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This is the TFM review of the Boeing 787-10 British Airways Business Class Club Suite
I’ve flown in British Airways Business Class across the Atlantic more times than I care to recall, but it took a trip which routed me via Seattle before I finally got to see what the Business Class experience on the airline’s Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner is like.
I’ve reviewed the First Wing at Heathrow and the British Airways First lounge a few times in the past so I’m just going to skip along to the cabin, the seat and the flight.
British Airways 787-10 Business Class cabin
One of the best things about booking the British Airways Business Class cabin on one of its 787-10s is that you don’t run the risk of ending up on an aircraft featuring the ancient and awful ying-yang Club World seat.
All of the British Airways 787-10 aircraft come fitted with the airline’s considerably newer Club Suite Business Class cabin which gives all passengers direct access to one of the aircraft’s two aisles regardless of where they may be sitting.
There are 48 Club Suites onboard the British Airways 787-10 and they’re split across two cabins.
Unlike on some BA long-haul aircraft, the Club Suites are split reasonably evenly between the two cabins. Towards the front of the aircraft and just behind First Class, is cabin of 26 Club Suites, and behind the Business Class galley is the second cabin where you’ll find the remaining 22 Club Suites.
For solo travelers (or for people who don’t feel the need to be in continual contact with whomever they’re traveling with), the single seats by the windows will be the best choice.
For couples who prefer to sit together of for travelers who will want to communicate frequently during the flight, the center seats will be the best option.
Solo travelers who find themselves in one of the center seats can give themselves some privacy by pulling closed the divider that sits between the two center seats.
The Club Suite
This is what a British Airways Club Suite looks like.
Actually, that’s what 6K on the 787-10 looks like. It’s slightly different to other window seats in that it’s missing a window.
Most seats on either side of the 787-10 Club Suite cabins have access to two windows.
For anyone interested in the origins of this seat, this is not an original design. Far from it. This is the Collins Aerospace Super Diamond seat which is also found in the Business Class cabins of a variety of other airlines (e.g. Qatar Airways, American Airlines and Air Canada).
The key difference here is that British Airways has fitted a door to the Super Diamond seat to give itself a “suite”.
In truth, the door isn’t really a big deal as it isn’t really high enough to offer any kind of meaningful privacy from people walking by (I’m 6ft tall and when I sit upright in the seat, my eyes are just above door level), but it’s great at blocking out light from the IFE screen of the passenger across the aisle.
I like the look of this seat. Some complain that it’s “a bit bland” or “too grey”, but I prefer an understated seat to one with colors all around it (this isn’t a toddler’s creche), so I think British Airways has done a good job here (and coming from someone who finds it quite easy to dislike British Airways, that’s high praise).
Storage space around the Club Suite is good.
There’s a small storage cubby (with door) at shoulder height between the seat and the window.
The whole shelf area under the windows (and in between the seats in the center section) offers more space for a passenger to store their personal items.
And there’s yet more storage space under the shelf.
A medium-sized laptop will not fit into any of these storage spaces, but a regular-size iPad fits into the larger of the two spaces built into the in the shelf and that would still leave room for a few other (smaller) items.
That’s the good news surrounding the storage areas. There’s less good news too and as I like to remind readers every time I review a Club Suite cabin, there are two issues here that needs to be flagged.
Inside the larger of the two storage spaces built into the under-window shelf is where you’ll find the seat’s power options and the entertainment controller.
There’s AC power courtesy of a universal power outlet (which also has a USB-A port above it).
And there’s a second USB-A port (opposite the universal power outlet) as well as an input for the headphones (if you want to use the entertainment system).
The first problem arises if you choose to use this storage space for … storage … as you’ll find it hard to access the power outlet, the USB ports, the headphone input, or the IFE controller with much more than a few items in here (although you can take the controller out of the storage space before you fill it to avoid that last issue).
Secondly, some people may face an issue with orientation of the AC power outlet.
If you happen to be traveling with a laptop that comes with a large ‘brick’ charger, you may struggle to plug in the charger if you’re using a UK-style 3-pin plug because there probably won’t be enough room between the power outlet and the bottom of the storage area for the brick to fit.
The solution to this issue (should you encounter it) is to fit a US- or European-style 2-pin adapter, to turn the brick upside down and to plug it in like that.
To be fair to BA, those probably aren’t going to be major issues for a lot of people, but if you only have a UK-style laptop charger and plan to work throughout a flight like this one, you need to know about the power outlet issue.
