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BA 747 Cabin Refresh and Boston in Summer

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  • #31
    I headed to the Lounge. Wow...which of the Oneworld lounges to choose from...the list had BA, JL, CX, Iberia...



    I peeked in to the LH Lounge...



    ...and also into the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse -- a tiny outpost of their spectacular London lounge...



    At first I was very excited at the Oneworld Lounge options available, but when I arrived at the floor and did a loop round the corridor of available lounges, I thought "Here is the BA Lounge, but where are the others?"...

    After walking up and down the row of lounges a couple of times hunting for the other lounges, it dawned on me there was actually only one Oneworld Lounge: The BA Lounge. The CX/JL/IB pax would all share that one...hence the indentation and smaller font on the sign...

    Of course since I was travelling BA, that was the only option for me today.

    I headed in...





    Not a very large lounge, and quite crowded, although there were still seats available.

    There was a separate dining area...



    ...with what looked liked an appetizing menu...



    But it turned out that this was an invitation only pre-flight dining option for J or F pax, and not something available for all lounge guests.



    For the rest of us, we had salads and cold and hot snacks.





    The wine and liquor selection...





    Overall, an unexceptional lounge, but still better than braving the crowds packed in the airside departure area.

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    • #32
      My BA flight from Boston to London was also operated by a 744.

      Unlike my outbound 744, which had refreshed interiors and IFE in Y, this aircraft still had the old interiors.

      The J interior. The J cabin had modern lie-flat seats, similar to what you had on BA 77Ws.



      But PEY and Y cabins still had the legacy cabin products.

      The Y cabin, 10-abreast 3-4-3 in the old blue upholstery, with tiny 4:3 IFE screens.





      That said, the seat pitch was ok and the wide 747 cabin still felt quite spacious.

      The emex row.



      My seat on this flight, which I pre-selected online, was the emex row window seat, set a row back from the main emex row. This seat had the best of both worlds: A proper window, and also extra legroom and aisle access. A very desirable seat!

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      • #33
        Dinner service on this flight...a choice of two hot mains...



        I chose the pasta option.



        Cherry tomatoes and buffalo cheese with pesto for a starter...



        A very satisfying tortellini in a cheese and tomato sauce...



        And cheesecake for dessert...



        I thought this was quite a good dinner, by Y standards.

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        • #34
          IFE was full AVOD, on a small screen. This was barely acceptable by today's standards. I think we are all spoilt by the high res widescreens that many airlines have on their latest products.





          I personally would not want to watch movies on such a small screen any more. I'd rather watch them on my computer or iPad.

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          • #35
            Breakfast in a box prior to arrival..





            By then, the sun was up...



            Cabin ambience...



            Very roomy and comfortable.

            Much better than 10-abreast 777's or 9-abreast 787's. If given a choice between flying either of those cabins or a 747, I would choose the 747, whether the cabin was legacy or refreshed.

            The view from my seat, with the J cabin just ahead (In this cabin layout we had PEY cabin in front of the J cabin, followed by Y).

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            • #36
              Descent in to LHR, with great views of London out of the right side windows. In the picture below, the Tower Bridge, Shard and London Eye are all visible...



              And as we landed in Heathrow, nice views of the BA Concorde parked close to the runway...an aircraft which I have missed the opportunity to ever fly...



              Parked at the gate.



              A peek at the letters on the nose landing gear doors showed that this was "VA", in other words aircraft rego G-CIVA, first flown in 1993. Still going strong 23 years later!

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              • #37
                I landed in a Britain which felt almost like a different country from the one I transited a week before...

                While I was in the US, the Brexit vote had taken place...and we all know what happened after that...even today, months later, the impact and future effects of Brexit are still being debated...







                I had several hours in transit, and my luggage was checked all the way through to Singapore, so I cleared out of immigration, left my locked laptop backpack with the left luggage service in T5, and headed into the city.



                After a week of clam chowder, lobster rolls and hamburgers, Asian food withdrawal was starting to set in...

                My first stop in London was lunch in Bayswater, at Chinese restaurant Kam Tong, to satisfy a sudden, and very urgent, craving for roast duck rice...

                A bowl of egg and crabmeat soup...



                A very generous portion of roast duck rice...succulent, meaty chunks of meat.



                I devoured this, crisp skin and all, relishing the super hot chilli oil that came with this dish. What about the thick layer of fat under the skin? It would have been criminal to remove it. I ate it all.

