Heading to Oxford with writer – excellent company for a chat? (4,1,1)

'company for a chat?' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I cannot judge whether this works.

'heading to oxford with writer excellent' is the wordplay.
'heading to' suggests taking the first letters (the head of the word).
'with' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'writer' becomes 'pen' (something which writes).
'excellent' becomes 'ai' (resembles 'A1', old-fashioned term for excellent).
The first letter of 'oxford' is 'o'.
'o'+'pen'+'ai'='OPEN A I'

Can you help me to learn more?