Review: British Airways A320 Club Europe Business Class

~ cswada

Far from aspirational in terms of the hard product, but the service felt friendly on this early morning flight.

Happy to be onboard!

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Booking

Departing Europe for the United States, I had my choice of which airline to fly coming back home. Originally we were planning to use points, but we had future plans to come back to Europe in 2023. Rather than using up all my points, I instead decided an open-jaw itinerary of Europe – United States – Europe using cash (with the return to Europe months later) was best for us.

When paying cash, business class flights starting in the United States tends to be more expensive than starting in Europe. As an example, consider the following example dates. The only difference is the order of the flights. In this example, the roundtrip out of Europe can easily cost over $1,000 less. If you’re selective about your dates, you can do much better than this and indeed for my dates the roundtrip business class tickets only cost $2,200 per person.

Aside from just saving my miles for later, there were some other advantages to paying cash. It’s difficult to find award space between the West Coast of the US and Europe, so paying cash meant I didn’t need to worry about that challenge. I didn’t end up with unnecessary connections, which can tire out the kids more and isn’t ideal for a trip over the Thanksgiving break. And we get to earn award miles for the flights on British Airways (crediting the flights to Alaska Airlines will result in roughly 30,000 miles per person to use on future trips).

The roundtrip departing the US
The same roundtrip departing Europe

Checking In and Security at Hamburg Airport

Our departure flight from Hamburg to London was changed a couple of months prior to departure to 6:40AM. We left the Radisson Blu airport hotel around 5AM thinking it should give us plenty of time to check in and clear security. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. The British Airways counter seemed lightly staffed, with only one person working the economy line and one person working business. Even in the business class line, it took 15 minutes to make it to the counter despite only one party ahead of us.

We were directed to the security line for premium passengers, but this line was even slower than the regular security line. I noticed some people try to go into the regular security line but they were directed back to the premium line. The problem with the premium line was that only one scanning machine was operating at this time (as opposed to many machines operating in the normal queue) and all handicapped passengers were directed to use the premium line. It seemed quite frequent that the line would completely stop as a handicapped guest arrived. It took us about 45 minutes to clear immigration.

At this point, we were clearly running behind schedule as we still needed to make it to the gate, which the screen said was still a 10-15 minute walk plus we needed to clear immigration. So we ran as best as we could with the kids. We did make it while the economy section was still boarding, but you’ll have to forgive me for not having that many pictures of the airport or plane at this point.

Even if we had made it through security comfortably, there would have been no business lounge open for us on Saturday. The contracted lounge British Airways uses only opens early in the morning on weekdays.

Boarding and First Impressions

Business class within Europe doesn’t give you too much at your seat over economy class. The seats are the same with no extra legroom. To give the perception of more space, the middle seats are blocked off. Airlines do this setup so they can easily adjust based on demand for business class. A simple divider separates the cabins.

The middle seat divider
We have a row to ourselves
Cabin divider

On the plus side, there was charging available under the seat. And blocking the middle seat does also mean more under-seat storage.

Under-seat storage

My seat mate did have a good use for the center seat divider. Since the tray table isn’t allowed to be lowered for takeoff and landing, she found the middle seat to be a good place to place her iPad to watch as we took off.

My happy seat mate

Of course she stopped caring for me as her seat mate and demanded Jenn and I switch places. You can see how thrilled she is by the opportunity.

Char got tired of me

Breakfast

Even with a flight time of less than 90 minutes, there was a full food and beverage service onboard. The main choice for breakfast was an English breakfast: eggs, ham, sausage, tomato, and mushrooms, with fruit, a granola bar, and a croissant on the side. The main word I would use to describe this meal is salty. They were definitely heavy-handed on the use of sodium here, but it was much needed given all the rush to make it to the flight on time.

English breakfast
Alex enjoying his meal

After breakfast ended, the flight attendant also gave me a fresh bottle of champagne because why not? I won’t say no if asked.

Bottle of champagne after breakfast

Wi-Fi and Inflight Entertainment

There were no monitors at any seat, and surprisingly there also was no digital entertainment when logging onto the Wi-Fi. So please come prepared to entertain yourself while onboard.

Wi-Fi was available to purchase. Given the duration of the flight, I didn’t need to stay connected to the world so I didn’t purchase it. Perhaps the US airlines have spoiled me since many allow for free messaging while onboard but British Airways wants to charge £2 for the privilege.

Even messaging costs money
Wi-Fi pricing

Service

I thought the service on this flight was above average compared to other British Airways flights we have been on. The cabin crew seemed genuinely happy to be there and offered up a smile and a sense of pride in what they were doing. They definitely tried their best to make sure we had an enjoyable experience on this short hop to London.

View of London

Recommendation: Yes, but economy works too

I wouldn’t go out of my way to flight business class within Europe. There’s nothing luxurious about the seat since it’s the same thing everyone else on the plane gets. On a flight this short, economy would have worked out fine for us, but it was nice to have a full meal onboard and the cabin crew made us feel welcomed. I’ve seen people badmouth business class within Europe, but as long as you go in with the right expectations, you won’t be disappointed.

Have you flown British Airways within Europe? How was your experience?

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