[Anonymous]

[Senator]

Dear all,

So, I finally took the time to test out the BA Club Europe product to LCY. BA opened up twice daily service from LCY to ARN in January.

Purchased the R-class, none-refundable Club Europe fares from ARN with LCY outbound, and coming back via LHR T5. LCY is roughly £20 cheaper per leg, not sure if this is airport fees or not.

The flights are operated using the newish E170, and today’s aircraft looked a bit beat up already. I also wonder about having the aircraft on ground at ARN for four hours is the best utilisation of the fleet. Anyhow, not my decision to make.

On the plus side:

Good staff

Decent seat

Early arrival (35min)

Good bar service

From seat to taxi in 5 min which is excellent

On the down side:

Tight space for carry-on

Dreadful curry meal

I leave the worst bit for last: Seating arrangements. On LH on the same aircraft, one seat is left open. On BA CF, it is 2-2 seating in Club. For this reason only I’ll not use this service but return to the mainline from LHR for the future.

I asked the question earlier on the forum about the seating, no one knew at the time so I tested it. I would stick to mainline if I were you.

One exception I will make; I can get the LCY-JFK service on the BA sales for around £1300 from ARN. I may take the connecting flight for this.

[Travellator]

In many ways CE is poor value on the Embraer – the seating is ALL 2 / 2. At LCY htere is NO exec lounge. The only difference in CE is seated at front, meal of dubious quality and extra BA miles/ Tier points.

The Embraer is a lovely aircraft to fly in though !

[StephenLondon]

I agree with Travellator…CE ex-LCY is very poor value. Were it not for the fantastic convenience of LCY, it would be a busted-flush as a product, IMHO.
The CE “breakfast” they serve is utterly vile – an insult, actually. They could do so much better. In fact, most of their catering is vile. It is one area where they could really improve things (and for very little money). I do think BA could consider 1 x 1 seating ex LCY along similar lines to LH. It would really make paying for Club Europe much more worthwhile.

[ViajeroUK]

Interesting thing about CE/CW breakfats, last month I took an early Iberia flight out of LHR T3, enjoyed the bacon rolls in the lounge, and was served a really good breakfast on board. Cheese omelette (fluffy and light, didn’t need a knife to cut it!) with cured meats, small side salad, and fresh fruit. Complemented the CC and said how much better it was than the usual BA offering. He said that the meal was produced at LHR as the aircraft had been parked there overnight, almost apologising that it could have been better out of Madrid. It does show that LHR caterers can produce good meals, it must just be that BA are tight on their spending.

As an aside, the IB transfer arrangements at Madrid T4 are excellent, but if connecting with BA (as I did on the way back) the T4/T4S transfers are nowhere near as smooth.

[Author]

Posts