[Anonymous]

[HappytobeSilver]

Recently flew from Heathrow to Amman in Club World on this A321 former BMI aircraft. Connected from Glasgow and transferred from T5 to T1 where we underwent security screening once more.

We made our way to the BA international lounge in T1 which I found to be very impressive- good range of food and drinks on offer, uncrowded at 1730 that evening, clean and tidy and with good views out to the apron.

Boarding was from gate 74 which was only a short walk from the lounge. The boarding process itself was rather chaotic with the cramped conditions at the gate itself meaning that it was not possible to have a priority queue for Club passengers or those with a Gold or Silver card. All passengers board from door one; this making it very difficult for cabin crew to offer a pre-departure drinks service to CW passengers before all passengers were on board and had made their way to their seats.

The seats themselves are all forward facing in this single aisle aeroplane and arranged 1:2, 2:1 respectively. I actually prefer this arrangement to the ying/yang in CW on the 777 and 747. The seat was very comfortable (wider than the traditional CW seat) with a good-sized IFE screen in front. The CW cabin has 23 flat-bed seats therein compared with the 31 cradle seats that BMI previously had installed on this type of aircraft. The one disadvantage of this new arrangement is that there is now only 1 toilet, rather than 2, in Club (it’s worse in WT though with up to 131 passengers sharing only 2 toilets).

Once we took off the inflight service began- albeit rather slowly. This flight is operated by BA’s short haul cabin crew and on our outbound flight they struggled somewhat with the CW service, appearing always to be rushing around and almost panicky.

BA now offer a Rose Champagne from de Castelnau as well as a Champagne Boizel Grand Vintage 2004 in CW in addition to the Tattinger Brut Reserve NV, but on the outbound flight only the Tattinger was available (the Rose was available on the return flight but I’m not sure whether the vintage champagne was).

The dinner was tasty, if perhaps the beef was rather overdone.

After a flight time of 4 hours 20 minutes we landed at the newly opened international terminal at Queen Alia Airport where we were quickly through passport control (there is now a visa desk next to each of the passport lanes in the new terminal which means it is very easy to purchase a visa on arrival : cost 20 Jordanian Dinars).

On our return flight there were only 8 passengers in CW as opposed to the full cabin we had on our outward journey. The cabin service was very organised and this was not only I think due to their being less passengers, but also the Purser having operated on the A321 CW service on a number of previous occasions- he was particularly organised and efficient. Rather surprisingly we were served lunch- I had expected a brunch- as the flight departed at 0900 and landed at 1215 local time some 5 and a bit hours later. I wasn’t quite ready for chicken and potatoes before 10am, but nonetheless the Rose Champagne aided my enjoyment of this.

All in all two excellent flights in CW on the ex BMI A321. I much prefer this particular CW seat and would implore BA to retro-fit them on all existing 777 and 747 aircraft!

[bernie100]

Not my experience, I am afraid to say. Just completed a return trip to Tel Aviv. On the outbound flight I was downgraded to economy due to my CW seat being broken. Not a pleasant experience being in row 28.

On the return journey the electrics did not work in 2 out of 3 seats which I had booked.

The Eurofleet staff are trying their best but the equipment is just not up to scratch. On the outbound flight the front toilet kept blocking up.

When full this plane is so inferior to the 777. If BA continue with this plane to Tel Aviv passengers will jump to ELAL and Easyjet.

[JonathanM8]

I have to agree with bernie100, having just completed a return trip to TLV on these A321’s. CW looks great, but we cant all go CW all the time!

The economy seat has to be the worst in BA’s fleet – no give at all and not much recline and at 31 inches pitch, the stingiest legroom on BA. I would say that the new Voyager in-flight entertainment system is good (quite amusing how the little plane on the moving map is still in bmi colours) but on April 2nd the system was still using March programming.

Add to this the comparatively poor lounge facilites for BA in T1 and the 45 minute wait for luggage last night (no excuse) and even Easyjet is looking an attractive alternative.

[FormerlyDoS]

” the equipment is just not up to scratch”

This is strange, as it seems to work very well on Swiss (not that I am disputing your experience and I do understand why you feel this way.)

I wonder what is causing the problem on these aircraft?

[VintageKrug]

Nice review, happytobesilver.

This new aircraft and cabin seems to be well received on routes such as Amman, which have seen an upgrade from the previous CE product, and understandably less enthusiastic response from those on the TLV route which previously had the full longhaul configuration.

The new midhaul seat seems to be generally praised, but it’s clear the economy cabin isn’t as comfortable as the equivalent longhaul world traveller seat.

Glad to hear you enjoyed the T1 international lounge; I like the views, all they need to add is some ‘poo on request and I’d be happy.

[JonathanM8]

VK, to clarify, the 23 who can enjoy CW definitely have a good deal – in absolute terms as well as relative to other CW seats. However the Y seats are much worse than the 777/767s used previously on the TLV route and, again in my view, are worse than regular EuroTraveller seats on the normal BA Airbus series. From other blogs and also from my conversations with BA Customer Relations, this issue will be going away any time soon on these routes

[bacrew1]

JonathanM8…
how will these issues be going away any time soon?? I’m curious..

Thanks

[JonathanM8]

Sorry, meant to say, they WON’T be going away anytime soon (Doh!) The capital cost of the refit will mean that it will be at least 5 years before these aircraft have their insides even marginally tweaked I imagine. So, unless this fleet get moved to other routes, all these near Middle East routes deliver the same experience – great in CW and poor in WT

[JohnHarper]

I don’t understand why these BD A321s are not being operated by predominantly BD crews. Poor cabin service seems to be a continuing feature of the offering now and it seems to stem from crew familiarity with the service and layout.

Poor managment and organisation.

[bernie100]

It is not so good in CW. On my outbound flight to TLV I was down graded because of a faulty seat which was jammed. On the return flight 2 out of 3 of our seats had no electrics working. There is serious reliability problems with the product. The seats might well work for Swiss but the crew are cursing as to why BA ever introduced the product.

[JonathanM8]

On both sectors there were ex-BD crew members, but, remember, BA has refurbished the interior since they took over the mini-fleet and so I think the CW seating has been introduced post the merger….so no-one is really familiar with the equipment!

[edy4eva]

I’m curious to know whether the 1A seat is any good? Does it have enough legroom to stretch out or is it more constrained that others?

[bafan777747]

hi vk im checking all your comments for a while and i see that youre the most intresting in this whole forum so thats why im asking you i just returned from 3 rtn flights from lhr to tlv in these small ba321 cw and i must say i like the seats up there but its impossible to travel with 24 infants and so many people in such small planes with 2 wc for y and 1 for j and being so cramped even in business no in flight duty free and no bar and no t1 lounge and etc. i would be happy if you expalin me why they changed to the small planes and why they changed terminal on such a busy route
anyway thanks for your good work and keep it on vk

[TominScotland]

bafan777747 – congratulations on your family – to have 24 infants with you is impressive to say the least. I think any of us would be challenged to travel with such a large team – you could think of chartering an A380?

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