| THE ALVIATOR'S VERDICT British Airways is so close to having a really good premium economy product, with the seat, catering, amenities and entertainment/WiFi all being great; however, it seems to just fumble on some of the basics, including an inefficient boarding process, extortionate seat selection fees, and weak service flow | 4.0 |
In my quest to find the world’s best premium economy product, I’ve always found myself bereft in my duty, as I’ve never tried British Airways’ new premium economy (rolled out on their A350s in 2019, and extended to their 777 aircraft) based at my current home turf. So when the opportunity arose to fly British Airways’ A350 premium economy in December 2025, I jumped on that opportunity.
People have mixed feelings about British Airways, and I can totally see why. The airline is so close to having a world-leading premium economy product. The seat is great, catering is good, they even have cocktails in premium economy, the WiFi works, and I’ve always had friendly service onboard a British Airways flight (even if it’s not the most efficient), with this flight being no exception. However, the airline falls flat in their management, including their ground experience and boarding process, the service flow, how much they charge for seat selection, and not-great IT. So even though some of the individual elements match up with KLM to be my favourite premium economy product in Europe, I wouldn’t give British Airways joint first place, as the execution just didn’t add up.
Here’s my review of the flight. Do note that I took this flight on Christmas Day, where the airline may have been running a bit of a skeleton operation. So perhaps you might have a better experience in some of these areas than I did.
Booking British Airways’ A350 Premium Economy Class
I booked British Airways’ A350 premium economy class using 55,000 Asia Miles and HK$4,044 (£378) in taxes. This is in line with what most mileage programmes charge for this flight, and I booked with Asia Miles as I’m most miles-rich with their programme. Asia Miles are easy to come by in the UK, as they’re a 1:1 transfer partner with AmEx Membership Rewards points here (you can also transfer from Max Miles if you’re based in Hong Kong or Singapore). Sadly I couldn’t avoid the Air Passenger Duty tax – I was too schedule constrained to position to a different airport (such as Inverness, Dublin, Madrid, etc.) to avoid it.
I had to monitor award space over a period of a few months for anything over the Christmas period to open up, as British Airways isn’t particularly generous with award space on this route. An award seat did end up opening up over Christmas Day:
25/12 British Airways BA31 London Heathrow – Hong Kong dep. 17:55 arr. 14:50+1 (Premium Economy)
While the booking process was easy and I didn’t run into any snafus with online check-in, I gotta say that the seat selection fees are the most expensive I’ve seen anywhere. I wanted to guarantee myself a window seat, and this cost an extra £94 (HK$1,003) to assign. Ouch. This is around twice the amount that I typically see, even from other airlines that charge for seat selection in premium economy. The kicker was that I couldn’t even assign my preferred premium economy seat at the back of the cabin, as it was taken.
I also use British Airways’ app quite often (as I use Avios often), and I get quite frustrated by how buggy it is. That’s just something to take note of.
British Airways Premium Economy Ground Experience at Heathrow
While I could check in online with no issues, the dedicated premium economy bag drop area was closed over Christmas. So after retrieving a bag tag, I was pointed over to the Club World line, where there was a sizeable queue.
Go figure that there was no queue on the economy side at the other end of the airport (I knew this as that’s the part of the airport I walked into after coming up from the Tube), so I just circled back to the economy side to drop off my bag at one of the self-serve bag drop counters. This was a painless process, and I was through to airside within a few minutes.
I decided to head over to the C gates, where I knew my flight would be departing – British Airways premium economy passengers don’t get lounge access, and both lounges closed early on Christmas Day, so the C gates were a tranquil space to take a few calls and get some bits and bobs done on my laptop. On this beautiful Christmas Day, I also saw our lovely three-year-old A350, G-XWBM, which would be flying us down to Hong Kong today.
British Airways A350 at Heathrow Airport
We were leaving from gate C64, which initially seemed well-organised – there was a separate lane for groups 1-3 (premium economy was group 3), and another lane for groups 4-9.
British Airways Gate Area at Heathrow Airport
Unfortunately, the actual boarding process was anything but organised. Boarding was scheduled to begin at 5:15 PM, 40 minutes prior to departure. Pre-boarding was called a little bit prior to this, where a long line formed. Bearing in mind that this boarding group consisted of infirm passengers in wheelchairs, babies in prams, and young children, the pre-boarding group was funnelled into a mini-serpentine queue and waited for a good 10 minutes there.
