It was 2023, I’d been flying all year, but my last trip of the year was the definite highlight, my first chance to fly in first class from London Heathrow. Now I had been in BA first before, but that was a short-ish night flight home from Dubai, so not really a chance to get the full complete experience, read about that trip here. I’d been looking forward to this trip all year, especially as it would be the first time I get to experience the Concorde Room in Terminal 5. I booked this trip for late November all the way back in January, which I’ll come to in ticketing next.
Let’s set some expectations here, BA First is not a world class service, compared to some airlines. There’s no limo pickup from home, no separate check-in building and no car to your plane, all things I intend to try one day. The limo one I already tried with business class on Emirates, they send cars for business and first class! The two things I am looking forward to here are my first visit to the Concorde Room and the service on board with a day flight, let’s get into it.
Ticketing
I booked this trip a long time before flying, way back in January, very early for a November flight. I took advantage of two separate offers on this booking. First was the luxury sale, selling Business and First-class seats at good prices. Second was the double tier point offer for holidays, to qualify for this I’d need to book either 5 nights in a hotel or 5 days of car rental with my flights.
This trip was to Las Vegas for a week to attend a conference. Naturally I started looking at direct flights with hotels, as this was the obvious choice. However, these were extortionately expensive, even with the sale on, we’re talking over £5000. I was considering if I was flying in first and staying 5 nights in a mainstream Vegas hotel that something around the £3000 mark would be a good price to pay. In the end I found there were very good prices on routes to Chicago and Dallas. This would mean taking internal flights to get to Vegas, but these are plentiful and lots to choose from, so I decided to go for it. In the end I booked Heathrow to Chicago and Dallas back to Heathrow, with a 5-night stay in the Conrad, Resorts World, all as a First-Class trip. I was going to book outbound First and home in business, but actually it was almost the same price for the whole thing in first, so I thought why not? This trip should also qualify for the double tier points as it was flights and 5 nights in a hotel, nothing in the rules says the hotel has to be in the same city I’m flying to.
Next was to plan my internal flights. I always like to play as safe as possible, so I booked my Chicago to Las Vegas flight for the day after my first flight, giving me plenty of breathing room for things to go wrong. This would mean a stopover in Chicago, but it’s a good city to visit and there was an exhibition I wanted to go see there anyway. Next was the return options, my main flight was leaving Dallas at 7pm, so I booked the first flight from Vegas to Dallas on the same day. That meant there were a couple more flights they could bump me to if everything went wrong and best case, I would have 6 hours to kill in Dallas (maybe time for a lounge nap!).
Flights all booked and as it was a holiday I could spread the payment out over the year. Total cost was £3500, including the internal flights.
The only issue that came up was they changed aircraft on my outbound flight to one without first class. This meant I was automatically downgraded to Business. Not accepting this I looked at alternative options on the app and there was an earlier flight leaving in the morning on an A380 with First, so I took that instead. This would mean more time to kill in Chicago, but no problem, this would be enough time to get into the city during the evening!
A Concorde Experience
British Airways have 3 levels of lounge at their home in Terminal 5. The first is the club lounge, of which there are 3, north, south and B gates. These are for anyone traveling business class (club) or who have silver BA membership (One World Sapphire). The next level up is the First lounge, located in the South end of the terminal, available to anyone with Gold membership (One Word Emerald) and of course people flying first class, but they don’t really need to use it. The First-class lounge is accessed directly from the First Wing, a dedicated check-in area for Gold members and people flying in First. It has its own security and takes you directly into the lounge.
However, if you are flying in First Class then there’s one level above, the Concorde Room. There are two routes to access this. First is the route I took, go to the First Wing, check-in, use the dedicated security (it’s faster than fast track), then walk straight through the First lounge, out the other side and straight across to the Concorde room. Or you can use the “south” fast track security area and there’s a little door there at the end that you can use to get in. There is a status level above Gold called Gold Guest List, for people that spend a lot of money with BA. They also get access to the Concorde Room, regardless of cabin.
The Concorde room is a whole different level for BA. I found it a very tranquil and calming space. There’s a lot of choice of seating, from sat at a bar, to dining tables, sofas, armchairs and even more private pods where you can work or take a call in reasonable privacy. There’s an “outdoor” section, by outdoor I mean you’re exposed to the more open area of the terminal building. But this was another restaurant area, featuring a nose cone from an actual Concorde. I decided to have breakfast here as it was quite a nice area. Naturally there was a full menu and table service. The breakfast was swift in delivery and of course of excellent quality. I then went to find a nice sofa to relax in before flying. Again, the table service carries on, with people being easily available to get you anything you want.
All in all, it was a lovely experience and felt very exclusive. I think the only downside is by moving everything to table service, you can’t see what’s available. I’m sure there’s loads of snacks you can have, but you’d have to ask the servers to list them for you. I quite like the idea of grazing when I want a snack.
