There is a video trip report as well - Click https://youtu.be/yz1YlNdarDw

This is a trip taken in December 2019
All photos are ©TravelWithDan and were taken by me.

Airline: British Airways
Flight Number: BA178
From: New York JFK (JFK/KJFK)
To: London Heathrow (LHR/EGLL)
Aircraft: Boeing 747-436
Registration: G-CIVX
Cabin: Club World / Business Class
Seat Number: 63B (Forward Facing Upper Deck)

As with any day flying from the east coast of the United States, the day started very early with a drive in not that nice morning from the city of New York to John F Kennedy. We promptly arrived at terminal seven just before 6 am and made our way into the terminal.

A New York Morning by Dan, on Flickr

Terminal 7 by Dan, on Flickr

After a quick check-in we walked through the priority security lane, and experienced (unfortunately) typical US security. It took 10 minutes to get through, which in itself isn't that bad but it was the attitude from one TSA member!! He was shouting at people, and not in a friendly way. This one person was simply asking a question and got berated! After leaving and walking into the main Terminal, we made our way round to the Hudson news outlet and I purchased my normal pre-flight purchases (American chips) and hovered around the gate while they prepared for boarding.

Hudson News, JFK Terminal 7 by Dan, on Flickr

Boarding started promptly and we made away on board and up the famous staircase.

IMG_2016 by Dan, on Flickr

Today's flight, BA178 was operated by India Victor x-ray, a Boeing 747–436 delivered to British Airways in 1998.

G-CIVX by Dan, on Flickr

On the Upper Deck in Club World for this flight I was sat in a aisle seat. I always try for a window for obvious reasons but was unlucky today and was being gracious and giving my partner's mother the window seat (could not take a photo of my seat at the time as the neighbour was settling in)

Upper Deck Club World 63J by Dan, on Flickr

The welcome champagne and amenity bag promptly arrived, and I asked the question any avgeek would ask.

IMG_2026 by Dan, on Flickr

As it was a busy flight, and I noticed that the cockpit door was open and boarding would still be sometime, so I went and I asked the upper deck cabin crew if it would be possible to visit the flight deck. The Boeing 747 is one of my favourite aircraft and I always ask (because if you don't ask you don't get) after a quick call to the cockpit I was lead down the aisle and greeted by the captain and first officer of the flight. We had a quick chat about this amazing aircraft, the planned retirement (which at that time was a few years away) and the captain even gave up his seat and let me sit down and took my photo. Apparently on the walk back to my seat I was grinning like a Cheshire cat!

IMG_2028 by Dan, on Flickr

We pushback on time and made the taxi to the runway and took off into the skies of New York.

Menu's had already been handed out, and as this was the day flight back to London the service on board would be in breakfast followed by a light meal before landing.

I chose the fruit plate to start followed by the mix grill which I always choose and always enjoy (although I am not a tomato or mushroom fan) the meal was filling and washed down with a cup of tea and maybe another glass of champagne.

IMG_2047 by Dan, on Flickr
IMG_2050 by Dan, on Flickr

I settled in for the flight across the Atlantic and watched a couple of TV shows and movies on the in-flight entertainment screen and also took a walk a few times. I naturally visited the club kitchen on the main deck once or twice and grabbed a snack for my movie viewing.

IMG_2055 by Dan, on Flickr

Midway across the Atlantic we hit a little chop, it wasn't that bad but the seatbelt signs did go on and I did have to drink my jack and Coke a little too fast to make sure it did not spill and go to waste. That did mean I had to order another one when the seatbelt signs turned off a little while later, what are you going to do!

About an hour and 30 minutes outside of London the final meal was served which was the toughest plate, now I'm not a fan of some of the things that were on it however I did pick up a little bit and did also get an extra scone (scone or scone?) The Dessert was stunning!!!

IMG_2072 by Dan, on Flickr

IMG_2076 by Dan, on Flickr

We touched down a little past 7 pm and taxied to the B gates in Terminal Five where we took the short walk to the transit train to Terminal 5A and immigration which for that time a night was very quiet picked up our bags and waved goodbye to the airport.

