diff --git a/luigi/contrib/bigquery.py b/luigi/contrib/bigquery.py
index 9da6d883ed..5d93efdaed 100644
--- a/luigi/contrib/bigquery.py
+++ b/luigi/contrib/bigquery.py
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ def is_error_5xx(err):
                  wait=wait_exponential(multiplier=1, min=1, max=10),
                  stop=stop_after_attempt(3),
                  reraise=True,
-                 after=lambda x: x.args[0].__initialise_client()
+                 after=lambda x: x.args[0]._initialise_client()
                  )
 
 
@@ -152,9 +152,9 @@ def __init__(self, oauth_credentials=None, descriptor='', http_=None):
         self.descriptor = descriptor
         self.http_ = http_
 
-        self.__initialise_client()
+        self._initialise_client()
 
-    def __initialise_client(self):
+    def _initialise_client(self):
         authenticate_kwargs = gcp.get_authenticate_kwargs(self.oauth_credentials, self.http_)
 
         if self.descriptor:
diff --git a/test/contrib/bigquery_test.py b/test/contrib/bigquery_test.py
index 61ee2d7cda..25ad19fef9 100644
--- a/test/contrib/bigquery_test.py
+++ b/test/contrib/bigquery_test.py
@@ -23,9 +23,11 @@
 
 import mock
 import pytest
+from mock.mock import MagicMock
 
+from luigi.contrib import bigquery
 from luigi.contrib.bigquery import BigQueryLoadTask, BigQueryTarget, BQDataset, \
-    BigQueryRunQueryTask, BigQueryExtractTask
+    BigQueryRunQueryTask, BigQueryExtractTask, BigQueryClient
 from luigi.contrib.gcs import GCSTarget
 
 
@@ -147,3 +149,31 @@ def output(self):
             }
         }
         run_job.assert_called_with('proj', expected_body, dataset=BQDataset('proj', 'ds', None))
+
+
+class BigQueryClientTest(unittest.TestCase):
+
+    def test_retry_succeeds_on_second_attempt(self):
+        try:
+            from googleapiclient import errors
+        except ImportError:
+            raise unittest.SkipTest('Unable to load googleapiclient module')
+        client = MagicMock(spec=BigQueryClient)
+        attempts = 0
+
+        @bigquery.bq_retry
+        def fail_once(bq_client):
+            nonlocal attempts
+            attempts += 1
+            if attempts == 1:
+                raise errors.HttpError(
+                    resp=MagicMock(status=500),
+                    content=b'{"error": {"message": "stub"}',
+                )
+            else:
+                return MagicMock(status=200)
+
+        response = fail_once(client)
+        client._initialise_client.assert_called_once()
+        self.assertEqual(attempts, 2)
+        self.assertEqual(response.status, 200)