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THE ALVIATOR'S VERDICT
There's no material difference between this British Airways shorthaul product and their older seats in Club Europe – in fact, there isn't a 110V power port, which will inevitably annoy some. WiFi also wasn't working on this flight, though BA does have an otherwise pleasant intra-Europe business class experience |
4.0
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In June 2025, I flew British Airways’ Club Europe from Amsterdam to London Heathrow. While I’ve flown British Airways’ Club Europe multiple times before, this was my first time trying British Airways’ new shorthaul seats, which were released last year. These are featured on select A320neos/A321neos, and it’s a lottery draw as to whether you get these seats, or the airline’s older seats that you’ll find on the rest of the airline’s fleet.
While these seats don’t make much of a material difference to the British Airways shorthaul experience, the airline continues to offer one of the better intra-European experiences, in my opinion. Intra-European flying is always a bit sad in business class (since it’s just economy class with a blocked middle seat), though there’s in-seat power, good catering, consistently friendly service, and good WiFi (in theory – it wasn’t working on this flight).
Booking British Airways’ A320neo Club Europe
I booked my British Airways flight from Amsterdam to London Heathrow for 20,000 Asia Miles plus £77.20 (HK$736) in taxes. This is worse value than using Avios, since the same flight would’ve cost 15,000 Avios plus £12.50 (HK$132). However, I’m not especially Avios-rich at the moment, and thus decided that using Asia Miles was the better option.
The final itinerary for this segment was as follows:
21/06 British Airways 441 Amsterdam – London Heathrow dep. 19:25 arr. 19:40 [Club Europe]
If you’ve got a decent stash of Oneworld miles, the value of flying British Airways’ Club Europe depends heavily on the ground experience, since you get a very similar experience onboard.
British Airways’ Club Europe Check-In and Boarding at Amsterdam
I was coming off my Air France flight from Paris, and didn’t have a bag to check on the way to the UK. Unfortunately, the UK’s new eTA system meant that I couldn’t check in online as a foreign resident – there wasn’t even the capability to select my seat. I was quite keen to get a window seat, so I decided to check in as soon as I could.
British Airways’ check-in counters are located at Schiphol Airport’s pier 19, so I headed there to retrieve my boarding pass. Since I was so early for my flight and the preceding one was departing very shortly, there wasn’t a line. I was automatically assigned seat 4F, which was the seat I had my eye on anyway, so that worked out well.
British Airways Check-In Desks at Schiphol Airport
Since I had quite a few hours between flights, I actually made the opportunity to take the train to Amsterdam Centraal station, and wandered around for a bit. Closer to my departure time, I headed back into the airport and through fast track security and immigration, where there wasn’t much of a wait.
British Airways uses the Oneworld lounge at Schiphol Airport, which I’ve reviewed here. A delay was posted during my stay at the lounge, which some of my fellow passengers were (vocally) quite unhappy about. Once the inbound aircraft had arrived at around 7:30 PM, I made my way down from the lounge to gate D16, where our A320neo was departing.
Amsterdam Schiphol Airport Gate Area for British Airways Flight
Our inbound aircraft ended up pulling in at around 7:40 PM, 15 minutes after our scheduled departure time. This was G-TTNY, a new A320neo that I knew would sport new seats onboard. For reference, for British Airways’ A320neos, G-TTNA to G-TTNU feature the old seats, and G-TTNV onwards and all G-TTS_ aircraft feature the new seats. It’s a lottery draw to which seat you’ll get until your aircraft is assigned.
British Airways A320neo at Schiphol Airport
Our boarding passes were scanned at around 7:55 PM, and we waited just short of the jetbridge for a few minutes as the aircraft was readied for our flight. Boarding was done starting with infirm and passengers with young children, and followed by business class passengers.
British Airways Flight BA441
Saturday, June 21, 2025
Origin: Amsterdam (AMS) Gate: D16 Dep: 19:25 (20:35)
Destination: London Heathrow (LHR) T: 5 Gate: A8 Arr: 19:40 (20:45)
Duration: 1 hr 15 min (1 hr 10 min)
Aircraft: Airbus A320neo Reg: G-TTNY
Seat: 4F (Business Class/Club Europe)
British Airways’ A320neos feature 180 seats spread across 30 rows in a 3-3 configuration. These were British Airways’ new intra-Europe economy class seats, and feature sports car-inspired stitching, as well as red finishes by the headrests.
British Airways A320 Cabin
This is definitely British Airways’ most handsome cabin, and the mood lighting gave the cabin a further bit of pizzazz. These are Collins Aerospace Meridian seats, which you’ll also be able to find on Southwest and Oman Air. They feature an adjustable headrest, as well as a separate literature pocket on top of the seat pocket.
British Airways A320neo Cabin
Below is my seat 4F, which was the right window seat in the last row of the Club Europe cabin on my flight. The seat below is the reclined position – there isn’t much recline on these shorthaul planes.
British Airways A320neo Club Europe Seat 4F Recline
The first row seats also feature a literature pocket, though you won’t be able to put a backpack or small bag under the seat in front of you. If that doesn’t bother you, however, there is a good amount of extra legroom at these seats, and I would recommend them.
British Airways A320neo Club Europe Bulkhead Row Legroom
Back at seat 4F, I found the seat pocket to be large, and legroom adequate (seat pitch is 30″).
British Airways A320neo Club Europe Legroom
A tray table folded out of the seat in front, and it was sturdy enough.
British Airways A320neo Club Europe Tray Table
One of the big downsides of these new planes is that they don’t feature 110V AC power ports. This will undoubtedly annoy some, as many laptops (especially UK-issued work ones) that wouldn’t allow for USB-C charging. If you’re good with USB-C charge, however, the 60W-rated power ports are easily able to charge a laptop. There’s also a USB-A port.
