British Airways

[AlastairFraser]

I am 6'5" so do normally book an exit row seat, though I'm not sure I'll bother for a ~90 minute flight

Yeah, you'll be fine. I'm 5"11, but quite broad, so don't usually fare well with some of the LCC's tight legroom restrictions. BA, on the other hand, is fine.

 

[RailWonderer]

First time flying Business Class ever this afternoon - took Club Europe from Heathrow to Munich thanks to an Avios redemption.

The lounges in the main terminal were absolutely rammed with queues - so I spent a couple of hours in the T5b one which was significantly more pleasant (and I was able to actually get in!) Decent selection of food and drink and staff were proactive in keeping the place clean.

Service was absolutely impeccable on the flight itself. Naturally the food itself wasn't substantial (some cold cuts and cheese) but I must have had almost a full bottle of champagne. The crew were constantly on the ball giving refills to the extent that I was given a plastic cup for landing with a fresh refill!

I'm not a regular BA flyer by any means nor do I think their product is all that great in Economy - but today was a pleasant little experience. I wouldn't have personally forked out the cash fare, but £54 and some Avios seemed fair!

I wonder how long the flight has to be to get a full meal, I'm guessing two hours? I flew to Warsaw (two and a half hours) a couple of weeks ago in euro traveller and as I sat down my name was called up and I was offered to sit in 1F and was handed a menu and champagne. They refilled it a few times as said before and they offered me a full meal. They ran out of the curry as they served me last of course but this was just as tasty. Anyway, staff were very polite and regularly asked if everything was fine and took my jacket and put it in a little wardrobe with the other club passengers. There were only five rows (I've never seen more than seven or eight rows of club europe).

 

[Cross City]

Yeah, you'll be fine. I'm 5"11, but quite broad, so don't usually fare well with some of the LCC's tight legroom restrictions. BA, on the other hand, is fine.

Tbf BA legroom of 30" is identical to Ryanair, but again I've never had many issues with their seating either.

Worst I ever experienced was a Thomas Cook 757 where I couldn't physically sit in the seat. Got plonked on a cabin crew seat for take off and landing but stood for most of the 4 hours home from Turkey.

 

[AlastairFraser]

Tbf BA legroom of 30" is identical to Ryanair, but again I've never had many issues with their seating either.

Worst I ever experienced was a Thomas Cook 757 where I couldn't physically sit in the seat. Got plonked on a cabin crew seat for take off and landing but stood for most of the 4 hours home from Turkey.

Ouch, yeah, that doesn't sound good. BA seating is much more comfortable than Ryanair IMHO, so if you find their pitch OK, you should be fine.

 

[Mojo]

I wonder how long the flight has to be to get a full meal, I'm guessing two hours?

Depends what you class as a full meal? All routes even Manchester and Jersey offer a meal, although the lunchtime / dinner option for those is only a cold salad.

 

[Watershed]

I wonder how long the flight has to be to get a full meal, I'm guessing two hours? I flew to Warsaw (two and a half hours) a couple of weeks ago in euro traveller and as I sat down my name was called up and I was offered to sit in 1F and was handed a menu and champagne. They refilled it a few times as said before and they offered me a full meal. They ran out of the curry as they served me last of course but this was just as tasty. Anyway, staff were very polite and regularly asked if everything was fine and took my jacket and put it in a little wardrobe with the other club passengers. There were only five rows (I've never seen more than seven or eight rows of club europe).
View attachment 180080View attachment 180079

An onboard upgrade is always nice on the rare occasion it happens

Destinations are put into catering bands, which each have a set category of snack/meal depending on the scheduled departure time - see the stickied post at the top of this Flyertalk thread. For example everything gets a hot breakfast of some size, even a MAN/JER hop. However shorter flights (generally under 2 hours or so) only get cold meat cuts/salad or afternoon tea during the rest of the day.

The bands roughly correspond to the distance and flight time, but there is some fudging done for competitiveness. For example Barcelona (713mi from LHR) is in Band 2 so only gets cold stuff after breakfast, but Madrid (773mi) is in band 3 and thus gets hot meals all day, despite being a very similar distance and flight time - it's suspected that the regular travel by IAG managers on the route has some influence here! Similarly Milan (583mi) is in band 3, perhaps because they're competing with ITA who have a decent meal service.

 

[Butts]

Curiously enough I’m off to Stuttgart in July, to see Jean-Michel Jarre in concert. Decided against Business as I get all the soft benefits through Silver, so the extra cost just to have a free seat between us (which we often get by splitting seat reservations to leave the middle free) and a snack doesn’t seem worth it.

Precisely, combined with an Exit Seat and a BOB from The Lounge you are quid's in.

However without the above CE is a more attractive preposition.

 

[RailWonderer]

An onboard upgrade is always nice on the rare occasion it happens

Destinations are put into catering bands, which each have a set category of snack/meal depending on the scheduled departure time - see the stickied post at the top of this Flyertalk thread. For example everything gets a hot breakfast of some size, even a MAN/JER hop. However shorter flights (generally under 2 hours or so) only get cold meat cuts/salad or afternoon tea during the rest of the day.

