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THE ALVIATOR'S VERDICT
I'm not a fan of the fact that I'm ranking "business class" with a blocked middle seat 4.5 stars, though British Airways' Club Europe is competitive amongst other carriers with good WiFi and catering, albeit not-great seat selection pricing |
4.5
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In June 2025, I flew British Airways’ A320 Club Europe from London Heathrow to Stuttgart. It’d been a few years since I’d reviewed British Airways’ Club Europe, so I was keen to write an updated review of the product, which you’ll get fairly consistently across British Airways’ shorthaul fleet. Do note that some of the airline’s newest updated A320neos do feature a more modern product, though I received the product that you’ll find on a bulk of British Airways’ shorthaul fleet.
Flying business class intra-Europe is always a bit sad, as it’s just economy with a blocked middle seat. However, relative to the competition, British Airways’ shorthaul fleet does feature power ports at every seat, and each seat has an adjustable headrest, as well as onboard WiFi. Therefore, the airline actually ranks highly amongst its competition intra-Europe, though I can’t wait to see airlines innovate a little bit when it comes to intra-European business class products.
The joy of this flight was that I got to fly out of Heathrow’s Terminal 3, which serves as the “overflow” terminal for some of British Airways’ flights. While this is a downgrade if you’re flying economy on British Airways, it’s certainly an upgrade if you’re flying business class, as you have access to some of the airport’s longhaul Oneworld lounges, including Cathay Pacific and Qantas’ lounges. I’ve reviewed all of the Oneworld lounge I had access to (including the far inferior British Airways and American Airlines lounges).
Booking British Airways’ A320 Club Europe
My British Airways flight cost 15,000 Avios to book, with an extra payment cost of £12.50 (HK$132) per person. I transferred Avios from AmEx Membership Rewards points in order to book this flight. Economy class would’ve cost 9,250 Avios, though I splurged for the surplus 5,750 Avios for Club Europe, mainly so I could revisit and re-review all the Oneworld lounges at Heathrow’s Terminal 3.
My final itinerary was as follows:
06/06 BA920 London Heathrow – Stuttgart dep. 18:00 arr. 20:35 [Club Europe]
British Airways Club Europe Ground Experience at LHR T3
As a British Airways Club Europe passenger, you have lounge access to all Oneworld destinations. At Heathrow, most shorthaul flights fly out of Terminal 5, where British Airways has fairly middling hub lounges. However, a select number of British Airways flights depart out of Terminal 3, where you can access the Qantas, Cathay Pacific, and American Airlines lounge, as well as British Airways’ own lounge there.
I’d checked in on the British Airways app and was issued a mobile boarding pass for my one-way flight to Stuttgart, so I went straight to fast track security at Heathrow Terminal 3.
Heathrow Terminal 3 Entrance
After visiting all of the aforementioned lounges (as well as the AmEx Centurion Lounge), I finally made it to gate 9, where our British Airways flight would be departing. At this point the gate area was open – most gates at Terminal 3 have a “holding pen” where you wait after your boarding pass is scanned.
British Airways Gate Area at Heathrow T3
Boarding began at 5:30 PM, beginning with one infirm passenger, and followed by passengers seated in Club Europe.
British Airways Flight BA920
Friday, June 6, 2025
Origin: London Heathrow (LHR) T: 3 Gate: 9 Dep: 18:00 (18:00)
Destination: Stuttgart (STR) T: 3 Gate: 343 Arr: 20:35 (20:35)
Duration: 1 hr 35 min (1 hr 35 min)
Aircraft: Airbus A320 Reg: G-EUUA
Seat: 1A (Business Class/Club Europe)
British Airways A320 Club Europe Cabin and Seat
British Airways’ A320s feature 180 seats in a 3-3 configuration. As usual for intra-European business class, the Club Europe cabin featured the same seats, just with a blocked middle seat. On this flight, the Club Europe cabin took up the first four rows.
British Airways A320 Club Europe Cabin
As you can see, each seat features an adjustable headrest, which is appreciated.
British Airways A320 Club Europe Cabin
British Airways charges for seat assignments in Club Europe, and a seat assignment cost £19. Fortunately, seats are complimentary to select from check-in (24 hours before departure), and I could see that there were a couple of window seats still for grabs before check-in opened.