Seats in rows 13 and behind are outfitted with 15W USB-C and USB-A ports. C’mon, British Airways, even Transavia is able to fit a 60W power port at all seats onboard their A320neos. So while the power situation didn’t bother me, this definitely isn’t an industry-leading power port situation, and is worse than what’s available on their older aircraft.
British Airways A320neo Club Europe Power Ports
Lastly, British Airways brought back a faux leather side table between seats, which aren’t featured on their older A320neo aircraft.
British Airways A320neo Club Europe Side Table
This is still one of the better intra-European seats out there (compared to anything by the Lufthansa group, where you won’t find an adjustable headrest or any form of in-seat power), though I do miss the 110V power port.
British Airways A320neo Club Europe Lavatory
The British Airways A320neo lavatory is nothing special, though does feature toiletries from The White Company, as well as an antiseptic from Horsleys. In this case, the one forward lavatory was shared between 16 Club Europe passengers.
British Airways A320neo Club Europe Lavatory
Taking off from Amsterdam Schiphol Airport
British Airways doesn’t do any form of pre-departure service, so the cabin doors were closed quickly, and we were on our way after a safety briefing. While the captain did announce our flight time, I missed it, as I was busy having a chat with my seatmate – it was a very social flight, and most people in rows 3 and 4 engaged in conversation with each other at some point during the flight.
It was a clear day in Amsterdam, and as we pushed back, we had views of some KLM and Eastern Airways E190s that were parked nearby.
Traffic at Schiphol Airport
It wasn’t a long taxi at all to runway 24, and we took off at 8:45 PM, before turning slightly right towards the east so we could head towards Heathrow Airport.
Taking off from Schiphol Airport
British Airways A320neo Club Europe Entertainment and WiFi
While a vast majority of British Airways’ A320neo planes feature WiFi, unfortunately it was inoperable on this flight. If WiFi had been operable, the pricing would have been as follows, with no concession for Club Europe passengers:
- Inflight messaging would’ve cost £1.99 (HK$21) – British Airways Executive Club members get this for free
- A Browse & Stream package would’ve cost £4.99 (HK$53) for 1 hour, or £6.99 (HK$74) for the full flight
British Airways A320neo Club Europe Meal Service
The meal service was conducted 15 minutes after takeoff. British Airways consistently has fairly good catering on these flights, and their partnership with DO&CO is a win, despite the meal being a cold plate of sorts on flights within the airline’s first “band”.
I had the roast beef salad, which wasn’t much of a salad, though was very tasty.
British Airways A320neo Club Europe Meal
My seatmate had the vegetarian sundried tomato and egg salad, which looked decent as well.
British Airways A320neo Club Europe Meal
In both cases there was a beautiful raspberry pot de creme of sorts – DO&CO desserts are consistently delicious, and consist of a very smooth and luxurious texture.
In terms of drinks, I had champagne. Meanwhile, the friendly flight attendant came to my seatmate and asked which red wine he’d like, and he said “may I have both?” At some point we were mistakenly given a third, which the full cabin had a bit of a laugh about. (He put these in his bag, as opposed to finishing them during the flight.) British Airways was providing a French Chardonnay or a Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon at the time.
British Airways A320neo Club Europe Wines
I also won’t dedicate a section to crew on this flight, though in my experience I consistently find British Airways’ crew to be extremely friendly and efficient, and this flight was no exception.
Walking around British Airways’ new A320neo
After dinner I took the opportunity to tour the rest of the airline’s new A320neo, including economy. Since seats in rows 13 and behind feature 15W USB-C power ports, this is a certain downgrade from British Airways’ A320ceos, which feature 110V universal power ports at every seat. However, the seat comfort itself still beats British Airways’ older A320neos, which feature ugly and inconsistent low-cost airline style economy seats with no recline in rows 13 and behind.
British Airways A320neo Economy Class
Landing into Heathrow Airport
As I mentioned earlier, this flight felt quite social, and we were all talking amongst ourselves in the business class cabin. This meant that the time passed relatively quickly, and very soon it was time to land back at Heathrow Airport.
Despite the fact that Amsterdam is almost directly due east of London, this time we were landing on runway 09L, which meant a western approach to the airport. This meant that we couldn’t fly over all of London as you can do when approaching Heathrow from the east (which is the approach path most of the time). This was a shame since the weather was great, though it was still a scenic approach over Reading and Windsor as we began our final approach into Heathrow Airport.
Landing into Heathrow Airport
Since it was still light outside during this long summer’s day, the mood lighting from earlier on in the flight was kept on during our 8:30 PM arrival.
British Airways A320neo Lighting during Landing
We touched down at 8:35 PM, 55 minutes after our scheduled arrival time, and made our way to gate A8 where we’d be deplaning.
Taxiing at Heathrow Airport
Given that I expect extremely long queues at Heathrow immigration during the evening, I was shocked to see that there wasn’t a wait for immigration at all, and I was on my merry way home quickly.
Conclusion: British Airways A320neo Club Europe
British Airways’ new A320neo Club Europe isn’t much of a material improvement compared to their older seats – you get a table between seats and the cabin itself is more aesthetically pleasing, though the in-seat power situation is worse unless you actively love USB-C power ports. I’d say the same is true in economy unless you’re in the back half of one of British Airways’ older A320neos, in which case this seat is a substantial upgrade – I’m glad British Airways backtracked on having slimline, low-cost airline style seats on one half of their shorthaul planes.
British Airways’ Club Europe soft product continues to be good with good catering and service, though this time around I missed having onboard WiFi, which was inoperable on my flight.
