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This is the TFM British Airways A380 Premium Economy cabin and service review.
British Airways offers its Premium Economy cabin (or World Traveller Plus cabin as the airline likes to call it) on all of its long-haul fleet, so as I haven’t reviewed BA’s Premium Economy offering for a while, I decided to use a flight between London and Los Angeles to see what the product is currently like.
British Airways Premium Economy check-in/security (Heathrow T5)
The British Airways Premium Economy/World Traveller Plus check-in area is in Zone B at Heathrow Terminal 5 (desks B13 to B16), and that’s good news because it wasn’t that long ago that British Airways didn’t offer dedicated desks for its Premium Economy passengers – in those days they were expected to join the lines for Economy Class.
At the time of writing, these are the Premium Economy/World Traveller Plus baggage allowances for most British Airways long-haul flights:
Adults and Children
- 2 checked bags (23kg/51lb)
- 1 cabin bag (56 x 45 x 25cm)
- 1 handbag or backpack (40 x 30 x 15cm)
Infants (Under 2 years old)
- 1 checked bag (23kg/51lb)
- 1 cabin bag (56 x 45 x 25cm)
Essentially, adults and children on Premium Economy bookings get twice the checked bag allowance of their counterparts in Economy Class (assuming the Economy Class passengers haven’t just booked a hand baggage only fare).
Link to the British Airways baggage calculator
While a British Airways Premium Economy booking gets you a dedicated check-in desk, it doesn’t grant you access to the Heathrow fast track security lines, so if you don’t hold an elite status that gives you fast track access, you’ll have to buy access through the Heathrow website if you don’t want to take your chances with the traveling hoards.
On this trip I used my British Airways status to use the First Wing check-in desks and security, but I did a quick walk-by the desks in Zone B a couple of hours before my scheduled departure time and there weren’t any significant lines. The lines for regular security, however, were quite long.
British Airways Premium Economy boarding
A Premium Economy booking with British Airways gives you Group 3 boarding which isn’t as bad as it may sound.
Yes, you have Groups 0, 1, and 2 boarding ahead of you, but this is long-haul travel on a wide-body aircraft that we’re talking about. You’re unlikely to have any issues finding somewhere to store your cabin bags and needing space for your cabin bags is, for a lot of people, the only real reason to board an aircraft any earlier then you absolutely have to.
On this flight, boarding was remarkably smooth and unchaotic. In fact, it was so smooth that I almost checked to see that I was really flying with British Airways. The gate agents did a great job and, amazingly, this set of passengers appeared to understand the basic concept of “boarding by group numbers”, and that made the whole boarding process considerably more pleasant than it often is.
British Airways Premium Economy cabin (A380)
On the British Airways A380, the Premium Economy/World Traveller Plus cabin is located on the top deck of the aircraft behind a large Business Class cabin.
The seats are set out in a 2-3-2 slightly staggered layout across 7 rows.
You’ll find a similar Premium Economy cabin layout on BA’s 787 Dreamliners, but the layout on the airline’s A350s and B777s sees the center section offering 4 seats not 3.
British Airways Premium Economy seats (A380)
All the seats in this cabin offer the same amount of width (~18.5″/47cm), and most of the seats offer 8″/~20cm of recline and 38″/~96.5cm of pitch (legroom).
The recline in the rearmost seats in this cabin is slightly restricted by the wall behind them, and the bulkhead seats in row 60 (60D/E/F) and the window bulkhead seats in row 61 (61A/B/J/K) all offer a little more legroom than you’ll find elsewhere in the cabin (row 60 offers the most).
Note: By comparison, the standard Economy Class seats on this aircraft offer 5″/~12.5cm of recline, 31″/~79cm of pitch and are 18″/~45.5cm wide.
I was sitting in seat 60F on this flight and despite having long legs and being 6ft tall, I had more than enough legroom for my needs.
The standard seats differ from the bulkhead seats in other ways too.
The standard seats have their in-flight entertainment screens located in the back of the seat directly ahead of them …
… while the bulkhead seats have screens stored in their armrests which deploy outwards and upwards on a metallic arm.
The standard seats have access to USB-A ports under the screens ahead of them and their AC power outlets are built into the seat close to the floor.
The bulkhead seats have all their power options built into the seat and can be found between the floor and the seat cushion.
The final key difference between the bulkhead and the standard seats comes in the form of the footrests that you’ll find in the Premium Economy cabin.
