[NTarrant]

I agree too that CE is good value. My regular jaunt is LGW-JER and being able to have a relatively good meal helps the journey on the mainland side.

I would agree that it is not what it was, with no hot towel, but the wider seat and the empty one beside you is most welcome.

[Maninseat2C]

Well I’m not sure if the move is paying off for BA. For a test booking LHR FRA for this Thurs the lowest CE fare was available on all but the last evening flight. I know it is the summer but even so… Were I able to come back on Sunday, I could pick any LCY flight there or back.

[PaulJennings]

I very much hope that CE stays – I think it is usually good value for money, especially on the LGW routes where the difference is often minimal.

Fewer people are using it but does not mean it cannot be kept going. The marginal cost of providing it must be quite low on most flights – the main cost would be the empty seats but since BA uses convertible seating anyway the opportunity cost could be made quite low if not zero.

Ironically, the scrimping within corporate travel budgets might mean it is of at least as much interest on leisure routes as on business routes.

Even if one extra person gets on the flight or upgrades the airline will make a profit.

BA is mistaken if it thinks that the extra revenue it gets from me is the difference in fare; it is the whole fare. If they get rid of short-haul business class (with the lounges and the extra space etc.) they get rid of a big attraction and they dissuade me from picking BA over someone like LH or a more convenient regional departure with FlyScratchcard.

[Travellator]

I am a particular fan of CE although standards have dropped – no nibbles, no hot towels and on some routes very poor FA’s.

I travel LHR/AGP most and at times there are 12 to 14 rows of CE – this is a huge CE route for BA.

The AGP flight departs at 4.15pm so we miss a meal and get afternoon tea by 15mins.

The flight arrives AGP at 8pm so after collecting baggage ( not us ) and driving and settling in at say Marbella it is all of 9p or after so pretty hungry !

I am in the boat also if I didnt travel CE on this route I would lose Silver Tier.

Also I can solve the mystery of the new BA 747 – 8 series freighter – it is used to import the tons of Tuna melts for the lounges – has nobody any imagination except Tuna !

[openfly]

VK ……. interested in your promotion of Club Europe. What you are saying is true. and is the product that you should receive, but it rarely happens, especially ex-LGW.

There is often no extra locker space as they are occupied by the crew bags. In fact I was ‘instructed’ recently to put my bags in the economy lockers! The crew member reluctantly, and with bad grace, moved her bags to allow me to use the locker above my seat.

The meals have gone to nothing with the smaller plates, especially out of LCY.

There is no extra space between you and the seat in front as they are convertible economy seats with the same pitch.

You mention lounge access. At many places there is no lounge! Even LCY, with its large BA operation, has no Exec lounge…..except for the lounge dedicated to the JFK pax.

The Gatwick crews would not have a clue what to do with a jacket if you had the audacity to ask for it to be hung up….they just dont do that sort of thing in Crawley!!

Priority boarding is a great rarity on short haul flights. Most of the ground-staff seem to have little knowledge of the requirement to do it, especially inbound to the UK.

I agree with you that Club Europe is good when everything is done as laid down, and can be good value. But until they sit down at BA and have a good look at how the product is not being carried out as it should be, then sadly it is not acceptable.

[PaulJennings]

The restrictions seem not to apply on LGW routes if you book economy and do the flat rate upgrade. I have just done this for an LGW BOD weekday overnight return. £ 98 + £ 120 return. Maybe this is the way forward for CE. A flat rate supplement of 50 or 100 keeps it simple and avoids having to manage two lots inventory.

[PaulJennings]

The restrictions seem not to apply on LGW routes if you book economy and do the flat rate upgrade. I have just done this for an LGW BOD weekday overnight return. £ 98 + £ 120 return. Maybe this is the way forward for CE. A flat rate supplement of 50 or 100 keeps it simple and avoids having to manage two lots inventory.

[pomerol]

openfly

You must be very unlucky indeed, for my experience’s flying CE out of Gatwick differ greatly from yours.

Yes I agree the food is not what it was.

The seat pitch I think is not an issue on a short flight.

The lounge’s at Gatwick are very good indeed.

My jacket is always taken and hung up.

Without exception I have always been offered priority boarding.

[VintageKrug]

Indeed openfly does seem to have an almost mythically poor experience every time he travels BA. Quite at odds with my and others experiences, having taken over 15 exLGW CE sectors this year so far.

1. I ALWAYS get my jacket hung up.

2. There are two BA lounges at Gatwick, three lounges at LHR T5 and two at T3. LCY doesn’t have a shorthaul lounge, but then nor does any other airline there; the whole point is to “turn up and go”. BA has among the best non-hub outstation lounges across its European network.

