Flight review: British Airways A350-1000 business class (Vancouver to London–Heathrow) [YVR to LHR]

In early November 2024, I flew to Europe for a business conference. For business travel, I always pay with cash because it’s expensable. I found the cheapest way to get business tickets to Europe from my neck of the woods was by flying from Vancouver to Paris via London–Heathrow on British Airways. I spent less than US$2,500 for round trip on this route, which is an amazing deal to pay with cash.

The Vancouver to London–Heathrow segment was operated by a British Airways Airbus A350-1000. There is no first class service on this route, so business class sits right up front! For this flight, I sat at 2K, the second row, which is one of my favorite spots on the plane: not too close to the galley but also right up front.

I do wish to say this review is probably a bit shorter than some of the other ones I’ve done. The reason is twofold:

1. I came from a connecting flight from Seattle and was already tired after spending half a day in Vancouver and rushing to enjoy the Cathay Pacific lounge at YVR.
2. The amount of content I share is typically proportional to how remarkable the experience was.

The seat and amenities

This is a standard Collins Super Diamond reverse herringbone seat with a sliding door.

By the way: this is actually not the first time I’ve enjoyed this product on British Airways; the first time was back in 2021 when I flew from London–Heathrow (LHR) to Dubai (DXB).

You can see the standard side table with the recline controls screen near it (with the green circle indicating it’s fully upright for take-off and landing). A pair of mediocre noise canceling headphones, a fluffy pillow, and the bedding bag are provided on the seat.

The bedding bag contains the sheets and the padding that I’ll be using for the flight later that evening.

Side note: where are you even supposed to place the bedding bag? Putting it on the footwell technically isn’t permitted for take-off and landing, although I’ve basically always seen flight attendants expect you to do that. Not to mention that’s where passengers’ feet go, so it’s a bit gross. Directly underneath the footwell is even more gross. Surely you can’t hold the bedding while taking off? And it’s awkward to put it in the overhead bins. Anyway… in a bit, you’ll see what I ended up doing.

In the side compartment sits a bottle of water and my amenity kit provided by The White Company.

I really like these amenity kits; British Airways provides big, comfy, and relatively durable eyemasks, which help a lot with getting good rest.

The side table has a compartment underneath where I can stow/charge small electronics and use the IFE remote.

Now that I’m settled, you can see me with my predeparture champagne on the side table, as well as the bedding (awkwardly) placed on the footrest, as is almost always done with business products.

Here I demonstrate how to pull out the tables on these Collins Super Diamond reverse herringbone seats.

Of note, Wi-Fi is also provided on this flight. In-flight messaging is provided for free for the entire flight, with time-limited and full-flight options for using Wi-Fi during the flight.

Menu

After settling in, I started taking a look at the menu.

Unfortunately, this was a few weeks after British Airways started serving “supper” as a replacement for a full three-course dinner for overnight flights. (Those cheapskates!) British Airways later undid that change.

That being said, I wasn’t terribly hungry, and the options did look decent. However, the options were not exactly fancy, and not having the choice to have a more comprehensive meal is annoying considering how much money I paid for the business class seat.

As for breakfast, the choices were quite limited. Either a panini or fruit. Disappointment would be a polite way to describe how I feel about this.

Anyway, I tried to console myself about the disappointing food selection by taking a look at the wine list.

Compared to other airlines, none of these options particularly evoke any excitement from me. Especially the New World wines; I’m sorry, but I’m flying to Europe, so I would hope to be able to enjoy some Old World wines.

I ended up choosing their cellar selection brut champagne. I feel like it’s probably not amazing, but hey, champagne is still better than any other sparkling wine!

“Supper” service

Soon after taking off, the crew comes and sets up my tray table for “supper” service. (Not dinner service. “Supper” service.)

They provided some herbed bread, butter, and the dessert altogether. (I chose the cheesecake.) It was bizarre to see my dessert in front of me before we even started to eat the appetizer. Oh, excuse me, there’s no appetizer, because this is a simple “supper”. Correction, it was bizarre to see my dessert before my main course.

Bubbles!

Then arrives my main: the ground lamb shepherd’s pie. To give credit where credit is due, it was actually delicious. The spices in the ground lamb were quite on point.

While it was by far the least comprehensive transoceanic business class first meal I’ve ever had, it’s still pretty cool seeing this set in front of my IFE.

Bedtime

Unfortunately, I didn’t take a photo of the bedding after I set it up. However, I liked it. It felt like it wasn’t too thick nor too thin. Plus, I’m a fan of sleeping cold, and British Airways does a fantastic job of keeping it chilly. Plus, not to mention, there’s air vents too.

Breakfast and landing

Breakfast is served about an hour and a half before landing. I felt like a panini was too much for me, so I went with a fruit platter instead. It came with chia pudding and a blueberry muffin, all paired with a cup of orange juice.

Side note: I wasn’t sure if my chia pudding contained milk or not. My flight attendant got annoyed at me after he couldn’t figure out whether it contained dairy, and told me “you don’t have to eat it”. Well, if British Airways is known for one thing, it’s their supreme service, am I right? Anyway, sorry dude, but when the breakfast is as sparse at this, I would prefer not to forgo a third of my food…

As we made our final approach into Heathrow, I was able to catch a photo of the M25 clogged up, lol.

For some reason, these Vancouver flights originate from Heathrow Terminal 3. Unfortunately, that meant for my connection, I had to transit to Terminal 5, as almost all British Airways flights fly out of Terminal 5.

Closing thoughts

Overall, this was good enough of an experience. It was enough to get me across the Atlantic without leaving me feeling disappointed. It left me sufficiently refreshed for me to take my connecting flight to Paris–Charles de Gaulle within a few hours of me landing.

While I wouldn’t say this was the best business class experience I’ve ever had, it is a combination of a tried-and-true hard product with a passable soft product.

Would I fly it again? Yes; in fact, I will be soon when I go to Europe for my conference this year. Will I enjoy it as much as other business class experiences? No, but I’m glad to have a dependable product where I get the basics down and I can get some good rest.