                Now that really hit the spot!

                Later, I headed to Oxford street for a walk, and also paid a visit to my favourite music store, Harold Moore's Records, just off Oxford Street, which probably has one of the best selections of classical CDs (And 2nd hand LPs) in any brick-and-mortar store in London.

                Last edited by yflyer; 15 October 2016, 01:06 PM.

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                • #38
                  In the evening, I headed back to Heathrow for my flight BA15 to SIN, a 77W service.



                  I have covered this sector many times previously, so just a few highlights here.

                  This is BA's latest Y product, in a very comfortable 3-3-3 layout.





                  A very comfortable seat, with good recline, pitch and width. The headrest works well for me too. One thing I did notice for the first time was the armrests didn't go all the way up. It raises enough for you to sleep across 3 seats if they are empty, but don't go all the way up flush with the seat back.



                  I was surprised that I didn't notice it before, since it is usually one of the first things I check out when I look at a new Y product. It was probably because the BA SIN-LHR-SIN flights I have been on have always been very full (Apparently the BA Kangaroo route flights LHR-SIN-SYD vv have been doing extremely well ever since Qantas shifted their hub from Singapore to Dubai), and I have never got a row of 3 empty seats on this sector...
                  Last edited by yflyer; 15 October 2016, 03:44 PM.

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                  • #39
                    Just like my LHR-BOS sector, I had pre-ordered an "enhanced" economy meal for my LHR-SIN flight. This is available on many flights out of Heathrow.

                    Cabin service began with drink service. I requested a white wine to drink, and also a bottle of red to have with my main later.



                    My enhanced meal was served along with the special meals, at the start of meal service before the regular meal carts were rolled out.

                    On this occasion, I ordered the "Gourmet Dining" meal, which costs about SGD30 (Exact price seems to vary a little for different flights/dates.)



                    The tray came with large ceramic casserole, glass wine goblet, ceramic coffee/tea cup, cloth napkin and metal cutlery.

                    This looked very good. Equivalent to a J meal on a single tray.



                    The prawns were succulent...



                    ...and the braised beef cheek was much better presented than the same course on my LHR-BOS sector.



                    It tasted great...tender and not dried out.



                    The bottom of the dish...this was a J class casserole...



                    The chocolate dessert was delicious too.



                    What a pleasant way to dine in Y.

                    If you have not tried this enhanced meal service on BA, I would highly recommend it. The only downside I can see is that there aren't that many choices of meal available...there is a roast pork dish, an Asian-style chicken dish, the beef you saw above, and a vegetarian selection. I've tried the pork as well, and it is pretty good.

                    But I wish they would offer other meal choices as well, as I don't think I would want to eat the same dish on every flight, even if it is far superior to the regular Y meal. The other downsides are that it is not available ex-SIN (Only ex-LHR). Also, if you need to change your flight, the meal request is not automatically transferred, there is a slightly cumbersome process to do this.

                    All that said, it is a very good value-added service that BA offers.

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                    • #40
                      The rest of the flight was uneventful...



                      A hot breakfast was served prior to landing...this was the regular Y breakfast, which was a choice of full English, or an egg frittata.

                      This was the frittata...



                      Coffee/tea was served in paper cups.

                      If I had any foresight at all, I would have kept the ceramic mug from my earlier meal tray, and used it for my breakfast coffee!

                      Overall a great set of flights on BA. While their Y service is not at the same level as SQ's, I found all my flights to be basically fine, with good IFE on the SIN-LHR-SIN sector (Whether 77W or A380) and the 744 sectors LHR-BOS-LHR were very good too: better in the refreshed cabin, especially in terms of IFE, but even the classic 744 cabin was perfectly fine.

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                      • #41
                        Final reflections? I got to see a lot more of Boston this time round, compared to my first visit in the heart of winter. Certainly running around the city was far more pleasant in the warm weather than the near-zero temperatures the last time I was there!

                        The summer heat also seemed to have made me hungrier as well, and it was great to see the restaurants on Boylston Street extend tables onto the sidewalk, where diners could eat outside in the evening, enjoying the extended daylight hours, unlike during winter.

                        Perhaps the next step would be to plan a visit to Boston in the fall, where this green city makes a magical transformation to yellow and orange.

                        Thanks for reading!

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