Review: British Airways B787-9 Economy Class SIN-SYD

On my second leg of my “around the world in 10 days” trip, I flew on the world’s longest flight with Singapore Airlines in Business Class from New York to Singapore. After 18 hours on the flight and about 60 hours on the ground in Singapore, I needed a way to get from Singapore to Sydney, Australia to continue my journey.

Given that I had several options to fly, the one I ended up on was this flight. I was excited to fly this flight because this was my first time flying a “fifth freedom flight.”

According to Condé Nast Traveler:

“Fifth freedom flights carry passengers between two countries that are different from the home base of the airline operating the flight. These types of routes are allowed by aviation regulatory authorities as long as at least one segment of the flight begins or ends in the airline’s home country.”

This flight counted as a fifth freedom flight because it was British Airways operating a flight from Singapore to Sydney though it originated from London. In fact, most of the other passengers were British.

Overall, I had a good flight, but I did run into some issues with my seat, had an unfortunate spill, and had difficulty sleeping. For an 8 hour overnight flight, I yearned for a lie-flat seat. Read on for more about this flight!

Note: I will interchangeably use “World Traveler” and “Economy” to describe the class of service I was in for this flight as British Airways calls their Economy Class as World Traveler.

Flight Info

Date Traveled	July 11, 2024
Flight No. / Airports	BA 15 / SIN-SYD
Aircraft / Tail	B787-9 / G-ZBKR
Flight Time / Distance	7 hours, 5 minutes / 3907 miles
Departure / Arrival	7:25PM SGT / 4:52AM+1 AEST
Class / Seat	Economy (World Traveler) / 35J (RH middle)
Method / Cost	Nonrev-ZED / $130.01 USD
Loyalty Status	None

Summary

• Seat was comfortable enough for the 8 hour flight with good amenities
• Service was friendly and the food was decent
• Problems with seat functions made the experience disappointing

Rating: 3 out of 5

Booking British Airways B787-9 Economy Class

I listed for this flight while sitting at my cousin’s apartment in Singapore. I had recovered from flying the world’s longest flight and spent some time checking out a little bit of Singapore. Given that I had a few options to fly to Sydney, I ended up selecting this British Airways flight as my first attempt knowing that I would have other opportunities to get to Sydney if this one didn’t work out.

Because this was flying nonrevenue standby but not on my own airline (we call this “ZED” or zonal employee discount), I had to use a different employee travel portal for me to list for this flight. Flying on other airlines like this requires payments up front just to list, and the listing costed me $130 USD. At the time I listed, I also looked up how much it would have costed me to buy the ticket in Economy Class, and it would have been $1680 USD. Sheesh! That’s quite the difference!

Packing for British Airways B787-9 Economy Class

Much like the start of my trip, I still had my same backpack and rollaboard. Recall that I had come from Singapore and New York.

Check In and Security/Customs at Singapore Changi Airport

British Airways check in desks are at Terminal 1, Row 10. Lines are all set up for the different cabins and classes. Walking up to the Economy desk, I told the ticket agent that I’m a “staff traveler.” They were able to check me in, and told me to come back in a little while. Because I was flying ZED, I didn’t have a confirmed ticket to enter airside of the terminal, so I had to wait around until they cleared me with a confirmed seat.

Additionally, they also asked me if I was willing to jump seat—I said yes! I thought that would be a really cool experience since my own airline doesn’t let me do that! Jump seats are the seats that flight attendants sit in during taxi, takeoff, and landing. I would imagine they wouldn’t be comfortable to sit in for a long flight such as this one, and there are no seatback entertainment monitors on these seats. But still.

As far as how busy the check in desks were, three hours before departure, the desk was not busy at all. I was able to immediately see the agent. All the desks were fully staffed, too, even though there were barely any passengers checking in. 

