Review: British Airways Embraer E190 Club Europe (Business Class)

June 20, 2025

0

TravelingForMiles.com may receive commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on TravelingForMiles.com are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. TravelingForMiles.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers.

Other links to products and travel providers on this website will earn Traveling For Miles a commission that helps contribute to the running of the site. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities. Terms apply to all credit card welcome offers, earning rates and benefits and some credit card benefits will require enrollment. For more details please see the disclosures found at the bottom of every page.

On my last trip to Ireland, I flew to Dublin out of London City Airport in Club Europe (what British Airways calls its short-haul Business Class) on a British Airways E190 aircraft, and as TFM rarely seems to feature some of the smaller aircraft that we fly, this seems like a good opportunity to rectify that.

London City Airport

I arrived at City Airport using the London Underground (subway) and the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) and I alighted on a platform that was no more than 2 minutes walk away from the arrivals/departures hall (the airport is small so it has one hall for both arrivals and departures).

I had checked-in online the day before departure so I had a mobile boarding pass in my phone and had no need to use either the automated check-in machines or the manned check-in desks at London City Airport. Had I needed them, however, both were free of lines, so I doubt I would have been held up.

I was in line for airport security about 5 minutes after I had got off the DLR (I would have been quicker but I kept stopping to take pictures) and I would have been through security in under a couple of minutes had my bag not been pulled for secondary screening (London City Airport has the new-style scanners so liquids, laptops and tablets can stay in your carry-on bag).

Even with a wait to have my bag opened and rescanned, it took me less than 15 minutes to get from the DLR station platform to the airside shops and cafés of City Airport. That’s why I love this airport.

As I was traveling in Business Class, I knew that I would be getting a meal (of some sort) on the flight over to Dublin, so I didn’t need to get any food or drinks at the airport and I headed straight to my gate (which was blissfully quiet as it had only just been announced).

a reception area with a screen and chairs — The gate.

At the gate and boarding

By the time the gate agents arrived, most of the people sharing my flight were already at the gate, so one of the agents quickly walked around to check to see if anyone was attempting to board with a bag that was blatantly too big and to tag the smaller bags as “cabin guaranteed”.

a luggage bag with a yellow and white tag — BA’s “cabin guaranteed” tag.

Boarding started 20 mins before scheduled departure (correctly called by group numbers) and because City Airport doesn’t have any jet bridges, passengers were invited to walk down a flight of stairs to the airport apron, asked to wait to be given clearance to walk to the aircraft, and to then board by the front and rear doors.

Rows 1 through 11 board through the front door and rows 12 and beyond, board through the rear door.

a plane on the runway — A British Airways Embraer E190 aircraft at London City Airport.

Technically, this isn’t a British Airways flight

Just in case there’s any confusion, I should mention that while boarding passes, luggage tags, airport screens, and the aircraft livery all suggest that this is a British Airways flight, and while your flight will be booked and managed on the British Airways website, this isn’t really a British Airways flight. At least not technically. Technically, it’s a BA CityFlyer Flight.

To quote British Airways:

“BA Cityflyer is a wholly owned subsidiary of British Airways, operating a network of UK domestic and European services from London City airport, and a small number of flights from London Stansted, Edinburgh and Southampton.”

So, when I say that I flew with British Airways between London City and Dublin I’m technically wrong, but to keep things simple, I’m going to ignore that technicality.

The British Airways E190 Club Europe Cabin

The British Airways (BA CityFlyer) E190 aircraft offers a 2-2 seating arrangement regardless of where you are in the aircraft and the seats in the Business Class section are (mostly) no different to the seats further back.

a row of seats on an airplane — The E190 has a 2-2 seating arrangement and all seats are (more or less) identical.

a top view of a bus — The front few rows of the British Airways E190 screenshot from **aerolopa**.