3. Priority Boarding is ALWAYS offered exT5 and exLGW, sometimes from outstations as well (though there continues to be the need for consistency here, it is certainly the exception not to have it). I haven’t flown CE exT3 since last year.

4. The pitch is indeed the same, but the extra seat width and the blocked seat next to you is a great advantage if you want to review confidential paperwork, or simply have some elbow room to read the FT.

5. Food has indeed been a little touch and go lately as BA changes suppliers; while quantity may have reduced (I haven’t noticed smaller plates, but then I have been mostly longhauling or private jetting the past two months), quality should improve and when Northern foods (who supply M&S) actually get their act together it should be excellent.

6. LCY services are run by BA CityFlyer and not technically Club Europe.

[NTarrant]

I would say the CE experience out of LGW is fairly consistant. Priority boarding is the norm. I and other passengers have been asked if they would like jackets hung up without question.

Would not agree about pitch, these are the same aircraft that have operated for years so nothing will have changed. As VK says the improvement of the empty seat at E was most welcome.

Food has been touch and go, but has been of better quality recently. Can’t say the portions have been reduced though

[Binman62]

Have recently completed a LHR TIP return (out in M back in CE) frankly even with 3.5 hrs the CE sector was not worth the extra and indeed the CE product was downright poor, even with poo. Within a few days did SIN PER on qantas this sector is 4.5 hours so a bit longer but also 2 x daily. The QF business class product left BA for dead. Iindeed makes BA shorthaul (under 5 hours) look downright cheap. QF used names at all times, had extensive wine list and menu almost flat bed seats and was simply far superior service in ever way. The sooner CE is stopped the better for all. A dedicated cabin and seat is the only answer in Europe, akin to the old First class. BA needs to up its game big time across the board. My F flight to SIN had again no IFE, the 4th succesive flight in F for me. Missing bags on arrival ( why not tell me in LHR my bags were not on board?) Grumpy staff on the ground at LHR and a CSD who clearly had had too many IFE issues to care any more!. Overall my recent personal and family experiences on BA have been third rate and my loyalty is being stretched to breaking point. CE (keeping to the theme of this forum) is, quite simply……….rubbish.

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[BAdboys]

VK openfly makes some good points. You seem incapable of accepting that BA is not what it was. Even their senior staff admit it.
The cabin crew at LGW will admit that premiums do NOT board first in most cases and they find it frustrating.
VK is wrong…the First lounge at LGW is very inferior to the First lounge at T5. No hot buffet at LGW only a hot bacon roll!
I can only assume that in a previous life VK was CEO of BA…maybe he is still is!

[VintageKrug]

It gets rather boring when you put words into my mouth.

I never stated the “First Terraces Lounge at LGW was of the same quality as the First Galleries at T5”. There was a misleading suggestion that “at many places there is no lounge!” and I countered that with a list of the numerous lounges available for CE and Gold card customers exLondon.

The issue is that either CE survives in its current format, or it disappears altogether. It is not a case of improving to offer a dedicated cabin and a more “F” like service. A comparison to Qantas is not particularly helpful as the distances and demand on those routes are completely different from that which BA faces. No other European carrier offers such a wide ranging network of shorthaul premium flights using dedicated cabins and seating, and none offers a better lounge offering in the round than BA does.

I have ALWAYS been offered premium boarding in my fifteen CE sectors exLGW over the past six months. Always.

So quite where you get you second hand info that this doesn’t occur I really don’t know….

[binabdulaziz]

HA HA – best weasel words I read since ‘nothing work faster than Anadinn”

“6. LCY services are run by BA CityFlyer and not technically Club Europe.”

[PaulJennings]

European short haul flights cannot be compared with Australia – Asia flights. It’s a different market and the comparison will only make you unhappy.

CE could be more luxurious, but then you’d be paying £100 a time for champagne and caviar. I really don’t need a towel on a 2 hr plane trip. CE is a good service. I’ve always had my jacket hung up when wearing a jacket (sometimes I’ve asked before they’ve offered and my request has always been met with a smile). On the occasions when I’m not on the last minute I’ve always seen priority boarding in T5 and LGW (T3 buses, the less said the better). Some outstations make you think the place was only opened yesterday which is presumably why BA don’t advertise priority boarding – they know they can’t trust some of their handling agents to organise such a difficult and complicate exercise.

I think the quality of the food has improved this year, and ex-London, the quality and quantity of the food in all the London lounges is noticeably improved since T5 opened.

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