Moving on …
Next up as we look around the Club suite, we have the seat’s tray table which is stowed underneath the entertainment screen.
The table can be placed at varying distances from the seat, it can be half opened or fully opened, and by a lot of table standards, it’s huge.
The all-important seat controls can be found on a touchscreen built into the seat wall (under the shelf), and a light touch of the screen usually puts them on display. On this flight, the screen didn’t seem to work (the image below is from the TFM archive), but the buttons to the side of the screen did an acceptable job.
I have yet to find a position that these controls don’t allow you put the seat into, so they’re incredibly versatile.
Most importantly, however, these controls allow you to place the seat into lie-flat mode to create a 79″ bed.
Even though this seat is actually a suite courtesy of its door (which you can leave open if you so choose), I don’t find it confining or claustrophobic (some people disagree, but I have no major complaints).
The seat is a very comfortable place to relax or work (the large and sturdy tray table is great for working on), and when being used as a bed, there’s more than enough space around a passenger’s shoulders and head to allow most flyers to find a comfortable sleeping position.
When it comes to seats like these, a point of contention is often the amount of space that a passenger has for their feet when the seat is placed into lie-flat mode as this can be important when it comes to comfort when lying down.
Some modern Business Class seats leave little room for a passenger’s feet, but this Club Suite seems to be ok.
I wear size 10 shoes and I didn’t have an issue with the space above the footrest.
Most people will probably find that there is sufficient room for their feet to get comfortable when lying down, and there’s unquestionably more room for a passenger’s feet here than there is in the famous Qatar Airways Qsuites which so many people seem to love.
Other things that you should know about the British Airways Club suite …
Above the seat, you’ll find an individual reading light (which can be operated from the entertainment controller of the inflight entertainment touchscreen) but no individual air vents or nozzles, so that’s a slight blemish on what the seat offers.
If you’d like to have some say over how hot it gets around your Club Suite, you’re out of luck.
Finally, as far as the Club Suite goes, I should mention the widows which don’t have the usual shades that most aircraft still seem to have. They are electronically dimming windows which can be controlled by using a button under the windows.
The good news here is that this means that you don’t just have the two standard options when it comes to blocking out light – no light or lots of light. Instead, you can adjust how much outside light you’d like to allow in.
The bad news is that these windows can also be controlled by the cabin crew, so once they decide that the cabin should be placed into darkness or drenched in light, you may have a fight on your hands if you’d prefer something else.
In summary, however, this is a very good seat and it’s a good seat in its own right and not just because it’s not the heinous ying-yang Club World seat that BA has been flying serving up for over two decades.
It’s comfortable when upright, angled, or in lie-flat mode, it offers more storage space than a lot of other Business Class seats, and even though it comes with a door, it doesn’t feel confining, tight, or claustrophobic.
You can’t really expect much more from a Business Class seat than that.
In-flight entertainment
The inflight entertainment screen on the British Airways 787-10 is an 18.5″ HD touch screen, it sits directly in front of the seat, and it’s immovable.
You can’t put it away and you can’t angle it up or down and that last point means that from certain angles, the screen can suffer from glare from the cabin lights.
If you’re seated upright, it’s easiest to use the touchscreen functionality to control the system (on this flight my touchscreen wasn’t very sensitive), but as you angle the seat back, you’ll find that you slowly get out of touching range of the screen and that’s when the easy-to-use controller (mentioned earlier) will come into its own.
It’s worth noting that you can control more than just the inflight entertainment from the touchscreen. You can call a flight attendant, operate the light, and even control the window dimming if it’s too much effort to reach out to one side.
Unfortunately, there’s no option to pair Bluetooth headphones to this system (that’s true across all of BA’s long-haul aircraft), but the airline supplies passengers in its Club Suites with adequate (if unspectacular) headphones.
Passengers with their own wired single-jack headphones can plug those into the headphone input (shown earlier) and enjoy stereo sound even though BA’s headphones come fitter with a 2-pin jack.
Entertainment wise, there’s a huge variety of options on offer with dozens of movies, TV shows (including some box sets), documentaries, music albums, and games available at the touch of a few buttons.
If you have a Paramount+ subscription, you can access full series of the shows that the channel offers onboard. If you don’t subscribe, you can still access between 3 and 10 episodes from, on this flight, 28 shows.
On this flight there was also a selection of shows from Disney (48) and HBO (5). Mostly of the Disney shows seemed to be offering between 3 and 5 episodes while the HBO shows were offering 6 to 8 episodes.