The outbound journey
Leg 1 – London to Chicago
It came time to board the A380 for my flight over to Chicago. The A380 is my favourite aircraft, just because it’s so big and it’s always very quiet. British Airways has a configuration of first class, business and economy on the lower deck with more business class, premium economy and even more economy on the upper deck. Generally, I do prefer the upper deck because you get a quieter space and extra luggage bins down the side. The first class is only on the lower deck, but it is right down the front, so it should be very quiet. The A380 is often boarded with three airbridges, one for the upper deck, one for the lower deck and one for first at the front.
Once in my seat I started exploring and comparing this to my last first experience which was on a 787 Dreamliner. This was an older seat, probably the oldest first-class seat still flying on British Airways. Just like the old business class of the A380, which was still the old design of Ying Yang seats. Still the first-class seat is a very nice seat, it’s big and there’s plenty of storage to put things in. You get two windows with automated blinds, one of which reduces the light and the other completely blocks it out. The only thing I found slightly annoying was the screen was the fold away type. The reason for this was so that you can actually have a friend sit on your footstool which is a companion seat, it even has a seatbelt so they can stay there during turbulence. I settle down and I was given the choice of a welcome drink which came with some nuts to nibble on. After take-off, I was given my menu and asked when I’d like to eat, one of the great things about first class is you’re allowed to choose when you eat. As I’d had a full breakfast in the Concorde room, I decided to skip the second breakfast and just have some champagne and biscuits while I settled down to watch films.
Despite it being a day flight, I did want to get a few hours’ sleep just so that I was awake when I arrived into Chicago and could go out for the evening. So, I let the crew make up my bed and they’d given me pyjamas, so I got my head down and rested for a few hours. When I woke up, I decided to order my full meal and enjoy what would be both my lunch and dinner. The food was amazing, beautifully presented and very tasty. I’ve included photos below of all the different courses.
Throughout the flight the crew were very attentive, and nothing was too much trouble, you can literally ask for whatever you want whenever you want it, and they’ll bring it for you. I thought I’d try a call bell challenge when I did want another drink, and they were over within seconds. All in all, if you’re going to pay the price for a first-class ticket, it might as well be on a day flight. Then you can take full advantage of the service, as it is the service that makes the real difference. Obviously on these older aircraft the first-class seat is very much like a large version of the club suite and as there aren’t any club suites on this aircraft this is definitely a step up from what everyone else is enjoying.
Is it worth the price?
Well, I think if I hadn’t got such a good deal, I probably wouldn’t want to splash out more money than I did for this experience. You certainly aren’t getting the kind of seat and experience that you get on certain Asian or Middle East airlines in first class, but then again they also come with the price tag to match.
Leg 2 – Chicago to Las Vegas
After a very pleasant evening in Chicago, I went back to the airport to stay at the airport hotel ready for my flight the next day. I had booked onto American Airlines on a 10:30am flight in first class, which is what they call their domestic business class option. This was a four-hour flight so I decided I wanted the slightly more comfy seat and I’d never really tried this before either so it’s a good chance to try it out.
After checking in I headed to the lounge to get some breakfast. Given I was both travelling in first and had One World Emerald status, I was offered access to the flagship lounge, the slightly nicer of the two lounges. It was nice and quiet, I managed to find myself some eggs and enjoyed my breakfast.
I had put myself into seat 1A, of course, but this was not the best choice, as I soon learnt. Seat 1A is of course at the front and behind the bulkhead wall, but it turns out you don’t have particularly good leg room to stretch out there. Back home on British Airways you may not get very fancy seats in business class, but at least the front row does have good legroom. Obviously, the big difference with American first class is you do get a much bigger seat, I would say they are comparable to premier economy seats on long haul flights. Anyway, I didn’t have to put up with the short leg room as somebody who was sat in the window seat, 2F, asked if I wouldn’t mind swapping with them so they could sit with their partner. So, I happily moved and found myself in row 2, where I got better legroom and with the seat in front of me there’s a perfect place to hang my iPad for my own personal inflight entertainment.
The flight itself was fairly straightforward, and we were offered a meal during the flight. There wasn’t any choice of meal as far as I can remember. What I got was a very dry piece of chicken with some gravy on it a lump of mash, a side salad and a bread roll. It wasn’t the most inspiring of meals.
To sum up this flight, what you’re paying for here is actually just the comfy seat, and for 4-hours I would prefer to have a better seat. This flight would be classed as mid-haul if it was in Europe, although you wouldn’t get a seat for that there.
To read about the return journey, including my experience of American Airlines’ version of the Concorde Room, the Flagship First Fine Dining experience, please read part 2 here.
