- I'm flying to the UK today.
(upbeat music)
- Well Sam, have a great trip down to Cardiff
with a BA to say farewell to one of our final 747.
- [Sam] Captain, you're a legend
on the 747 and now on the A350.
The hot meals are back.
- [Male Flight Attendant] Yeah, the hot meals are back.
- [Female Flight Attendant] We've got two options.
- [Jack] So there'll be no more boxes after that.
- [Male Flight Attendant] There'll be no more boxes.
- There's reason you should be confident to travel.
I'm very confident.
- What's your BA experience like
and what's travelling COVID like for you?
- When there's a travel corridor
and the air bubble forms between UK and UAE,
the passenger that travels immediately bounces back.
(upbeat music)
(light music)
- I'm flying to the UK today to see the last BA747.
But first, going to fly the latest A350 to London today.
- Hi there, it's Captain Mike Blythe here.
I'm joined by Andy Brian and Nick Sharrat.
We're operating the BA104 back to London Heathrow
on one of our lovely new A350s.
This is our third one that we've got at the moment.
We've got a flight time
of just seven hours and forty minutes.
Lovely flying conditions,
hopefully some good views along the way.
- Well Sam, have a great trip down to Cardiff with BA
to say farewell to one of our final 747s.
I hope you have a great trip in Cardiff.
I'm sure you'll get a very warm welcome
from a great place and all the people there.
This is my colleague Nick, who's actually had
the pleasure of flying a 747 for his career.
- Oh my god, Captain, you're a legend,
flown the 747 and now on the A350.
- That's it, I was on it for nearly 15 years,
and it was a pleasure to fly her, queen of the skies, Sam.
(men talking indistinctly)
(attendant speaking over PA system)
(plane engine whirring)
(light music)
- Hello Sir, just unlocking the door for you,
so that you can fully utilise this during the flight.
- [Sam] Thank you very much.
- You're very welcome.
- This is actually the standard now for business class.
You've got this suite door enclosure.
Now, having said that, this suite door is quite low here.
It's not very private.
- I have your complete amenity kit.
- [Sam] Thank you.
- A little Harrogate water for you for the flight.
(relaxed music)
- Hi, I'm Pedro, I'm just starting
the bar service on our British Airways flight.
So everything's pre-packaged,
so we have some nuts here and now we've got to prepare
gin and tonic for one of our customers.
So we do you have ice and garnish with lemon.
And then all the drinks are just individual.
So we just provide the gin and a little tonic,
and we just give it like this to the customer.
- [Flight Attendant] I cracked this open already.
(upbeat music)
- Mixing my own drinks in the suite in plastic, cheers.
- So hi, we're just about to start our hot meal service.
It's lunch today.
So everything's pre-packed individually.
So to reduce the amount of contact we have,
we only open this section of the box, take the bread out,
and the meal goes straight in the box,
and then we close the box,
and we give it to the customer like this.
Today, one of our customers is having the chilli chicken.
- [Sam] Ah the meals are hot now, the hot meals are back.
- [Pedro] Yeah, the hot meals are back.
- [Female Flight Attendant] Yes, we've got two options.
- [Sam] Ah, good, very good,
I was expecting a cold sandwich or cold meal, cold boxes.
- [Pedro] No, no, meals are back,
so we have vegetarian options and non-vegetarian options.
- [Female Flight Attendant] So this is the chilli chicken.
- [Sam] So you put the hot meal inside this area.
- [Pedro] Inside the box, yes absolutely.
And then we just close the box back in.
Then we set it like this for the customer,
and we offer them another drink.
Oh also, Sam, in January,
we're going to bring the four meal trays
and hot meals for our Club World customers.
- [Sam] There will be no more boxes after that?
- [Pedro] There will be no more boxes,
so our customers have that to look forward to as well.
- Today, our lunch menu is a chilli chicken with rice
or the pasta with the tomato sauce, which would you like?
- [Sam] Chicken, please.
- Sure, no problem.
- I have to confess I wasn't a big fan of box meal
in premium classes, but after opening the box
and seeing, you know, the salad, the dessert,
the cheese, this chocolate, and everything is there.
It doesn't feel so bad now.
- Lunch is ready in our World Traveller Economy Cabin.
Today on the menu, we have chicken bulgur,
which is an Arabic type of chicken.
Or a vegetarian option which is chestnut ragu.
To minimise touch, we have a box that contains a starter,
a dessert, and a bottle of water for our customers.
- You know what's bad about COVID flying
is that people stay with themselves.
They don't social anymore.
But today I met a fan and follower, Neil,
who's actually a travel agent from the UK.
And he has some great things to say
about the flying experience.
- I think you should have confidence to fly.
Um, the stats show that COVID cases
are absolutely minimal when travelling.
It was 1 in 40 million or something, it was really low.
There's reason you should be confident to travel.
I'm very confident, I've even brought
my pregnant girlfriend with me as well,
so that shows that I'm very confident
in the system at the moment.
