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After spending three nights at the Brussels Marriott Hotel Grand Place, it was time to start my journey home. I flew British Airways Euro Traveller from Brussels Airport (BRU) to London-Heathrow (LHR).

The flight was short at one hour and fifteen minutes. Service was minimal and not worth reviewing. I don’t typically review domestic US flights or short hops. Let me know if you think I should review these! After a couple of hours relaxing in the British Airways Galleries lounge, it was time to fly back to the United States.

British Airways 777-300 World Traveller London-Heathrow to New York-JFK: Review

Booking

I covered this in detail in my How I Booked: Amsterdam and Brussels post. To quickly explain, I booked this as a cash deal for $800 for the round-trip. I paid for the flight with my Chase Sapphire Reserve for 3X points. I also highly value the trip delay coverage even though I have an annual travel insurance policy. This coverage kicks in after six hours rather than twelve hours with the Chase Sapphire Preferred.

There are several ways to book this flight with points.

If booking through American Airlines, you should focus on these redemptions.

British Airways is also an option. If might be a bit better since you can transfer from Chase, American Express, and Capital One. This redemption would cost 13,000, the same amount you would spend flying to Hawaii.

But watch for taxes and fees. Especially for redemptions in business and first class. Economy taxes on this route are $312.

Check-In

Since this was booked as BRU-LHR-JFK-CMH, I needed to check-in at BRU. Since COVID, I have been unsuccessful checking in online even after submitting all required documents. I’ve given up trying. Checking-in with an agent was my only option.  

I arrived at BRU about three hours prior to my flight. Unfortunately, check-in didn’t begin until two hours prior to departure. Even then, the first agent didn’t show up for fifteen minutes. The first two people in line was a news crew covering President Biden in Brussels. When do I mention this? They had about twenty pieces of luggage each that needed to be weighed. Each person getting check-in was extremely slow. By the time I had boarding passes in hand, it was forty-five minutes prior to departure.

Luckily, security and immigration went quickly. It only took 15 minutes.

Boarding

Boarding for this flight was completely chaotic. There were about five agents working the boarding gate. There were zero communications from them. BA has had issues at LHR with not having enough ground staff.

The flight had been delayed by about an hour prior to departure. But it was another hour before boarding began. They first boarded anyone that needed assistance and families. Then it was about another thirty minutes before anyone else boarded. Due to my AA Platinum Pro status, I boarded with business class passengers.

We boarded at remote gates. This meant we had to board buses, drive to our plane and walk up some stairs. Every departure I’ve had from LHR has been this way. I love boarding this way!

Seat

Short story. I honestly don’t remember booking economy for this flight. I thought I booked British Airways’ premium economy option, World Traveller Plus. When I received by boarding pass, I was worried that I had been involuntary downgraded at some point. Looking back at my initial purchase, I did book economy for the return.

The cabin was arranged in a 3-3-3 seating arrangement. I was seating in an aisle seat towards the back of the plane. Luck wasn’t on my side today; a couple was seated next to me.

Waiting at my seat was an amenity kit containing ear plugs, toothbrush and eye mask. Passengers were also provided a thin blanket and small pillow. Both of which were chunked into the overhead bin. We were also provided some dinky headphones. If flying economy, I recommend bringing your own. These were super low quality.

The IFE or in-flight entertainment was small. About 6 inches in size. But it had a good selection of movies and shows. Image and sound quality was clear. I appreciate when the controllers are in front rather in the seat. Sometimes people accidentally hit buttons when its next to your legs.

There was a USB to charge your phone below the IFE screen.

I was pleasantly surprised with the size of the tray table. It easily accommodated by 16-inch Macbook. One nice feature was the tray table could fold in half. This was nice for keeping a drink handy after meal service.

Bathroom

Bathrooms are locked in the front and rear of the economy cabin. I only went to the options at the front of the cabin.

During my first visit right after the meal, they were pretty dirty. But after that, the crew kept them clean for the remainder of the flight.

The bathrooms weren’t anything special.

Food and Drink

After getting to our cruising altitude, flight attendants came by with a snack and drink. The snack was these sour cream and chive pretzel. They were pretty good.

About an hour later, the meal service began. The entire meal was served on one tray.

I chose the Baked Chicken Pie with Vegetables. It came with a chickpea salad and chocolate cherry crunch pot for dessert. The main was served with the foil still one. A bottle of water as also provided.

The meal was described as a chicken pot pie so I envisioned a crust on the top. Instead, it was mashed potatoes. This meal wasn’t great. I took a couple of bites and stopped. The mashed potatoes weren’t bad, but the chicken was really salty and rubbery.

British Airways 777-300 World Traveller London-Heathrow to New York-JFK Bottom Line

When flying to Europe, I always try to fly British Airways. I have found the service is much overall much better regardless of class of service. It also makes the transfer process at London-Heathrow much more easily.

Aside from the delay and crazy boarding process, the flight was uneventful. The seat was comfortable throughout the flight. I wasn’t a fan of the food. It would have been improved. But I don’t fly for the food. I fly for the seat.

With this trip in the books, it was time to get excited for my next trip!

These opinions in this article are the author’s not those of a bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.