While Group 0 was still standing in the queue, Oneworld Emerald members (group 1) were then called to board, and escorted in a queue bypassing this serpentine (they also had to wait in a holding area after their boarding passes were scanned). While this was happening, group 2 (business class/Oneworld Sapphire) was invited to join the serpentine queue, behind the Group 0 pre-boarding passengers. They then had to stand there for a while as well, before everyone’s boarding passes were scanned and the queue slowly moved forward.
The boarding announcements didn’t help either – all of the boarding announcements were played at once (“Group 0”, “Group 1”, “Group 2”, “all remaining passengers” etc. before Group 0 had even boarded), and even the well-intentioned “ho, ho, hope you have a merry Christmas” didn’t assuage the chaos.
At around 5:25 PM, the crew operating our flight sauntered over at a relaxed pace – maybe it’s Christmas and the lack of London public transport would’ve had something to do with this, though I would’ve expected boarding to be called after the crew had boarded and were ready to go. The crew arrived in small groups over a period of a few minutes, and only after then did the queue start to slowly move.
So by the time I actually got on the plane as one of the first Group 3 (non-status holding premium economy) passengers, it had been over 20 minutes since boarding was called. Not the best first impression, especially given that Japan Airlines typically manages to board an entire A350 in this time.
British Airways’ not-so-organised boarding process
British Airways Flight BA31
Thursday, December 25, 2025
Origin: London Heathrow (LHR) T: 5 Gate: C64 Dep: 17:55 (18:15)
Destination: Hong Kong (HKG) Gate: 64 Arr: 14:50 (14:55)
Duration: 12 hr 55 min (12 hr 40 min)
Aircraft: Airbus A350-1000 Reg: G-XWBM
Seat: 24A (Premium Economy/World Traveller Plus)
I was welcomed onboard by the friendly crew, and walked past the Club Suite mini-cabin into the premium economy cabin.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Cabin and Seat
British Airways’ premium economy cabin is fairly large, and features 56 seats spread across seven rows in a 2-4-2 configuration. These are fairly standard Recaro PL3530 seats, the same seats you’ll find on Emirates, Air France, Air India, and many others. I find the cabin to be smart – despite the uninspiring navy, I like the use of logos on the headrest covers, and think the cabin looks smart under the subtle mood lighting.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Cabin
As you’d expect for an A350, there are two middle seats in each row (so 25% of the cabin), which I’d prefer to avoid on a longhaul flight.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Window Seats Center Seats
Instead, I’d want one of the duo seats positioned by the windows. In this case I’d selected seat 24A (the row behind the one pictured in the below photo), which was one of the cheapest remaining window seats to assign. I wasn’t happy parting with £94 for a premium economy seat selection fee, though thought it was worth it in order to properly review a 12h 50m flight.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Window Seats
These are very comfortable premium economy seats. There’s a fold-up legrest and a fold-down footrest from the seat in front, the recline is generous, and I like the adjustable headrest.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Seat Recline
There was a fold-down footrest from the seat in front, which I found to be helpful when reclined.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Footrest
The seat controls could be found to the armrest on my right, where you could also find a remote.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Remote and Seat Controls
The tray table folded out of the right armrest, and was bi-fold. I found it to be sturdy.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Tray Table
There was also a cocktail table located at the armrest, which was shared between seats.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Cocktail Table
Between seats, there was also a water bottle holder placed by the footrests.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Water Bottle Holder
The seat didn’t feature a massive amount of storage, though there was a nook underneath the TV screen. My slight complaint is that there was a gap in this storage compartment large enough for a pen to fall out – there’s no reason for that gap to exist, so I wish it was sealed off. However, I found this area to be handy to place a phone, glasses, AirPods, etc..
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Storage Nook
Above the storage nook was a high-definition TV screen. The 12″ TV screen was easy to navigate, high-definition, and the touchscreen was very responsive.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Screen
In terms of charging ports, there was one 110V and one USB-A charging port per seat. Annoyingly, for our pair of seats, these charging ports weren’t turned on for most of the flight. This wasn’t too much of an issue for me – I came onto this flight fully charged, and was just going home afterwards. However, it was a bit of a “oh come on BA, you can do better” moment for me.