All the seats on this E190 aircraft are 18.3″ wide* (that makes them over half an inch wider than the seats on any of the other BA short-haul aircraft), and the seat pitch (legroom) on offer is as follows:

Row 1 Seats A & B – 26.8″
Row 2 Seats C & D – 51.6″
Row 2 A&B + Rows 3 to 11 – 33″
Row 12 – 39″
Rows 13 to 26 – 29″
Row 27 – 28″

*Per aerolopa. Because the seats at the very front of the cabin have their tray tables stowed in an armrest, they may be marginally narrower.

This is what the seats in row 1 look like.

a plane with seats and windows — Row 1 seating.

Here are seats C & D in row 2 (the most spacious seats in the whole British Airways short-haul fleet).

a seat in an airplane — Seats C & D in Row 2 have more leg space than even the tallest of passengers could need.

And here’s what a pair of seats with 33″ of pitch/legroom looks like.

a row of seats in an airplane — Seats with 33″ of pitch (rows 3 through 11).

I had done my research ahead of time so I had reserved seat 2D with acres of leg room ahead of it.

a seat with two pockets on the wall — View from 2D

The seats at the front of the cabin have their tray tables stowed in the armrests and they fold out into a drinks table and a larger table capable of holding a tray.

a seat belt and seat belt — This tray table deploys from the armrest.

a white rectangular object with a metal hinge — Full table.

These tables are both small and wobbly so while they’ll hold a regular size laptop, they’re not the most comfortable or supportive of tables to work with if you want to type … especially during turbulence.

As an added bonus, these tray tables also have a flip-out support for tablets – that’s a nice touch.

a seat on an airplane — The tray table tablet feature.

a tablet on a table — The tray table tablet feature.

The rest of the seats on the aircraft have their tray tables stowed in the seat ahead (as you’d expect) and they too offer their own kind of tablet holder.

the inside of an airplane — The regular seats.

two chairs in a plane — The regular seats.

Finally, it’s worth mentioning that each pair of seats comes with two lights and two air vents which passengers can control …

a close up of a ceiling — Lights and air vents.

… but there is no in-seat power on this aircraft (no AC power and no USB ports) and there’s no WiFi either – make sure you board with your devices charged and all your files downloaded.

Overall, there’s not much more to say about this cabin, apart from to mention that the seat cushion is more comfortable than most of the newer seat cushions that BA has installed on the rest of its short-haul fleet, and to remind you that you should pay close attention to which seat(s) you’re selecting when booking orchecking-in as there is quite a bit of variance on the E190.

Also, it’s worth remembering that if you’re booked into Economy Class and cannot reserve the exit row, make sure you check how far back the Business Class seating goes because there’s a very good chance you can still reserve a seat with good legroom.

The Business Class cabin in this aircraft can go back to row 11 (possibly even row 12), but because these aircraft rarely have enough Business Class passengers to fill that many seats, the curtain dividing Business Class from the proletariat* is often considerably further forward than row 11 (on this flight, Business Class ended at row 5).

This can leave a good number of seats with 33″ of legroom which can be reserved by Economy Class flyers (note: these seats may be reserved for elite flyers until the days leading up to departure, so keep checking if you can’t reserve one of these seats at the first attempt).

That’s a joke, so don’t write in!

The flight

The aircraft doors were closed 8 minutes before our scheduled departure time but we still departed 6 minutes late.

Upon boarding, the lack of attention to detail by the cleaning crews was there to see – my seat had something sticky on it as well as some crumbs and the seats behind me still had used napkins on them.

Fortunately, the fantastic flight attendant we had in our section of the cabin noticed me looking for something with which to wipe down the seat and helped me out very quickly (there’s only 1 flight attendant in Business Class on these flights).

a seat belt on a seat — The usual attention to detail we expect from BA’s cleaning crews.

We taxied to the eastern end of the airport and then took off to the west (in the direction of Canary Wharf) with a steep initial climb that’s usual for westerly departures out of London City.

aerial view of a city — On a clear day, you get some great views of east London shortly after take-off from London City Airport.

