Flying First with British Airways

We flew first class on the flight out and business on the way back all for just over £1500 for two people plus AVIOS. The companion voucher was earned through spending on a British Airways American Express Card. Whilst the AVIOS were earned through many different ways which included spending on the same AMEX plus on a Barclaycard AVIOS credit card and using Gate 365 to earn extra AVIOS.

The Concorde Lounge

Flying first class meant that when we got to London Heathrow we had access to the Concorde Lounge (CCL).

If you have ever had the good fortune to go to one of the British Airways lounges at Heathrow – then the CCL is whole other level!

We arrived into London Heathrow from Manchester around 9.00 am. There was a bit of a debacle getting off the flight. This was a result of the plane being given an international gate rather than domestic. This meant that we had to exit the plane from the rear and be bused to the terminal. Luckily we weren’t in a mad rush as our flight to Los Angeles wasn’t until 15:00.

We made our way through the terminal and entered the CCL via the Millionaires’ door. This door is located near South Security and allows First Class passenger to walk directly into The Concorde Room lounge. Legend has it that it’s named the Milionaires’ door because BA have to pay Heathrow £1 million for loss of revenue due to customers not walking through the terminal.

The Concorde Lounge is like going to a bar in a swanky hotel. We particularly like the terrace area where you can sit and view the goings on outside at the airport. It’s also really peaceful out there so you can relax.

We arrived in time to order breakfast, which is served until 11.30 (but apparently you can order all day).

This is the full breakfast menu.

I ordered the Vegetarian breakfast without the baked beans and rosti potatoes but with toast. When it arrived the food was a little on the cool side. Particularly the toast to which the butter sat upon rather than melted into. The veggie sausage had a very weird consistency. It was solid but crumpled as the same time. I went for veggie because I didn’t want the to have saltiness of meat left with me all day. I haven’t had a veggie sausage since my 11 year stint as a vegetarian 23 years ago. Have to say I was not impressed. On a positive note though, although barely luke warm, the poached eggs were lovey deep orange and runny.

My husband has fried eggs, sausages and toast. He enjoyed it but unfortunately his eggs weren’t runny.

At lunchtime, we requested the dining menu.

It was time to get on the sauce and our first order was for two glasses of Laurent-Perrier Grand Siecle. I’m not normally a fan of champagne but this one is divine as it’s not as dry as champagne can be.

This gave us the appetite to order some food.

My husband ordered the Pat & Pinky’s Bunjal chicken curry, steamed rice with red onion and cucumber pickle. The curry had enough flavour and spice to give him a back of the head sweat. Plus the chicken was really tender.

True to form I ordered the Caesar salad with added roast chicken. It was deceptively large portion. There was a lot of chicken, which in my opinion would have benefited from being served warm. I did really enjoy the salad. It was generously covered in Parmesan and dressing.

1st Class Flight to Los Angeles

Once we had polished this off, it was on to the flight to Los Angeles. We did the walk from the A terminal to the C terminal rather than getting the transit. We needed to wear off some of the calories we had consumed before boarding the flight.

By the time we got there boarding happened really promptly. We were sat in 1A and 2A in first class at the front of the plane. On boarding the flight, we were offered Champagne, PJs and a wash bag.

Take off was meant to be at 15:05 but it was about another hour until we took off.

Here is the in flight menu.

Having eaten so much in the lounge we didn’t have much of an appetite. Somehow we still managed to order some food though!

When the drink after take off was served (mine was a G&T), it came with the canapes. This consisted of Bresaola with Melon, smoked salmon with cream cheese and cucumber, fire roasted pepper roulade with goat’s cheese. It was a really refreshing selection.

Later on I had the double baked souffle with asparagus and mushroom sauce. As this was all I was planning to have on the plane, when it arrived I thought it looked quite small. Again as with the Caesar salad, it was deceptive. It ended up being very filling and scrumptious. The souffle was light and fluffy with small pieces of asparagus layered into it. On top were some pan fried mushrooms and the souffle was also lined with mushrooms. The mushroom sauce was creamy. My only regret was that I hadn’t managed to resist eating my bread roll as it would had been perfect for a dip in the sauce.

I enjoyed it with the Dog Point Sauvignon Blanc. This wine was delicious with layers of flavour including lime, passionfruit and capsicum.

My husband had the pan seared turbot which came with crushed herb potatoes and a lobster sauce. In addition to this there was also herbed potatoes, roasted red pepper, baby carrots, corn and broccolini. He really enjoyed all of it.

The flight crew throughout the flight were all really attentive. The benefits of First Class!

Where we stayed…

When we arrived at Los Angeles Airport we stayed at the Hilton Los Angeles Airport. We were staying at the airport because the next day we were flying to San Antonio. We booked the hotel directly on the Hilton website. This is because as part of the my husbands Platinum American Express, we get to be Gold status on Hilton Honors programme. The perks meant we received $18 dollars each to spend on food and drink plus 80% reward points from our booking as well as others.

Upon exiting immigration and the baggage reclaim we went in search of the Airport shuttle.

Note – immigration was extremely quick and the officer was really friendly too. Why is it that you always feel like you have something to hide and behave suspiciously. Particularly when you’re engaged in welcoming banter that brings a hot flush to your cheeks and sweat to your palms. Once through you breath a sigh of relief that you didn’t shout out anything that would have resulted in deportation. Thankfully, this experience was not like the 3 hours we spent in immigration at JFK in April.

Baggage reclaim not so good. Sometimes I wonder what the point of the airline putting priority labels on is. We had them on ours and our bags were almost last out. The territory marking we had performed around the conveyor belt became irrelevant as many of our opponents left way before us.

Thankfully, the baggage delay meant that we had timed it just right for the airport shuttle to hotel. A quick attention grabbing lunge towards the bus, resulting in my hand luggage case flying into the road helped bring the shuttle to an abrupt stop. The driver was an refreshingly efficient guy who wanted no help lifting all of our luggage on to the bus.

 

The Los Angeles Airport Hilton is a fairly large hotel with a substantial lobby. For this visit we hadn’t figured out the digital check in which is available to Hilton Honor members. This meant instead we headed straight to the Hilton Honors queue to check in. This was slightly smaller than the main queue.

Once we got into the King room we’d booked, we found it to be a decent size. Airport hotels tend to be on the basic and slightly drab side. It was a little bit dated, but for one night it definitely would do. It was clean with white sheets and towels, some free water – what more could you ask for?

Landings Bar @ Hilton LAX

We arrived too late to go to the bar on 16th Floor (which was another advantage of the Gold Honor status). So we headed down to the bar in the Lobby.

Again it could probably have done with a bit of refit to bring it into this decade. However, the service we received on this occasion made up for what the decor lacked.

I had seven Chicken Wings. These were battered and flavoured with lemon pepper.  They were served with carrots and celery (the devils work). Plus two sauces, which were blue cheese and garlic.  The chicken was well cooked but the coating did become a little too much after a couple of the wings.

My husband had the burger. This came topped with bacon, cheese, lots of gherkins, salad, red onion and tomatoes.  He was asked how he would like it cooked and went for medium rare. It was decent burger – maybe a little rarer than we like. The burger came with fries.

For drinks we ordered a plain margarita (for me) and  IPA beer recommended by our server (for him). Both of which were very pleasant after a hard day travelling.

After our food, we returned to our room to rest before another day of travelling.