These seats don’t feature USB-C charging ports.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Power Ports
Overall, I found the seat to be good – the seat had ample width and recline, storage was adequate (though could probably be optimised a bit more than it was), and I thought the seat was otherwise well-equipped. Perhaps I should be less forgiving of the inoperable charging ports (this is a longhaul flight, after all), though they did turn on by the end of the flight, and presumably could’ve been reset if I’d asked the crew sooner.
I’m also not a fan of the £94 seat selection fee and find it to be extortionate, though suppose the airline can get away with it, given how many high-yield travellers are flying premium economy out of Heathrow these days.
British Airways A350 Economy Class
I was also able to peer into the economy cabin. British Airways uses the Recaro CL3710 seat in economy, similar to Qatar Airways, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, etc.. While I’m glad I wasn’t flying economy, economy looked quite nice as well – the A350 is a great plane to fly in any cabin.
British Airways A350 Economy Class
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Amenities
Perhaps the most surprising part about British Airways’ onboard product is that their amenities are excellent.
The pillow and blanket are both strong. First of all, both the pillow and duvet covers are very nice, and add pop to the cabin colours. The pillow is large, though the MVP is the soft and substantial duvet, which is really easy to get comfortable in.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Pillow and Blanket
The headphones provided are also good-quality, over-ear headphones.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Headphones
The amenity kit is quite good as well. Our amenity kit was Christmas-themed, and featured snowflakes on the pouch. The contents are also on the substantial side for premium economy – there’s lip balm, socks, eyeshades, a pen, and a dental kit.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Amenity Kit
Lastly, slippers were provided. We were told on the screen that for premium economy passengers, slippers could be provided on request. When I asked the crew, the crew said “if the TV said they’re available, they’re available”, before proceeding to get me a pair. I believe these are the same slippers that the airline offers in business class.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Slippers
I’m as shocked as you are, but I think British Airways may have some of the best amenities of any airline I’ve flown so far in premium economy – on par with Asian competitors such as Cathay Pacific and EVA Air. I’m keen to try Virgin Atlantic again, to see how they compare.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Entertainment System
British Airways’ A350 “Highlife” entertainment system is easy to navigate. There was a good selection of movies – apparently there are 395 movies and 70+ TV shows, which seemed roughly accurate from my experience, though I didn’t count. I was quite happy to see entire seasons of TV shows uploaded.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Entertainment System
I have one gripe – British Airways sadly didn’t elect to add the tail camera as a feature onboard their A350 entertainment systems, which is one of my favourite features on the airlines that do offer the option.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Lavatory
British Airways doesn’t have dedicated lavatories in premium economy, so the 56-person cabin shares lavatories with 219 economy passengers. There are 6 lavatories in economy, four of which are between cabins. That’s a not-great-but-not-terrible 46:1 passenger to lavatory ratio. In this case there was Christmas cheer throughout the cabin, so I actually struck up a conversation or two during “peak” bathroom times, and there wasn’t too much of a wait midflight.
The lavatories themselves are super standard for an A350.
British Airways A350 Economy Lavatory
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Pre-Departure Service
By the end of the boarding process, the crew came round the premium economy cabin offering pre-departure beverages – these were served at around 5:50 PM (35 minutes after boarding began, and 15 minutes after I boarded). Choices were between sparkling wine, orange juice, and water, and I chose some bubbly to continue the festive cheer – if I’m honest, I have no clue what the bubbly was, though I enjoyed the glassware it was in.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Champagne
We were also handed menus pre-departure.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Menu
Taking off from Heathrow Airport
Boarding was completed just after 6 PM. The seat next to me was empty at this point – someone was relocated here shortly before the first meal service (so that a mother and her baby could sit together), though I actually struck up a great conversation with my new seatmate, so I didn’t mind that at all.
The crew were adorned with festive sparkle – one of the crewmembers even had a lit-up fairy light necklace (which didn’t prove too distracting when the cabin lights were off). The captain came onto the PA, wished us a merry Christmas, and announced our flight time of 12h 30m. He mentioned that there was a mechanical flash glitch making the toilets on the right hand side inoperable, which would be rectified once we were in the air. He also said that there were “more pilots than normal” on this Asia-bound flight, then introducing who would be flying us over.
