Review: British Airways Club class between Cape Town and London

This review covers a Club class flight on British Airways between Cape Town and London on 26 August 2014. The Boeing 747-400 service offered a flat bed service on this route in Club class and while the general quality of the cabin was inferior to the same class on the Airbus 380 (photo below) between London and Johannesburg, it remains one of the better business class products in the sky.

Check in at the BA counters in Cape Town would have been a breeze, was it not for the unexpected six hour delay in the departure of the flight. The upgrade from Premium to Club class made this inconvenience almost bearable. However, be warned - Cape Town airport becomes like a ghost town when all flights but yours have departed. BA's Executive lounge in Cape Town is spacious, luxurious and serves good food (plenty of cured lox-style salmon) and Cape wines. There are free internet and computers and generally a friendly service, even at midnight.

While comfortable, BA's Club seats on the 747 can really do with an upgrade. They are still  configured in a 2-4-2 layout, with one passenger facing forward and the one adjacent facing backward, at the side row - the middle row has two forward and two backward facing. This is something I never understood - why facing backward? - it just makes no sense. The seats are separated by a hard plastic curtain/separator that moves up and down with the push of a button. Theoretically, the air hostess should walk behind the front-facing seat to serve the backward-facing passenger at the window - however, on my flight the air hostess insisted on leaning over me, pushing the button to lower the separator and serving the accross my seat - after about three times this really got annoying. The problem is that if you don't raise the separator, you and your fellow passengers stare straight at each other from a distance of less than one meter - pretty awkward, unless it happens to be Miss World sitting side by side.

Food was satisfactory, rather than outstanding. But by then I had so much Salmon lox in the lounge that everything else tasted a bit bland. The starter choices were poached Norwegian Salmon with marinated prawns or an oyster mushroom salad. Main courses included 'Ballotine' of chicken with Port, Drakensberg trout, pasta or a cold main course salad of za'atar beef medallion.

I took the chicken and it was OK, but sadly inferior to my mother's Sunday roast chicken. There was a selection of South African Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and some good reds. Breakfast was a choice of a cheese omelette, continental or a filling traditional English breakfast with bacon, sausages, mushrooms and potatoes.

Arriving in London, I took the supposedly fast track option - a big mistake. In theory this is supposed to expedite your progress through customs as a Club passenger, but in practice, it was a disaster - there were only two or three border agents present at any time and it took 45 to 60 minutes to get through the 'fast track' customs - I could see group after group of fellow BA passengers clearing the slow lane long before I took the next few steps forward.

 The BA arrivals lounge was a welcome relief from the hustle and bustle of Heathrow Terminal 5, arguably one of the more unpleasant, poorly designed and overcrowded airport terminals in world. I had a few cappuccinos, caught up on the newspapers and made use of the free internet before catching the tube into London. All in all, not a bad experience, but having flown on these seats quite a few times over the past 15 or more years, I really think it is time to either upgrade the Club cabin on the 747's or just switch to newer Boeing 777's or the Airbus 380.