The bands roughly correspond to the distance and flight time, but there is some fudging done for competitiveness. For example Barcelona (713mi from LHR) is in Band 2 so only gets cold stuff after breakfast, but Madrid (773mi) is in band 3 and thus gets hot meals all day, despite being a very similar distance and flight time - it's suspected that the regular travel by IAG managers on the route has some influence here! Similarly Milan (583mi) is in band 3, perhaps because they're competing with ITA who have a decent meal service.

Thanks, this is handy to have, if I'm offered a cheap club europe upgrade this is good to bear in mind. Most years I'm executive blue and if I'm lucky, bronze so club europe is worth it if the price is right (rarely).

 

[Butts]

It amazes me that anyone has Breakfast on the Plane traveling CE.

You can get a much better and more substantial offering in Edinburgh Glasgow or Aberdeen BA Lounges.

Heathrow at least in T5 is not so good, but better than the onboard variety.

 

[Watershed]

It amazes me that anyone has Breakfast on the Plane traveling CE.

You can get a much better and more substantial offering in Edinburgh Glasgow or Aberdeen BA Lounges.

Heathrow at least in T5 is not so good, but better than the onboard variety.

Not everyone arrives at the airport early enough to have breakfast in the lounge.

I used to be a fairly regular user of MAN and would arrive at the airport around 06:45 for the ~07:30 LHR flight. Boarding would begin not long after I got through security, so wanting to get overhead locker space, I'd often skip the lounge.

 

[DanNCL]

It amazes me that anyone has Breakfast on the Plane traveling CE.

You can get a much better and more substantial offering in Edinburgh Glasgow or Aberdeen BA Lounges.

Heathrow at least in T5 is not so good, but better than the onboard variety.

Not everyone arrives at the airport early enough to have breakfast in the lounge.

I used to be a fairly regular user of MAN and would arrive at the airport around 06:45 for the ~07:30 LHR flight. Boarding would begin not long after I got through security, so wanting to get overhead locker space, I'd often skip the lounge.

Additionally some (if not all) non-revenue passengers in Club don’t have access to the lounge so for them on the plane is the only option for a breakfast that doesn’t cost extra.
Source - Own experience as I’ve flown non-revenue in Club before.

 

[Butts]

Additionally some (if not all) non-revenue passengers in Club don’t have access to the lounge so for them on the plane is the only option for a breakfast that doesn’t cost extra.
Source - Own experience as I’ve flown non-revenue in Club before.

Forgive my ignorance - what constitutes a non-revenue trip in CE ?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 17 May 2025 ==

Not everyone arrives at the airport early enough to have breakfast in the lounge.

I used to be a fairly regular user of MAN and would arrive at the airport around 06:45 for the ~07:30 LHR flight. Boarding would begin not long after I got through security, so wanting to get overhead locker space, I'd often skip the lounge.

Would you agree that the Breakfast in the Lounge is far better than onboard if you are able to take advantage of it ?

 

[Watershed]

Forgive my ignorance - what constitutes a non-revenue trip in CE ?

Staff travel essentially. Often on a standby ticket that costs peanuts.

Would you agree that the Breakfast in the Lounge is far better than onboard if you are able to take advantage of it ?

It's better, and despite its faults the MAN lounge's breakfast is actually half decent.

 

[DanNCL]

Forgive my ignorance - what constitutes a non-revenue trip in CE ?

Staff travel essentially. Often on a standby ticket that costs peanuts.

Staff (both on and off duty) and their families. Iirc technically they’re on economy tickets but some based on seniority have a Club ‘entitlement’ that will let them sit in Club Europe/Club World if there’s a free seat there. Some very senior staff and their families might even qualify for First on long haul I’m not sure.
Quite often if there’s a known broken seat in the CE or CW cabins they’ll allocate a non-revenue passenger to that seat as it’s better than sticking a paying passenger there and getting a complaint afterwards.

The BA staff travel offer is iirc worse than what other airlines like Virgin Atlantic offer.

 

[John R]

Some very senior staff and their families might even qualify for First on long haul I’m not sure.

Yes they do. I have a friend who took voluntary redundancy from BA 20 years ago and still gets free First Class travel for him and a partner, as the deal was the entitlement would remain for a year for every year of service. Gets access to the Concorde Room too!

 

[JCO1406]

G-EUUY has transferred to BAEF and G-GATH has retired.

 

[Watershed]

G-EUUY has transferred to BAEF and G-GATH has retired.

Flew the latter only a month ago - had no idea it was on its way out.

 

[cactustwirly]

Quite obvious what the replacement plan is
Heathrow gets the NEOs and the mid life A320s cascade to Gatwick

Guessing the older A320s at Heathrow must be getting replaced soon they're only a couple of years newer

 

[Snow1964]

G-EUUY has transferred to BAEF and G-GATH has retired.

