Business Class flight from USA to London

Yes- it was the best flight of my life! I slept only slightly worse than I would in my bed back home. If I could fly more often on BA business class, I would.

We flew BA business class on FF miles in 2003. Seattle to London in the flat-bed seats---it was great for the 9-hour flight.

I've been saving up FF miles ever since, and we're going again in a few weeks . . volcano willing.

I don't know that I'd be willing to pay for those seats, however. If you join BA Executive Club and get their credit card, you get almost enough miles right there to upgrade from Economy Plus to Business. That's a bit more affordable. (On the other hand, a FF seat on BA comes with hefty fuel surcharges and taxes, so they aren't "free".)

Marshall, if you're thinking of going business class at BA...look into their flight from JFK to London City Airport.

Only 32 seats on the entire plane and all are lie flat beds.

You can literally land at LCY and be out the terminal door in less than 20 minutes. They have a free shuttle to the Marriott hotel at Canary Wharf where you can partake in a shower. At JFK, you can eat before you get on board so you can sleep longer on the plane.

On the return, the flight stops in Shannon, Ireland for fuel. You go through U.S. Customs and Immigration there and the stop is no longer than 45 minutes. When you arrive at JFK, it's like arriving on a domestic flight.

Since you'd have to get from Greenville to DC anyway, look into this flight out of JFK.

Some great ideas. I'm already a member of their Executive Club, but I've now applied for one of their Visa cards to see if I can make use of their "companion ticket" program.

Also like the idea of flying from JFK, but that means my wife will want to spend some time in NY before or after (not a terrible thing I guess).

(OUCH! Just checked and The BA flights from JKF to LCY are about double the price as compared to IAD to LHR)

I was thinking of flying BA business class on my next trip but the difference in price was earth shattering to say the least. I could go to London several times in coach for what the price of the upgrade is.

No doubt it is not cheap. But I never sleep in coach and really want the experience of laying flat in a non-crowded section of the plane. Bucket list item.

Marshall,

Flew on BA business class (Club World) in 2008 with my wife for our anniversary trip to Europe. Flew from Vancouver, so had a bit longer to enjoy the experience. We used miles, otherwise we wouldn't have been able to afford the tickets. Different price comparisons for our itinerary were around $15,000 total for our two open jaw tickets. Definitely enjoyed the total experience. As someone else mentioned, Flyertalk has a great forum for BA Executive Club members and has tons of info about maximizing Club World. Make sure to take advantage of the lounges both at IAD and Heathrow prior to your departures from both. There was free food and drink (self-serve!) in the lounges as well as access to fast-track lanes for security and check in. We didn't get to use the arrivals lounge in Heathrow, but I've heard it's well worth it for the stop in the morning, and breakfast there is good. The lie flat seats were pretty comfortable, though we only slept a few hours as we were enjoying all the flight had to offer! Have a great trip! We're half way to saving up our miles for our next trip. Hopefully in a few years.

As an aside, if you have BA miles, the Flyertalk regulars say the best use of miles is often to buy a World Traveler Plus ticket and upgrade to Club World with miles.

I ended up booking a biz bed with OpenSkies, the all-business class airline subsidiary of BA. See flyopenskies.com.

We have a biz seat on the way home. Can't fly open jaw (they only fly to Orly) but the service will be very similar (BA lounges at Dulles and Orly). Only 80 passengers on the plane.

Fare was only $3500 combined which is like getting a companion ticket for free on BA.

We used BA a great deal when they still flew out of Charlotte. Got upgraded for free once, then we were hooked! Used miles to upgrade from then on. For hubby's 50th birthday we used BA's "Create your own" around the world program and used business class. Had to fly to Chicago to catch our London flight. It was wonderful. Their food is excellent and the seats are the best except for Quantas.