The footrest for the standard Premium Economy seats deploys from under the seat ahead and looks like this.
In the bulkhead, where there is more room, the footrest is a little larger and comes with a calf support.
Most passengers in this Premium Economy cabin will find that there isn’t really anywhere around the seat to store any personal items (phone, tablet, laptop, book, etc…), but passengers in the window seats don’t share this problem.
As this Premium Economy cabin is on the top deck of the A380, all the window seats in this cabin have access to the same type of under-window storage bins that the Business Class seats on this deck have access to, and that can be incredibly useful.
If you like to keep a few items close to you during the flight and don’t want to have to store them in your pockets or in the back of the seat ahead of you, reserve a window seat. That will give you plenty of personal storage space.
Finally, as far as what the seats offer goes, I should mention the tray tables.
The tray tables deploy from the armrests of each seat and can be part-opened or fully opened depending on how much space you need.
To give you some idea of the size of the table, here’s a 15″ MacBook sitting on top (it just about fits).
One last thing to note about this cabin is that if you like to have a little control over the temperature of the air around your seat, you’re out of luck because while each seat has a dedicated reading light, there are no individual air nozzles in the ceiling.
If you’re prone to getting too hot on flights like this one, that’s something to keep in mind.
Overall, this isn’t a bad cabin, but it’s also not particularly good and considering what BA often charges for seats in this cabin, that’s not a ringing endorsement.
The British Airways Premium Economy seat on the A380 is definitely better than the seat you’d have to suffer if you booked an Economy Class fare on the same aircraft, but it’s still just a recliner seat.
As a place to read a book, to watch a movie, or to get some work done, this is fine, and if you manage to reserve a bulkhead seat, you’ll probably have more legroom than you need, and that should ensure a reasonable amount of comfort.
As a place to sleep, however, it’s very mediocre.
Yes, you’ll probably sleep better here than you would in Economy Class (an extra 3″/~7.5cm of recline, 7″/~17.5cm more legroom, and 0.5″/~1.25cm more seat width can have that effect), but no one should be expecting this seat to be a huge step up over Economy Class, because it isn’t.
There’s a reason this is called Premium Economy and not Business Lite.
Tip: The seats to avoid in this cabin are the seats at the very back. Not only do these seats not recline as far as all of the other Premium Economy seats, but they’re also right next to the lavatories and for a variety of reasons, that’s not ideal.
Amenities
The amenities offered in British Airways Premium Economy cabin are simple and haven’t really changed since they were introduced in 2019.
When you get to your seat, you’ll find a pillow and a blanket alongside a bag containing an amenity kit and a bag containing the same over-ear headphones as are offered in the Business Class cabin.
- Eye mask
- Socks
- Toothbrush + mini toothpaste
- Pen
- Lip balm by Scaramouche & Fandago
Ear plugs are not offered as part of the amenity kit but the crew often have some to hand if you ask.
In-flight entertainment
The content available through the in-flight entertainment system is the same regardless of the cabin in which you find yourself and, on the whole, there’s a reasonable selection of movies, TV shows, music, etc… on offer, so if you haven’t brought your own entertainment with you (which you always should), you’ll probably find something to keep boredom at bay for at least a few hours.
Tip: You can use this link and then the “what’s on my flight” option to check what entertainment you can expect on your next flight.
Unfortunately, that’s where the good news ends.
The IFE equipment on the British Airways A380s looks and feels like it has been around since John Logie Baird constructed the first working TV, only it’s less charming.
The IFE touchscreens are smaller than my antiquated 10.5″ iPad, they’re less responsive than a rock, and the picture quality they offer is so bad you may wonder if you need an eye test.
These may be the worst IFE screens that I’ve encountered for a long time and no, this wasn’t just an issue with the screen my seat. I’ve suffered these screens in BA’s A380 Business Class cabin as well, and they’re just as terrible in there.
Related: British Airways A380 Club World Business Class review (LAX-LHR)
The one saving grace here is that once you’ve discovered that the touchscreen isn’t actually sensitive to touch (or even a punch), you can use the remote control (which is built into the seat and which can extend out on a cord) to operate the system.
Even when using the controller, the responses from the system are often still painfully slow, but at least you’ll get a response.
What this all goes to confirm is that what I keep saying every time I review an airline’s entertainment options remains true – never rely on an airline to keep you entertained.
Bring your own devices, bring your own headphones and bring along whatever movies, TV shows and/or music will keep you happy.
