First on the 787, home on the A330neo

August 2024 I flew to Europe for Munich, Dubrovnik, and Yacht Week, and I came home through London. The two flights are the part I wanted to write down: British Airways First on a 787 on the way out, and a Virgin Atlantic A330neo on the way back.

The outbound was First, into London, on a 787. I don’t have the departure city in this note yet. First on that plane is a seat with a door and a bed, and the cabin is quiet enough that I noticed when I took the headphones off. The windows are big and they dim, so I wasn’t fighting a shade when I wanted to sleep. I slept, and I ate a long meal. The pace is what I liked. Nobody was climbing past me. When I wanted to sleep, the crew left me alone. When I was awake, someone showed up before I had to go looking.

I can still picture the cabin better than I can picture the menu. I didn’t save the seat number, the wine, or the courses. What stuck was the airplane. The 787 is the one I think about booking again, mostly because of how quiet it is and how easy it was to sleep up front.

London was a connection. After that it was Munich, the Sofitel Bayerpost, August 5 through 7. Then Dubrovnik, the Hilton Imperial, through the 10th. Then the boat. Yacht Week’s Original Route, a Lagoon 46 out of Baotić Marina in Trogir, August 10 through 17. Two days I can place without looking them up are Fort George on Vis, August 12, and Carpe Diem in Hvar, August 13. I ended in Trogir at the Brown Beach House on the 16th and 17th. The whole trip is on the Munich and Yacht Week page. This note is just the metal.

The flight home was Virgin Atlantic, A330neo, London to New York, in Upper Class. The neo has that same new-plane quiet as the 787. Big windows. A cabin that looks like it was designed recently, because it was.

Virgin’s tone is looser than British Airways. BA First felt formal, in a way I liked for that one flight. Someone had a job to do and they did it without a lot of chat. Virgin felt easy. Less ceremony, same general idea that you shouldn’t have to chase anyone down for a drink. I was tired, I’d been on a boat for a week, and the job of that flight was to get me to New York in one piece. It did. I walked off with the usual long-haul fog and none of the “I need a day to recover from the seat” feeling I get on older planes.

If I’m picking a favorite, it’s the 787 in First. That’s the seat and the plane together. I had a door, I slept, and the airplane itself stayed out of the way. The A330neo was a good ride home and I’d take it again without thinking hard about it. They aren’t the same product. I had the nicer seat on the way out. First going to London, Upper Class coming home.