiFi began working and free to use as a F passenger.
There were also stunning views of the clouds, I knew I needed to share a few before the windows were dimmed.
Meal service then commenced, with the amuse bouche of British cheese, fig, and pear, along with my Highland Spring: Single malt and ginger ale over ice.
The fig and pear were alright, nothing special, but I had to take an extra effort avoiding the goat cheese. When the gentleman came around to take the plate, it seemed we shared a moment of agreement regarding how we felt about goat cheese. Not the greatest way to start things off.
I was surprised to see lobster being offered. Although we are flying F, there are a fair share of criticisms directed at BA’s catering, comparing once again its catering to a J one. Tablecloth also came. The marinated lobster with fennel and apple salad, cocktail sauce, was great. In my opinion, anytime lobster is offered it’s a win, and today was no different, extremely fresh and tender.
At this point, we were nearly an hour into the flight, and by extension nearly 50 minutes into service. There were a few passengers slightly unhappy with the slowly paced meal as they hoped to sleep as soon as possible. I waited nearly 30 minutes for my main course.
I decided to use this time and explored the amenity kit. Remember the consistent black color of this entire experience, well it’s continued here. All the basic amenities along with some socks and a BA pen. Inside the brown bag was a dental kit. To be perfectly honest, this was a surprisingly good amenity kit. Again, I’m unsure if the low expectations and prejudice beforehand played a role. The eyemask is one of my favorite I’ve received in the sky, the interior very soft and something makes the sleek black and BA F logo feel quite badass to me.
Finally, my main course came around, the stuffed roasted chicken crown, crispy duck fat potatoes. grilled leeks, heritage baby beetroot, jus.
roasted chicken crown, crispy duck fat potatoes. grilled leeks, heritage baby beetroot, jus. When placing my order, I asked the gentleman what a chicken ‘crown’ referred to. He answered that it was probably just a regular chicken, or maybe the king of all chickens with a crown. Sometimes I feel a piece of meat disappoints without a sauce, but today’s gravy was brilliant.
The chicken was slightly dry and overcooked, especially the skin which is usually the most tender could barely be distinguished from the actual meat. Luckily, the gravy helped sooth everything. The highlight were the duck fat potatoes, some of the best I’ve had in the sky.
For dessert, I was planning on ordering the cheese plate but noticed the lady to my left not being a huge fan of it, it also didn’t look too appetizing with the cheese on offer seeming not of great quality. Instead, I went with the classic vanilla ice cream. When it was presented, I thought it had been left out for half an hour since, as you can probably tell from this picture, it was actively melting.
Although AA’s ice cream always comes rock hard and at least 15 minutes must pass before your spoon can physically cut through, the wait still beats an already disintegrating scoop. On the bright side, the white chocolate balls were very crispy, but generally quite disappointing.
As the meal concluded, my thoughts were that it does suggest a business class meal, with the exception of the large chunk of lobster being a step above. I had no clue why the ice cream was already melted given the freezers and fridges available, the amuse bouche was frankly quite terrible, but the chicken was extremely delicious. The male crew member’s cheeky remarks and attention to detail made dinner far more enjoyable.
As the meal concluded, it was frustrating we were nearly 100 minutes into the flight, leaving only around five hours or so to rest before descending. I asked the gentleman for turndown service as I freshened up in the toilet, which again was not as clean as you’d expect for a regular F.
Back at my seat, the bed was made (and so was my bunny!). I hopped in and got ready to doze off. The bedding itself was comfortable, but definitely not on par with other F offerings. The biggest issue was the foot rest. Due to the seat layout, your legs and feet become very cramped when lying fully flat. I tried to position myself where my feet out rest on the left side where there’s more space above the storage bin, but that meant twisting my upper body too which wasn’t working either.
To add insult to injury, although not at all to the fault of BA, there was a very unhappy baby making himself well heard for the rest of us, maybe he was also disappointed with the ice cream :P. I would have preferred a pronged period of consistent crying, but instead I ended up barely getting any sleep since the loud screams were paced out every few minutes and seemed to always occur rigggght as I was about to fall asleep. On the bright side, we would land in Washington around 19:00, meaning I could run right off to sleep, or so I thought.
I must have dozed off eventually, as I woke up with the PA stating 30 minutes until landing. Pulling up my seat, the gentleman came around one last time to offer any drinks before the bar closes. I got a quick coffee to keep myself alert for the few hours before reaching my hotel.
Landing was imminent.
We touched down in IAD at 19:31, a solid 24 minutes ahead of schedule. I was finally able to get a shot of the cabin’s rear, and giggled as we walked through the infamous 787 Club World forced interaction seats.
Final shot of the now rather emptied cabin
Upon arrival, we were sent onto one of these “people movers." Everyone seemed quite frustrated with the slow pace of these, and many online call them inefficient and outdated. I was quite intrigued since I’d never been on one. It was very bumpy and I can understand how needing to use these every time you fly internationally into IAD can begin to feel annoying.
One last shot of our bird, until next time!
Remember in the very beginning when I regretted flying into IAD, here’s why. The customs line featured around 10 rows of separators, and we were immediately into the front row as only 30 or so passengers from the last flight were finishing up. I literally stood in the same spot for the first 20 minutes, not moving an inch. This was when I knew this was going to be a pain. At any other US airport (maybe other than ORD), a 30 person line would have taken 20 minutes with multiple officers manning respective booths. Today, however, it took nearly 2 hours. First, despite having 60 booths installed, there were 3 officers working in total. One on the other side for US citizens, and one for each of the lines for everyone else, which began piling up as more passengers arrive. Looking behind me, there must have been at least 500 passengers, who likely waited into midnight since it took 2 hours for me being at the front row. Making matters worse, every few minutes someone would try to cut, a gentleman crawled pass myself and a friend I had made in line, told us he was going to miss his connecting flight (which was in 2 hours, which to be fair given the immigration speed he probably would have missed), and proceeded to inform us he didn’t speak English when he asked him to go back and line up. Quite a few passengers on my flight clearly had never gone through IAD before, and were on the verge of starting a riot. What is so disappointing is the fact IAD is one of my favorite airports to depart from, internationally or domestically. But if you’re coming in abroad, try to avoid.
