British Airways Archives - Golf Hotel Whiskey

Round the world in seven days for charity

Richard Tams, British Airways’ head of UK & Ireland sales and Management Consultant and oneworld Emerald top tier frequent flyer, Andrew Solum, are warming up for a globe-trotting week’s challenge to raise money for charity.

The tenet of their challenge is simple: make it round the world by hook or by crook (or in reality by oneworld partners) within seven days in order to raise at least £20,000 for the Comic Relief Children’s charity Flying Start.

The daring duo will set off on September 15 from the oneworld headquarters in New York. That day they will start with American Airlines from New York to Chicago then on to the Tokyo Narita international hub of Japan Airlines.

The following day they will fly with Japan Airlines from Tokyo to the Hong Kong home of Cathay Pacific and on September 17 undertake a three-flight schedule from Hong Kong to Kuala Lumpur with Cathay Pacific, Kuala Lumpur to Singapore with Malaysia Airlines, which is on track to join oneworld at the turn of the year. They will then travel on from Singapore to London with Qantas arriving early on September 18.

British Airways will carry them on to Amman, base of Royal Jordanian.

On September 19 they will fly from Amman to Frankfurt with Royal Jordanian, then with airberlin to Germany’s capital city.

On September 20, they will take to the air again with airberlin to Frankfurt, then off with LAN to Madrid. From its base at the Spanish capital, Iberia will then carry them to the Moscow hub of S7, landing early on September 21, before a swift transfer to S7 for a flight to St Petersburg.

The following day (September 22) they will begin the last leg of their journey heading with Finnair from St Petersburg to its own Helsinki home then on to Heathrow to connect on to their final flight, a British Airways jet from London to New York arriving at 8.55pm local time.

In total they will cover just over 30,000 miles, flying along the way on every oneworld member airline and via 11 of the alliance’s major hubs.

Tams said: “I’ve done a lot of flying in my time at British Airways, but never so many destinations in such a short period. We’ll be going through

16 airports, flying on ten different aircraft types and visiting 11 countries on 12 airlines. We won’t even have time to stop and enjoy the views!

Mr Solum said "it will be tough going on standby staff tickets with no guarantee where we’ll be seated, but at the end of the day, every penny we raise will make a difference to a child – and that is really our driving force for this challenge."

Tams added “We’re enormously grateful to our oneworld partners for supporting our challenge – it’s a great reflection of the reach the alliance has. I’d also like to thank our hotel partners in this, the Global Hotel Alliance, Starwood and Marriott.”

“The travel trade have also already been really supportive and we’ve already hit £8,000+ of our target but we really want to reach at least £20,000 so we’re asking everyone to dig deep and help us out. Anyone can pledge money at:

http://donate.ba-flyingstart.com/funraiser/roundtheoneworld.”

The money raised will all go directly to Flying Start, the global charity partnership between British Airways and Comic Relief UK. It will help to improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of children living in the UK and in some of the poorest countries across the world. The aim of the charity is to help create lasting change by giving children and their families the chance to start supporting themselves.

This is a guest post from my friend Andrew Solum about his upcoming charity adventure.

On Board Boeing’s New 787 Dreamliner

A couple of weeks ago British Airways invited me to visit their newly-extended maintenance facility at Heathrow to see the new Boeing 787 which was visiting briefly. I had seen them on the production line in America but we weren’t allowed to take photos, so this was a great opportunity to see a fantastic new plane and to share some pictures with you.

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British Airways was doing some tests to make sure that the 787 could fit in the new hangar and the maintenance cradles they had built for it. I was just looking for a photo opportunity!

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New Rolls Royce Trent 1000 engines with this interesting scallop shape on the nacelle, which I believe is suppose to reduce noise.

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The first impression is that it is very smooth, like a dolphin. Perhaps it’s the nose. And is it just me, but is there a hint of Comet in the lines?

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We got a brief look at the cockpit. Note the head-up displays and the five large LCD screens.

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Other planes have little trackballs but I was interested to see that the 787 has a trackpad like a laptop.

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Surprisingly few knobs, dials and switches. As planes get more digital, the cockpits get simpler. I think even I could master this lot.