An Aviation forum suggested following are leaving this year

G-MIDT G-EUOA G-EUPY March
G-GATH G-GATJ G-MIDO G-EUPZ about June/July
G-EUOE G-EUOF G-EUPG G-EUPW September
G-EUOG G-EUPK G-EUPD G-EUPJ Oct-early Dec

All these planes are now relatively old by short haul single aisle standards (the wide bodies with longer journeys, bigger turnaround times and fewer take off / landings tend to last roughly 7 years longer

The new A320neo and A321neo in course of delivery seem to be going to Heathrow, so presumably there will be transfers to Gatwick as new ones enter service.

The A319s and A320s are effectively being replaced by larger A320neo and A321neo, although actual size of plane deployment is rather complicated.

 

[Snow1964]

Quite obvious what the replacement plan is
Heathrow gets the NEOs and the mid life A320s cascade to Gatwick

Guessing the older A320s at Heathrow must be getting replaced soon they're only a couple of years newer

The new narrow body planes are

A320neo : G-TTSD, G-TTSE, G-TTSF (all new in last 3 months)
G-TTSB needed some rework after testing, so delayed
G-TTSG etc still in production

A321neo : G-TNEF, G-TNEG newly delivered
G-TNEH etc still in production

BA now have
30 A320neo, with 7 more on order.
17 A321neo, with 5 more on order
The parent IAG has even more of both types on order, but hasn't yet announced which airline within the group will be receiving them.

The oldest narrow body planes in fleet are :
A319 : 25 years old in G-EUPx series
A320 : 23 years old in G-EUUx and G-GATx series
A321 : 20 years old in G-EUXx series

 

[Cross City]

First time flying BA short haul last week, Heathrow-Munich and returning Budapest-Heathrow.

Have to say I was more impressed than I expected to be. I'm a strong believer that all short haul economy products are identical no matter whether you're flying Ryanair or any of the legacy carriers, but tbf to BA the experience was good all round.

Leg 1 was on a new A321neo which was packed full, slightly tight on legroom but for the 1hr20 flight it was fine. T5 was fine and dare I say it quite quiet. I also enjoyed Munich airport's smaller immigration halls right next to each gate area, I was out of the airport and onto a train within 10 minutes of leaving the plane.

Leg 2 on an A320ceo (was originally scheduled to be a A319 but got changed a day or so out). Online check in wouldn't work for me for this leg, the app was telling me I'd have to speak to somebody at the airport. Got there very early and was check in, and offered the emergency exit window seat for no extra charge. Very nice of them and the flight was comfortable. I preferred the actual seats on this older A320 to the newer A321 as well. My 4 hours at Budapest airport was placated by being able to sit in the sunshine on the very good viewing terrace with a couple of beers.

We arrived back into T3 at Heathrow and parked on a remote stand (my fault for not checking really but no big issues). Was speaking to the flight attendant at the front of the plane waiting for the second bus to arrive and she very kindly offered to let me into the cockpit and speak with the pilot which was very cool. Not done that since I was a kid flying on a Cyprus Airways A310 to my grandad's house in the 90s

T3 was actually fairly convenient as I had more choice of Elizabeth Line trains to take rather than wait for the half hourly T5 train to take me back to my car at Hayes & Harlington. Stepped off the plane at 19:30 and was pulling into my Birmingham driveway at 22:05, so not bad at all, have taken longer to get home from BHX before!

Will be using BA again!

 

[Watershed]

T3 was actually fairly convenient as I had more choice of Liz Line trains to take rather than wait for the half hourly T5 train to take me back to my car at Hayes & Harlington.

Worth noting that if aiming to use the Elizabeth line, you should always board the next departure at T5 - if it's an Elizabeth line service, great. If the next one is a Heathrow Express service, take it 1 stop to Heathrow T2&3 and then change there for a ~5 minute same-platform connection onto an Elizabeth line train that started at T4. This is valid whether you have a paper ticket or are using Oyster/contactless.

This 'hack' works in both directions - if heading to Heathrow, take the first Heathrow-bound departure even if it's a T4 one and change at T2&3 if necessary. It means you effectively still get 6tph at T5, albeit 4tph of those involve a T2&3 change and are thus slower journeys.

 

[Cross City]

Worth noting that if aiming to use the Elizabeth line, you should always board the next departure at T5 - if it's an Elizabeth line service, great. If the next one is a Heathrow Express service, take it 1 stop to Heathrow T2&3 and then change there for a ~5 minute same-platform connection onto an Elizabeth line train that started at T4. This is valid whether you have a paper ticket or are using Oyster/contactless.

This 'hack' works in both directions - if heading to Heathrow, take the first Heathrow-bound departure even if it's a T4 one and change at T2&3 if necessary. It means you effectively still get 6tph at T5, albeit 4tph of those involve a T2&3 change and are thus slower journeys.

Good point actually, I'd not thought of that. That was my first ever time taking the train to or from Heathrow in dozens of times flying in and out so not something I've had to think of previously!

 

[Bald Rick]

Was speaking to the flight attendant at the font of the plane

Wow, BA have really pushed the boat out on the refurbs - in flight Baptisms !

 

[Jimini]

Wow, BA have really pushed the boat out on the refurbs - in flight Baptisms !

You win these quite regularly, but the "post of the day" award goes to...