And I think, I don't think it's going away.
But I think the measures will be relaxed over a period
of time, but it's great to feel safe in the air.
- Just stocking the bar area for the Club kitchen.
We still have the majority of our snacks available.
Although we don't have refrigerator snacks at the moment,
but hopefully they'll be back again with us soon.
- So Sam, did you know that all of us crew
were on the 747 originally
and then we've all been trained on the 350?
- [Sam] You know, what's it like for the crew,
working on the 747,
now working on the latest aircraft, A350?
- The galleys are a lot bigger on the 747,
so you have a bit more space to manoeuvre,
whereas here it's a bit more...
- Crowded.
- It's smaller, yeah, it's a bit smaller.
- [Sam] Oh, so 747 has bigger galleys.
- Yeah.
- [Sam] So easier to work on?
- People say it's more crew friendly the 747.
- [Sam] And you miss it?
- I miss it, yeah. - Yeah, definitely.
- Everything works on here, though.
- Yeah, that's true.
- I like your jumper as well.
- [Sam] You like my jumper?
- Yeah, I like your jumper, it's very cool.
- This jumper, you like?
This is actually a special edition jumper, you know.
This is a festive season to remember the big jets of 747.
- Aw, we miss it.
- We miss the 74 lots.
- How did you enjoy your food onboard today?
- Weirdly, I love it, I like cheap plane food.
You know, the boxes and stuff,
I actually had both meals, the chicken and the...
- Chestnut ragu.
- The chestnut ragu.
- Oh, you're a legend,
you had two meals, you like cheap food.
- I had both meals, I love it so much.
- What's your BA experience like,
and what's travelling COVID like for you?
- So I only usually fly BA,
and the experience is always fantastic.
But with COVID recently, I feel for these guys,
the airlines and the guys working on the airlines mainly.
But as a customer and consumer,
I think the experience is not as good.
Being part of the Executive Club,
you don't get to enjoy the perks,
the benefits, that you usually would.
- Ah, the lounges, some lounges are closed.
- The lounges, the fast line queues, things like that.
So that's the pain, but you know it's nothing compared
to what the actual airlines themselves have to face.
- I'll tell you what, things will come back.
- I hope so.
- Because COVID's going to be gone,
COVID's going to be gone in a year, things has to come back.
It has to come back.
The economy just changed and going downhill.
- And I think people should be encouraged
to take flights and support the airlines, right.
- Absolutely.
- As much as they can.
- They've been burning like millions everyday.
(light music)
I took a long nap, it's been a quiet flight,
about an hour and a half to go now, just over Frankfurt.
And they're serving a second snack.
That's long enough, the problem is the leg.
This is a common problem with this type of seat.
My leg couldn't turn, I mean I couldn't raise the leg.
There's a table and TV on top,
so I can only twist in a side position to sleep better,
but anyway, I rest quite well, I must say,
even wearing a mask, I slept quite well.
- For afternoon tea today, we have a chicken cesar sandwich,
we have a turkey and cheese croissant,
or cream cheese and sun-dried tomato croissant.
Which one would you prefer?
(light music)
- [Captain] Weather wise, at Heathrow at the moment,
it's clear-ish skies with a very light breeze from the west.
The temperature, I think you'll notice
the difference there, it's 6 degrees Celsius.
- Oh, 6 degrees in UK.
Okay, I notice one thing is that
this flight is completely full.
There's actually a lot of leisure traveller,
a lot of families with young children, babies,
which is a great sign.
When there's a travel corridor,
and the air bubble forms between UK and the UAE,
the passenger that travels
immediately bounces back, which is a great sign.
That we come out of COVID and all the people
will travel again, people can't wait to travel.
This is a really great sign, and for myself,
I can't wait tomorrow to go to Cardiff to see the last 747.
(light music)
- [Flight Attendant] Agree, thank you,
doors to disarm, and cross check.
- Well, Sam, welcome to Heathrow.
I hope you enjoyed the flight.
We've paid our own little
particular tribute to the 747 fleet,
do you know what the flight time was today from Dubai?
- I think that sounds like seven hour,
47 minutes, the flight time?
- [Captain] It certainly is.
- That's a sign, well done, well done!
(upbeat music)
- The landing has been saved,
and now all the retro BA747 liberate.
- This is our new toy, this is Negus.
There we go.
- I'll take one too.
- We have one for you.
- [Sam] One for me, yes.
Wow, this is actually quite scary.
Controller just gave us a hand,
I think the 747's about to take off from Cardiff.
Oh yeah!
- It's going to be difficult
for them to land in these conditions.
(cheering)
- That was the best landing I've seen
on a 747, was stunning.
(upbeat music)
- Off, that's the aircraft shut down.
- It's an end of an era, end of the chapter.
16 years of my career flying British Airways, 747 400s.
And now we say good night,
so thank you queen of the skies, it's been a blast.
(ding)