To kill time beforehand, I went up to a large area on the second floor of Terminal 1 that has a great view of some gates and the tarmac. I discovered this place when I visited The Jewel the day before and while walking around to the various terminals. My favorite part was seeing a Scoot aircraft emblazoned with Pokémon pushing back from its gate! I enjoy nerdy liveries. Scoot is a low-cost airline subsidiary of Singapore Airlines.

There were also lots of other people just sitting around too, but I wasn’t convinced they were passengers since many didn’t seem to have luggage.

When I returned to the desk after seeing them the first time and killing time, I ended up being the first staff traveler back. The desks weren’t busy at all. About 20 minutes later, I was able to get a confirmed seat on the flight so I hustled through customs and security. I got a little nervous because I couldn’t get through customs automatically, and an agent had to help me out and process me manually. 

At Singapore Changi Airport, security is done at the gate or gates. Every group of gates has its own security line. But security was pretty easy—I just had to take out my laptop. This entire process probably took no more than 10 minutes.

Boarding and Departure for British Airways B787-9 Economy Class

Boarding was scheduled for 6:55PM. I arrived at Gate C20 and waited around for a short while. Much of that short while was spent trying to find somewhere to sit. The gate seating area was pretty full. I actually found a corner of the seating area and just sat on the ground because I didn’t want to get in the way.

No picture so just imagine a gate seating area filled with people talking in British accents

My ticket said Group 7. Boarding promptly started at 6:55PM, and Group 7 was called at about 7:03PM. 

When I boarded the aircraft and went towards my seat, some lady tried to negotiate switching seats with me, but I realized that I was attempting to sit in the wrong seat! Whoops! 

I also noticed that everyone seemed chatty, but mayhaps that is just British culture?

Before my seat neighbors arrived, I took this picture out the window:

The scheduled departure time for the flight was 7:25PM. Boarding completed at 7:14PM, and we pushed back at 7:34PM. After taxiing, we finally took off at 8:01PM towards the south.

Somewhere in all that, the captain came on the PA and mentioned that the flying time would be 7 hours and 5 minutes. Also, apparently the captain intentionally delayed pushback so as not to get to Sydney before curfew, which is 5AM. That was a good, tangible reminder that airport requirements are a factor in how a flight needs to go.

One of the craziest things to me was the seatbelt sign turned off at 8:08PM (7 minutes after wheels up)…and we were still climbing! Normally, most US airlines seem to only turn off the seatbelt sign once at cruising altitude.

Cabin and Seats on British Airways B787-9 Economy Class

According to Aerolopa, there are 127 seats in the World Traveler/Economy cabin. The seats were in a 3-3-3 layout, which is about as max as you can get on a 787 aircraft in the back of the plane.

For the bin situation, despite me boarding with Group 7 (out of 10), I still found a lot of bin space around me and had no issues putting my rollaboard up there.

I noticed there were no air vents in the passenger unit panels above. This wasn’t too much of an issue, but I did find it got cold after takeoff anyway. Good thing I had my hoodie!

Sometimes I like to pay attention to lighting scenes that airlines use for various stages of flight, and for boarding and taxi, there appeared to be just a standard white light. For takeoff, it switched to red and blue with red at the windows and blue overhead. Prior to the meal service, the lighting changed to a warm glow.

For British Airways B787-9’s, the Economy/World Traveler seats are Recaro CL3620s. These seats feature a 31” pitch and 17.1” width. Decent leg room (i’m 5’8″), and decent width, but I think people of taller and/or wider stature would be uncomfortable on a long flight with these seat dimensions.

The seat has the following features:

• 9” screen
• Handset with controls
• USB A power port
• Universal power port (on the bottom by legs)
• Bi-fold tray table
• Double mesh lit pocket
• Headphone plug in the arm rest
• Two-way headrest (only moves up and down, the wings are not adjustable)

My seat in particular was 35J, a middle seat on the right-hand side of the aircraft. For amenities on this long flight, it came with a pillow, a blanket, and cheap disposable headphones. It’s interesting that headphones come with the seat because I’m used to American Airlines flight attendants going down the aisle and asking everyone if they’d like headphones versus just providing it outright on your seat.

