British Airways

The flight was good. The food was pretty decent. The service was not that great. I was travlkng to Pakistan with my mom and aunt. My aunt had a baby daughter and she needed her milk bottle heated because the baby was hungry. I went to the air hostess who was talking to another hostess. She turned and looked at me and made a annoyed face and turned away and I was trying to ask her if she would help me. No luck. Then a air host (if that’s what you call the man one) asked me what I needed and helped me out. To this day I feel jittery about asking somebody to help me out on the plane.

I tried to change a departure date for my flight so I called B.A. The woman on the phone told me «sure no problem’» ask me for my membership number and my info. She tried booking the flight, but she said there was something wrong with the system. She put me on hold and talk to her supervisor and came back with another excuse. She put me on hold for about 3 more times after that with 3 different excuse. I’m seriously changing my credit card because of the customer service I experienced with BA.

Flying with BA has been such a vice experience. The staff we met were friendly, accommodating and genuine. The planes were not the newest but had inflight entertainment, babycots on the larger planes, and entertainment to keep the little kiddies occupied. You can even shop on board!
Alcoholic beverages are complimentary and small meals (eventhough not the best) provided on shorter flights. On the longer international flights, you can pre-​select your meal preferences… Low sodium, vegan, diabetic, seafood, whatever diet… No problem!
Overall a great experience. They really do what they can to ensure you have a comfortable flight.

«Would you like anything from the bar my lady?» — From-​THE-​BAR!!! Wow come no one asks me in such way on Air China or other US airlines? My international flight memories are usually comprised of old aircrafts (Air China), rude mainlanders (Air China), Chinglish-​speaking flight attendants who should probably take more manner classes (Air China), crappy food (Air China). But this!- I am so impressed!
The aircraft is newer; the staff is very attentive; the passengers are more pleasant and polite. I’m usually the pain in the derrière that needs to get-​up so often to use the ladies and/​or grab things from my backpack., but the South African gentlemen who sat beside me was very patient finds me amusing that whenever I need to get up I just turn to him and smile sheepishly.
The flight from Vancouver to London Heathrow is a long 9 hour flight but it passed by rather quickly, probably also due to the jolly-​cherry service from the energetic flight attendants.
To top everything off, the food was great! We had a choice between cheesy pasta or chicken, accompanied by multi-​grain toast, Greek salad, cookies-​n-​cream cheesecake AND! Red or White wine (Chardonnay or Cabernet Sauvignon). I actually finished everything!
I was still reading when we landed and being in the back of the plane, I decided to keep on reading and was surprised the gentleman helped me grab my back pack from the compartment bin above. «Have a great trip in Cape Town young lady.» Man on man! I can’t get used to all these because I’ll be miserable going back to Asia on Asian flights raraRARARArara =((except maybe Cathay Pacific).
British Airways, I’ll see you again soon!
Cheerios~~

* Is that a volcano? *
I started off my latest trip on BA flying from Vancouver to London. So I figure now that I’m back after 2 months traveling around the world, it is most appropriate to start with a review of the flight that started it all!
The most memorable part of the flight was seeing the Iceland ash cloud and having a flight attendant point it out (although at the time she thought it was Greenland). Didn’t think anything of it at the time. The next day EVERYTHING shut down. Had no idea at the time it would be such a major issue.
Quick summary of the flight:
— We saw the ash cloud from the volcano in Iceland
— Rather lame first class lounge offerings
— Decent, but slightly outdated first class seating
— «Proper» yet a bit stuffy service on board
— Some of the better airline food I’ve had recently
— Crappy baggage service
While I’m not going to go into the details of how they damaged a bag, and then the crappy job they did in London trying to make things right (still haven’t finished that ordeal and the flight was back in early April!), suffice to say their baggage service stinks and the follow-​up to a damaged bag stinks even more. After the back and forth and wasting a good deal of time in London dealing with them, I do have a new bag. But they still haven’t paid for it! Hence the 2 stars. Anyhoo…
Dinner was very good served in multiple courses:
— Vodka smoked salmon and prawns (surprisingly good quality for an airline)
— Warm goat’s cheese tart with tomato galette (again surprisingly good quality for an airline)
— Wild mushroom bisque with truffle foam (this was a huge bowl of a very rich flavourful broth with a hint of truffle — nice!)
— Wild greens with balsamic and Castello Monte Vibiano Liquid Gold (the «liquid gold» olive oil was truly nice)
— New Zealand lamb crusted with an herb mustard, served with port jus, a lengtil ragout and asparagus (amazingly tender lamb, and I am a suck for lamb; and a very generous portion with about 5 chops — delicious, and one of the best dishes I have ever had on a flight)
— A cheese plate which included Camembert from Normandy, a high quality cheddar, and an unpasteurized stilton. A nice selection with some good quality fruit on the side.
— Warm apple and pear flan with vanilla ice cream (I turned down the lemon curd tart with raspberry sauce.)
For the main if you didn’t choose the lamb, there was also halibut with a creamed leek and spinach side (I tried a bite and believe it or not the fish was cooked perfectly — no small feat on a flight!). They had 2 other mains (a murgh masala with stir-​fried okra and cumin rice; as well as a bulgogi Alberta beef rice noodle salad).
There was also a nice selection of wines including a 1999 lanson noble cuvee brut as well as a Château du Tertre seme grand cru classe margaux from Bordeaux.
Breakfast was:
— Fruit smoothie
— Yoghurt
— Fresh fruits
— Croissant
— Full English (Freshly scrambled eggs, bacon, bangers, mushrooms, tomato and roast potatoes.)
They had lots of other breakfast choices like a cheese omelet, or pancakes with blueberries, etc.
Overall the offering was decent, but the crappy baggage experience really ruined things. Starting off a 2 month trip with a damaged bag and the subsequent hassle of dealing with it is a major minus that even an amazing piece of lamb can’t fix!