Review: British Airways World Traveler A380 Los Angeles to London Heathrow
Review: British Airways World Traveler 777-300ER London Heathrow to Mumbai
Review: British Airways World Traveler 777-200 Mumbai to London Heathrow
YOUTUBE: British Airways: Los Angeles to London Heathrow
YOUTUBE: British Airways: London Heathrow to Mumbai
YOUTUBE: British Airways: Mumbai to London Heathrow
Hello everyone, and welcome back to another report, where I actually took many pictures and the food included! But this flight was definitely an enjoyable one, with great improvements in all aspects: better food, better crew (no clue how), better views, and a better terminal. Hope you enjoy this one.
We arrived at Mumbai Airport about 2.5 hours before our scheduled departure time, so around 12 AM. I was most definitely excited because this was my first time departing from the new terminal and I had heard great things. So first off, for those of you who are familiar with the Western Expressway in Mumbai, the main road which yields access to BOM airport, there is now a direct overpass that bypasses all the street stores, street intersections, and go right to the terminal. Impressive job Mumbai! I put some clips below, which you can also find on my YouTube video for this report. I’ll let all the clips below do the talking for the most part:
Actually compared to the old immigration, there were much more lanes now than there ever had been before. Not to mention as you can see below, Airside looked gorgeous with the ceiling and lighting.
Anyways we walked around to see the new terminal a bit, and I definitely liked it a lot. There was a KFC, a Pizza Hut, some Indian food places, a lot of clothing shopping places. I did not visit it this time since I don’t have BA elite status, but this terminal is also home to the GVK Lounge which all First/ business class passengers can access
I did not visit it this time since I don’t have BA elite status, but this terminal is also home to the GVK Lounge which all First/ business class passengers can access You can read more about it here. Personally, I have heard fantastic things about the lounge, which I was not expecting. Apparently, here is fully personalized service and a full dining menu. Now that’s a lounge!
The terminal, as a whole, is much better than the old, semicircular design. In the old terminal, there was no place with a window to spot or take photos before boarding the plane. In the new terminal, plenty of such opportunities were there. Sadly though, I could not take a picture of my plane because the gate next to mine became very crowded to board that there was no space to take photos. But here is a Jet Airways 777-300ER and a Kenya Airways 777-200 when it existed.
Soon enough boarding time came, and might I add that Mumbai has always had very long boarding halls, but now they are even longer than what they used to be. You can see in my YouTube video the entire boarding hall length, but it was insanely long.
British Airways
BOM-LHR Boeing 777-200ER
Like I said earlier, this was definitely a better overall flight than the inbound flight to Mumbai. The seat was the same as the inbound flight so I won’t go into too much detail, other than to highlight that the seat itself felt hard to me, but the headrest was good.
Here is a quick view out the window and funny our lovely UK rival was parked just to the right of us; you can see the end of the Virgin Atlantic tail.
Eventually, we pushed back around 2:30 AM and taxied towards runway 27 for departure. On the way there we saw an Emirates A380, which at the time was new at Mumbai, though not today.
We had a smooth climb out of BOM. While I recorded the takeoff, I also was watching the interactive map and BA’s version of it was pretty cool. There was no lag in the plane’s movement on the IFE screen. You can see a brief segment of it on my youTube channel during takeoff.
After departure, the lights quickly turned on after reaching around 15,000 feet and service began immediately. I really appreciate that considering it was almost 3 AM local Mumbai time and everyone was looking to get sleep. Service was the typical BA flavored pretzels with a drink of choice. this was followed by dinner, which for the first time ever on BA economy, was actually good:
One common mistake cooks make is that they over flavor the food to compensate for altitude’s effect on taste buds, but this was not the case. They didn’t over flavor it with unhealthy extras, but it still tasted good. This may seem like a smaller dinner plate, but I appreciate that as well since everyone was trying to get sleep. Don’t worry: breakfast is much bigger. Anyways, I went to sleep as soon as dinner was finished. The hardness of the seat didn’t help, but the headrest sure did, but those are subjective.
Good morning everyone! The first picture was when I woke up and the second was shortly after. But it was a clean morning, and I enjoyed staring outside for the longest time. Breakfast time was very near, and I could smell it! Here are some pictures of our lovely breakfast:
I will go clockwise again from the bottom left corner where the main course is. The Main course consisted of roasted potatoes, Eggs, and a kheema cutlet (kheema is flavored ground chicken). The potatoes were normal, not too salty, but enough to bring a taste to it. The eggs were also good, there was a slightly attempted spice in it, which didn’t bother me, but it did add a nice flavor to it. The kheema cutlet was fantastic. The kheema inside was very flavorful and the breaded shell on the outside slightly crunchy which is perfect. Great job by BA there. The fruits tasted fresh for the most part. The cantaloupe tasted like it came from a freeze but that’s about it for negatives there. Bread and butter were the usual. The orange juice was refreshing. For those who read my last report, you know what dahi is, but for those new to this trip, dahi is basically raw greek yogurt if you want to call it that. Same taste, but a little lighter texture. Never the less it is a fantastic probiotic food, and I love the taste of it. Lastly was the chocolate filled croissant. It was not warm, but it still tasted good for what it was, and I did enjoy it. Overall, this was a great breakfast, and I thought it to be a great improvement over the previous flights’ meals. Both the dinner and breakfast were enjoyable. Hmm, I found BA’s meals to be better when made in the outstation rather than the hub…interesting. Anyways soon enough it became time to arrive in London, and I got some great shots as you’ll see below:
We were entering the UK and approaching London from Canterbury and Faversham. The view of the country was wonderful for sure and the wing view of the 777 complimented it well.
From here, the views were gorgeous, and you can see the full video on my YouTube channel (link at the top) for fly-by with this view.
We had a smooth touchdown on Runway 27L and taxiied all the way back to the C gates.
This about wraps my trip for BA this time around; I’ll explain the missing LHR to LAX later below. Overall, mostly everything was great about this flight, in contrast to my previous flights with British Airways. The food was good, the crew was good (I didn’t go into detail about them, but they were better with more smiles this time), seat headrest was good as usual, views were good, and landing & takeoff were good. I only wish the seat weren’t as hard. I’m not saying it’s like sitting on a rock because by no means is it a rock, but I’ve sat in more plush seats before.
Unfortunately, I did not get a window seat for my return flight to LAX. But it was horrible. It was not anyone’s fault, but there was a huge dent in a door for some reason which caused a 4-hour delay with offloading, unloading on another plane, moving gates, recatering, reboarding, etc. We were supposed to leave LHR at 4:30 PM and arrive by 8 at LAX. We ended up leaving at 8:30 PM and arrived at LAX at midnight, and I got to sleep at 2 AM. It was not good, but the crew and food were good.
But all things considered, I would not mind flying BA again.