Leaving the Concorde Room to get the train to the B gates, I got to the gate with plenty of time to spare – quick tip always get the lifts at T5 when going to/from the trains – it is faster than the double escalators.

I got all excited when I got to the gate as it looked like out 747 was going to have new First Class:

However, when I followed the jet bridge I realised I was looking at the wrong aircraft, and I was going to enjoy ‘old’ First Class for the 9 hours to Miami:

Boarding was fine, and I was escorted to 2K, my seat for the flight. Originally booked with only 5 passengers, the First cabin was nearly full by the time we took off. A very grumpy Scottish architect was complaining to everyone who would listen from his 1A seat about how awful BA was – the dreadful old First cabin, having to fight through World Traveller Plus to get off, etc. etc. After take off he was still complaining and the Cabin Service Director spent 15 minutes or so listening to the stories about how much he spent and how important he was. She looked this all up on the iPad provided by BA. (In contrast my chat from the CSD lasted 30 seconds, I suspect a result of my low revenue score, which the CSD knows from the iPad). The Scottish Complainer kept it up so long one of the co-pilots came down to try and calm him. He must have spent 30 minutes listening to the same complaints. Neither the CSD nor the co-pilot could fix his problems.

You can see the menu and wine list by clicking this link:
BA Menu LHR-MIA Mar 2013

Images from the menu selection I enjoyed are below:
Amuse-bouche

Cream of Carrot and Orange Soup

Seared fillet of British Beef

Cheese Plate

Sticky Toffee and date pudding

As is often my plan, I didn’t have anything from the Afternoon Tea selection.

The service was friendly enough and the course came along as soon as I had finished the previous one. The main problem was that the guy sitting in 2A didn’t close his window shade until about 2 hours before we landed, making it impossible to rest or sleep, even with eye shades on.

Upon landing the crew did an excellent job of trying to hold back World Traveller Plus passengers and getting the First Class through to Door 2 to disembark. I had noticed that the Air Berlin flight was already on the ground and so went as quickly as I could to Immigration. It is a massive hike at Miami now, probably a good 10 minute at my very fast walk/run. Arriving at the Immigration Hall there was already a substantial queue and having not been selected by BA for the trial of Global Entry I joined the line. The line moved, but slowly and after 30 minutes I was only 1/3rd of the way through. The MIA airport staff then moved the line in front of me, 50-75 people, to the US residents line, which was not empty and so they added to their wait times – I was lucky I missed that particular bit of crowd control. It appeared to happen when the Visitors line reached the back of the queue barriers and started to line up in the terminal. I suspect this is their instruction when this happens.

About 25 minutes later I was in the queue for Customs, which took 10-15 minutes, before emerging to a bright and sunny Miami.

Summary
Nice flight, good service and food, but felt very much as the poor relation (aka Mr. Doesn’t Spend Enough with BA) in the cabin. Miami immigration is to avoided at all costs.