IMG_2082 by Dan, on Flickr
IMG_2083 by Dan, on Flickr
IMG_2084 by Dan, on Flickr

Little did I know that less than three months later the UK due to Covid and Indian Victor x-ray would be retired from the British Airways fleet, along with the rest of the Boeing 747 fleet. India Victor x-ray was retired in March 2020 and is now stored in Terul, Spain

IMG_3446 by Dan, on Flickr

There is a video trip report as well - Click https://youtu.be/yz1YlNdarDw

Thank you for reading. Other Trip Reports available:
British Airways Boeing 767 Club Europe LHR-EDI - https://www.airliners.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1457671
British Airways Boeing 747 Club World LHR-JFK - https://www.airliners.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1457499

Very nice. My wife and I had a similar experience westbound coming back from our honeymoon. seats 64A, 64B. Did you take advantage of the Arrivals Lounge?

BOACJrJet wrote:

Very nice. My wife and I had a similar experience westbound coming back from our honeymoon. seats 64A, 64B. Did you take advantage of the Arrivals Lounge?

The arrivals lounge is only open until just after lunch if I recall? This flight arrived just after 7PM so it was closed.

Accordingt0dan wrote:

BOACJrJet wrote:

Very nice. My wife and I had a similar experience westbound coming back from our honeymoon. seats 64A, 64B. Did you take advantage of the Arrivals Lounge?

The arrivals lounge is only open until just after lunch if I recall? This flight arrived just after 7PM so it was closed.

Right, I missed the fact that you took the morning departure from JFK. We started our honeymoon by taking one of the morning departures from JFK in Club but we were only seated on the lower deck. Nice trip report, brings back happy memories.

BOACJrJet wrote:

Accordingt0dan wrote:

BOACJrJet wrote:

Very nice. My wife and I had a similar experience westbound coming back from our honeymoon. seats 64A, 64B. Did you take advantage of the Arrivals Lounge?

The arrivals lounge is only open until just after lunch if I recall? This flight arrived just after 7PM so it was closed.

Right, I missed the fact that you took the morning departure from JFK. We started our honeymoon by taking one of the morning departures from JFK in Club but we were only seated on the lower deck. Nice trip report, brings back happy memories.

It does indeed! I will keep going back to this to remember the good times on the jumbo.

Its amazing how this seems so nostalgic now. Im glad you were able to write this up - and the daytime eastbound is rare too. My last 747 trip was back in 2017 on BA from SFO-LHR, i wish i had written a trip report now, hindsight is a wonderful thing.

jrfspa320 wrote:

Its amazing how this seems so nostalgic now. Im glad you were able to write this up - and the daytime eastbound is rare too. My last 747 trip was back in 2017 on BA from SFO-LHR, i wish i had written a trip report now, hindsight is a wonderful thing.

It is indeed! I always take photos and videos on planes, never really with the intention or writing a Trip Report sometimes, I just do it out of habit. I'm so glad of many things from this trip, especially asking to see the cockpit! Just that one memory makes me feel happy, especially as the crew were so nice and even took my phone from me to take a picture of me sitting in the Pilots seat!

It is such an incredible aircraft it's sad to see It go! However its great that there are many stored examples around the world, from 001 in Seattle, the hotel in Amsterdam, the Evergreen one (with the slide) and of course the BA 100 Livery fleet in the UK.

Excellent report, thanks for sharing.

I've often wondered, if there were an emergency, and one had to evacuate by slide from the upper deck, would your pants spontaneously catch fire by the time you reached the bottom of the slide?

DFW17L wrote:

Excellent report, thanks for sharing.

I've often wondered, if there were an emergency, and one had to evacuate by slide from the upper deck, would your pants spontaneously catch fire by the time you reached the bottom of the slide?

Thank you for the comment (don't forget to watch the video as well, links at the top and bottom)

The slide is indeed interesting, from some videos I've seen it doesn't look as steep as I thought it would. This one really shows it well (its from the KLM 747) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITKylCLLKtk

BA was the first airline I flew in C cabin upstairs (I can claim KLM upstairs and AF in the A380 in J). i miss her already. I always enjoyed the upstairs exit row. Thanks for bringing back memories.

Fun fact: VX was also the same 747 that was featured in a documentary on YouTube about the Boeing 747-400 D-check.