There were a few issues with my seat. The USB A power port didn’t work. Additionally, the universal power port didn’t work either. That sucked, but luckily I had my power bank and used that instead to charge my things. Also, the bi-fold tray table was difficult to deploy—I had to kinda force it. On top of that, the tray table half closest to me kinda sagged a little, which became an issue during meal service (see below). 

Otherwise, I found the seat to be comfortable enough for a seven hour flight. While in flight, I found the screen to be meh to interact with using touch, so I used the handset to navigate the IFE system.

Service in British Airways B787-9 Economy Class

Service was kind of interesting because it seemed like the flight attendants kept running to the back to get stuff for the front. Looking at the cabin layout on Aerolopa, I realized that it makes sense because there’s only one galley for all of Economy, and it’s at the very back of the plane. Without a mid-cabin galley, the flight attendants always had to run to the back.

I also loved that all the flight attendants have British accents! Lmao.

Thirty minutes into the flight, the flight attendant made an announcement to the World Traveler cabin what the choices would be for the main meal service: chicken or vegetarian, with a light meal before arrival. I like that they did this because I feel like I’ve been on many flights were you don’t really know your options until the flight attendant asks you

Almost immediately after that announcement, the carts passed by. It looked like 4 flight attendants serving the World Traveler cabin with 2 on each aisle. From what I saw, they were decently efficient.

I ordered red wine for my drink, but when I received my food, the sagging half of my tray table caused the food tray to slip and knock my red wine. The wine spilled mostly on my pants and my seat, and a little splashed on the passenger next to me. How embarrassing! Luckily, the flight attendant quickly gave me more napkins to clean up and *white wine* to help remove the red stains.

It took about 2 hours and 15 minutes for the main meal service before the flight attendants turned the lights down.

Food and Drink in British Airways B787-9 Economy Class

For the main meal service, the flight attendants served a drink along with a snack, which was Penn State Pretzels in sour cream and chive flavor. The pretzels were pretty good. The red wine I chose was the cabernet, a Casa Saulita Central Valley one. Definitely tasted red with notes of oak and chocolate, even at altitude.

Between the chicken and vegetarian options, I chose the chicken. It was actually a curry chicken with rice and eggplant, and I thought it was really good! The eggplant tasted bland though. To accompany the chicken, there was a noodle salad with a sweet dressing. It had good texture and flavor, and I thought that was good. Additionally, there were cheese and crackers. I thought the cheese was maybe too thick, but it paired well with the characters. For dessert, it was crème with shaved coconut—light and flavorful finish to a decent Economy meal.

The pre-arrival meal was…puffs. I didn’t quite understand what that meant until I got mine.

Inside the puff was ham and cheese. I felt like there wasn’t a lot of the ham and cheese filling within the puff, but the puff itself was flaky but maybe seemed stale despite being reheated.

Entertainment and WiFi in British Airways B787-9 Economy Class

The entertainment system British Airways offered on this flight had a mix of movies, shows, music, audiobooks, games, and more. 

Luckily the system actually gave counts, and it showed 138 movies, 409 TV episodes, 18 well-being content and ASMR, various radio shows, music genres, and podcasts as well as playlists for each. The games included arcade-style games, board games, trivia, casino, multiplayer games, and others.

The system also had a flight map, information for arrivals and immigration, a “Kid’s Zone” that consolidated all the content for kids, and lastly a “ BA Recommends” section. There was also an information page about WiFi service.

On the WiFi service screen, there were video instructions on how to connect. Apparently WiFi is available around 10 minutes after takeoff. But even as I tried throughout various stages of the flight, my phone never found the WiFi signal. I am not sure how much it is nor how fast it is since I wasn’t able to use it.

