British Airways to Riyadh trip report part 1

Recently a client asked me to travel to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia for them, so I started looking at the requirements. First of all, I needed a visa, which was sorted for me by the client. Then I looked at booking options. There are quite a few routes to Riyadh, even a number of options flying within the One World Network. British Airways fly direct, but you could also fly indirectly with Qatar or Royal Jordanian. As my time was limited, I chose to fly with BA, booking myself into Premium Economy and then using Avios points to upgrade my return flight to Business class. The return trip was at 1 am, landing at 5 am, so I really wanted a bed for that bit!

A few days before flying the option to upgrade appeared on my flight. It was around £650, which for a 6-hour daytime flight I didn’t feel was a great deal, so I turned it down. When I arrived at check-in, I was again offered an upgrade, this time for over £700. Again, I turned it down, I did ask if there was an Avios equivalent option, but I was told no.

A few days before flying the option to upgrade appeared on my flight. It was around £650, which for a 6-hour daytime flight I didn’t feel was a great deal, so I turned it down. When I arrived at check-in, I was again offered an upgrade, this time for over £700. Again, I turned it down, I did ask if there was an Avios equivalent option, but I was told no.

The flight information screens gave no indication of which gates the flight was leaving from, so I headed to the information desk who assured me it would be B gates, so I headed over to the B-gates lounge, using my Executive Club status to get in.

The B-gates lounge was as quiet as usual, given it was around 11 am, I arrive just in the transition from breakfast to lunch food. There was a choice of champagne options, so I indulged, given this would be my last drink for a while as Saudi Arabia is a dry country!

When the flight was called, I headed down to the gate. Unfortunately, the cleaning was overrunning, so they delayed boarding. Oddly enough they had a large holding area past the checkpoints in the gate area, so they asked all Group 1 and Group 2 passengers to pass through to this area. From there we could see the plane and the cleaner’s truck attached to the plane. After a 20min wait there, we boarded.

There were pre-flight orange juices offered and I settled into watching a film. The aircraft was one of the newly refurbished 777’s with Club Suites in Business and new seats throughout. The new Premium Economy seat has an additional leg support that comes up under your legs, as well as the newer IFE screens which are bigger and have much better touch sensitivity. After take-off, we were given food menus (see photo) and hot towels.

The food offering in Premium is essentially a Business Class meal and then an Economy snack before landing.

I opted for the leg of lamb, which was delicious. It came with a starter, bread roll, dessert and cheese & biscuits. Plus, plenty of visits from the bar trolley. However, they have to open all alcohol and collect all bottles in well before landing to comply with Saudi law.

The flight was very pleasant, the crew were attentive and kept us well fed and watered. About an hour before landing, we were given the snack, a Fajita Chicken pastry, which was a nice little snack, but I’d prefer something a little more substantial.

After landing there were long queues to get through passport control. Which was odd given when I got there the lady processing me didn’t say a word, she simply took my fingerprints, photo and stamped my passport.

After that, taxi’s the hotel was easy to find and a very reasonable price.

I spent a week in the city before heading back to the airport, quite late at night for my 1 am flight home.

All in all, this was a good flight in Premium Economy. I always like to upgrade to Business where possible, but for a short day flight, Premium was a fine choice.

Check out my inbound trip report where I cover the BA Club Suite here.