Drinks and food orders taken after we levelled out (which was approximately 15 minutes after take-off). The choice on this flight was a vegetarian pasta dish or prosciutto with couscous.

I chose the prosciutto, which was nice, but the couscous was too oily.

a plate of food and a glass of juice on a tray — Business Class lunch on a London City – Dublin flight.

I wasn’t particularly hungry, so the small size of the meal didn’t bother me, but even it had, it wouldn’t have mattered on this flight as the flight attendant offered quite a few passengers (including me) a second meal as not all meals had been required.

More drinks were offered during the meal and after the meal.

Thanks to a helpful tailwind, we got to Ireland early, but thanks to busy skies around Dublin airport we had to do a few laps of the nearby countryside before we were given permission to land.

an aerial view of a city and water — Crossing the Irish Sea and heading towards Dublin.

We ended up on the ground three minutes ahead of schedule with a journey time of 1 hour and 7 minutes.

A little surprisingly (well, I was surprised), we were met by a jet bridge at Dublin airport and because we disembarked at one of the “300 Gates”, the walk to immigration took no more than 5 minutes.

Final thoughts

Leaving aside the continuing inability of British Airways to get its aircraft cleaned property (or to at least make them look like they’ve been cleaned properly) the whole experience from start to finish was a very good one – London City is a great airport out of which to fly (most of the time), our flight attendant (who was Irish) was incredibly helpful and friendly, the seats on the E190 are suitably wide and the legroom on offer in the Business Class cabin is fantastic.

But is this worth paying a premium for?

Probably not, but it will depend on just how big the premium is and on how long your flight is.

London City Airport doesn’t offer a priority line at security, there’s no airline lounge in which to relax before your flight and all the seats on the E190 are the same width, so what exactly are you paying for?

Well, you get to board in group 1, you’ll have a checked baggage allowance, you get a small meal and some complimentary drinks onboard, and you’re guaranteed a seat with at least 33″ of legroom. That’s about it.

For a small premium, those added benefits may be worth it on one of the longer flights the E190 operates (e.g. to/from Skiathos in Greece), but unless the premium is really small, I can’t imagine many people finding Business Class to be a good deal on the shorter flights.

Keep in mind that there’s even less reason to pay any kind of premium to sit up front if you hold oneworld Emerald or oneworld Sapphire status as those statuses will get you Group 1/Group 2 boarding and will allow you to select your seats at the time of booking (which should guarantee you a seat with at least 33″ of legroom), so all you’ll be paying for is the meal, a few drinks, and a baggage allowance … and everyone can add a baggage allowance relatively cheaply on most British Airways Economy Class flights.

The fact is that, in the past, some flyers could persuade themselves to pay a modest premium to fly in Business Class on BA’s flights out of City Airport because those flights offered a reasonable boost towards earning/retaining elite status.

Now, however, the number of Tier Points needed to earn meaningful status with British Airways has skyrocketed and British Airways awards Tier Points on the net cost of a passenger’s fare, so the Tier Point reasoning no longer makes any sense.

Who would have thought that BA’s march to a more price centric rewards program would actually give people fewer reasons to give the airline more of their money? 🙂

Bottom line

The Business Class experience on the British Airways E190 is fine, but for most people, there will be no truly good reason to pay more than whatever Economy Class is charging.

There are no premium facilities to enjoy at the airport and a lot of the E190 flights are so short that whatever extras are offered on board (and there aren’t many) aren’t really important.

Sure, if you don’t have elite status, are booking one of the longer flights, and the premium between Economy Class and Business Class is low, there could be an argument to be made that it’s worth trading up.

Most people, however, would do better if they saved on their airfare and spent a little more on their accommodation.

Our Favourite Luggage

a man and woman standing next to luggage

Regarding Comments

Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser or any other advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser’s responsibility or any other advertiser’s responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.