Wi-Fi
As far as the onboard Wi-Fi goes, almost all the British Airways long-haul aircraft that actually have Wi-Fi fitted have 2Ku technology.
The airline has promised a Starlink rollout, but that’s taking so long (just 5 aircraft fitted with Starlink since the rollout was announced in November 2025) that a human colony on Mars may have been established before there’s a reasonable possibility that your next BA flight will have ultra-fast Wi-Fi.
That said, BA’s current Wi-Fi set up isn’t terrible. It’s quicker than the legacy systems that a lot of the US airlines operate/did operate, although the connection will still drop from time to time and once you’re north of Iceland or anywhere near Greenland, the coverage disappears.
The cost for the onboard old-style Wi-Fi isn’t egregious. Sure, free Starlink would be a lot better, but given what the US airlines have been charging for a worse connection, I’m going to give BA a break here.
Members of the British Airways Club (free to join) can enjoy free messaging while Wi-Fi is available.
The cost for full Wi-Fi access is as follows:
- 1 hour – £4.99/$6.99/€5.99
- 4 hours – $11.99/$16.49/€13.49
- Flight Pass – £19.99/$27.49/€22.49
You can choose which currency in which you’d like to pay, so as British Airways doesn’t change the exchange rates very often, you may find that by choosing your currency carefully (and using a credit card that doesn’t charge a foreign currency fee) you may get a slightly better deal than your home currency would have given you.
Service and dining
Shortly after boarding, the flight attendants came through the cabin offering pre-departure drinks.
There was a choice of water, orange juice or champagne (which may have been prosecco) and all drinks were served in glasses … which was nice.
Shortly after the drinks service, a small menu appeared and 10 minutes before take-off, hot towels were handed out and the curtains dividing Premium Economy from Business Class were closed.
25 minutes after take-off (and after we had levelled out), the crew came back though the cabin offering more drinks (wines, spirits, beers and soft drinks) as well as small bag of mini pretzels.
On this occasion, the drinks were served in plastic cups and not glasses. Perhaps they had run out?
Around 70 minutes into the flight, dinner and more drinks were served.
Because today’s British Airways aspires to do no more that it absolutely has to when it comes to customer service, it’s not possible to preorder a regular meal before you travel.
If you have dietary or religious constraints, there are meals that can be pre-ordered, but unlike most other modern airlines, there is no way of choosing your meal before you fly with British Airways. Not even if you’re flying in Business Class and not even if you’ve paid $15,000 to fly in First Class.
Stay classy BA.
Anyway …
This is what the menu looked like for this flight.
I chose the butter chicken curry (because reheating a curry is quite hard to mess up), and then I found out that the curry had been swapped out for a roast turkey meal.
I probably should have changed my order, but I didn’t.
The hot part of the meal was served with a foil cover (just like in Economy Class) …
… but at least the cutlery was metal and the plates were china.
This is what the meal looked like.
The solitary roast potato was a little depressing, my two slices of turkey were a little dry, and the decision to offer sprouts to people locked in a tube at 37,000ft was … interesting.
Amazingly, however, this wasn’t too bad.
Sure, if you were served this on the ground you probably wouldn’t be happy, but for airline food served outside of a true premium cabin (i.e. Business or First Class), it was ok … just.
Dryness aside, the turkey was edible (as was the rest of what was on the plate), the lifeless salad was saved by whatever was in the dressing (it may have been Parmesan/Grana Padano), and the dessert (apple pie and cinnamon cream) was surprisingly flavorful.
The whole meal tasted better than it looks in the pictures, but not by much.
The meal service lasted about 35 minutes and, interestingly, tea or coffee didn’t seem to be offered at the end. Perhaps I wasn’t paying attention and missed out?
Shortly after the dinner service ended, the cabin lights were turned off (the cabin went very dark) and that was that for a few hours.
I think one or two flight attendants may have passed through the cabin while the lights were out, but it was hard to tell (given that it was dark), and if they did pass though, they never stopped to check to see if I wanted or needed anything (it would have been obvious to anyone passing through the cabin that I was awake as I was working on my laptop).
About 3 hours before landing I took a walk to the very back of the aircraft (through Economy Class) and got a mug of tea from a friendly flight attendant who was working in the rearmost galley.
Here, I discovered a snack basket.
I had no idea BA offered help-yourself-snacks outside of Business Class, but here they were. The chocolate waffle biscuits (an attempt at Stroopwafels) were the pick of the lot.