Overall, there’s more than enough on offer to keep most people happy for at least a few hours.
If you want to know what’s playing onboard right now, you can find out by accessing this page of the British Airways website (you can even find out what’s playing on specific flights).
Wi-Fi
At the time of writing, most of BA’s long-haul aircraft which have Wi-Fi fitted come equipped with Intelsat 2Ku satellite Wi-Fi which I’m starting to think has dual personalities.
On some days it will be very good while on others, there are seemingly never-ending breaks in service which, if you’re trying to work, can be frustrating.
On this flight, the Wi-Fi wasn’t too bad, so I got quite a bit of work done, but that was mainly because I didn’t have much to upload. Uploads were painfully slow while downloads seemed ok, so I’m putting that down as a lucky win for me.
A key thing to keep in mind is that on some flights, the aircraft will travel out of the range of the satellite internet coverage so you may not get a continuous connection even if you pay for full flight access.
As far as pricing goes, messaging is free for members of the British Airways Club (all levels) and a flight pass on the London – Seattle route costs £17.99/$24.99/€20.49 (which is a little less than it costs on the London – Los Angeles route.
Aside: I’m not sure if I was unlucky or if this is to do with the 787-10, but once inside the aircraft, the phone signal was terrible while on the ground. Both at Heathrow and Seattle.
The phone signal at Heathrow isn’t great at the best of times, but for some reason this Dreamliner seemed to take it a stage further. From the moment I sat down, messages wouldn’t send.
In Seattle, I didn’t get a proper signal until I exited the aircraft (just SOS message and a fake 1 bar of cellular service). This was particularly annoying as it meant that I couldn’t use the Global Entry app.
Amenities
Upon boarding, Business Class passengers find three items waiting for them on their seats.
- A pillow.
- A bag containing a blanket and a thin mattress topper.
- Headphones.
Note: Slippers and pajamas are not offered in British Airways Business Class on any transatlantic flights.
Passengers should also find a bottle of water and an amenity kit in the storage cubicle above the shelf/ledge.
The bedding is by White Company and is acceptable. Nothing more.
The mattress topper is on the thin side, and I find that it slides off the seat too easily so I don’t bother using it.
The blanket is much better, but that’s not saying very much and if you’re expecting it to be of the same quality as a blanket you’ll find on a premium airline, you’ll be disappointed.
The Business Class amenity kit that British Airways offers (also by White Company) has been around for years and will probably be familiar to a lot of Business Class travelers.
The contents include an eye mask, ear plugs, socks, earplugs, a dental kit (toothbrush and small tube of toothpaste), a lip balm, a moisturizer and a relaxation spray.
The images do most of the talking here and this is all pretty standard stuff for US/European transatlantic Business Class.
Dining and service
Shortly after boarding, the flight attendants came through the cabin offering a choice of orange juice or champagne.
Menus were handed out shortly thereafter (keep in mind that there’s no option to preselect a standard meal ahead of your British Airways flight).
We were approximately 15 minutes late pushing back (which isn’t bad at all for BA at Heathrow) and we ended up taking off 20 minutes later (35 minutes after our scheduled departure time).
Shortly after the aircraft levelled out, hot towels were provided, and 25 minutes after we had taken off, there was a full drinks service.
With work that I wanted to do on this flight, I passed on the cocktails and wines and settled for a “Citrus Burst” mocktail which turned out to be nice.
A rosemary snack mix came with the drinks.
40 minutes after take-off, the cabin crew came round to take food orders.
I chose the tuna tonnato for my starter and the Cornish chicken for my main course.
The starter was served a little over an hour after we had taken off and it was … fine.
The parsley oil saved it because without that, it would have lacked flavor and been a little bland.
The main course was served 20 minutes later (1 hour and 25 minutes after take-off) and while I’d like to say that this was more inspiring, it wasn’t.
The mushroom ragoût was nice, but the chicken was a little dry and the roast potatoes and the other vegetables were soggy, so this was the closest thing to a TV dinner (a “ready meal” for those of you reading this in the UK) that I’ve had in over 20 years.
It was a bit of unwelcome nostalgia.
My chosen dessert (strawberry vanilla panna cotta) was served 25 minutes after the main course (1 hour and 50 minutes after take-off), and this was the best of the three courses … although that doesn’t really say very much.
It wasn’t bland and it wasn’t soggy, so after the first two courses, this was a welcome change.
My tray table was cleared 55 minutes after the service had started (2 hours after we had taken off) and five minutes later, the cabin lights were dimmed.
