Holiday Washington DC in Nov 2025: Day 1 – London Heathrow (LHR) to Washington Dulles (IAD)

By Nige on November 9, 2025 at 4:56 pm
Type: Post
Story: Holiday Washington DC in Nov 2025 Category: Travel
Tags: British Airways | Hilton | Holidays | IAD | LHR | London | USA | Washington

When we arrived at The First Wing (TFW), we found it fairly quiet. We had received an email from BA advising of changes being made to TFW and the First Lounge. So, we were quite interested to find out what they were changing.

On the way through, TFW Security was empty, which was great. Vick’s case was picked up for secondary screening due to the corkscrew she had left in it.

It was checked and luckily, just met the requirements of Security.

Heading through the First Lounge, although there were hoardings up outside of TFW, we couldn’t really see any visible changes being made to the First Lounge, although to be fair we didn’t spend a lot of time in the lounge as we wandered through.

We wandered over to the CCR and found some quiet seats – as it happens they were my preferred seats in the corner next to the Terrace. It was one of the last times we would have the opportunity of making use of the CCR following BA kicking out all of the its’ long-term and loyal GGL members.

Breakfast was as enjoyable as normal. I made sure I chewed my toast properly, so that I could avoid keeling over. I even enjoyed a couple of glasses of bucks fizz.

We had a wander around T5; very little had changed since the last time we flew and there was no evidence of any celebs loitering around the terminal.

We realised that the inbound aircraft that had come in from Sau Paulo, which meant that it had arrived into T3.

So, unless BA moved the aircraft to one of the gates at T5 Satellite B, it was likely to be a bus gate for us. BA staff in the CCR confirmed this suspicion.

Not the best start to our holiday, but I guess we coped.

We grabbed a Starbucks from the A Gates and waited for the formal confirmation that we were leaving from A10. After picking up our cases from the CCR, we headed down to Gate A10a and stopped on the way to pay our respects to those that lost their lives at 11am.

Gate A10a was fairly busy, but we managed to find our way through to the pre-boarding area. Group 0 was announced, although we were already through by that stage.

The bus driver was a little hesitant, but she got us through to the T3 remote stand hosting our A350-1000. Boarding was a bit painful with a load of “suits” clogging up the stairs.

On into seats 10A and 11A, which are the best seats if we alight from door 2L at Dulles airport.

First job after settling in? We checked out the movie selection and it was pretty decent with The Pelican Brief and Zodiac on the list of about 100 or so films. I was a happy chappy.

A food menu was handed out, along with the standard selection of pre-flight drinks: water, orange juice or champers. I dabbled in a glass of champers which wasn’t one of the better ones champagnes I have tasted on a BA flight.

I started on The Pelican Brief whilst I forced the dry alcohol down my throat.

We pushed back a few minutes early, and it didn’t take too long before we were on the runway.

We were served a post-take-off drink and nuts. I went for another bucks fizz and the nuts were half decent. It wasn’t long before the meal service started. Even though we had enjoyed our breakfast in the CCR, we were already hungry again.

The starter I chose was a chicken Caesar salad, which was pretty nice. The bread was a little dry and the other salad thing didn’t look very appetising, so I gave it a miss. Vick raved about that “other” salad, specifically the dressing.

The main course was a beef rib pie. Vick ordered the same and promised me that I could have her pastry top.

As it happens, it turned out to be a mash top, so it was similar to a cottage pie. However, it was unbelievably salty. It felt worthy of a complaint.

I ordered the apple crumble for pudding which was quite tasty, but nothing to write home about. The way it was served showed the significant difference between what we have gotten used to with First Class and Club Class.

I was lucky to catch the plate holding my apple crumble as it was thrown at me by the cabin crew member passing along the aisle.

It was pretty chilly in the cabin. We both grabbed some shut-eye, with the duvet cover warming my legs up nicely.

However, as has happened a number of times in the past, when trying to unlock the amenities case, the zip handle broke off. Hence, rendering it unopenable. Why make it that way? So I wasn’t able to get an eye mask nor ear plugs.

I slept for about an hour or so; Vick managed a longer doze than me. That was an opportunity for me to start watching Zodiac.

The cabin was dark-ish and there was no evidence of any cabin crew checking on whether passengers needed anything else.

WIFI connectivity was up and down like a yo-yo. I have a video that shows shop.ba.com change every 10-15 seconds flipping from “Connectivity lost” to “Connection back!”.

They can try to cover themselves in as many terms and conditions as they like. How can any business person rely on a sub-par service like that? On the basis that cost me £17.99, that feels like another complaint heading BA’s way…

We both decided NOT to have anything to eat as part of the second meal onboard. We had ideas of going out to The Cheesecake Factory in DC later on, and to be honest, neither of us were that hungry.

We landed as Dulles Airport a good 30 mins early. The captain made an announcement for passengers to stay in their seats when we arrived at the gate, whilst some heavy freight was removed from the back of the aircraft.

That was clearly due to the risk of the aircraft tipping up if all passengers walked from the front of the aircraft towards door 02L to disembark.

Whilst we taxied to Gate B42, I noticed that the dreaded Mobile Lounges or People Movers were still in operation. It’s the worst aspect of flying into Dulles as an international passenger.

All of the passengers in the front, larger section of business class were well behaved, although we all removed our luggage from the overhead bins, so that we were at least ready to deboard when invited.

Apparently, the issue was a container(s) holding 10 tonnes of fish! It must have taken a good 20-25 mins for that to be complete before we were allowed to deboard and we were then heading for everyone’s favourite mobile transporter.

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Holiday Washington DC in Nov 2025