About an hour later (coming up to two hours before we landed), the second meal of the flight was served.
For this meal there were no surprise substitutions, and as the menu only gave me a choice of tofu (a food item famous for having no flavor whatsoever) or chicken, I chose the chicken.
Once again, the hot part of the meal came covered in foil and once again my drink was served in a plastic cup …
… but at least the food wasn’t served in a foil tray.
This is what aji panca chicken looks like when BA serves it with sweetcorn cream (Google tells me that this is a Peruvian-style roast chicken dish where the chicken is marinated in a mixture of spices and aji panca chili pepper paste).
Whatever this particular piece of chicken had been marinated in didn’t really do the job.
The meat lacked flavor (ironic, given that I’d dismissed the tofu option due to a perceived lack of flavor) and it was also quite dry and hard to cut – an issue exacerbated by the fact that I’d been given the world’s bluntest knife (I’ve held slices of bread that were sharper than the knife I was using for this meal).
I fought a long and tedious battle with the chicken (it put up a valiant fight) until, eventually, I got bored of sawing at my food with no visible result and gave up on the main course and moved on to dessert – a chocolate brownie pot which was everything the main meal wasn’t.
It was flavorful, soft and really quite nice.
At this point of the review it’s probably appropriate to point out that on British Airways, the Premium Economy cabin doesn’t have a dedicated cabin crew. The crew you’ll see in the cabin also have to work in Economy Class, so service can be slow (as a point of comparison, Virgin Atlantic have cabin crew assigned to their Premium Economy cabin only).
A good example of the slow service this BA staffing decision can result in presented itself after the second meal was served because, 40 mins after being served the second meal (which didn’t take long to finish), I was still waiting to have my tray cleared. And I was still waiting 10 mins after that.
I had an empty tray in front of me and taking up my tray table for the best part of 45 minutes, and that’s not great if you have work that you need to be getting on with.
This is another way in which the British Airways Premium Economy product can feel less Premium and more Economy.
What was left of the flight after the second meal passed uneventfully and we landed in Los Angeles almost exactly on time.
In summary
The world “Premium” is doing a lot of heavy lifting in the British Airways Premium Economy cabin so it’s probably just as well that the airline calls it World Traveller Plus and not Premium Economy.
The main (and possibly only) reason to pay a premium for this cabin over Economy Class is for the extra room that you get around your seat, because other than that (and possibly the extra baggage allowance that a Premium Economy/World Traveller Plus booking offers), there’s nothing else that you get when you book this cabin that is likely to make a material difference to your trip.
The Premium Economy/World Traveller Plus seat in this cabin may be older than the Great Pyramid, but it’s still a more comfortable place to pass the time on a long-haul flight than one of the Economy Class seats just a few rows back, so that’s the major differentiator here.
That being said if you can snag one of the extra legroom seats in the Economy Class cabin and you don’t need too much lateral space (i.e. you’re not particularly large), the added value that the Premium Economy/World Traveller Plus seat offers drops.
It still offers a better experience, but not by as much.
When considering whether it’s worth paying for a World Traveller Plus booking, keep a few things in mind:
- The inflight entertainment in the Premium Economy cabin is the same as the entertainment offered in Economy Class.
- The Wi-Fi (and the cost of Wi-Fi) in the Premium Economy cabin is the same as in the Economy Class cabin.
- The crew in the Premium Economy cabin are the same crew that are serving in the Economy Class cabin.
- You may get better cutlery and dinnerware in Premium Economy than you get in Economy Class, but your drinks are just as likely to be served in plastic cups as they are in the cheap seats.
- The food in the Premium Economy cabin is not special (in any way at all), and while you may have a marginally better drinks selection in Premium Economy than you do in Economy Class, that’s probably not something you should be using as a reason to justify the price difference between Economy and Premium Economy.
Most importantly however, do not make the mistake of thinking that British Airways Premium Economy/World Traveller Plus is a halfway house to Business Class/Club World. It isn’t.
In fact, the only thing Premium Economy and Business Class have in common on the A380 is that both have seats designed and built decades ago, and both were out of date in 2015.
If you’re booking this cabin for any reason other than because you’d like a bit more space (a little bit more, not acres more), you’re probably booking it for the wrong reason because viewed as a whole, the British Airways Premium Economy/World Traveller Plus offering on the A380 is unimpressive and mediocre and, for a lot of people, that will make it not worth the added cost.
Related: It’s getting easier and easier to dislike British Airways
