On Sunday 7th July I was fortunate enough to fly on British Airways from London Gatwick to Toronto in their club cabin. The flight itself was unfortuantly delayed before take-off but was an absolutely fine apart from that. The seats were the old British Airways Club World seats which are expected to be replaced in the coming years, however they were still fine for this flight.
We started off by arriving at Gatwick's south terminal, leaving our car in the long stay car park before getting the shuttle bus to the terminal. Once inside there was almost no queue for the automated bag drop, however our boarding passes, which had been printed out at home, did not have a high enough quality barcode on them to be recognised by the machine, meaning they had to get reprinted for us by a gate agent before they checked our bags in, a process which was over relatively quickly. One of the perks of being in club is the ability to use the premium security lane, however this was probably not worth it as the security lane was made up of only two barcode gates, which inevitably we had to wait for as there was one family in front of us followed by one security lane, which was fine at the time but at a peak time would almost certainly be inadequate.
Once through security there was the horror that is world duty free which had to be navigated before we were out into the main terminal. Here our first stop was at boots to get a meal deal lunch, something I would advise highly whenever flying as it is far better value for money than anything on board the plane and also offers far more choice as well. From here for me it was off to do some plane spotting from down in the gate areas. This for me was surprisingly enjoyable and easy to do thanks to the large windows and large amount of the apron which they looked over and kept me occupied for over an hour until three British Airways aircraft blocked the view from all the windows that it was possible to do this from.
After this I spent about another hour wandering around the airport until our gate was eventually called about an hour before our delayed flight. At the gate group boarding worked relatively well and boarding started promptly and didn’t feel like it dragged on at all, although we were in group 2 which might have had something to do with this.
It is also worth mentioning at this point that our flight was delayed by approximately three hours after the original planned departure time. However credit to BA for announcing that the flight would be delayed by two hours about a day and a half in advance and pushing back the latest check-in time to make up for this by about the same amount. The reason for this delay was due to a lack of serviceable long haul aircraft at Gatwick meaning the plane had to be flown in from Heathrow after arriving from Tel Aviv that morning. This can probably also be linked back to the 787 issues reducing the amount of long haul aircraft available to BA, meaning that they are having to fly around aircraft to cover for this.
Once on-board pre-flight drinks were offered consisting of an offering of champagne or water, from which I took the option of water in order to stay hydrated. At about the same time the amenities kits were given out as well as a bottle of water. Before departure the menus were also handed out and orders were taken for drinks for after take off.
Departure from Gatwick was relatively quick as we didn’t have to wait for long at the end of the runway before we took off. After departure I was able to use the in flight entertainment system which functioned relatively well apart from a few occasions where it turned off without warning. The choice of films was also excellent with me running out of time on the flight before I could finish all the ones I wanted to watch.
Moving onto the seat itself it was relatively comfortable for the entirety of the flight, although I never used it as a bed. The pillow was also extremely comfortable and really acted as a support whilst the single blanket that I used was thick enough to keep me warm however a bit of extra length wouldn’t have gone amiss to completely cover me from shoulders to feet while I was seated comfortably. In addition to this the seats we were using didn’t have a power supply to them when we first got into them however as a credit to the crew they managed to notice this before we did while we were taxiing for takeoff and they were fixed relatively shortly after the seat belt signs were turned off after takeoff.
After take off with this originally having been scheduled to be a lunchtime flight I was expecting for the meal service to commence immediately. However after take off drinks took quite a while to be served and then following this there was another large gap before the meal order was taken. Once the meal arrived however it felt like it came through quite quickly however by the time it was finished I had almost finished my first film of the flight, which as someone who had been saving themselves since breakfast time for lunch, finishing at 5 in the evening was not impressive timing. The food itself however was absolutely excellent with it being far beyond what I would expect to be served on the ground.
After this the rest of the flight passed without much issue until the pre arrival light meal was served, and light it was indeed. Being billed as three sandwiches for my choice, I was at least expecting something that would be at least a little bit filling, however what I was served were three bite sized portions which barely did anything for my hunger. In my opinion even passing them off as a snack would be generous, despite the fact they did taste good there just wasn’t enough substance there.
Soon after this we came into land and were in the ground in Toronto. Here we parked up at a set of gates in the middle of the airfield, meaning we had to get a bus to get to immigration in typical BA style. Whilst at first I might have been reluctant about this it actually appeared to be a blessing in disguise. Watching a Lufthansa A350 which had just landed before our flight, our bus appeared to arrive at immigration before the Lufthansa plane had even arrived at its gate.
Immigration itself was not the easiest. With new machines installed in Canada to process your passport when arriving, technology if course had to fail us multiple times with it taking numerous attempts on numerous machines in order to get all of our passports to scan. Whilst in certain circumstances technology might come in useful, this was not one of those circumstances with the failings of technology significantly slowing our arrival down. Once passed through this challenge though the rest of the checks passed pretty seamlessly and soon we had made it through into Toronto.
