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

I recently reviewed British Airways’ Club Europe from London to Stuttgart, and realised I’d never reviewed the airline’s shorthaul economy class product. I flew British Airways’ A320 economy class from London to Nice in 2024, and figured that it was about time to write a review, given that the product hasn’t really changed since I’d last flown it.

British Airways’ A320s feature a pleasant economy class product, with headrests, power ports, WiFi, and a free snack. Do note that some of their A320neos and A321neos feature a significantly less comfortable economy seat (their newest A320neos and A321neos are better, as they feature the airline’s latest shorthaul seat), so it’s actually worth trying to seek out an older aircraft unless you’d like to gamble on which plane type you get. British Airways’ shorthaul configured planes can fly flights of up to five hours.

Booking British Airways’ A320 Economy Class

I booked a British Airways basic economy ticket from Heathrow to Nice for £65.99 (HK$697), which included a £27 (HK$285) base fare and taxes and fees. I flew back on Wizz Air, and actually reviewed that flight a while ago.

British Airways offers four bundles (this is for a flight for a different date, so prices vary slightly from what I had):

As you can see, even Economy Basic comes with a cabin bag. There’s actually no weight limit on cabin bags with BA, though it must be able to fit in the overhead bin.

British Airways Economy Class Ground Experience

On this Saturday morning in January, Terminal 5 security didn’t take too long. Boarding was slated for around 7:45 AM, so we made it to the gate. Basic Economy boards last (we were group 9, and I don’t have status with Oneworld at the moment), though that’s a considerable proportion of the plane for a leisure flight like this.

British Airways A320 at Heathrow T5

Boarding was first done for infirm passengers, followed by Club Europe passengers, then for Oneworld frequent flyers. Groups go by really quickly, and soon we were invited to board our 16-year-old A320 which would be taking us to Nice.

British Airways Flight BA342
Saturday, January 20, 2024
Origin: London Heathrow (LHR) T: 5 Gate: A2 Dep: 08:15 (08:10)
Destination: Nice (NCE) T: 1 Gate: A33 Arr: 11:10 (11:20)
Duration: 1 hr 55 min (2 hr 5 min)
Aircraft: Airbus A320 Reg: G-EUUT
Seat: 5D (Economy Class)

British Airways A320 Economy Class Cabin and Seat

I was travelling with a couple of friends, and at check-in they were randomly assigned seats 5E and 5F, the first row behind Club Europe on our flight (British Airways endeavours to seat together people who book together, though I booked later on). I decided to pay the hefty £16 seat selection fee to join them, selecting seat 5D.

British Airways A320 Economy Class Cabin

Legroom is quite consistent on these British Airways’ A320s – they’re 30″ in the first few rows, and 29″ nearer the back. This was perfectly sufficient for a 1-hour flight, though could prove painful if the flight was longer.

British Airways A320 Economy Class Legroom

Each seat featured a large and sturdy tray table.

British Airways A320 Economy Class Tray Table

The seat reclines a tiny amount, as seen in the aisle seat below:

British Airways A320 Economy Class Recline

One good thing about British Airways’ A320s is that they feature power ports, which are shared – there are two power ports shared between three seats. This is a good perk of flying British Airways that separates them from other carriers – newer planes have USB-C ports (rated at 60W for the first few rows, and 15W for the last rows).

British Airways A320 Economy Class Power Port

Also, as a narrowbody plane, these planes featured air nozzles.

British Airways A320 Economy Class Air Nozzles

These are fairly good economy class seats for an intra-Europe flight. Do note that if you’re seated in the latter half of the plane on some of British Airways’ A320neos/A321neos, you’ll get slimline seats without headrests and much smaller tray tables, which are much more similar to flying a low-cost airline. The airline is generally fairly good with avoiding equipment swaps, so counterintuitively you’re guaranteed a nicer seat if you’re flying an older (non-neo) aircraft.

