Today I flew British Airways’ A350 premium economy from London to Hong Kong. While I’ve flown British Airways’ 777 premium economy and their A350 Club Suite (and Jason has flown their 787 premium economy), neither of us have flown British Airways’ A350 premium economy before. In fact, British Airways introduced a new premium economy seat on their A350 that you’ll also find on some of their 777s and 787s, and today was my first time trying this seat.
I remember being very pleasantly surprised by British Airways’ premium economy product a few years back, so was looking forward to seeing whether my opinion had changed, now that I’ve flown some more premium economy products out there. So does British Airways have the best premium economy product? In some ways, I’m actually just as excited by British Airways’ premium economy product as I am by KLM’s premium economy product, which I consider to be the best in Europe. However, there are some wider elements of British Airways’ operations that I just don’t appreciate, which makes the airline lag behind, in my opinion.
Let me also say that I flew on Christmas Day. This means that I’m more forgiving of the crew that had to work that day instead of spend time with their families, and also know that they may have been running a skeleton operation (especially since the UK has no public transport on Christmas Day). I’ll still note my observations from the flight, so keep that in mind when you’re reading through my impressions.
British Airways’ A350 Premium Economy Seat: Good Recline, Okay Storage
British Airways’ premium economy seats are fairly off-the-shelf Recaro PL3530 seats, also used by Emirates, Air France, LATAM, and others. The cabin is one of the bigger ones I’ve seen – the planes feature 56 premium economy seats, spread across seven rows in a 2-4-2 configuration.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy
Perhaps the biggest asset of the seat is recline – it’s sure plentiful, even if it felt a bit stiff. There’s also a really substantial footrest and legrest, which you won’t find in British Airways’ older-generation premium economy seat. Unfortunately the seat doesn’t have much of a “cradle” effect, which means the recline goes really far into the seat behind you, as opposed to the seat pan moving forward.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Recline
Apart from the seat back, storage consists of a helpful nook on the seatback – which I wish was designed so there wasn’t a gap underneath where pens or very small items would fall out. There’s a seat pocket, which I didn’t find to be that sturdy (when I put my laptop and a couple of things in, it “hung” out). There wasn’t much else in the way of storage, so I’d say that overall the seat did fine but not great on this front.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Storage
I also found the inflight entertainment screen to be high-definition, and easy to navigate. Unfortunately, British Airways is one of the few airlines that doesn’t have a tail camera onboard its A350s.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Entertainment Screen
The power ports could be found underneath the seat (both USB and 110V), though this wasn’t turned on for our pair of seats for most of the flight – luckily this wasn’t too much of an issue for me (as I came in fully charged and was just going home after), but I found it to be a “oh come on, you can do better” moment.
I will also say that I assigned this seat for £94 (HK$985). While I thought it was worth it in this case as I wanted to review the flight and was desperate to get some rest (and the window seats were being snapped up), £94 is the most I’ve ever paid for a seat selection fee in premium economy, and is a crazy amount of money to snag a window seat. I didn’t even get my preferred seat throughout the cabin in the back row, as both of those seats were taken.
Overall, I’d say I was a fan of the seat. I think some seats do better on storage and tech, or are more creative ergonomically. However, the comfort level was there, and I had no problems getting some good rest or getting some work done in this seat.
British Airways’ Impressive A350 Premium Economy Amenities
Maybe I just have lower expectations for the amenities available onboard British Airways’ A350, though I found them to be very impressive, and every bit as good as you’d find on a top carrier.
The pillow was small but supportive, and the blanket itself was soft and quilted, definitely one of the better blankets I’ve seen in premium economy class.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Pillow and Blanket
The headphones were very good. They were noise-cancelling, and had good sound quality, without much clipping at all.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Headphones
The amenity kit was also good, with a nice (Christmassy) pouch featuring a dental kit, hand cream, socks, eyeshades, and a pen.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Amenity Kit
Over the TV screen we were told that slippers were available on request. A crew member looked at me slightly apprehensively when I mentioned so, though he said “if the TV said they’re available, they’re available”. These slippers were great, since I didn’t have to put my shoes back on when just going to the bathroom in the middle of the night.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Slippers
I wouldn’t go as far as to call these amenities industry-leading, though they’re definitely on par with some of the better premium carriers out there. Between the seat and amenities, I was able to get comfortable very easily on this flight.
British Airways’ A350 Entertainment System and WiFi
British Airways isn’t known for having a particularly smashing entertainment system, so I was impressed by the amount of choice, and also thought that the interface itself was extremely easy to navigate. I’m normally the last person to watch a movie on planes (as I prefer working, and usually prep lots of work for a flight), though it was Christmas Day and J had me watch Materialists, which was available on the inflight entertainment screen.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Entertainment System
In terms of WiFi, messaging is free for Executive Club members. I ended up upgrading to a Browse & Stream subscription for £19.99 (HK$210), which apparently caps you at 300 MB per hour (so 3.6 GB for my 12-hour flight) – I would’ve preferred the WiFi offering to just be unlimited, though will admit the pricing isn’t high, and 3.6 GB is more than enough for most people onboard a flight.
