British Airways Club Europe, which is their European Business Class, offers an inflight meal during the flight. The food on offer is usually fairly good, giving you something to pass the time with on your flight.
Business Class seats also include fairly unlimited booze, so if you want to order a couple of glasses of sparkling wine or down a few shots of whiskey with your meal, you’re very welcome to, at no extra charge.
British Airways Flight Experience
The seating of the British Airways Club Europe Business Class is pretty poor. You have the same seats as in Economy Class, but the middle seat is left clear and sometimes has a tray table set up. This means you’re not on top of your neighbor.
Even though the legroom in these seats is poor, you can angle yourself diagonally with your feet or extremities elbowing into the middle seat without upsetting anyone.
One significant advantage of British Airways Club Europe over Economy, beyond the extra space provided by the middle seat and the meal, is the luggage you can take. You get two pieces of hold luggage free of charge, and there is plenty of space for your onboard roll-on bag. Club Class passengers board first, so there’s plenty of room in the overhead lockers, and you won’t have any worries about your roll-on case fitting in these lockers as there’s always enough room for cabin luggage if you’re traveling in Club Class.
The second advantage is the pre-flight club lounge access which is great, particularly if you’re flying out of a UK airport and have access to the BA Galleries Club Lounges.
Review: British Airways Galleries North Airport Lounge Terminal 5
Terminal 5 exclusively hosts British Airways flights, and we have reviewed the British Airways Galleries North Airport Lounge Terminal 5 below. You can access the British Airways Airport lounges in London Heathrow Terminal 5 by buying or upgrading your ticket to Club Europe, Club World, or First Class. Oneworld Sapphire or Emerald members, and British Airways Executive Club Silver or Gold, also get free access to this lounge, whatever class of travel they are flying.
As for the meals, we have reviewed several different meal services below.
Breakfast
We recently experienced breakfast on an early flight from London Heathrow (LHR) to Paris (CDG). We had the choice between a “Full English” with scrambled eggs, sausages, and beans, or you could pick an omelet. Being almost vegetarian, I went for the omelet, which was cheesy and lovely.
Both hot mains came with a croissant with jam and a dessert, which are usually very decent on British Airways, although I didn’t try it on this particular flight as dessert in the morning seemed wrong on that particular day! You can read more about this breakfast flight experience below.
Review: British Airways Club Europe Breakfast
We experienced the British Airways Club Europe Business Class breakfast onboard an early morning flight from London Heathrow (LHR) to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) last week. I never book Redeye flights. However, we experienced their early morning service a few days ago due to a flight mess-up, so I thought it would be worth reviewing.
Afternoon Tea
The afternoon tea service on British Airways is always a little disappointing. I have endured several of their afternoon teas as we usually fly out from Heathrow in the afternoon. Honestly, I would reccomend filling up with a delicious British Airways piping hot curry in one of their Galleries Lounges at Heathrow before your flight as the afternoon tea is unappealing, at least for me.
The afternoon tea includes a platter of 4 sandwiches, usually a cucumber, a cheese, and something else. These are on standard British bread and always seems limp and tasteless. Warmed connes are passed around by the stewards, and you get jam and clotted cream to go with these. This part of the meal is nice if you like a scone, but the whole offering is a mass of cold bread.
I much prefer the afternoon meal offered by competitor airlines such as Air France, who usually offer something warm with a salad and avoid masses of cold bread.
Review: British Airways Club Europe Afternoon Tea
If you fly on British Airways in Club Europe (European Business Class) between 2:00 - 5:00 pm you may be expecting a rather nice salad or perhaps even some kind of warm meal. Alas no. The British Airways famous afternoon tea will be on offer, and as you can see from the above picture, it is not as luxury or "Business Class" as you would hope. One key advantage of British Airways Club Europe over Economy, beyond the added space with the blocked middle seat and the complimentary meal, is the generous luggage allowance.
Evening Dinner
In the evening, the choice varies from a decent cold chicken or vegetarian salad to warm dishes however on the last evening flight we took in British Airways Club Europe, on the way to experiencing the fantastic Four Seasons Mallorca, the evening meal was, rather disappointingly, the afternoon tea again, even though it was most definitely dinner time.
I went for the vegetarian option pictured above, which included an egg roll, a cucumber sandwich, and a quiche-type pastry. Whether you go vegetarian or not, you get a warm scone with Wilkin& Son strawberry jam and Rodda’s classic cornish clotted cream as well as a dessert. This time, it was a chocolate moose cake with a raspberry.
Review: British Airways Club Europe Evening Dinner
We experienced a British Airways Club Europe Business Class dinner onboard an evening flight from London Heathrow (LHR) to Nice Airport (NCE). Their evening meal is fairly decent and preferable to the BA inflight afternoon tea. I usually book afternoon flights, so we usually experience the British Airways afternoon tea, which is an insipid meal at best. Pre-flight, we filled up on curry, mash, salad, cake, and ice cream in the Galleries South Lounge in Terminal 5.
Conclusion
The British Airways staff are cheery and kind, and the breakfast and evening meals are very good. I’m less keen on the afternoon tea, which British Airways seems particularly keen on delivering right into the evening.
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