Round The World and other travels

Flight Log: BA93

London Heathrow (LHR) - Toronto Pearson (YYZ)

After enjoying some quality lounge time in Heathrow's Terminal 5B, Bruce and I were somewhat shocked to find that Business Class boarding was nearly complete when we arrived at the gate with more than half an hour to spare. Why so early?! We were excited to be boarding G-XWBB, one of British Airways' two recently delivered Airbus A350-1000 aircraft. (The other one, G-XWBA, was at the adjacent stand, loading for Dubai.) Although I am no stranger to the A350, this was my first time on a stretched dash-one-thousand variant. Much more importantly, though, this was to be my first experience of the airline's new Club World Suites product. We boarded through Door 2L and turned left into the larger of the two Business Class cabins. I noticed in passing that we had a so-called 'Mixed Fleet' crew - think young and keen, but poorly paid, with 'designed-in' high turnover.

My first impression of the new cabin was that it looked fabulous - streets ahead of regular Club World. This was essentially BA's implementation of the highly respected 'reverse herringbone' seat concept, where the seats and the aisle look like a fish skeleton, but one that points towards the rear of the creature. But BA's new product also had more of a boxed-in appearance, creating a grid effect that tended to mask the underlying reverse herringbone design. BA's design also incorporates a much-heralded 'door' - we'll discuss that later, but for now let's be content to say that these were locked in the 'open' position for boarding.

After I had settled in, I accepted a glass of champagne as my welcome drink. The only other choice on this occasion was water, the traditional orange juice being missing. My Do&Co menu was already present and a washbag was distributed in due course. My jacket was also hung. I noticed that I had no fewer than three little storage compartments at my disposal, and that the high-resolution screen looked impressive, although not exactly being put through its paces at the moment. The digital seat controls also looked good.

We had a long wait on the ground leading to a late departure, despite the extraordinarily early start to boarding. We finally pushed back at 1314 and took off from runway 27L more than 20 minutes after that. It was a notably quiet and seemingly effortless take-off run that reminded me of an A380, a type whose heyday seemed to have already come and gone. Cabin service resumed in the traditional manner, with a round of hot towels. I fired up the 'moving map' display and was duly impressed. Bruce pointed out that, according to the menu, we now had two champagne choices and even a few cocktails!

I was soon in possession of a Gin Sling, a glass of ice water and some mixed nuts. The cocktail was reasonably refreshing, but really weak and in all honesty, a bit boring - so much so that when seconds were offered, I went for a glass of white wine instead. It took quite some time for my starter to make an appearance, but it was worth the wait: the smoked salmon was attractively presented and tasted delicious. There was another long pause before my main course turned up. Regular readers will know that for years, I used to characterise long-haul Business Class food on both British Airways and Lufthansa as "an enjoyable starter and dessert, separated by a dodgy main course". In recent years, with the introduction of Do&Co food on BA, things had improved substantially, with all parts of the meal being enjoyable. (My one recent long-haul 'J' flight on LH also provided an agreeable main course.) Today, however, I was disappointed to receive a very poor main course - the curry - which I didn't particularly want to finish. This was an uncomfortable blast from the past that now seemed wholly out of context.

Normal service was then resumed with a delightful dessert, washed down with a cup of Earl Grey tea. With all the lunch things cleared away, I settled down to enjoy the movie Rocket Man, closing my little 'door' for the first time. I keep putting the word 'door' in inverted commas, because I find it difficult to think of it as such. To me, it's just a relatively small privacy screen that slides out to form a partial block of the gap through which you enter or leave the suite. It doesn't even come close to reaching the ground. Having already taken a careful look around me and confirming that I had no eye contact with any other passenger, I was left wondering what the so-called door was actually for.

I had a short rest after the film, but I couldn't sleep: with lunch taking so long to complete, we were already over Canada! With less than 2hrs left to run and Afternoon Tea presumably imminent, I sat up and listened to Nick Bailey's 'Classic Choice', while following the remaining journey on the 'moving map'.

Afternoon Tea was very nice, although my tray lacked a pot of jam. I shared with Bruce rather than cause a fuss. With about 30mins left to run, it looked as though we were going to be comfortably ahead of schedule on arrival. Reviewing the entire flight on the map, this had been one of the most southerly of all my various westbound transatlantic crossings, going nowhere close to either Iceland or Greenland.

We touched down at Pearson Airport at 1535 local time, and after a long taxi, arrived exactly on schedule.

Thinking back on the flight as a whole and in particular, the new Suites product, I would crystallise my overall thoughts as follows:

• These first moves in replacing 'classic' Club World with a reverse herringbone product represent a huge step forward and are to be warmly welcomed.
• At the same time, we should be in no doubt that BA has left this woefully late. I first experienced reverse herringbone in 2013 - on American Airlines, astonishingly. I wrote then that THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING. Six years later, BA is finally joining the party.
• I do feel that the much vaunted 'door' is an unnecessary gimmick, as I had no direct eye contact with any other passenger. Perhaps I'll change my mind in time.
• Service was very slow on this flight, but I ended up feeling considerable sympathy for the ex-747 cabin crew. I got the impression that they had been "thrown onto the bus" (if not quite under it) with minimal preparation and told to get on with it.

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