British Airways’ Delicious Premium Economy Catering
I’ve flown British Airways premium economy a few times before. Perhaps I’ve just been lucky, but I’ve found the catering to be nothing short of delicious. This flight was no exception, and I also thought the meal service itself was quite refined as well.
We were offered pre-departure beverages including sparking wine, orange juice, and water. I chose sparkling wine, and was happy to see it served in proper glassware, which I don’t think I’ve seen in premium economy in a while.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Sparkling Wine
Later we were handed out menu cards. The menu did make it quite clear that for Christmas they’d have a Christmas dinner replacing the standard menu options. In our case, only the beef and broccoli stir fry was available, and the chicken curry and crespelle were replaced by a Christmas dinner, and vegetarian Christmas dinner, respectively.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Menu
Across the main meal and breakfast, I was very pleased by the quality of food. The Christmas dinner was delicious and came with a very creative appetiser and dessert. Breakfast just came as a single course with fruit and a sweet muffin, though the eggs were very well-prepared, which is rare (the rösti was a tiny bit glue-y, though still very good).
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Meals
I was also very appreciative of the drinks selection. There aren’t massively expensive wines or other drinks on the menu (and there could’ve been a couple more non-alcoholic options), though I’m a fan of the variety, and that the wines in particular are chosen from a variety of areas. I also like that there are some basic cocktails, even though they just come with minis that you make yourself.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Drinks Menu
Before the meal service I indulged in a Bloody Mary. During the meal service I was specifically asked whether I wanted wine with it, and was actually offered an off-menu cabernet sauvignon (which I’m guessing might’ve come from business class?). This was served with a wine glass as well.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Drinks
While I didn’t find any galley snacks and there’s no published snack service, I saw the crew coming around quite often with water, some small pretzel snack packets, and even two glasses of sparkling wine at one point. This was done more on a reactive basis than a proactive basis, though I didn’t feel hungry on the flight at any point.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Service
The crew were in high spirits, and I appreciated that they were working on Christmas Day. The crew also sought to please and fulfil all requests, and served those who needed extra assistance particularly well (there were a lot on this flight today!). I was particularly impressed when one crewmember said yes to my seatmate’s request for a glass of water when they were doing pre-landing checks, and proceeded to come back with a plastic cup of water in a swift but relaxed manner.
That being said, I felt like service could’ve been way more polished, from the ground experience to landing. I’m keen to relay the below, not necessarily to the crew or ground staff that served me, but more for training and management:
- This was probably because of Christmas, but World Traveller Plus had dedicated check-in kiosks, but the bag drop area was closed: I was directed by someone manning the area to a colleague that said that she handled shorthaul flights only, who redirected me to the Club line (with a long queue), and eventually I just walked back to the economy section to drop my bag off myself
- Boarding was extremely chaotic: Group 0 was boarded and was much bigger than usual, though the crew rocked up quite late to the plane, so we just watched as a bunch of passengers requiring assistance (in wheelchairs/with young children) waited in a cordoned queue. Even the ground staff had some things to say about this
- I noted the lack of synergy between the crew and what was shown on the TV screen when it came to slippers on request
- Meal trays consistently took ~30+ min to clear after they were served
- I pressed the call bell between meal services and the crew took 15-20 minutes to arrive – including walking past my seat once without noticing the call bell sign was on
- The crew very nicely took some above-and-beyond orders, such as offering a pen and/or a beer I nicely asked for when they were serving tea and coffee. However, these orders weren’t delivered until 30-45 minutes after they were placed, and in the case of the beer I could tell the crew member had forgotten when we locked eyes – this happened to a couple of different crew members at different points throughout the flight. If the crew was busy, I would’ve preferred having approximate time estimate
- The crew very thoughtfully started the second meal service from the back of the cabin, since some of those passengers didn’t get their first meal choice; however, they collected meal trays from the front to the back, meaning that those at the back had to sit with an empty tray for a while long
A not-very-fun boarding process
There’s not much room for personalisation with a 56-seat premium economy cabin, though I do feel like there’s room to tighten up a few training snafus that I experienced on this flight.
Conclusion
British Airways has a very impressive premium economy product, with a good seat, great amenities, great catering, and great entertainment and WiFi. The design of the product is extremely well-intentioned, and service on this flight was extremely friendly as well, despite the couple of feedback points above. This is definitely up there with some of the best premium economy products I’ve flown, and definitely one of the best European premium economy products.
That being said, KLM has a strong premium economy product in Europe as well. In many ways the products are identical in the way they stand out. I would’ve named this a joint-first European premium economy product, though I’m not sure I can do in good conscience, given the ways British Airways lags behind in their operations and delivery (including with how the ground experience and service structure were executed this time round).
Still, I wouldn’t hesitate to fly British Airways’ premium economy again (assuming the price is right).
What’s your favourite European premium economy product?