Turns out that seats 1A and 1C were unblocked during check-in. I decided to go for seat 1A, partially because of the novelty, but also because I’ve tried a “normal” British Airways Club Europe seat before. I’m not usually the hugest fan of having to retrieve my backpack from the overhead bin, though in this case there was a seat pocket located on the bulkhead, so I just placed my laptop there for takeoff and landing.
British Airways A320 Club Europe Seat 1A
British Airways’ Club Europe seats feature a table that blocks off the middle seat, finished with faux wood and leather (this is absent on some of the airline’s A320neos and A321neos). This was handy for placing items inflight.
British Airways A320 Club Europe Tray Table
While I didn’t get to test out the recline at my own seat, I did briefly check out the recline at another seat when heading to the lavatory. Recline is minimal at these seats, though sufficient for a short flight (also good in the perspective that nobody reclines into you).
British Airways A320 Club Europe/Economy Class Recline
As you’d expect for the first row in intra-European business class, legroom was sufficient, and I didn’t feel constricted by the bulkhead in front of me. British Airways also has a bulkhead between the entryway and row 1, so people weren’t lining up into “my” space when boarding.
British Airways A320 Club Europe Legroom at Seat 1A
The tray table folded out of the right armrest, and was bi-fold. It was sturdy enough, and rested on the left armrest when fully deployed.
British Airways A320 Club Europe Tray Table
There were USB-A and 110V power ports on this flight, though no USB-C power ports (as you’d expect, as these seats debuted long before USB-C power ports were commonplace).
British Airways A320 Club Europe Power Ports
There were also air nozzles, and on top of that, I enjoyed the British Airways logo being right in front of my seat.
British Airways A320 Club Europe Air Nozzles
Intra-European business class is one of those “the bar is on the floor” cases, though in this case I felt quite content in British Airways business class. There’s not much more comfortable of a way you can fly intra-Europe given how uncompetitive business class is, and in comparison I felt like this cabin was pleasant.
The one comment I’d make is that it’s not great that British Airways charges an additional £19 for seat selection. There’s already not much of a difference between business and economy class on British Airways, so the fact that seat selection isn’t free is just another nail in the coffin.
Do note that British Airways’ newest A320neos feature a newer seat, which I tried on a subsequent flight. Here are my first impressions, though the full review of that flight is coming as part of this trip report series.
British Airways A320 Economy Class Cabin
I got to check out British Airways’ A320 economy class cabin shortly after I boarded. These seats are the exact same as the seats in business class, save for the headrest cover and the blocked middle seat. In a way the cabin is actually more attractive, as I like that the British Airways logo is stitched on the adjustable headrests. It’s also nice that each seat gets an adjustable headrest and in-seat power.
British Airways A320 Economy Class
Legroom is not plentiful in these seats, with 29-30″ of pitch. Also note that the last row doesn’t feature a window at all (this is standard for A320s).
British Airways A320 Economy Class Legroom
Sometimes the Club Europe cabin stretches as far back as the exit rows in Rows 11 and 12. These seats are also good picks if so, given that there’s substantially more legroom.
British Airways A320 Economy Class Exit Row
British Airways A320 Club Europe Lavatory
British Airways’ A320 lavatories are unremarkable, though the Club Europe one did feature The White Company toiletries.
British Airways A320 Club Europe Lavatory
Taking off from Heathrow Airport
British Airways doesn’t do pre-departure service of any sort on their intra-Europe flights, so we wrapped up boarding and got ready to depart. I managed to get the entire row to myself, which was pretty awesome!
Having row 1 to myself
The inflight cabin manager gave us a welcome, mentioning that only wheeled suitcases were welcome in the overhead lockers, unless we were in the front row or in an emergency exit row. Afterwards, the captain came on to introduce himself, mentioning that our slot time was approaching, and saying that the cabin temperature would cool down after we were underway.
Our taxi took us past Terminal 2, where we could see some Star Alliance widebodies from a distance.
Traffic at Heathrow Airport
Our taxi took around 20 minutes to runway 27R, and we had great views over Heathrow Airport (not as good as when landing into Heathrow, though). After our initial climbout, we banked left, roughly following the M25 before heading east towards Stuttgart.
Taking off from Heathrow Airport
It was fun to have a bird’s eye view of one of Europe’s busiest airports!
