In this trip report, I review my flight on British Airways in Business Class or Club World on the Upper Deck of a Boeing 747 Jumbo plane. In the middle of May, I decided to switch up my usual direct route from JFK to Hong Kong to go through London via British Airways. While the journey involved a stopover and many more hours on the plane, I was not rushing for this trip. More importantly, the inner aviation geek in me could not resist the opportunity to try out the upper deck of the Queen of the Skies, the Boeing 747-400. I must also say that I was lucky enough to miss the British Airways IT meltdown by a few days!
British Airways is one of the few airlines which is still actively using its 747 fleets. Many For the 747, British Airways made the exclusive upper deck a full business class configuration. Using their yin-yang seats, the upper deck only has 20 seats, arranged in a 2-2 format in 5 rows.
As the flight was an early flight at 7:55 am, I just spent about 20 minutes at the JFK British Airways lounge at Terminal 7, which we’ve reviewed before. After a cup of tea, I went to the gate and boarded the flight. Walking up the narrow stairs to the upper deck of a plane is always exciting, and these days there are only 2 commonly available commercial planes that offer that – the 747 and the A380.
The British Airways upper deck is a small and cozy space. The space feels completely separated from the rest of the plane and more private. For this trip, I was seated in seat 62B, which is an aisle seat facing forward. When flying British Airways business class, I always prefer to sit by the window and pull up the divider once I am allowed to. Luckily, the upper deck of the 747 is quite wide, and the sides of the plane are actually extra storage spaces!
As I was quite tired having to wake up quite early for the flight, I actually spent a large part of the sleeping in the lie flatbed. I did look through the menu, which offered Tattinger champagne and some nice wines. Unfortunately, I just had water and orange juice and slept for the most part.
After catching about 5.5 hours of sleep, I woke up and spent the last part of my flight and watched some TV before landing. While I did not enjoy all the perks of the flight, I did enjoy the upper deck of the 747. Some days the wining and dining in premium class travel just have to take a backseat to catch up on important sleep! Besides, I knew that I was going to have a nice time in the British Airways lounge in Heathrow in a few hours anyway, where I can get good, if not better, wining and dining.
British Airways features in our top Business Class Airlines and you can compare this experience to British Airways long-haul Business Class flights.
I also compare British Airways Club World Vs. Virgin Atlantic Upper Class and British Airways Vs. Emirates Vs. Etihad Vs. Qatar – Best First Class Airline. If you are interested in travelling in First, we’ve reviewed First Class On The British Airways Dreamliner B787-9 London Heathrow to Muscat in Oman.
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