I recently had the misfortune to spend over 14 hours on a British Airways Boeing 787-9 in Economy Class. To say it was a bad experience would be an understatement. The seat was falling apart with multiple broken items. The food was bad, and only offering 2 meals on a 14.5 hour flight is nowhere near enough. And they managed to lose our luggage. That was understandable as we had a very tight connection. But their process for claiming lost luggage is abyssmal.
Usually I would start these reviews with something like “read my article to find out if X airline is worth it!” But today I’ll straight up say British Airways long haul Economy is not worth it. Especially if you’re flying from Hong Kong to London where Cathay Pacific is a vastly superior alternative. You can also watch my Youtube review below:
Flight & Route Details
Hong Kong to London is a very long flight and one of the longest British Airways do. It’s 9,600km (6,000 miles) in a straight line and used to take just over 12 hours. However, since Russian airspace has been closed off they’ve had to adjust the route and it now takes 14 hours on average.
Our flight was delayed leaving Hong Kong but we did end up arriving almost exactly on time in London. However, we parked at a remote gate and had to wait more than 20 minutes for a bus to come and pick us up so it didn’t really feel very on time. Considering we boarded at 23:10 Hong Kong time and were delayed over half an hour plus a further 20 minutes waiting in the plane on arrival, we ended up spending over 15 hours on the plane.
Flight Details are below:
- From: Hong Kong International Airport (HKG)
- To: London Heathrow Airport (LHR)
- Scheduled Departure: 23:20 (actual: 23:51)
- Schedule Arrival: 06:50 (actual: 06:44)
- Flight Time: 13h 53m
- Aircraft: Boeing 787-9
- Aircraft Age: 7.7 years
- Flight Number: BA 0028
Meanwhile, the ticket cost about £400 for the one way flight from Kuala Lumpur to London Heathrow via Hong Kong and I booked it through the British Airways website. The flight from Kuala Lumpur to Hong Kong was in Cathay Pacific Airbus A330 and it was excellent. That price is relatively good value (one way flights tend to be more expensive after all. But doing it again I definitely wouldn’t choose BA. I would rather go direct with Malaysia Airlines or connect with Emirates or Etihad, or even do the whole trip with Cathay Pacific.
The Plane & Seat
The British Airways Boeing 787-9 is in a very premium-heavy layout. with 8 First Class, 42 Business, 39 Premium and 127 Economy seats. That makes the economy cabin feel surprisingly small with just 14 rows of seats. In fact, their smaller Boeing 787-8 actually has more Economy seats at 154 in total.
The British Airways Economy seat itself was below average for a long haul economy seat in my opinion. And whilst the aircraft at 7.7 years old isn’t exactly new, the overall condition of the cabin made it feel much older. Multiple parts of my seat (and neighbours seat) were broken plus fabric on many seats was ripped or coming lose around the edges.
One of the few positive things about the seat was the legroom, which actually felt quite generous. It was 31″ or pitch and 17.5″ wide, so pretty much the industry average. But they’ve designed it in a way that it feels like slightly more. Only downside is that thanks to the outdated entertainment systemn they need external hardware boxes beneath the seats, which limits the foot space a bit.
A pillow and blanket are provided. The blanket is fine and typical of economy blankets. The pillow though was terrible. First it was tiny which made it hard to actually use as back or neck support. It was also covered in a very scratchy single use case. Also worth noting how badly designed the seat back pocket was. To begin with it was very small so you couldn’t store much in there. But worst of all it didn’t have any sides which meant anything in their could fall out. Such as my phone, and I saw someone accross the aisle whose waterbottle fell out the side too.
Then on to the In-flight Entertainment screen. It’s very small and looks dated, just compare it to Emirates Economy screen, who do it so much better. Continuing the trend of the cabin being in bad condition my tv’s touch screen was broken which meant I had to use the extremely clunky remote. The seats also have USB charging ports, but mine was also broken. And lastly on the long list of broken things, the seat recline was broken on both my and my partner’s seat. The seat would go back like usually but then wouldn’t return to upright, so you would have to pull it to the upright position manually.
Dinner
The food on this flight was overall a bit lacklustre. To start with, the main was served a surprisingly long 1.5 hours into the flight. Considering we departed at 11:20pm that meant we were eating at 1am local time. I chose the sweet and sour chicken, which was fine and quite filling. The starter though was bizarre. They called it a rice salad but it was actually just some really undercooked (still hard) rice with exactly three thin slithers of bell pepper, that’s it. Dessert was also strange. Not sure what it was exactly but it just tasted like lemon flavoured whipped cream. Lastly they served a bread roll, crackers and a babybel.
Also, just a small gripe, but British Airways still use crappy wooden cutlery on long haul flights like this. It just makes it a bit hard to eat things. Especially considering many of their rivals like Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines, Malaysia Airlines and Turkish Airlines (there are many more, those are just examples I’ve flown recently) all use metal cutlery. It just seems like a sign of lazyness and cost-cutting.
Breakfast & Snacks
During the 10+ hours between dinner and breakfast the only form of sustenance was either some short bread or sour cream and onion pretzels which were placed in the galley. Admiteddly, I love both of these snacks and am always happy to eat them. But considering it’s the only thing to eat it was really a let down. Malaysia Airlines for example offer a sandwich/wrap on the 12 hour flight between London and Kuala Lumpur. And this flight was over 2 hours longer. Just some fresh (or even dried) fruit would have been nice.
Thankfully it was possible to stay well hydrated throughout the flight. They offer water, fruit juice and soft drinks throughout the flight. Plus hot drinks or alcohol around meal services.
I would like to see something that’s actually healthy here though. Sweetened drinks and unhealthy treats aren’t enough to last the 12 hours between meals. Even after breakfast I left the flight feeling very hungry.
