The C+Golf team made a second journey to San Francisco enabling a direct comparison of Virgin Atlantic’s Upper Class with BA’s front-of-plane experience – not a completely straight forward task, because Virgin only offers one ‘left turn’ experience (Upper Class) to BA’s two (Club and First). 

Your flight announced, it’s briefly back to the reality of the terminal for the walk to the gate, where again smooth priority overtakes the airbridge queue for those turning right. 

Whisked to our seats in the stretched Jumbo, we enter another world, completely different to BA: it’s here that our conclusion that the choice of airline may ultimately be a matter of personal preference begins to emerge. Upper Class seats are undoubtedly superior in comfort and ‘sleepability’ than BA’s Club World seats, even though the BA product is newer. BA’s current First cabin has been around for a decade or so now, and this shows. Have no doubt, the new Club World seats are plenty comfortable enough, but Upper Class has the edge. And, without doubt, there is more space to sleep in, despite a slightly clumsy process of conversion from seat to bed. So, if the highest degree of comfort and space is your selection criterion, read no further: you are an Upper Class traveller…

The feel of the cabin? Completely different from First (where individual window sleeper seat ‘cabins’ face outwards, with couples together for centre-aisle cabins); less different from Club World (2-4-2 configuration running parallel to the cabin interior, allowing side-by-side couples in the centre). Upper Class window seats are all angled inwards, ranked in rows, almost as if in a beehive. Take the back seat of a cabin and the other seats feel relatively discreet, angled away from you, but the further forward your seat, the more you feel stared at by the ranks of seats aft of you on the other side of the plane (most notably on the upper deck: no seats in the middle here, but there are downstairs). Furthermore, although (as with First), couples can share a table to eat, there are no side-by-side seats. Again, ultimately it’s a matter of personal preference. Maybe the best solution for some would be BA for those flights where sleep is relatively optional, and Upper Class if it is more of a necessity. 

For the rest, it was very much a score draw: overall, the Upper Class in-flight entertainment system and food were no better and no worse than that offered by BA in either cabin - acceptable, but not state-of-the-art and, at best, on a par with supermarket gastropub, respectively. The Upper Class asparagus risotto tasted good, but it failed on the texture front (isn’t risotto too ambitious for in-flight: an own goal, effectively?). Still, we loved the strawberry and cream roulade, even though its ‘wild berry coulis’ looked and tasted suspiciously identical to the ‘fruit compote’ served with the baked Sussex honey cheesecake. The wine list is the same each way: much though we enjoyed the Cortello 2008 from Estremadura in southern Portugal, BA’s wines in both cabins were superior. But then that would understate the flair of Virgin’s in-cabin bar, copious with (unbilled) Mumm Cordon Rouge throughout the flight, and the refreshing Red Hot Royale long cocktail celebrating the airline’s 25th anniversary.

And maybe this brings us to the nub: unless you are flying on points, BA’s First isn’t worth the expense. BA’s Club World and Virgin Atlantic’s Upper Class both offer better value. Try them both, and your personal preferences will lean you towards one or the other. But, if we were pushed, we would have to concede that the personal touches of Upper Class make one wonder if perhaps it is everything that is Richard Branson that makes Virgin feel 25 years young…

Details: 

http://www.virginatlantic.com 

Upper Class: £2,793 

http://www.ba.com

First: £6,649; Club: £2,793 

Fare information based on an enquiry made on 9/8/2009 for a two week LHR-SFO return trip from 9th to 23rd December 2009, on lowest fare basis. 

The C+Golf team conducts its airline reviews on an independent basis and pays for all flights. 

A quick browse of Coda Restaurant’s website (separate from the hotel’s own site) hints at the originality to come: there’s more than first meets the eye. Both sites share the musical theme of the hotel, but a glance at the restaurant site soon reveals that one’s visual (as well as taste) senses are the target of chef David Šašek.

Whilst nicely branded with the musical theme of the Aria Hotel (limited edition plates with cartoons of musicians included), once at the table it becomes even clearer that one is about to experience the personal creations of a chef whose talents are as artistic as they are technical.  Šašek has been in the business since he was 12 – a natural: his family ran a gourmet restaurant B&B at Pistina in southern Bohemia. Culinary studies, the experience of establishing sous chef reputations at five-star hotels in Prague (and then at the luxurious Ballynahinch Castle in Ireland) and he was ready to pick up the baton at Coda, where he has been Executive Chef since 2007. 

Particularly relevant to Coda has been Šašek’s experience with the celebrated chef Laurent Gras, former chef de cuisine of Alain Ducasse, developing an expertise in the French technique of cooking ‘sous vide’. This requires assembly of all the ingredients within a vacuum-sealed bag, and maintaining their integrity by heating them for an extended period at relatively low temperatures, sometimes well over 24 hours – this way, the molecular structure of the foods remains intact throughout the cooking process. A delicate and painstaking method, requiring specialist equipment, which delivers tender results full of flavour. Šašek carefully selects fresh and natural ingredients to delight the taste buds, even growing some of them at home or picking them wild (e.g. Dandelion Flower Sorbet, one of his many un-missable gelati).

The vibrant and ever changing menu offers guests international cuisine accompanied by an excellent selection of fine wines. “When creating dishes, I don’t like to limit myself to certain ingredients, food combinations, or regions, I rather try to use only what’s fresh, and what feels right at the time.” So seasonal produce, daily-caught seafood, farm-raised meats and game are showcased on the ever- changing dinner menu, with dishes such as Pan Seared Sea Scallops with a Vibrant Green Asparagus Emulsion, Confit of Pyrenees Lamb Fore Shank with Creamy Polenta, or Braised Rabbit Legs Laced in English Bacon. And there are plenty of Czech dishes as well: don’t miss Šašek’s duck dishes, e.g. Duck Leg confit served with potato gnocchi and sauerkraut.

The restaurant operates from breakfast through to dinner in three equally stylish rooms: the main dining room establishes a formal atmosphere, whereas the adjoining Winter Garden is an airy setting for guests to enjoy the Aria Hotel’s daily complementary breakfast or lunch. In summer you can dine on the Roof Garden Terrace, which looks up to the castle with panoramic views over the rest of Prague. So fine tune your senses and head for the Czech capital: if food be the music of love…

Without wines 1,850 Czk (approx £63) 

With wines 2,500 Czk (approx £85)

Coda Restaurant, Hotel Aria 

Tržište 9 

Prague 1, 118 00 

Czech Republic

Tel: +420 225 334 761    

coda@aria.cz   www.codarestaurant.cz