British Airways

1016 Reviews

Star Travel Rating

4/5

Review type

Airline

Location

Date of travel

February, 2016

Product name

Product country

Product city

Travelled with

Partner

Reasons for trip

We chose our favourite airline, British Airways, to fly from London Heathrow to Toyko Haneda.

The business class section we were in had only six rows and a 2 – 4 – 2 configuration so it was an intimate affair. I personally like to sit in the pairs and so reluctantly paid £75 each to choose seats in advance, which I do balk at having paid out for business class tickets. Roy still doesn’t know I do this: he just thinks we’re lucky!

We had champagne or juice before take off and were told our flight time to Tokyo Haneda would be 11 hours 25 minutes. Unfortunately two passengers failed to turn up and so had to wait until their baggage was unloaded. Consequently we lost our slot and left 30 minutes late.

We’d pre-booked meals for our outward journey and I had a delicious goat’s cheese salad with blood orange dressing whilst Roy got into the mood with a selection of Japanese appetisers. He then went back to traditional cuisine with a tender seared fillet of British beef and I settled for a light, cold main of roasted prawns and various dips. Wines were excellent and it took a paragraph to describe each one in the menu.

The in flight entertainment had a good choice of new films and whilst Roy watched Spectre (again), I enjoyed Steve Jobs with Kate Winslet.

However we wanted to hit the ground running when we arrived in Tokyo and tried to sleep as much as possible which was pretty easy as the flat beds are surprisingly long and comfortable even for a 6’2” man.

As usual, the Elemis wash bag with a range of goodies was quickly snaffled for use on weekend breaks.

We both declined breakfast just prior to landing as it’s the one meal I really detest on a flight. We arrived promptly at 7.45am having made up the time we’d lost.

The return journey was equally comfortable and, because we flew back in a different month, the films had been updated and I was able to enjoy Eddie Redmayne in The Danish Girl and a couple of other films as I wasn’t so obsessed about trying to sleep.

The food was delicious once again, and as we flew at 9.45am (Tokyo time) and landed at 12.45pm (London time and an hour early), we were served two three course meals. Once was described as lunch and the other a ‘light meal’ but basically both consisted of three courses.

Once again, BA served us well: I just wish they’d have the decency to allocate seats free of charge.

Helen Jackson

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