Food, glorious food! Half the reason I pay extra to fly business class is to see what victuals are being provided. British Airways have decided to upgrade the experience up front so there is now a new Club Europe lunch.
Previously on the short European flights, you would have received panini after panini after panini. Quite dull, to say the least! Let’s have a look at what is on board now.
BA836 – London Heathrow to Dublin (LHR-DUB)
28 October 2018
Airbus A319 – G-EUOD
Seat: Club Europe 1A
Departure: 13:45 Arrival: 15:10
Excitedly hoofing my way to the South Lounges in Heathrow Terminal 5, I was disappointed to find the Troika ‘Cloud’ artwork in non working order. After drowning my sorrows with Champagne in the lounge while admiring the view, it was time to board.
A Toilet Break
Lounge Champagne was making its presence felt, so it was time to visit the forward toilet. These are a decent enough size and contain all you need in a clean enough environment.
Heading For The Runway
London Heathrow is always a great airport to sit and watch the action. There are so many different airlines operating a variety of aircraft so it’s a feast for the eyes.
Club Europe Lunch
Since the new catering was announced, I had been looking forward to the roast beef option. Happily it was on the menu for my flight so that was clearly going to be my choice.
Trays come with a glass, napkin and the cutlery all together and once delivered, the crew offer warm bread from the basket. I set about getting some pictures.
Another lovely meal with the goat’s cheese, quinoa and beetroot really going well together. This is definitely the healthier option for those wanting to be good. I of course ate all of this too, all in the name of research, you understand!
Time To Land
Each one of those meals is a proper sized lunch and I had trouble stuffing in most of the second one, eventually leaving about a quarter of the salad. It feels like more food than what was offered previously.
Overall Thoughts
When it looks good, it usually is good and the new lunches for the short flights at British Airways are excellent. I’m pleasantly surprised at the quantity provided plus it is a nice mix of modern flavours.
Cabin crew were lovely on this flight, hanging my jacket in the forward wardrobe and generally being bubbly and nice. The crew can make or break a flight and either I’m really lucky or British Airways are just really good because I always have great crews.
What do you think of the new British Airways meals? Have you tried them? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Well, where do I start?
At LGW SOUTH, I suppose….
Everything smoothly handled at check in and through fast track security.
Lounge really great with a fab selection of food and drink.
Flight cabin immaculate and staff extremely professional and helpful.
Chose the risotto this time….a glutinous lump of rice which was flavourless with burnt, hard pieces of vegetables…NOT GOOD AT ALL!
The rest of the meal was just o.k.
Noticeable and very annoying was the steady stream of people coming through from economy to use the forward toilet….practically all of them taking the time to view what we were eating!!
This surely isn’t what should be happening given the amount of money that passengers have to pay to be in Club Europe?!
Returning from Tenerife South (our first and last visit to this now upmarket Benidorm) we were Club Europe again and was shocked at the lounge that we had to use there.
Food was minimal with pre made rolls and sandwiches in plastic wrappings.
I opened a cheese roll to find there was mould growing on the butter and cheese.
There were bowls of crisps and nuts etc….scoops were provided; BUT, people were plunging there bare hands into the bowls to get at these..YUK!
Now, if we paid the same travelling from LGW as we did travelling from Tenerife, something is amiss here…why pay exactly the same and end up getting such disappointing rubbish in the lounge?
So, onto the return flight.
We were called extremely early to the boarding gate.
There was not enough seating for everyone who would be boarding.
Some people were sitting on the floor.
It was so crammed with people that we were shoulder to shoulder with everyone.
People were unhappy and it was extremely hot and stuffy.
On board, staff were once again extremely professional and friendly.
We’d had the presence of mind to pre book our meals and we had chosen wisely, because our oriental veggie meals were great.
However!!!
Once again, passengers from economy were choosing to use the forward toilets and this time it was a constant stream of people passing us whilst we were eating and trying to relax.
As they passed they were pulling on the backs of our seats; so much so, that we could not try to have a sleep on the journey.
At one time there was quite a queue of these people for the toilet and we had a long wait before we were able to use the toilet ourselves.
Of course, with that amount of use of the toilet, it soon became a little grubby and toilet paper and towels became scarce when we did manage to get in there!!
We are now seriously thinking that paying the amount of money to be in Club Europe cabin area; is probably a complete mistake and a ‘rip off’ by B.A.
Perhaps we should look to travelling with another airline in our future travels
Sounds like a real mixed bag there. That Tenerife lounge sounds pretty bad… there’s no excuse for food to have mould, that’s really disgusting. I hope you brought it to the attention of the lounge staff. At a lot of the smaller airports around the world, there is generally just one lounge that all airlines use. There’s not much that the contracting carriers can do but report back issues like this and expect they are corrected. Airline operated lounges such as those at LGW are usually a lot better, because the offering is a direct reflection on the airline itself. Airports vary a lot – I arrived and departed Ibiza during a cleaners strike. You wouldn’t believe the state of the mess in the terminal. It was awful! Not British Airways fault though, of course. The toilet thing can be an issue, I agree. Some airlines – and indeed some cabin crew – can be quite specific about restricting people from economy using the toilet at the front. Others, as you’ve experienced, do not. Club Europe really is about the meal, the drinks, the extra space with the middle seat free, and a much more personalised service. Not to mention the additional frequent flyer accrual. Certainly sounds like you had an average experience, thanks to the passenger traffic from economy and the risotto. A shame about the toilet condition too, some crews are good at keeping them clean, others not so much. Hopefully you’ll give them a try again – I usually find the LGW crews to be lovely, so I’m glad you at least found them to be very good. Thanks for the comment!
First, please marry me!
Second, any blog entry that begins with a reference to the musical Oliver! is a winner.
Third, I love Aer Lingus. Do you know if the Airbus aircraft to IAD is only a seasonal thing? I love my single throne type seat in the 757 and getting anxious that it may not be there on my next flight.
Fourth, please marry me!
Well, that’s made me smile this morning! Glad you enjoyed the Oliver! reference.
With regards to the Aer Lingus service to IAD, it is year round and isn’t going anywhere. The throne seat is really very nice, isn’t it? I’ve only tried it on their Airbus A330 but not the 757. The only thing changing is the 757s will switch over to Airbus A321neo aircraft starting next year.
Thanks for the comment! Proposal accepted 😉 haha!!!