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Taken 28 April 2008 from New York, NY (John F. Kennedy International Airport) - JFK to London, England (Heathrow Airport) - LHR

BA174 left on time and arrived in London early; coming back BA113 did the same except in the other direction; hence 10/10.

BA174 is not a sleeper service so a full meal was served, and the food was perfectly good, and the Spanish wine excellent. Finally BA seem to recognize they are a British airline and served British - and only British cheeses. I think it is good for airlines of whatever nationality to let passengers sample local products when possible.

BA113 served a late lunch, or early dinner - never quite know what it is. The chicken tasted good, but I am not sure whether the sauce was mushroom, or just a load of congealed scum on the plate. This really is a good flight to get from London as it arrives in New York when the rest of the BA terminal is empty of arriving passengers. If it arrives early it normally has to wait for a flight to leave the terminal, but that does not take long. Should the flight be operating late however, it can land at the same time as an Iberian flight from Spain, and BA115 from London, then the terminal is like a mad house.

Since they changed to the new layout, seating is more comfortable, but I still hate facing backwards - no matter how much free Champagne.

Audio/Video is perfectly adequate, but more and more I find the comfort of my iPod or DVD player preferable.

BA website is good for checking in, seat allocation etc. and on this occasion even security was not too bad. At JFK business class were allowed to use the first class security, and as out flight operated from Terminal 4, security was very quick there too as many flight had transferred to Terminal 5.

As to value, well, this I scored low. I paid $1,000 for my ticket and upgraded from Traveller Plus to Business which is pretty good, but the service really was similar to Virgin's Economy Plus, and the price about the same. If I had paid full fare, I would not have been impressed.

However, British Airways is reliable, safe, and even managed to deliver my two suitcases in record time. In fact at JFK we landed at 18.05 and I was through immigration, got luggage, cleared customs and was driving out of the airport at 18.22. The fact that British Airways operate their own terminal at JFK and LHR is a major advantage over other airlines - and for this reason alone, they will almost always get my business.