It was time to fly home, but I had opted for a bit more luxury. As you might recall, I booked this ticket as a round-trip business class ticket using Amex Membership Rewards points to meet the terms of the promotion for a paid business-class ticket to extend my BA status. A couple of weeks before the trip, I noticed that BA still had First Class award seats available on this flight. My understanding was that as long as award seats were available, you can upgrade into these seats for a relatively small amount of Avios.

I have plenty of Avios from a previous Amex transfer bonus. I called the Gold line (one of the advantages of status) and was able to upgrade this flight for 22500 Avios. Is that worth it? In the end, this ended up being a Club Suites equipped 777 (although quite often the Atlanta flight still uses the old configuration), but the food, drinks and service in First Class is a level above Club and given my relatively low cost of acquiring those Avios, I considered it worthwhile. Also, the First Class ticket got me into the Concorde Dining area of the First Lounge.

I boarded and was escorted to my seat (2K) by the flight attendant. On these reconfigured 777s, there are only eight first class seats instead of 14 on the old configuration. This makes for even more personalized service. The seat is still the same and does not have doors (which doesn’t bother me at all.)

I was presented with pajamas and went to change in the restroom. I was also offered champagne and snacks which included nuts, olives and cheese crackers. I checked and the Lanson champagne retails for about $220 a bottle, not exactly Emirates level but still better than almost anyone is serving in business class.

The amenity kit in First is enhanced compared to Club with some extra lotions and potions.

I enjoyed some more champagne while boarding continued behind me. BA uses the second door on the 777 so there’s no disruption of anyone walking past once you’re in the First Class cabin.

I perused the menu. Dining is on demand, but it makes sense to let the flight attendant know what you want so they don’t run out of anything.

As I was full from the lounge, I asked if I could wait until about 6pm UK time to start my first meal service. I also asked them to save me a steak sandwich for the pre-arrival meal. I was disappointed to see that the burger was no longer available as I had enjoyed that last year on this flight.

BA 227 LHR-ATL
Scheduled: 15:35-20:10
Actual: 15:49-20:18

We pushed back about 15 minutes late and had a long taxi out. We were wheels up at 16:18 and headed across the Atlantic towards home.

I had a Johnnie Walker Blue while I enjoyed the end of Slow Horses season 4 on my iPad.

As requested, dinner started around 6pm UK time with the amuse bouche.

Then my table was set.

I started with the soup, which was delicious.

Then I had my appetizer which was the paneer and corn tikka, different but tasty. The picture looks a bit like caviar, but I assure you it was not that.

Next up was the main course. I don’t eat lamb often, but the fish came with olives (which I don’t like) and the chicken sounded a bit boring, so I went for the lamb. It was excellent. and the curry sauce added some zing.

It came with mixed veggies and lyonnaise potatoes on the side.

I just about had room for dessert after that. It’s hard to go wrong with an ice cream sundae.

At that point, I had the flight attendant make up my bed and took a nice two hour nap. There’s a mattress pad, extra pillow and duvet. Unlike in Club Suites, the lack of a door and the larger personal space made the onboard temperature pleasant.

After I woke up, I attempted to watch something on the in-flight entertainment, but the headphones weren’t working properly and my adapter for my Bose headphones wasn’t the correct one for this old system. Oh well, I watched live Champions League football on my tablet with the free WiFi for First Class passengers.

A couple of hours before landing, we were offered our second meal. Even though it’s called a light meal, I wouldn’t call a steak sandwich “light.” It was OK, not nearly as good as the burger.

For dessert there was a creme caramel which was fairly light.

There was a nice sunset as we headed down the Eastern seaboard toward Atlanta. It’s hard to get decent outside pictures with the angle of the seat and the windows, so you’ll have to take my word for it.

We landed a few minutes behind schedule and got to our gate in the F Concourse fairly quickly. Somehow I was just about the first passenger off the plane and the first person to get to Global Entry which was even quicker thanks to the Global Entry app. I waited about 10 minutes for a Lyft (Uber was 30% more) and got home about an hour after we got to the gate.

I really enjoyed my flight in BA First. While it’s not the most luxurious First Class out there, it’s easily accessible with miles and there are usually seats available to book which is the biggest problem with the more aspirational products out there. It’s also the only international First Class product currently flying to and from Atlanta.

Speaking of that, we are flying to Bali in February on Cathay Pacific First Class. Before that, we have a trip back to Marco Island for my wife’s birthday in December and a trip to Big Sur for my birthday in January. Thanks for following along on this trip to the UK. I expect we’ll be back again next year for a similar trip.

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