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Going again shortly and it will be Virgin again this time, always good service from them.
What is good about BA is the service. Every time I;ve used them, they have really looked after you. Its good that you get free booze in economy too, so at least you can have a few jars and fall asleep.
BA business class is crap. The seats and layout is truly rubbish.
Terminal 5 - nothing wrong with it. perfectly fine, and better than T3 which is always rammed. t5 is dedicated to BA, so you tend to get more business types, which means its generally smoother to get through and quieter. The lounges are quite good too, so look into getting a pass. If you are going long haul, I think that's worth it, so you can relax, get a good meal and have a few jars.
Most of the gates in t5 are not too far away either.
Best airlines IMO are Emirates, Singapore. Thai are not bad. Turkish can be great if you get a good crew, but the service can be really poor. Most disappointing was Cathay Pacific. Expensive and below par.
I've not flown with any African airlines, and I wouldn't. Malaysian are bad as are Garuda. I also wouldnt go near India, Pakistan, Qatar or Saudia airlines.
Thing is, what makes the biggest difference to a long haul (assuming plane and info system is OK) is the service. A good crew can make the flight a lot better, whereas crap service can make it a real chore.
You'll be fine on BA. Where are you going btw?
Recently only flown with Thomas Cook to go skiing and Emirates 4 years ago to go to Australia which was awesome, even in economy.
Always tried to fly SAS long haul to Seattle back in the day as never really rated BA.
you'll just walk off one plane and onto the other. Getting your bags transferred could prove tricky, but in my experience, they're pretty good at this these days.
The flight will be fine, as you'll get food and as much booze as you want, so just drink yourself into oblivion to mask the shittiness of the flight?
But you'll still have a good time, San Fran is great. You'll probably be fine once you're in the air and have got a beer or two in you (my Mrs. is anyway, and she's a really nervous flyer).
But in terms of the in-flight experience, there are many, many worse, especially if you end up on a code-share flight with some godawful airline.
Don't let the adverse comments put you off - the BA 747s are fine.
That;s a long flight, 11 hours or so from LHR to SFO. Did it a couple of years ago. Where are you driving to? Driving out there is great - big roads, dead easy. Driving round SF is quite something too, the hills are unbelievable! Wouldn't want to be doing that on my own manual car, nice and easy in someone else's auto! I picked up a frgin massive Chevy Tahoe on the top floor of a multi story near Union Square. This thing was over 6 feet tall and I had to get it down 9 flights of ramps in the car park. Of course, US car parks are massive, so it was nothing like as bad as I thought. Great fun. Envious.
Another thing you might hear is that US immigration is a nightmare. Its not. I found it much the same as anywhere else tbh.
You might also hear that the Tenderloin is to be avoided at all costs. Its not that bad. You'll have seen worse in Glasgow. Yeah its rough, but americans can be a bit soft tbh. Lower Haight is a bit grubby too, whereas Upper Haight is ace. You got to go there if only to stand on Haight-Ashbury and imagine its 1970. Ace round there.
SF is pretty spread out, and its not always easy to hail a cab. Uber was essential, and cheap. FYI - Chinatown is crap, as is Fisherman's Wharf. Both areas are grotty and tatty.