FLIGHT REVIEW: British Airways Boeing 777 Club Suite Business Class from The Maldives to London Heathrow

This review is the return day flight from Malé to London. Travelling with Katrina and our two children but for this review I will mostly focus on my own experience.

Malé to London Heathrow

• Airline – British Airways
• Cabin – Business Class (Club Suite)
• Flight Number – BA60
• Travel Date – January 2026
• Aircraft Reg – G-STBN
• Aircraft Type – Boeing 777-300ER
• Aircraft Age – 5 Years Old
• Seat – 20A

BOOKING

We needed 3 seats for the 4 of us and we did this by using two American Express Companion Vouchers. Costing c.£1350 in taxes and carrier surcharges and a bundle of Avios.

You probably already know but this is called a unicorn route when it comes to Avios redemptions for a reason. They are very hard to get.

To secure the 3 seats, I called the gold line just before midnight on the US phone number 355 days before the outbound travel date. Ironically at the time this number routed to a UK call centre which didn’t close until 1 am but could only be reached via calling internationally.

Luckily, I got someone who knew exactly what they were doing and managed to book the 3 seats for us. We just had to wait the best part of a year to travel!

When you book this way, you can only book the outbound flight. Then you have to do all of that again to book the inbound, which for us was 10 days later. Following the same process, we had no issues.

CHECK-IN AND SECURITY

Having arrived via a very cool seaplane, the representatives from Conrad (where we were staying) were there to meet us and after a short transfer by bus, we were dropped to the front of the brand-new terminal.

And what a new terminal it is! Opened only a few months ago, the new Terminal 1 can accommodate over 7 million passengers a year compared to the previous 1 million.

If you read my lounge review [read lounge review here], you’ll know that I was not a fan of the old terminal. For such a luxury destination, the airport really let the experience down.

I am pleased to say, as you walk into the main check-in area, the fears of the old terminal are immediately put to bed. You are met with a very welcoming space with high wavey ceilings, tall windows that let lots of light in and a very simple design to understand and navigate. Not to mention air conditioning for those of us who remember the large fans strapped to ceilings in the old terminal.

Flying in Business Class but as a Gold Card holder, we utilised the first-Class check-in queue, which only consisted of 1 passenger ahead of us. We were seen quickly and we were off to security within only a couple of minutes.

A short walk and we were at passport control and security, which are right next to each other. It was great to see that they had separate lines for premium passengers.

It only took 5 minutes from entering the queue to clearing security. Note that we still had to remove our laptops and tablets but not liquids.

It took only 12 minutes from entering the terminal to clearing security, which is a huge improvement on its predecessor. 

Once through the rather long walk through the duty-free area, we were on our way to the new lounge. Koveli!

LOUNGE

I reviewed the lounge a few weeks ago [read lounge review here], so I won’t dive too deep into it, but you’ll be pleased to hear it’s pretty good!

The lounge has some great seating areas and even some lovely showers.

With some tweaking, it could be a great lounge, but overall, it’s a really great space and somewhere we were very happy and comfortable. 

BOARDING

 Just over an hour in the lounge and our flight was called to gate A02, which thankfully was only a short walk from the lounge.

Our Boeing 777 was sitting in the sunlight, looking fantastic.

By the time we got through a little security check and into the gate, boarding had started so we joined the already small formed queue for groups 1,2 and 3.

SEAT & DEPARTURE

I’m sure you’re fully familiar with Club Suites at this stage, but for those who are not, this seat was introduced in 2019 and since then, the rollout has been somewhat slow. Covid didn’t help, but even so, we’re 7 years on and still not all aircraft are fitted yet.

I chose seat 20A so Katrina and our baby could sit in the bassinet in 19A.

It’s a shame all Club Suite vanity doors have this large scratch down them. Every single seat has the same one. I do hope they have designed this out for future generations.

Ah, the pillow. I really rate the pillow you get from BA, so was pleased to see it. Not too hard its uncomfortable, but not too soft that it’s pointless like I had with ITA last year.

This is the main controller for the seat that you can use throughout your flight.

Club Suites have a large amount of storage. Not all of it is super usable, but enough for almost everything you’d possibly need on a flight.

At my seat was also a White Company amenity kit. These are a really nice touch and never go a miss, but the bags themselves are getting more and more cheap. The quality did not feel good at all. Almost a one-time use type of quality.

Standard charging points are here. Slight oversight from BA, but you cannot use anything larger than a single plug, so if you exclusively charge your laptop with a bulky charger, it probably won’t fit. 

IFE & Wi-Fi

This moves us on nicely to the in-flight entertainment.

