What is British Airways Club Europe like from Cairo to London?

I hate having a business class ticket on British Airways when the aircraft is an Airbus A320neo. There is no table in the middle seat, which really lets down the whole experience. On the flipside, I managed to snag seat 1A on the flight from Cairo to London, so that at least meant a modicum of comfort. For this leg of my trip of many flights, I used Avios points to pay for it.

After arriving in Cairo on Ethiopian Airlines, I collected my bag and walked from Terminal 3 to Terminal 2. This turned out to be unbelievably simple, in spite of what people might say online. I passed through security, entered the building and waited for check-in to open. Once it did, I was done, up and through to the Ahlein Premium lounge in short order. A couple of hours later, it was time to go.

BA401 – Cairo to London Heathrow (CAI-LHR)
3 May 2025
Airbus A320neo – G-TTNG
Seat: Club Europe 1A
Departure: 07:25 Arrival: 10:55

For some reason I was given a thorough secondary screen at the gate. My laptop was swabbed on every surface, it was opened, turned on, closed, the bag was swabbed, my shoes and hands were checked and eventually I was cleared to board. Mildly stressful, really!

The Airbus A320neo at BA

Oh where, oh where, have the Club Europe tables gone? Oh where, oh where, can they be? The oldest BA aircraft have the table, a bunch of Neos don’t, and now there are new deliveries with an entirely new seat and the tables have returned.

Anyway, I was stuck for the guts of five hours without one. All this really meant was that the pull out table for the middle seat was deployed most of the flight as “the table”. It’s not nearly as chic as the proper one though.

Flying from Cairo to London

Since this was a very long flight, a basic pillow and blanket were provided at each seat in business class. Menus were handed out and once everyone was on board we took to the sky.

I’m not a lover of breakfast on a plane (unless it is the Aer Lingus one), so I always look for the least breakfast like item I can. This time my selection was the Arabic Mezze. It is different to the one served on Qatar Airways, but good nonetheless.

As usual, the food was quite delicious, I just would have liked more of it. I’m a big fan of dolmades and could have had a dozen without a second glance. Following breakfast I had a green tea and relaxed for most of the rest of the flight. Towards landing I had another Champagne and the crew had to open a new bottle for it.

On descent, much to my amusement, the crew gave me an empty water bottle filled with the remaining Champagne to take with me. “It’ll only go down the drain” was her comment. I had no idea WHAT it was when she passed it to me unexpectedly!

Overall Thoughts

Flying from Cairo to London takes about five hours and it’s a long time to be sat in those seats. Gripes about the table aside, they’re just not suited to flights of that duration.

As usual, the cabin crew were lovely and the food very tasty. British Airways do have a very consistent service on their short-haul fleet, that’s for sure.

What do you think of Club Europe on a flight of this length? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

Like planes? See my “Does anyone remember” series.
Flight reviews your thing? Mine are all indexed here.
Follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Featured image by Anna Zvereva via Wikimedia Commons.