Like I mentioned earlier, I didn’t find the touch screen to be very responsive. I found using the handset to be a better experience. However! The handset used in the horizontal position doesn’t match the controls on the screen! You have to hold the handset vertically to make sure pressing “right” actually moves the cursor to the right! Not intuitive…but I got used it eventually.

The monitor’s screen viewing angle is such that you can’t see what your next seat neighbor’s screen is showing, but this isn’t true for seeing what the person in front of you is watching! Otherwise the screen quality seems pretty good.

Lavatories in British Airways B787-9 Economy Class

For World Traveler class, there are two at the very front in the middle. I believe the left-hand side lavatory is accessible. There are also two lavatories in the aft section by the galley and exit doors. 

For Row 35, the front ones were closest.

I only used the lav twice during this flight. The first time was about 1 hour and 45 minutes into the flight, after meal service, and I used the aft one. I found it to be somewhat dirty and the flush motion sensor wasn’t working. Luckily, it was also a button. At about 4 hours and 16 minutes into the flight, I used the same one again, and it was about the same level of cleanliness.

I didn’t feel cramped in the lavatory as it is a standard-seeming size for an international configured aircraft.

In Flight in British Airways B787-9 Economy Class

Before, during, and somewhat after the main meal service, I watched the Halo series from Paramount Plus. I’m a fan of the video games, and it’s cool that this show brings it to real life. I was just sad that I wouldn’t be able to finish the first season on this flight since it was entirely available…

About 3 hours and 25 minutes into the flight, I attempted to sleep. I think I nodded off a bit, but couldn’t stay asleep due to feeling uncomfortable as I’m not used to sleeping sitting up.

Stories to Share

Again, this was my first time flying a fifth freedom flight, and that’s pretty cool!

I had a few interesting observations from this flight…

After takeoff, probably more than I’ve ever seen even with other international flights, people kept messing with stuff in their luggage in the overhead bin. So much noise with people opening and closing bins and grabbing stuff from luggage. 

Also during the flight, I could feel every time the lady sitting directly behind me interacted with her screen. Like I mentioned, the screen didn’t have very good touch controls so I’m sure she was struggling with it. But every time she tried touching the screen, she did so heavily …almost as if a kid was lightly kicking the back of my seat lol.

There were a few babies nearby. One at the bulkhead was just a happy jolly baby and was joyfully smiling every time the parents kinda walked around holding her! I also heard a loud baby or small toddler nearby who was grumpy.

Lastly, there was a guy caddy corner to me who was watching Saltburn–an indie film with a few uhhh NSFW scenes. I think it was available on the IFE system. But…I dunno…I try to avoid watching movies on flights with graphic scenes unless I’m in Business or First Class with more privacy lol.

Arrival at Sydney

The scheduled arrival time was 5:10AM Sydney local time.

On approach, the lights turned to white at about 6 hours into the flight. At 6 hours and 18 minutes, the captain came on the PA system saying we’d be landing in about 40 minutes.

As soon as the announcement happened, it was chaos with people messing with their things. Additionally, there were multiple announcements as it related to customs, landing, arrival, etc. These kept interrupting me watching Halo S1E5! lol.

I didn’t really see anything out the window because it was dark outside as we were landing.

We finally touched down at about 7 hours into the flight, and we arrived at SYD Gate 32 a few minutes later.

Bottom Line

I had an okay flight in British Airways Economy Class on their B787-9 from Singapore to Sydney. The seat itself was comfortable enough for a long-haul international flight, but my particular seat had several functional issues that made the experience disappointing. I also struggle sleeping sitting up, and this flight was no exception.

On the bright side of things, the food was actually decent and the entertainment system had plenty to keep me occupied so I didn’t have to resort to my own electronics. The British Airways flight attendants were friendly and efficient, and I loved their accents.

Overall, I would say this was not a comfortable way to fly the 8 hours from Singapore to Sydney, but it’s serviceable enough when sitting in the back of the plane. Not terrible for my first time flying a fifth freedom flight.

What do you think of British Airways World Traveler class? Lemme know down in the comments!