Taking off from Heathrow Airport

Boarding was executed efficiently, and the captain came onto the PA to welcome us. We were then shown a safety briefing, and pushed back at around 8:10 AM.

From there it was a 22-minute taxi to the eastern end of the airport, so we could take off from runway 27L. While there wasn’t much in the way of views from my aisle seat, the cabin did adopt some nice mood lighting.

British Airways A320 Economy Class Cabin during Takeoff

British Airways A320 Economy Class Lavatory

Shortly after takeoff I visited one of the lavatories at the back of the cabin. Technically our seats in row 5 were furthest from the lavatories available to us (since the lavatories at the front of the cabin are reserved for Club Europe), though it also meant that we had the least foot traffic out of any seat on the plane. The lavatories were small but functional, and featured faux wood floors.

British Airways A320 Economy Class Lavatory

British Airways A320 Economy Class Buy-On-Board Menu and Complimentary Snacks

British Airways operates a buy-on-board selection onboard their shorthaul economy class flights, dubbed the “High Life Café”. Apparently you can pre-order from a larger selection, though I didn’t take advantage of this for my flight. Here’s a PDF of the version currently available for flights in and out of Heathrow Airport. (You can also pay using Avios, though I generally wouldn’t consider this to be a good deal.) British Airways’ buy-on-board selection is catered by Marks & Spencer.

Whether you’re pre-ordering or ordering onboard, the airline generally offers wraps and deli bites, as opposed to hot meals. Here’s what the menu looked like on my flight.

British Airways A320 Economy Class Buy-On-Board Menu

If you’re not planning to order anything, you do get a free water and snack on British Airways planes, which is more than what you’d get on some of their competitors (though less than what you’d get on Air France/KLM).

British Airways A320 Economy Class Free Water and Snack

I actually did also get a Jimmy’s Iced Coffee for £3 (HK$31), which didn’t cost much more than what it retails at Tesco/Sainsbury’s here in London.

British Airways A320 Economy Class Iced Coffee

British Airways A320 WiFi

British Airways offers WiFi onboard their A320s, which brings a competitive edge above other carriers. In this case WiFi was priced as follows:

• Inflight messaging cost £1.99 (HK$21) – British Airways Executive Club members get this for free
• A Browse & Stream package cost £4.99 (HK$53) for 1 hour, or £6.99 (HK$74) for the full flight

While obviously this isn’t cheap for a 2-hour flight, I didn’t mind the pricing too much – I find British Airways has some of the more affordable inflight WiFi out there. I didn’t do a speed test on this flight, though on a different flight I decided to get a full-flight Browse & Stream package, which measured 1.19 Mbps down and 1.26 Mbps up.

Landing into Nice Airport

Soon it was time to land into Nice Airport – once again there wasn’t much in the way of views from my aisle seat, unfortunately.

British Airways A320 Economy Class Cabin before Landing

We landed into runway 04R, and did a short taxi to gate A33, where we parked 10 minutes before our scheduled arrival time. There was a short queue at immigration to enter the country, though we were soon in sunny Nice, where I spent the weekend.

British Airways A320 at Nice Airport

Conclusion: British Airways A320 Economy Class

Apologies for this brief review, though I felt bereft in my duty not to write a review of British Airways’ shorthaul economy class product, especially so I can compare it with low-cost and leisure options within Europe. I’d say if the price is right, British Airways could be the best and most economically friendly option to fly intra-Europe – prices can run quite low, you can bring a carry-on bag without a weight limit, and you’re seated next to people you book with (although seat selection pricing is otherwise on the steep end). The onboard experience is decent as well, with seats featuring power ports, WiFi being available at a reasonable price, and a free snack and water for all passengers.

There are a couple of airlines that offer a comparable or better product intra-Europe. Obviously this doesn’t come anywhere near flying intra-Asia, though compared to its competition I reckon British Airways is fairly close to the top of the pack. Just do note that seat comfort isn’t anywhere near as good on some of British Airways’ planes.

What’s your favourite airline to fly intra-Europe?