We pushed back at 6:15 PM, and British Airways’ 2024 safety video was screened shortly after.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Safety Video
At this point, the cabin lights were dimmed in preparation for departure.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Cabin before Takeoff
Our taxi took 20 minutes, as we waited to take off on runway 09R. While being on the left side of the plane typically would mean great views over London (we were basically flying the opposite direction of the famous landing sequence over central London), unfortunately I was right over the wing, so didn’t have the best view.
Taking off from Heathrow Airport
Once we had taken off, the cabin lights were slowly turned back on, in preparation for the meal service.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Mood Lighting
British Airways A350 Premium Economy WiFi
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.
The WiFi worked reasonably well throughout the course of the flight, though I couldn’t switch between devices.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Meal Service
The meal service commenced at 6:50 PM, 15 minutes after we took off. This began with a hot towel service.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Hot Towel
My flight was operated on Christmas Day, so the menu didn’t apply. I hadn’t seen the disclaimer (which said that standard menu options would be replaced with a specially prepared Christmas dinner from 24-26 December), so was disappointed that the spinach and ricotta crespelle wasn’t on offer, as that sounded delicious.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Menu
The standard bar was still available, and read as follows:
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Drinks Menu
The meal service commenced with a drinks service, served 25 minutes after the hot towel was delivered. This was delivered on a trolley. I asked for a bloody mary (after remembering I’d enjoyed it on a previous flight), and was offered a Smirnoff vodka mini to spike my own drink as desired – this was served with a packet of sour cream and chive pretzels.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Bloody Mary
The main course was served at 8 PM UK time – at this point we were running 1h 10m into the meal service, and 45 minutes after the drinks service was completed. This is on the slow side, though British Airways does have one of the biggest premium economy cabins I’ve seen. In this case, there was a Christmas dinner available, a vegetarian Christmas dinner, and I believe the beef and broccoli stir fry from the menu was still available.
I decided to go with the Christmas dinner, despite already having had a similar meal earlier in the day. British Airways has very pleasant food quality in premium economy – the Christmas dinner was flavourful and delicious (and the turkey wasn’t too dry), and the potatoes, roast vegetables, purple cabbage, pig in blanket (singular) and stuffing were all very well-executed. I also really enjoyed the marinated beetroot tartare starter, which I thought was very creative – additionally, the spiced chocolate orange tart for dessert was very good as well. I was offered another drink with this, and asked for a glass of red wine – this was a decent Domaine de la Baume ‘la Grande Olivette’ Merlot.
Not bad, and perhaps surprising if you’re not familiar with British Airways’ catering changes – they switched their longhaul caterer to DO&CO in 2018, where the airline’s food quality skyrocketed. Sadly I’ve got less flattering things to say about the service pace, which I found to be sluggish at best.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Meal – Roast Dinner
I opted out of the tea and coffee service that happened after dinner.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Service
On the plus side, the crew were in great spirits on this flight, and very friendly during interactions. I’d also like to point out that this was a Christmas flight, so am grateful that the crew were working over Christmas Day (instead of being with their families), and am willing to be more forgiving of shortcomings.
The crew 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’m keen to point out the below – less because I felt like this particular crew was below-par, but many of the below observations are so easily fixable with better training and management:
- I first noticed the lack of synergy between the crew and the onboard offering when they seemed not to know that on-request slippers were explicitly advertised as a pop-up on the entertainment screen
- Meal trays consistently took ~30+ min to clear after they were served (add on the fact that it took 1h 10m for the main meal to be served, and we’re talking a 2h meal service on a single tray)
- 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
My job isn’t to objectively say whether the crew were good or bad, but rather to compare them to different experiences I’ve had in premium economy, so I can help readers choose which is better. My experiences on Virgin Atlantic and KLM involved a service that felt much smoother, more polished, and more efficient.
By the way, the aforementioned beer was a special festive IPA called “Hoppy Christmas” – once it was delivered I enjoyed it, although I would’ve wished for a slightly colder can.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Beer
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Pre-Landing Meal Service
I spent a few hours on this flight making some Christmas cards for some friends back home. In terms of mid-flight snacks, British Airways has no formal offering, though crew will be happy to bring you drinks if you’d like any. Once this was done, I watched Materialists, which J had recommended.