That was it for my interactions with the crew for the next six hours. In that time, I noticed the flight attendants pass through the cabin a few times, but as I didn’t need anything, the next time I spoke to a crew member was when “afternoon tea” was served – 1 hour and 25 minutes before landing.
The sandwiches (left to right):
- Smoked salmon on rye
- Cucumber with cream cheese tramezzini*
- Roast beef with horseradish on brioche
*I think this should be “tramezzino”, but that aside, I’m not sure what an Italian sandwich is doing in a “British original afternoon tea”.
The non-savory items:
- Plain scone with clotted cream and strawberry jam
- Lemon éclair
- Chocolate brownie*
*I assume this has been included to keep American passengers happy as this has no place in a British afternoon tea.
All in all, this was nice. The images don’t really do it justice (most of the items were flavorful), so this was a significant step up from the main meal earlier.
Once again, my tray table was cleared shortly after I had finished, and 45 minutes later, we were on the ground in Seattle.
Overall…
While the afternoon tea raised the general standard of the food served on this flight, there’s no getting past the fact that, overall, the dining was unimpressive and not what I’d expect from a good Business Class flight.
The cabin service was good. The crew were friendly, the meal was served and the remnants cleared away efficiently, and I appreciated having my tray table cleared promptly after each course.
I have no complaints at all about the service, but anyone paying the thousands of dollars that British Airways often charges for a Business Class seat on this route would be well within their rights to wonder why the food was as poor as it was.
Good to know
There are a few things that you should know when you fly in Business Class on a British Airways 787-10 that may not be entirely obvious when you’re onboard.
Firstly, your device may connect to the inflight Wi-Fi but may not open the portal that allows you to choose what package to purchase.
If this happens, you need to type shopba.com into your browser and that will then open the options page. This information is provided under the Wi-Fi section on the entertainment screen, but if you haven’t got that screen on, this may not be obvious.
Secondly, between the meal services, you’ll find, snacks, drinks and water bottles set out in an area next to the galley. On some flights you may even find sandwiches here but if any were offered on this flight, I didn’t see them.
I don’t think this is mentioned or noted anywhere on the menus.
Finally, I’m told that unlike a lot of long-haul aircraft (which offer a dedicated cabin for crew rest above or below the cabins the passengers occupy), the 787-10 only offers crew rest areas either side of the galley and these are separated from the galley by a curtain only. That makes it hard for the crew to get any real rest.
Add to that the fact that the crew have a relatively quick turnaround in Seattle (apparently, they return the next day) and that makes this one of the more unpopular routes to work.
Keep that in mind the next time you’re flying to Seattle as it may explain why some crew members look a little frazzled.
Final thoughts
This is a reasonably straight forward review to sum up:
- The Club Suite is very good.
- The bedding is mediocre.
- The inflight entertainment is good.
- The amenity kit is nothing special and a bit boring.
- The absence of individual air nozzles will annoy quite a few people.
- The non-functioning seat control screen was surprising on an aircraft as new as this one.
- The crew on this flight were pleasant and efficient.
- The food on this flight was sub-par and simply not good enough.
- The Wi-Fi on this flight was fine and not ridiculously priced.
Overall, the experience was ok, but it was only ok because the crew were nice and the Club Suite is a nice place to pass the time on a flight like this. There was a lot of mediocrity outside of those two things.
For me, the seat makes up 80% of what I care about on a long-haul Business Class flight, the crew’s attitude makes up 15%, and the rest I don’t really care about very much, so with a passenger like me, BA can get away with not offering premium food, a premium amenity kit, premium bedding, and a premium wine list.
That, however, is not going to be the case with a lot of other passengers, and someone who has handed over £3,000 – £5,000 (~$4,000 – $6,600) for a roundtrip Business Class fare will have every right to expect the overall package on offer to be better than this.
But it probably won’t be.
“Premium” is not something that British Airways offers or does – that’s not what the airline is all about, so keep your expectations down. British Airways pricing doesn’t necessarily reflect what you can expect in terms of overall experience.
If you fly with British Airways, you’ll probably end up with a nice crew and one that’s considerably better and more amenable than a lot of the crews you’ll find on some other transatlantic carriers.
If you avoid the old Business Class seats and get the Club suites, your journey should be comfortable.
That’s it. That’s all you can (mostly) count upon.
As long as you keep your expectations grounded, you’ll be fine. Let your expectations rise, and you’re just setting yourself up for disappointment.
