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Taking my first trip with a 2-4-1 in business on this route in Jan, luckily in club suite. Anyone who’s been on this very long route, can you share tips? Was the galley food substantial enough in the 9 hours between the two meal services?
Way back will be old CW from SIN on an A380… can’t say I’m excited about that but reports suggest it’s a better seat for sleeping in.
I can give you some advice on the return flight, having been on BA8 in October time. Return flight is significantly longer as they are flying over the date line, US/Canada to get to the UK to avoid Russian airspace. Seats were OK, it was still on the 788 with old Club World. The new Club Suite should be a much better journey. Club Kitchen was well stocked, I think that’s the first time that I have ever been able to say that. Catering on the other hand was poor, especially in comparison to the catering we had on the outbound with JAL.
We flew to Haneda in club suite on 27th dec. Huge business cabin and it was a very long wait for first drink, which was served with lunch/dinner starter. Then a ten hour gap before breakfast. Club kitchen had usual crisps, nuts and a few sandwiches. I’m the worlds pickiest eater so always pack emergency snacks just in case but I slept most of the way so didn’t need them.
Flying home on 5th, assuming Haneda is operating again then.
Will report back on return leg.Return flight is significantly longer as they are flying over the date line, US/Canada to get to the UK to avoid Russian airspace.
Might be a daft question, but what’s the logic in the return going a different route to the outbound? Looks like 12hrs30 plays 14, or there abouts, so a significant extra on the return. Why don’t they / can’t they retrace the outbound route in reverse?
Return flight is significantly longer as they are flying over the date line, US/Canada to get to the UK to avoid Russian airspace.
Might be a daft question, but what’s the logic in the return going a different route to the outbound? Looks like 12hrs30 plays 14, or their abouts, so a significant extra on the return. Why don’t they / can’t they retrace the outbound route in reverse?
Largely driven by prevailing winds. I believe that occasionally the flight from HND to LHR travels Westerly – but more frequently travels Easterly, as the “wind assisted” time is shorter.
Flee from HND back to London on the older Club World seats.
I echo that the catering in the club kitchen looked adequate, but being a huge preparer of sorts, I had already stocked up even better foods and snacks done with special bento order and also grocery run in Japan so my partner and I were well stocked during the gap.
I even skipped the main meal the second time.
Service wise, I’m not sure if it was just the staff being a bit inexperienced (saw him constantly getting pointers from the staff who was serving my partner’s side (we were in the middle), but it took him longer to serve my side of the plane plus the edge seat (where ( was) than it did for the 4 a row side that my wife was on, wife said food was decent, but no where near ANA and JAL which we flew a few weeks before.
Checkin and security now covers business class for priority now at Haneda (compared to just first and elites a while ago).
We flew across US/canada as well, and apparently this route normally arrives a bit earlier than plan.
If you’re in club suites, I would say at least the seats will be considerably better, food wise, you should be fine but may need to be a bit proactive with asking for things you want (staff were pleasant to deal with).Might be a daft question, but what’s the logic in the return going a different route to the outbound? Looks like 12hrroute via China, India, s30 plays 14, or their abouts, so a significant extra on the return. Why don’t they / can’t they retrace the outbound route in reverse?
Largely driven by prevailing winds. I believe that occasionally the flight from HND to LHR travels Westerly – but more frequently travels Easterly, as the “wind assisted” time is shorter.
As 1958 has said, it allows them to take advantage of the jetstream, so while the flight is about 2 hours longer on the way back than the way there it is more fuel efficient for the airline than taking the route via China, India, Middle East back to London.
IME, BA always serve the second meal 90 minutes before landing, regardless of how long the flight is. On an overnight flight, that is fine, but on the long daytime flight back from Japan it is totally unacceptable. I flew back from Osaka just before covid. I was really hungry and had a headache 11.5 hours into the flight. The second meal was then a rush to finish before landing. BA cabin crew plan things to give themselves the maximum amount of idle time. Take some healthy snacks.
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