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This is the forward crew rest area. Very cosy.

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This picture shows the dimmable windows and Boeing’s business class concept with outward-facing windows (for a better view).

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Smooth. Composite structure and advanced aerodynamics are part of the reason that Boeing is claiming 20% lower fuel consumption. We got to see how engineers repair composites. I had seen some of this before after a golf ball hit the wing of an SR22 that I fly. (Don’t worry, it was on the ground at the time.)

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In service, I don’t think there would be so much space for walking around! But you can see the interior lighting system, cabin height and large windows in this picture.

I was impressed to see the 787 up close. Yes, it’s a few years late but some things are worth waiting for.

On-board the delivery flight for a new British Airways 777

I love visiting aircraft factories and this is why, when British Airways invited me to fly to Seattle and witness the delivery of a new 777-300ER airliner, I jumped at the chance. I fly a lot, both as a pilot and a passenger, and I really wanted to see how Boeing built them and what a new plane actually felt like.

I flew out with a few other invited guests (full disclosure: BA paid for my trip. Thanks, guys!) a couple of days before the delivery. This gave me the chance to visit the Concorde Lounge at Heathrow Terminal 5. Normally reserved for the elite of the elite frequent flyers, this isn’t your regular lounge. Waitress service, food at your seat or in a private dining room, vintage Bollinger on tap, private cabanas for a nap or shower – it’s more like a deluxe resort hotel.

We spent a day visiting the Museum of Flight and an afternoon in Seattle. It’s a fantastic museum for avianerds like me. Lots of planes to look at, inside and out, plus a a tour round an ex-Air Force One and a B-29 wrapped in plastic like a billionaire kid’s Christmas present.

In the evening we had dinner with the BA team who were taking delivery of the aircraft – engineers, pilots, crew and, of course, finance people to handle the multi-hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars transaction. And, no, they wouldn’t tell me how much the paid for the plane but they did let me hold the receipt!

We had a ground floor tour of the factory. It is the biggest building in the world and it’s amazing to see plane parts being moved around like they were were oranges in a basket. And the 747-8 and 777 production lines were very impressive with six aircraft at various stages. We also saw the 787 line but, at Boeing’s request, nobody took pictures.

Then, a massive birthday surprise, they invited me to cut the ribbon.

The plane was due to fly us back to Cardiff where it would undergo final checks and have the rest of its seats installed but it wasn’t like a regular flight. For one thing, there were only 20 or 30 people on board and so the captain could do a full power take off. I’ve only ever had this experience three times before, twice on Concorde where you can feel the power being applied, and once on a 767 departing out of John Wayne Airport. Basically, it’s a full throttle, maximum acceleration, maximum rate of climb departure and it *was* quick.

One of the Boeing staff filmed it:

Another big difference was the interior. The plane only had premium economy and economy seats so the First and Club World cabins were completely empty. It was very weird – everyone had this big grin on their face. I won’t say that we played football in there on the flight back but nobody can prove that we didn’t.

We also got to see the crew rest area, which is more like a submarine that anything else but I think it must be more comfortable than sitting in a chair for the whole flight.

The highlight of the flight back was the view of the Northern Lights over Greenland. I’ve never seen them before and it was an awesome experience in the true sense of the word. Unfortunately, my camera didn’t do a good job with it so all I can show you is the passengers all craning for a better view.

To cap the trip off, when we arrived at Cardiff, we had a tour of the BA Maintenance facility there. They had 747s stripped back to their bare metal for scheduled maintenance and at the end of the hangar were all the seats for our plane.

It’s very impressive and the guys there take a lot of pride in their work. Not least the staff in the canteen who provided us with a proper Welsh breakfast after our flight.

It’s an extraordinary experience being on a plane where you sort of know everyone there. It’s more like a party than a flight. I think everyone was very excited to be part of the inaugural flight of a brand new plane. And it was brand new. Everything was shiny and clean. All the seat belts were nicely folded. The screens and windows were unsmudged and there was no stale old coffee under the galley floor. If you’ve ever bought a new car, that’s what it was like. And yes, it did have that new plane smell.

PS One of the other guests on this trip has written up a great post about it. Check it out!