I really like the large screen offered by BA in Club Suite. You can sit in front of it for hours on end and not need to make multiple adjustments like the old business seat.

At the seat were BA’s own headphones, which I used but weren’t great. I had packed my Bose QC Ultra headphones but forgot to pack my Bluetooth adaptor, so was stuck with the standard ones.

For this flight, I watched The Smashing Machine featuring Dwayne Johnson. 6/10, slightly odd film, but I enjoyed it.

This is the controller for the IFE screen. Am I the only one who exclusively uses the screen instead of this controller?

I did, however, use the controller for the first time to play Tetris with my son. He was 3 at the time, so he wasn’t too much help there.

Wi-Fi was offered onboard. Club members had free messaging, or you could pay £14.99 for a full flight pass, which really isn’t too bad on a flight nearly 12 hours long. When the Starlink rollout is finished, you won’t have to pay anything for vastly improved Wi-Fi.

FOOD AND DRINK

At the seat was the menu waiting for me. Given how long this flight was and being a day flight, we were offered two meal services.

Once airborne, to start service, we were offered a drink which took 45 minutes to arrive. I opted for the Portuguese white wine, which I have to say was average at best. Portugal produces some fantastic wines, so it was a shame this was the only one on offer.

I was also served a warm can of Coke Zero with no ice.

I know I sound like a broken record, but only offering two average white wines in business class is criminal.

Starter

Moving on and my starter arrived. Not being won over by any of them, I opted for the mushroom soup and to my surprise, it was lovely. I would happily eat this again. 

Main Course

Not falling into the mistake of ordering a steak onboard a plane, I went for the pumpkin ravioli, which, to be honest, was just ok. Lacked flavour, but nothing a little salt didn’t resolve.

Dessert

Obviously, I went for the warm prune and pistachio cake and wow, this was as fantastic as it looks and exactly how I wanted to end my meal.

Washed down with a glass of Port from the Douro Valley in Portugal. This drink was the last of the free-flowing wine with regular proactive top-ups.

Once the crew got going, the service was mostly efficient without major waiting times between courses.

The main issue with the Club Suite is that there are so many of them and being such a premium route, it’s always full. Service is always just a little chaotic to witness as opposed to Qatar crew, who manage to work like swans. Lots going on underneath but calm and happy on top.

Later in the flight, with about two hours to landing, we were offered a dinner that I gladly accepted.

Starter

I had the tomato and mozzarella salad and again, this was quite bland. Rocket used instead of basil is a weird but cost-saving choice and there was hardly any pesto.

Main Course

Having dodged the beef during first service, I went for the cumin beef stew. The beef was ok but the real star was the creamed potato. Oh wow I could eat this by the bucket load.

Dessert

I took the only option on offer, which was the cheesecake and again very nice!

Overall, food and drink service was good, but with room for improvement. I have had much worse experiences and much better, so I won’t complain too much about being somewhere in the middle.

ARRIVAL & BAGS

Whilst over northern France circa 45 minutes before landing, in fairly stable conditions, we were informed by the captain that there was a pocket of turbulence ahead and that we might not have the chance to stand up or use the toilets before landing.

Something was going on because the crew were acting erratically, which, to be honest, was quite disconcerting to see. They were all professional and specifically Troy, who looked after us and was great with my little one, who had fallen asleep and slept through the whole thing.

A few minutes later, we started hitting some bumps and the crew panicked and two didn’t make it to their seats, instead opting for sitting on the floor and shouting across the cabin at the customers.

Overall, the lumps and bumps really weren’t too bad at all, thankfully!

I have no problem with the crew being proactive and putting us, the customers, first, but please do it in a calm way so as not to panic the life out of everyone.

We landed ahead of schedule, which was great and passport control was a breeze, especially nice as we cannot use the automatic gates with children, so had to queue up.

We landed at B gates and annoyingly, this was when the escalators were having maintenance, so staff were forming queues for the lifts down to the trains. We didn’t have to wait too long, thankfully.

Once in baggage control, it felt strange for an entire flight with most people having checked in large bags to be cramped around belt 11 at the end of the terminal when almost all of the others were empty.

SUMMARY

Overall, this was a good but not outstanding flight and a pretty typical BA long-haul experience. The new Malé terminal is a huge step forward and makes a real difference to the start of the journey, and the Club Suite remains a very solid business class seat that’s well suited to a daytime flight.

Where it falls slightly short is in the detail. Food and drink were decent but inconsistent, and service, while friendly, never quite felt polished or calm throughout. Nothing major to complain about, but equally nothing that really stands out.

All in all, a comfortable and reliable way to get home from the Maldives, just not one that quite delivers that top-tier business class experience you get with some of BA’s competitors.

RATING

7/10