Also see:

• Just booked: A ~$20,000 Dollar Trip to Paris for FREE? You betcha!
• Trip Report: British Airways OpenSkies Club World Class EWR-ORY

I won’t spend as much time on this one since I just outlined BA/OpenSkies biz class in the link above. That post talked about flying there EWR-ORY, but in this one, I want to talk about getting back.

It cost slightly more Avios points because we flew ORY-LHR-JFK instead of direct. Since it’s priced per segment, I spent 49,000 Avios + ~$400 on these flights, which would’ve retailed for over $6,000.

The differences

For the ORY-LHR segment, we got the usual intra-European “business class” which is just regular seats with the middle one blocked out. The flight was only an hour, and I wasn’t expecting much, if anything. To my surprise, we were served a course of afternoon tea.

The other big difference was that instead of a Boeing 757-200 like the flight over, we flew back on a 747-400 for LHR-JFK which had…

AN UPPER DECK!

I love upper decks!

The seat and flight

The seats on this plane were in the same “facing each other” configuration as the flight in, except newer and even more spacious. There were compartments for days.

The bedding was the same, and these seats also had a partition, but the seat itself was way more spacious and the cabin felt roomier overall.

Initial impressions were very very good. The crew was in a great mood, and they came around to pass out amenity kits, water, and pre-departure beverages.

The food selection was more robust as this was a day flight, and featured four courses.

The IFE swung out from the seat divider panel since there was no seat in front of me. Also different on this flight were the number of compartments, as mentioned before. I loved having so many places to stow things away.

The amenity kits were basically a cloth sack filled with the usual things, although this one had a razor inside of it and no “to-do” card. Oh, and no pajamas this time. (I would’ve totally still used them.)

Meal service

For the meal, I got the chicken and my partner got the beef.

I thought the chicken was actually very flavorful. My buddy said the beef was just OK, but that the veggies with it were quite good. For drink, I got a pink bubbly which was simply sublime. One of the best drinks I’ve ever had on a plane. And the lemon tart for dessert was a good choice for dessert: light and flavorful.

We were also given a light snack and coffee before landing.

Bottom line

This was an incredibly smooth and even fun flight. The crew was fantastic. They came by many times to check up on us and kept refilling my glass with pink bubbly. The food was fine and the drinks were wonderful.

Like the flight over, the IFE was loaded with tons of things to watch. I spent most of my time simply looking at the window and enjoying the flight. Here was my view as I pondered the trip I’d just taken:

By the time we landed, I almost didn’t want it to be over with. It was a smooth flight and I could feel that the crew was proud of flying out of their hub at LHR to JFK. All the little touches translated very well.

And just like that, I got acquainted with British Airways. The seat, the food, the cabin, the service – all impeccable. If you can find a way to get around the fuel surcharges, or just take the hit on ’em, booking the flights is easy. And the flights themselves are very smooth and service is well thought-out. Not a bad way to come home after Paris!

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