Takeoff from Heathrow Airport
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 90-minute flight, I didn’t mind the pricing too much – I find British Airways has some of the more affordable inflight WiFi out there. I decided to get a full-flight Browse & Stream package, which worked fine for the flight. Speeds measured 1.19 Mbps down and 1.26 Mbps up.
British Airways A320 Club Europe Meal Service
The meal service began within 10 minutes after we took off, as you’d expect for a 90-minute flight. I was first asked what I wanted to drink. In this case I simply ordered a Diet Coke, since I’d had enough to drink at the Qantas lounge prior to the flight. This was served in glassware. Other options included red and white wine, Pannier champagne, tea and coffee, and other soft drinks.
British Airways A320 Club Europe Diet Coke
For the main meal, there were two cold options, including a salmon tartare or a vegetarian poke bowl. I picked the former, and the salmon and shrimp were both tasty, with good condiments. This was served with a bread roll.
British Airways A320 Club Europe Main Course
As with any dessert catered by DO&CO, the chocolate and raspberry mousse offered was exceptional, and I really enjoyed it.
British Airways A320 Club Europe Meal Dessert
After the meal, I couldn’t resist having a glass of champagne. This bottle retails for around £37, and didn’t taste amazing, though it was still nice to enjoy a glass of champagne after dinner.
British Airways A320 Club Europe Champagne
I believe British Airways offers hot food options in Club Europe on flights of around two hours (destinations are “banded” based on flight length, and this flight fell within the shortest international band, where British Airways only serves cold food options). The only exception is breakfast, where passengers are offered a hot full English breakfast on flights of all lengths.
I generally find British Airways catering to be quite good (especially since they switched to DO&CO catering, which manages catering for all Club World and Club Europe flights out of Heathrow), and like that there are two options to choose from even on these shorter flights.
British Airways A320 Club Europe Service
While there wasn’t much interaction with crew outside of mealtimes, I found everyone I interacted with onboard this flight to be extremely friendly and great at what they did. They executed the meal service extremely efficiently, and were sure to offer refills for drinks as well.
Landing into Stuttgart Airport
At roughly 8:05 PM local time (around 40 minutes after takeoff), the captain came onto the PA to announce our imminent descent, landing at approximately 8:30 PM. He mentioned that there were showers recently in Stuttgart, and also mentioned that the seatbelt sign would be turned on in about 20 minutes’ time.
When the seatbelt sign did come on, I really appreciated that the captain thanked each of the cabin crew by name for their hard work, as he asked them to take their seats for landing.
We flew past Stuttgart and turned so we could land on runway 25, though Stuttgart was on our right, so I didn’t really have a view of it. However, I did catch a little of a beautiful sunset as we descended into cloudy Stuttgart.
Initial approach into Stuttgart
Mood lighting was turned on during our final approach, and we touched down at 8:30 PM, before making a very short taxi to our gate.
Landing into Stuttgart Airport
We parked at gate 343 at around 8:35 PM, next to an Aegean A320neo.
Aegean A320neo at Stuttgart Airport
While deplaning was quick, there were only a couple of immigration booths for all of us, so the queue quickly piled up. I was one of the first off the plane as a Club Europe passenger, and was swiftly let through into the arrivals hall, where I caught a train to get to my accommodation for the evening.
Stuttgart Airport Terminal 3 Arrivals Hall
I stayed at the perfectly fine Arcotel Camino in Stuttgart, though as I barely spent any time there, I won’t be reviewing it. The next morning I headed off via Deutsch Bahn (not delayed!) to a small village town the wedding of two dear friends, before heading back to London a couple of days later on Eurowings – that’s where this trip report will pick up in the next review.
Conclusion: British Airways’ A320 Club Europe
Intra-European business class is generally a bit of a joke, and is painfully uncompetitive, given that it’s just economy with a blocked middle seat. I’d say that this flight was as good as it gets, departing out of Heathrow’s Terminal 3 – the lounges are incredible (with zero credit going to BA), seats are comfortable with headrests, there are power ports with affordable WiFi, and catering is good.
The only major complaint I have is that seat selection isn’t free, which is a bit of a joke considering that there isn’t any other hard product differentiation from economy class (and seat selection is even more expensive in Club Europe).
What’s your favourite intra-European business class product (oxymoron, I know)?
