British Airways Premium Economy Boeing 777 — Flight Diary

Date: 2018-07-03

June 2018 Haneda Airport → London Heathrow Airport British Airways Flight BA008 Haneda International Terminal, departs 08:50 London Heathrow Terminal 5, arrives 13:10 Flight time: 11 hours 20 minutes

A Busy Morning

The night before, we stayed at Keikyu EX Inn Haneda, the hotel closest to Haneda Airport. On the day of our return flight to London, with departure at 8:50am, we were up at 5am. A quick hot shower to wake up, then down to the breakfast venue on the second floor. Toast and coffee downed swiftly, we collected our luggage and headed to the shuttle bus stop in the basement. We checked out quickly using the self-checkout machine by returning our card key. Whenever we return to Japan, we each bring two bags of up to 23kg, so this time — including carry-on luggage — we had six pieces in total. Thankfully there was a trolley at the shuttle bus stop for loading suitcases! We boarded the 6:40am bus, which was completely full. The hotel-to-terminal journey takes about 5 minutes.

Having already completed online check-in the day before, we went straight to the Bag Drop counter to hand over our luggage and collect our boarding passes, then through security and to the departure gates. Since Haneda doesn't have a priority card lounge, we headed straight to the boarding gate after buying our usual Kimuraya anpan and a bottle of tea. There we enjoyed our tea and Kimuraya's sakura anpan (smooth red bean paste) at leisure.

Boarding BA Premium Economy

Today was our first time flying BA's World Traveller Plus (Premium Economy). Boarding began just after 8am, starting with First and Business Class, followed by World Traveller Plus — we boarded early. The aircraft for this service is a Boeing 777. In Economy the seating configuration is 3-3-3 (9 across), but in World Traveller Plus it's 2-4-2 (8 across), meaning effectively one extra seat's width of space per seat. Legroom is also notably more generous — a significant difference on a long-haul flight.

Before take-off, we were offered water or Gaviscon (an antacid) — served in proper glass glasses, which was a lovely touch!

The aircraft began moving at 8:47, with take-off at 9:10. Under the rainy season clouds, we were immediately surrounded by white cloud after take-off.

The cushion was beautifully embroidered.

The amenity kit included a toothbrush set, earplugs, socks, an eye mask, and a pen. Best of all were the noise-cancelling headphones. Aircraft cabins are tremendously loud, and listening to that constant noise is very tiring. With these headphones, the noise was significantly reduced — a real difference.

Once we reached cruising altitude, drinks and snacks were served — BA's familiar sour cream and chive flavour pretzels.

First Meal

The main course was beef fillet in a spicy miso sauce with green beans and pumpkin simmered together, five-grain rice, a salad of prawn and pork veggie rolls, lemon cheesecake, and olive bread.

Genuinely delicious BA in-flight food — what a surprise! (laughs) Being one class up from Economy might have helped, but the fact that the food is prepared in Tokyo surely makes all the difference. We ate every last bit of the bread, and finished everything else too — a rare occurrence for us. All the crockery was ceramic.

Rest After the Meal

After the meal, the cabin shop closed and the lights dimmed for rest time. I had never managed to sleep for long on a plane before — an hour's doze at most. I wondered if I'd be able to sleep in the Premium Economy seat. While it doesn't recline flat like Business Class, it goes back to about 45 degrees, and the headrest has side wings to keep your head from rolling. Before I knew it, I'd slept for about 5 hours! Remarkable.

Light Meal

After watching two films, with 1 hour 40 minutes until landing, I was moisturising my skin when the lights came on for the pre-landing meal. The choice was pasta bake or chicken curry — we chose the curry.

It was a Japanese-style curry with two pieces of fried chicken. Along with a muffin and coffee. The UK landing card was distributed before we began descending, and we landed at Heathrow Terminal 5 about 30 minutes early. The border (immigration) was unusually uncrowded and we passed through in about 20 minutes — safely back in London.

Summary: First Premium Economy Experience

Our verdict: for flights of 6 hours or more, Premium Economy is genuinely worth it. The physical tiredness after landing is considerably less. Some flights arrive in London in the early morning, and if you have a full day ahead, arriving less exhausted makes everything much easier to manage.

Business Class costs roughly 4 times the Economy fare, but Premium Economy is about double. Given the already high cost of Japan-London flights, it's just about within reach. Worth choosing depending on the circumstances.

On this particular trip, the outbound flight was a JAL codeshare on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner Economy seat — which had won international awards and was also excellent. Going forward, we might fly JAL on the London departure and opt for BA on the return to enjoy Japanese-catered in-flight meals. London's temperature was 18°C and the sky was a clear blue. We made it safely back to London!

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