And speaking of breakfast, this was actually one of the few good things about the British Airways Economy experience. 2 hours before landing the cabin was brightened a bit and 15 min after that the breakfast service started. I went for the full english breakfast. Everything was good, though it felt like 50% of the meal was just scrambled egg. So maybe they could adjust the ratio of egg to everything else. There was also a box of surprisingly fresh fruit. And for me at least I find fresh fruit to be quite invigorating when I’m tired from a long flight. Lastly there was a plain muffin, which was dry and nothing special. I also had coffee and water to drink.
Service & Overall Experience
I originally bought this ticket as a connecting flight from Kuala Lumpur to London via Hong Kong. The leg from Kuala Lumpur was with Cathay Pacific and we were originally supposed to have a 1h 15m layover. That was pretty tight but doable if everything went smoothly. Unfortunately, it did not go smoothly. Cathay Pacific themselves were great and really helpful with the connectiong (you can see my full review here). But due to storms in Hong Kong we were delayed by 1 hour which meant our layover became 15 minutes.
We actually ran accross the whole of Hong Kong Airport (and a very helpful airport staff ran with us to show us the way). And we would have actually made the original flight. But British Airways rebooked us on the next flight on the assumption that we would miss the original. Thankfully the next flight departed only 10 minutes later (11:20pm instead of 11:10pm). And it was at the gate next door to the original so it was incredibly. So I do have to commend British Airways for rebooking us on the next flight so quickly.
I usually find British Airways Cabin crew to be very friendly and cheery. But on today’s flight that wasn’t the case. They weren’t bad exactly, just seemed short on patience and doing the bare minimum to be polite. I suppose that’s understandable as we departed at midnight and they had to endure the 14.5 hour flight just like the rest of us.
After arriving on time we were informed we’d be going to a remote gate, which meant we’d have to wait for busses to pick us up. Of course, being Heathrow Airport, those busses were all busy when we arrived so we had to wait almost 30 minutes before we could actually get off the plane. Then another 10 minute bus ride accross the airport to the terminal. Overall, definitely not a good way to finish the flight.
At this point we’d already checked our Airtag and seen the luggage had been left behind in Hong Kong. On the bright side, that meant we didn’t have to wait around for luggage. But it did mean we had to file a lost luggage report, which I’ll cover next…
Lost Luggage Nightmare
As I mentioned earlier, our luggage got left behind in Hong Kong. Understandable due to our late inbound flight. But annoyingly, the flight we got rebooked on was the last British Airways flight leaving for London that day. And as it turned out they would send it back to London the next day so we only had to wait 24 hours to eventually get it back.
On arrival in London we just went to the lost luggage desk and were able to create a claim on British Airways system which kept track of our luggage and showed which flight it would be placed on. We were also given the choice of having the bag delivered to our house or picking it up in person. I’ve read a few stories of people waiting over a week to get their bags delivered so I chose to pick it up in person, which was my first mistake.
I saw my Airtag was now showing in Heathrow Airport so I emailed the BA lost luggage team and they confirmed it was there. So I hopped on the tube and once arriving at the airport was directed to the lost luggage area. Somehow, despite being in the massive Terminal 5 British Airways don’t even have a proper desk for lost luggage. It’s literally just a telephone in the wall with a bench to wait at. Usually you would call the telephone, tell them about your bag and a staff member would bring it out to you. Unfortunately, the phone was broken and there were two unfortunate British Airways staff who were tasked with looking after the lost luggage line. This wasn’t their job (one even mentioned he didn’t know this role existed in the airport) and they didn’t really know what was going on. They were only allowed to take people in one at a time, which given the queue size was taking a while.
About 1.5 hours later I was still waiting and the two staff said they were clocking out so couldn’t help anymore. We had to wait another 15 min for the new shift to come along and finally one of the new staff actually did know what he was doing and managed to help a large group of us at the same time.
Eventually after 2 hours of waiting they took a group of about 10 of us in. We went through the staff security area and through to the baggage reclaim hall. Thanks to the Airtag in my bag I knew roughly were it was so ended up going to where they store all the lost bags (picture below) and having a look. I found it after about 2 minutes and left the airport. Overall, what should have taken about 15 min took 2.5 hours. Their system for reclaiming luggage at the airport is terrible and (most) British Airways employees don’t seem to have a clue what’s going on.
Final Thoughts (Choose Cathay Pacific Instead!)
Overall, I would not recommend British Airways Economy in their long haul Boeing 787-9. Maybe if you’re just flying 7 hours from London to New York or something it would be ok. But a 14.5 hour flight like this was torture. The seats are falling apart, the food is not good, service wasn’t great, and if your bag gets lost then good luck getting it back easily.
I paid about £400 for the one way flight between Kuala Lumpur and London via Hong Kong and booked on the British Airways website. So value wise I would say they’re ok. But if you can find a better deal with a nicer airline then go for it. For example, Cathay Pacific can often be cheaper on this route from Hong Kong to London and they are vastly superior compared to British Airways.
More from me…
Please feel free to check out other related posts I’ve written:
- Malaysia Airlines Economy A350-900 – Great food on a 13 hour flight
- Singapore Airlines Fantastic Regional Business – Saigon to Singapore on a 787-10
- Singapore Airlines Economy from London to Singapore – As Good as People Say?
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- The Platinum Card – You Receive 35,000 Membership Reward points after spending £6,000 in the first 6 months: https://americanexpress.com/en-gb/referral/fREDEGgRA5?CPID=100493012
- British Airways Card: You Receive 8,000 Avios after spending £1,000 in the first 3 months: https://americanexpress.com/en-gb/referral/fREDEG42lN?CPID=100503089