Review: British Airways Economy Class A320 (LHR-CPH)

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After having a little bit to eat and getting some work done in the British Airways Galleries First lounge it was time for my first flight of the trip. This was my “positioning flight” to Copenhagen which would allow me to catch my flight to Los Angeles the following day.

For anyone new to that terminology, a positioning flight is a flight taken with the sole intent of getting to a city from where you can catch a (much) cheaper flight to your intended destination (when compared to the price of a flight from your home base).

Boarding/Pre-Departure

I left the lounge a little earlier than normal so that I could get a place somewhere near the head of the boarding line – not because I was particularly worried about getting overhead space but because I wanted a picture of the A320 cabin without a lot of passengers milling about and getting in the way 🙂

As it happens the gate area was nearly deserted and I was first in line.

The gate agents were only just opening up their terminals and the crew had just boarded – what did we do before we had smart phones to keep us occupied at the gate?

When it came time to board it was good to see the gate agents adhering to the new-ish rule whereby they board the aircraft by OneWorld tiers (each tier called separately) and they don’t call every single passenger to board at the same time. As fun as it probably is for gate agents to watch Darwin’s “survival of the fittest” in action, it isn’t that much fun for passengers!

With no one stepping forward to pre-board I was the first on the aircraft.

The Cabin/Seat

British Airways’ Economy cabin (Euro Traveller cabin) on their Airbus A320’s are set out in a 3-3 formation….

British Airways Economy Class – Airbus A320

…and the whole aircraft is fitted out with the slimline seats that are so in vogue nowadays:

British Airways Economy Class – Airbus A320

These aren’t too bad for true short-haul flights but they can be very uncomfortable if you find yourself sitting in one on a 5 hour flight…especially if you’re tired already.

I’m very lucky in that my OneWorld status allows me to select my seat for free at the time of booking (something which not even Business Class passengers can do if they don’t have status) so I was in an exit row for this flight.

The leg room in the exit row seats is very good indeed…..

British Airways Economy Class – Airbus A320

British Airways Economy Class – Airbus A320

…..and that’s one of the (many) reasons I don’t feel the need to use Avios to book myself into short-haul Business Class (Club Europe).

When seated normally there was plenty of room between my knees and the seat in front:

British Airways Economy Class – Airbus A320

And when I stretched out my 6ft frame (which apparently has long legs) I had plenty of room too:

British Airways Economy Class – Airbus A320

I took a look at the non-exit row seats to see what the leg room was like in those and it was definitely a lot more cramped – these seats have a pitch of just 30″:

British Airways Economy Class – Airbus A320

This comparison photo may make the difference a bit more obvious:

British Airways Economy Class – Airbus A320

Snagging an exit row is great for getting more leg room but one thing it doesn’t improve is the seat width. I like to think that I’m not the largest of people (width-wise) but I found the British Airways A320 seat a bit narrow for my liking (it’s just 17″ wide according to seat guru) and, for some reason, it felt particularly narrow at the shoulders.

The incredible thing is that the Business Class cabin has the exact same seats and, although the middle seat is blocked off….

British Airways Business Class – Airbus A320

…the seats are just as narrow as the ones in Economy and they have the exact same leg room as the regular Economy Class seats too!

British Airways Business Class – Airbus A320

I’m not sure how British Airways gets away with offering just 30″ of seat pitch in their European Business Class cabin but, that aside, I’d love to know who pays for this abomination – either they have reasons that I have yet to consider or they have way more money than sense.

Connectivity/Entertainment

British Airways doesn’t have WiFi on any of its aircraft (unless the one solitary 747 on which they were trialling WiFi is still in service) so, unsurprisingly, there was no WiFi onboard…and we’ll be waiting some time before there will be.

Still, this was a sub-1.5 hour flight so WiFi and entertainment options weren’t really that important. I don’t recall if the overhead screen showed any TV programs but, if they did, they weren’t shown for very long.

Food

Food and drinks were served 20 minutes after take off and this is one area in which British Airways does do very well. The BA cabin crews are very well-drilled in getting sustenance to passengers regardless of how short the flight is. The fact that they still serve a meal/snack in Economy Class, let alone on flights as short as this one, really puts the US carriers to shame – they can’t even manage anything like this on 6 hour transcon flights!

The choice of food was a salad or a chicken sandwich. I chose the salad:

British Airways Economy Class – Airbus A320

British Airways Economy Class – Airbus A320

The salad was small but reasonably tasty and it would be unfair to expect any more than this on such a short flight.

In another move that should shame the US carriers, British Airways serves complimentary drinks on all their flights (including beer and wine) and, once again, they do this regardless of the length of flight. I can’t believe this hasn’t been an area of their service they’ve enhanced away (frequent flyer speak for doing away with all things good under then guise of improving the offering) but kudos to BA for still offering this.

Amenities/Service/Other

Amenities on a sub-1.5 hour Economy Class short-haul flight are generally non-existant…and that was that case here. I guess a tray table is an amenity so, in case anyone was wondering what it can hold, here’s a photo of an 11″ MacBook Air and cup of tea taking up most of the table space:

British Airways Economy Class – Airbus A320

The crew were friendly and super-efficient (as they have to be if they’re to serve food and drinks to a cabin full of passengers on such a short flight). I don’t envy these crews their jobs but they seem to do them pretty well given the circumstances.

Overall

If you have an exit row seat on one of these flight you’ll be just fine for leg room. There really is more than enough space and most people will be able to stretch out to their heart’s content. That’s not the case for the regular Economy Class rows or the Business Class rows where the 30″ seat pitch is pretty poor. It’s probably ok for a short-hop flight but I’d hate to have to sit in those seats for more than a couple of hours.

I’m going to say what I appear to say every time I take a British Airways short-haul flight – if you can get an exit row seat you should be ok, otherwise be prepared to be pretty cramped. 17″ of seat width and 30″ of seat pitch is about as little room as you’re going to find on a mainline aircraft anywhere in the world so be prepared for what you’re booking.

British Airways short-haul Business Class (Club Europe) would appear to be one of the biggest wastes of money imaginable – especially on such a short flight – so I have no idea why anyone would pay for it. Save the cash on the flight and spend a bit more on wherever you’ll be staying…you’ll get much better value that way.