A friend of mine had to fly from London to Sydney in April 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. British Airways operated the flights to help people to get where they need to be. Enjoy this report on Club World or business class, hot off the presses!
Guest post by Adam Beaufort.
I feel like I need to start with a small disclaimer. This is in no way a review or reflection of the quality of the typical British Airway’s product or service. I fly BA often, and on the whole am very satisfied with the quality of the service I receive. However, for what is sold as a £4,000 Club World experience (or 150,000 Avios points), it was nothing short of Ryanair in a flat bed.
I had originally planned to fly on the BA15 LHR to SYD in May. After the announcement that the route would be temporarily suspended from the 7th April I made the last-minute decision to move things a bit earlier. It’s hard to imagine that only a month ago there were over 50 carriers all competing for capacity on the iconic Kangaroo Route. Today only Qatar remains, for the purpose of repatriation.
Arriving At An Empty Terminal 5
Arriving at Heathrow, my expectations of a ghostly and deserted airport did not disappoint. Normally at 7:00pm, Terminal 5 would be in the peak of widebody traffic, with A380s going out to Hong Kong and Johannesburg, plus the ten or so 777/787s. A quick look at the departure board told me the BA15 was tonight’s only operating flight.
BA15 – London Heathrow to Sydney via Singapore (LHR-SIN-SYD)
April 2020
Boeing 777-300ER – G-STBA
Seat: Club World 12A
Departure: 21:30 Arrival: 05:10+1
The boarding process was very simple, with passengers respectfully monitoring their own 2 metre spacing on the airbridge without the need for adult supervision or hazard-tape floor marking.
The Onboard Experience
My partner and I had 12A and 12B, though we could have taken our pick of virtually any of the Club seats. There were only about 30 passengers in total. Four in Club, four in World Traveller Plus and 20 or so in World Traveller. I remember a former Flight Attendant telling me the required ratio of Cabin Crew to passengers should be 1:50. A quick calculation put our flight at 1:2. The First Class cabin had been roped off, with the CSD informing me it was being used for Crew Rest.
A quick introduction from the cabin crew gave us some pretty disappointing insights into what our journey would entail. First and foremost – there would be no service trolley, and no service of alcohol. At all. Apparently, the service of alcohol creates a risky level of proximity between passengers and cabin crew. I couldn’t help feeling that there was a cost-saving element behind this decision by BA.
And third, the food for the journey had been specially prepared in advance and packaged hygienically. I’m sorry, but no gourmet menu should include the adjective ‘hygienically’. And it would be the same service regardless of cabin class.
Dinner On Board
After take-off, we treated ourselves to an orange juice and a sparkling mineral water (because YOLO) and received dinner. Dinner comprised of a chicken tikka wrap, a dairy milk, a small packet of lemon biscuits, and a bottle of water.
Abbreviated Bedding
Making the bed was expediated by the fact that British Airways have removed all the bedding, except for the pillow and the duvet. The White Company mattress topper, as well as the blanket, have both been omitted. Incidentally a good friend of mine continues to refuse the mattress topper, considering it a ‘waste of time’. I just cannot understand how that’s the case on 15 hour flight. We continue to agree to disagree.
Breakfast And “Hello” Singapore
For breakfast, we were told that there would be a little ‘treat’. Since I wasn’t holding my breath, I was not too disappointed when a microwaved pizza arrived. It wasn’t actually too bad.
Disembarkation and Quarantine
Australia is currently enforcing strict quarantine protocols for international arrivals. Everyone is required to spend 14 days in isolation in a government supplied hotel. As we disembarked off the airbridge, we were guided through a series of corridors to where a ‘pop-up’ health screening assessment was to be undertaken.
Anyone showing a high temperature or symptoms of COVID-19 would then need to have a swab taken. Instead of going through the usual eGates for the border, the Border Force officers came out to us in full PPE and performed individual face-to-face passport checks.
Duty-Free was, unfortunately, very much closed. From there, we were escorted to where minibuses were waiting to take us to our designated hotels, and our luggage would follow on after (for us, this was 2 days later…)
Despite media coverage of previous passengers being quarantined in the Hilton and the Shangri-La, our final destination would be a rooms-by-the-hour hotel in downtown Chippendale. But that’s another review all together.
Overall Thoughts
Like I said at the start, this is not a reflection of British Airways’ typical product or service. The big ‘however’, though, is that British Airways are still selling all four classes at their usual prices, with a Club seat to Sydney priced at around £4,000, and First Class at £7,000. I spoke to a fellow passenger from Economy who had asked about the price of an upgrade to Club at check-in and was told it was over £2,000 per passenger, despite the cabin being virtually empty.
There is no variation in food between cabins, no alcohol service and no lounge access. The only difference was a seat versus a flat bed. I am completely at a loss as to how British Airways are maintaining a premium fare but without maintaining any premium onboard products. Even considering the loss of exclusivity, I couldn’t help feeling it would make more sense to move all the passengers into the Club cabin and use the whole situation as a marketing tool for the flat bed experience.
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Thank you all for reading a rare report of a flight during the COVID-19 pandemic. I hope you enjoyed this guest post, and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Featured image by Mark Harkin via Wikimedia Commons.
I loved your blog! It’s really helpful, thanks for sharing this post.
What an awful experience. BA should be ashamed of themselves for selling a biz class seat with such awful service. They could use the fare of a premium economy tix, add about $500 for the wiggle room and not leave pax feeling like idiots for paying out all that money.
I found this review to be quite good. Thank you!
No club, no real food, no drink – ok ok it seems to be the thing right now. But for the same price as always? Price should be reduced significantly as it’s not a standard product so the price should reflect it.
Where did you go after your 14 days of isolation were up? I have many friends who fly for the airlines both domestically and internationally and I could have told you what you’d be expecting on your flight. No one is jollying up on alcohol on these flights or flying to be pampered. Future covid19 flight hint— buy economy, since the playing field has more or less been leveled, and after take off, move all the armrests up in the middle section and you’ll have a flat bed at economy price point! Happy flying!
What an appalling sense of entitlement there is running through this ‘article’. You were provided passage from point A to point B as you apparently *needed*. Be grateful for that, given current circumstances. BA could have cancelled your trip, along with thousands of others. They got you to where you *had* to be under difficult circumstances. And then you complain that you weren’t quarantined in an upscale hotel? Poor you! Honestly,,,
Wow, that is truly appalling. How come the crew were still entitled to a full hot breakfast? It beggars belief that all they could come up with for business class passengers are those appalling-looking ‘meals’. Can I ask if you paid cash or Avios, and if you are planning to seek some sort of refund?