British Airways are planning to increase capacity on their short haul aircraft and Head for Points are reporting there will be a cap on Club Europe seating. This is reported as being a maximum of 7 rows of business class.
At the moment the amount of Club Europe rows can be quite a lot. It’s not uncommon to see 9 rows on the short flight to Dublin and often there are more on some of the European services.
Why Cap Club Europe?
With the new cabin layout increasing the seat count, other things have been moved around. This will result in there being much less galley space than previously.
Therefore it will not be possible to fit enough Club Europe meals on board for more than 28 passengers. In this case, I think I prefer a cap over potentially being made to choose between ‘Club Europe with Meal’ and ‘Club Europe without Meal’ when booking my flight!
What Impact Could This Have?
Two things immediately spring to mind when it comes to the cap. First, it is probable that instead of having the seat row to yourself, you’ll likely have someone sitting in the aisle/window seat. This is fine as it’s often like this now but it could happen more frequently.
Frequent Flyers Could Be Hit Too
When it comes to redeeming British Airways Executive Club Avios, a smaller Club Europe cabin may result in less award seats being available. Award availability is always contentious when it is limited in any way.
I quite like to use my Avios on European sectors as I get more flights for my points rather than using them in one big bang on a single flight. Therefore availability is quite important.
Overall Thoughts
Having a cap of 7 rows of Club Europe is not the end of the world. There are often routes when the cabin is 3 to 6 rows so I daresay it will only hit certain routes at certain times of the year.
What interests me more is the new catering for Club Europe which is due from April. Is this going to be a reduction in order to fit more into the galley? Or will it be something genuinely crowd pleasing? Watch this space.
Do you have any thoughts on the 7 row cap? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Featured image via British Airways.
A320 image by RHL Images via Wikimedia Commons.
