Review: British Airways B787 Business Class, Cairo-London

British Airways B787 business class Cairo to London

This is the first flight of my Cairo to Honolulu trip and I was really excited to be flying on British Airways' Boeing 787-9 especially since I have not really flown long haul in business class with them. It has also been years since I last flew with them so I was looking forward to see some changes specifically now that they have started with DO&CO Catering.


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Flight: BA154
Departure time in Cairo (CAI): 8:00 Terminal 2
Arrival time in London (LHR): 12:10 Terminal 5
Aircraft: Boeing 787-9
Seat: 6J
Duration: 5h 10m
Date of flight: April 3, 2018
*This is a revenue ticket, Business Class flight #154

Video from my YouTube Channel πŸ“Ί


Cairo Airport Terminal 2

Taking the 5am airport shuttle from JW Marriott Cairo where I stayed for a night, I arrived at the airport around 5:15am.

Terminal 2 is beautiful and modern, and the palm trees reminded me of the airport in Dubai πŸ˜‰

Check-in, Counters 230-239

I headed straight to one of the counters for premium passengers and was helped by a friendly agent who reminded me that I should check-in my laptop (if I had one) as per UK law. Check-in process went smoothly and moments later, I got my boarding passes to LHR, JFK and LAX as well as a lounge invitation.

New UK Restrictions for electronic devices shown on the screen

I went thru (pre) security check, passport control and another security check where you had to take off your shoes. I'm not against taking off my shoes during such controls as long as airports are providing shoe covers like in Stockholm Arlanda Airport, Madrid and Barcelona. I actually had to do it a lot of times at the airports in the US during this trip so I probably would be taking my own shoe cover with me in the future just to be safe πŸ˜‰

Duty Free Shops

Cairo Terminal 2 duty free shops

Business Class Lounge

The Business Class Lounge was still pretty empty when I came although it never really got busy during the whole time I was there. Again, I had to take off my shoes to get in and to leave the lounge as there was security check (again). Around 6:50am, I left the lounge for the 7am boarding.

Aircraft, Boeing 787-9

The lovely British Airways Boeing 787-9 😍

Boarding, Gate E4

Bags were checked once again for pre-boarding. Around 7:23am, boarding started beginning with those needing assistance and those with kids, followed by premium passengers and those with status.

Cabin, First Class

My seat was just behind the first class cabin so I was "forced" to take a picture of it. Maybe someday, I'll get the chance to fly first class on this aircraft.

Cabin, Business Class

The business class cabin on British Airways' 787 is in a 2-3-2 configuration with a smaller cabin from rows 6-7 behind the first class cabin and a larger cabin behind it separated by the galley and lavatories from rows 10-13, with a total of 42 seats.

Seat, 6J

My seat is an aisle seat and is forward facing while the seat beside me is a window seat and is rear facing.

In front of my seat is a footstool.

Footstool

A storage for mobiles, amenity kit, etc.

Moments after settling in, I was offered some predeparture beverage and I settled for a glass of water. Newspapers were also offered although strangely, they only had Arabic ones. Menu cards were also given shortly after.

Already waiting at my seat was a pillow, a blanket and the headphones.

Blanket and headphones

Safety card, Boeing 787-9

High Life magazine, Club World seat guide, duty free magazine

Headphone jack and entertainment controller

Seat controls

Privacy divider

Entertainment

Personal screen

From the movie selection, I ended up watching Jumanji 😍

Airshow

Airshow enroute to London

The crew also started with the "spray" of the cabin. Around 8:06, we began our pushback followed by the safety demo of the crew minutes later although it was quite difficult to see what they were demonstrating from my seat πŸ‘Ž Minutes later, we had a smooth take off.

Dining

British Airways business class menu card and wine list

Breakfast menu

Club Kitchen

The Bar

The champagnes on board were Champagne Henriot Brut Souverain, Champagne Castelnau Brut Reserve and Champagne Castelnau Brut RosΓ©.

To start the meal service, hot towels were offered, followed by the crew taking drinks and breakfast choice. I chose the Smoked Salmon instead of Fresh fruit and the English Breakfast instead of Cinnamon Pancake, Continental Breakfast and Plain Omelette. For my drinks, I opted for a cup of green tea. Around 9:10am, my salmon was served together with some muesli, bread, jam and butter.

Smoked Salmon, Muesli, bread

My breakfast πŸ˜‹

English Breakfast

The meal was lovely, thanks to the DO&CO catering. I was offered refill of drinks and asked if everything was okay which was a πŸ‘ To end the meal service, a bottle of mineral water was given.

Club Kitchen

Around 10:05am, the Club Kitchen was set up.

Club Kitchen in the Galley area

Club Kitchen in the Galley area

View

View taken by my seatmate, Mr. David while having our breakfast, passing by Greece πŸ˜‰

Lavatory

The lavatory had two bottles of SPA Restore luxury hand balm and a bottle of luxury hand wash by The White Company.

British Airways B787-9 lavatory

Landing in Heathrow

The crew also offered landing cards and fast track cards but since I was only transiting, I didn't really need one. Around 40 minutes before landing, the captain came on the PA to give us updated flight information including the weather in London and the temperature of 12 degrees. He also added that we would start to land in 20 minutes and that the seat belt sign would be turned on so it's better to use the lavatory now. I later found out that this announcement of the captain 40 minutes before landing was a standard as it was the case on my flight from LHR to JFK and JFK to LHR.

We landed in Heathrow Airport around 12:09pm and reached the gate 6 minutes later.

CONCLUSION

There it was, my first ever long haul flight with British Airways in business class! I thought the design of the cabin was nice and the dining experience was almost excellent, thanks to the them switching to DO&CO. The service was friendly and the crew took time to talk with the passengers. On the other hand, the seat was not spacious so I could only imagine it is a much bigger issue to those who are much taller/bigger than me. The footstool of the passenger behind me was also a bit annoying everytime he uses it as it was not that stable and sort of rocks my seat as a result. Inerestingly, I did not get any amenity kit on this flight although I got one on the return. Still, I have to say I really enjoyed this flight and for the fare I paid, it was definitely worth it 😍