COVID flying: British Airways Business Class, Boeing 777, London Gatwick - Cancun, Mexico

Flying during COVID with British Airways, Business Class, on a BA Boeing 777 from London Gatwick (LGW) to Cancun, Mexico. Friday 24th April 2021, with Tom Otley, Editor of Business Traveller magazine UK.

Read Tom's full review here:
https://www.businesstraveller.com/tried-and-tested/flight-review-british-airways-b777-200-club-world/

Transcript:
- [Tom] Hello, my name's Tom Otley from Business Traveller and welcome to the latest of our flight reviews. It's 2021, pretty much halfway through April. There's still a another month until people are able to fly, but we've managed to get an invitation to the World Travel and Trade Congress out to Cancun, in Mexico. And so, got permission to fly, and I thought it worthwhile just putting together a few thoughts on what it's like flying long-haul in these pandemic times. I'm flying in British Airways from London, Gatwick. It's a 10-hour flight, just over a 10-hour flight over to Mexico, and we're on a triple seven in Club World, the old Club World, rather, in the new Club Suite. As far as the experience of going through the airport was concerned, the first thing I guess, would be it's slightly odd flying with British Airways from the North Terminal. They used to fly from the North Terminal. Then they moved to the South during the pandemic times. It's now back to the North. So the first odd thing, I guess, is that there's there's no lounge there at all. So what they're doing is offering you a 30-pound voucher at Pret-a-Manger, or I guess, you could spend it at WHSmith or Boots providing who's on them. Food and drink, no alcohol. The other thing, of course, was that the North terminal was pretty much empty. There aren't many flights going out. I think there was a British Airways flight to Antigua. There was a one to Cancun and then just a few other flights with other airlines. Very, very quiet at the airport on that Saturday morning, only a handful of flights for the whole day, as far as I could see. Obviously, you've gotta keep face masks on throughout the whole journey, in the taxi or public transport to the airport, through the airport, waiting in the gate area, and then obviously on board for the whole flight. So if you are flying, the first tip is bring a lot of these face masks because while you might have made one last for a few hours, when you going in and out of shops, obviously if you're wearing them hour after hour, the advice is to make sure that you do change them regularly. And even if you don't follow that advice, you'd want to, because they do get a bit dirty after a while. The service so far has been actually just as you'd expect. I mean, it's pretty tough for the staff because obviously they're having to wear masks and also talk through them to members of the public, to the passengers, but service is exactly as you'd expect, very good, very warm. I guess everyone's kind of looking forward to traveling again. Most people can't yet, but they will be doing in a month or so, all being well from May the 17th from the UK, at least. So it's great to be traveling, and it's great to be promoting travel again, which is the purpose of this conference that I'm going to, the WTTC in Cancun, which is why I got permission to travel in the first place. Here's the menu. We start off with the cocktails. Gin Zing sounds nice, which is gin obviously, but citrus and sparkling water served over ice. I actually had that. Just tried it about half an hour ago. Well, the sparkling water wasn't particularly sparkling, so I sent that back and just said, "I'll just go for a gin and tonic," which was incredibly strong. So I got some extra tonic, which should be enough to keep me going through the entire flight. As you can see there's a couple of other options there, Cranberry Blush and Johnnie Ginger. We've got mocktails, a decent range of spirits and liquors, liqueurs, sorry, and digestifs, and some beers, and non-alcoholic drinks. And then over to the food, which you see the menu has the same style, but then a choice of beef, fish, or a vegetarian option. And then the selection of desserts and cheeses. I actually went for special menu 'cause I'm trying to be healthy. So I went for a vegan menu, which is this one here. It was very nice. And then we're gonna get a light meal before we land. It's the starter of Greek feta cheese, and then a selection, well, you choose from a selection of the chicken breast or the pasta with a desserts and chocolate cake. And here are the wines. You can see actually that the A won Best Business Class cellar in Business Traveller's Cellars in the Sky in 2018. So got choice of champagne, a standard brut, and then also a Rose. And then the white wines, Sauvignon Blanc, and a Spanish white wine. The red wines, Chilean Pinot Noir, and a Bordeaux. I don't know which one that is actually 'cause I haven't had any red wine. Maybe I'll try and find that.........................

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