We started off by arriving at Gatwick's south terminal, leaving our car in the long stay car park before getting the shuttle bus to the terminal. Once inside there was almost no queue for the automated bag drop, however our boarding passes, which had been printed out at home, did not have a high enough quality barcode on them to be recognised by the machine, meaning they had to get reprinted for us by a gate agent before they checked our bags in, a process which was over relatively quickly. One of the perks of being in club is the ability to use the premium security lane, however this was probably not worth it as the security lane was made up of only two barcode gates, which inevitably we had to wait for as there was one family in front of us followed by one security lane, which was fine at the time but at a peak time would almost certainly be inadequate.
Once through security there was the horror that is world duty free which had to be navigated before we were out into the main terminal. Here our first stop was at boots to get a meal deal lunch, something I would advise highly whenever flying as it is far better value for money than anything on board the plane and also offers far more choice as well. From here for me it was off to do some plane spotting from down in the gate areas. This for me was surprisingly enjoyable and easy to do thanks to the large windows and large amount of the apron which they looked over and kept me occupied for over an hour until three British Airways aircraft blocked the view from all the windows that it was possible to do this from.
After this I spent about another hour wandering around the airport until our gate was eventually called about an hour before our delayed flight. At the gate group boarding worked relatively well and boarding started promptly and didn’t feel like it dragged on at all, although we were in group 2 which might have had something to do with this.
It is also worth mentioning at this point that our flight was delayed by approximately three hours after the original planned departure time. However credit to BA for announcing that the flight would be delayed by two hours about a day and a half in advance and pushing back the latest check-in time to make up for this by about the same amount. The reason for this delay was due to a lack of serviceable long haul aircraft at Gatwick meaning the plane had to be flown in from Heathrow after arriving from Tel Aviv that morning. This can probably also be linked back to the 787 issues reducing the amount of long haul aircraft available to BA, meaning that they are having to fly around aircraft to cover for this.
Once on-board pre-flight drinks were offered consisting of an offering of champagne or water, from which I took the option of water in order to stay hydrated. At about the same time the amenities kits were given out as well as a bottle of water. Before departure the menus were also handed out and orders were taken for drinks for after take off.
Departure from Gatwick was relatively quick as we didn’t have to wait for long at the end of the runway before we took off. After departure I was able to use the in flight entertainment system which functioned relatively well apart from a few occasions where it turned off without warning. The choice of films was also excellent with me running out of time on the flight before I could finish all the ones I wanted to watch.
Moving onto the seat itself it was relatively comfortable for the entirety of the flight, although I never used it as a bed. The pillow was also extremely comfortable and really acted as a support whilst the single blanket that I used was thick enough to keep me warm however a bit of extra length wouldn’t have gone amiss to completely cover me from shoulders to feet while I was seated comfortably. In addition to this the seats we were using didn’t have a power supply to them when we first got into them however as a credit to the crew they managed to notice this before we did while we were taxiing for takeoff and they were fixed relatively shortly after the seat belt signs were turned off after takeoff.
After take off with this originally having been scheduled to be a lunchtime flight I was expecting for the meal service to commence immediately. However after take off drinks took quite a while to be served and then following this there was another large gap before the meal order was taken. Once the meal arrived however it felt like it came through quite quickly however by the time it was finished I had almost finished my first film of the flight, which as someone who had been saving themselves since breakfast time for lunch, finishing at 5 in the evening was not impressive timing. The food itself however was absolutely excellent with it being far beyond what I would expect to be served on the ground.
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| Starter of Smoked Garlic and and Herb Chicken Terrine |
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| Main of Seared Fillet Of British Beef |
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| Dessert of Chocolate and Caramel Layer Cake |
After this the rest of the flight passed without much issue until the pre arrival light meal was served, and light it was indeed. Being billed as three sandwiches for my choice, I was at least expecting something that would be at least a little bit filling, however what I was served were three bite sized portions which barely did anything for my hunger. In my opinion even passing them off as a snack would be generous, despite the fact they did taste good there just wasn’t enough substance there.
 |
| Light Meal of An Idividual Selection Of Sandwhiches |
Soon after this we came into land and were in the ground in Toronto. Here we parked up at a set of gates in the middle of the airfield, meaning we had to get a bus to get to immigration in typical BA style. Whilst at first I might have been reluctant about this it actually appeared to be a blessing in disguise. Watching a Lufthansa A350 which had just landed before our flight, our bus appeared to arrive at immigration before the Lufthansa plane had even arrived at its gate.
Immigration itself was not the easiest. With new machines installed in Canada to process your passport when arriving, technology if course had to fail us multiple times with it taking numerous attempts on numerous machines in order to get all of our passports to scan. Whilst in certain circumstances technology might come in useful, this was not one of those circumstances with the failings of technology significantly slowing our arrival down. Once passed through this challenge though the rest of the checks passed pretty seamlessly and soon we had made it through into Toronto.
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