At the end of the movie, I went to sleep. Between the great amenities and the comfortable seat, I had no issues sleeping at all, and woke up to the lights being turned on for the pre-landing meal service. This happened at a standard time of 2h before landing.
Cruising over Asia
Unlike dinner, the breakfast options were as advertised on the menu. Between a full English breakfast and a smoked mozzarella omelet, the latter sounded more appealing to me. This was just a single course with a packaged sweet muffin and some fresh fruit (which was served with another round of drinks – I chose coffee), though I found the eggs to be tasty and well-executed, which is rare. The rösti was just a tiny bit gluey for me, though still well-seasoned and enjoyable to eat.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Breakfast – Smoked Mozzarella Omelette
As aforementioned, the trays once again took long to clear – they took longer for those sat in the back of the cabin, who were thoughtfully served first, as the crew ran out of meal options during the first meal service and wanted them to have their first choice. Unfortunately the crew still did the tray collection front-to-back, which meant that those in the back had their trays for quite a while.
Landing into Hong Kong Airport
After the pre-landing meal service, the cabin lights were dimmed, so people could sleep more.
Around 45 minutes before landing, the crew came round offering a chocolate. The captain came onto the PA, saying that even though we were stood back at Heathrow causing a bit of a delay (likely due to the lengthy boarding process), we had made up some lost time and would be landing more or less on time.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Chocolate
The cabin was prepared for landing around 25 minutes before we landed, and the cabin lights were dimmed again (despite the fact that it was light outside) as we began our approach into Hong Kong Airport.
British Airways A350 Premium Economy Cabin
While we enjoyed quite a sunny day at Heathrow, it was not a sunny day at Hong Kong Airport – it was quite gloomy, and we also did the over-water approach from the south, which meant that there really wasn’t much in the way of views.
Landing into Hong Kong Airport
While I still missed the tail camera, I did enjoy the inflight map, which showed us the slightly roundabout route we’d used to get into Hong Kong!
Our routing into Hong Kong Airport
We touched down on runway 07L (furthest from the terminal) at 2:40 PM, 10 minutes before our scheduled arrival time. From there, we circled the perimeter of the airport and made it to gate 64, where we’d be parking for the afternoon.
Taxiing at Hong Kong Airport
Taxiing at Hong Kong Airport is such a treat. My love for aviation grew at this airport, and it was cool seeing Cathay Pacific narrowbody aircraft that didn’t even exist when I was growing up, as well as Air China, Thai, and Hong Kong Airlines narrowbody aircraft that I’d love to fly.
Taxiing at Hong Kong Airport
We then taxied through to the main terminal, where I saw a Qatar Airways 777 and two Cathay Pacific A330s.
Taxiing at Hong Kong Airport
We parked next to a Fiji Airways A330 – while the A330 on Fiji Airways is outdated, I’d love to fly the airline someday!
Fiji Airways A330 at Hong Kong Airport
Despite the fact that British Airways premium economy tickets don’t come with priority baggage handling, my bag didn’t take too long to come out. My dad picked me up at the airport, and drove me home, where it was time to spend Christmas with my family.
Conclusion: British Airways A350 Premium Economy
Oh, British Airways. This A350 premium economy product was so close to being a winner, especially as far as European premium economy products go. The seat is good (though off-the-shelf), amenities were top-notch, and the catering exceeded expectations, from the delicious mains to the cocktails/beers on offer. The service was even super well-intentioned, and everyone was friendly and eager to please.
However, there’s just something that doesn’t add up about this product. Our co-writer Jason loves to describe a cohesive product offering as the “1+1=3” effect – when the overall onboard passenger experience feels like more than the sum of its parts. The “1+1=3” effect is just a bit lost in British Airways premium economy, and that’s because some of the moving parts are so weak – the ground experience was a mess (especially the boarding process, which you can’t really blame on Christmas Day), the seat selection fees were wildly unreasonable, and the service flow wasn’t great, with inefficient execution of meal services and 15-30 minute call button response times.
With better management and training across the board, British Airways could have a world-class premium economy product. Right now, it doesn’t.
Have you flown British Airways premium economy before? What were your thoughts?
