Final flight of 2017: Club Europe on British Airways Review

My final flight of the year was on British Airways in Club Europe between London Heathrow and Dublin. It is a very familiar flight to me as I travel on this route often enough.

As it is nearing Christmas, the flight was completely full. British Airways can vary how many Club Europe seats they have on each flight and on this service there were 36 seats. That’s a lot of business class passengers!

BA836 – London Heathrow to Dublin (LHR-DUB)
17 December 2017
Airbus A320-200 – G-EUUE
Seat: Club Europe 3A
Departure: 13:35 Arrival: 15:00

The day started with a visit to the British Airways Galleries Club lounge in Terminal 5. One thing those in the know are aware of is the fact you can get Champagne on request.

Happily I got my favourite seat looking out over the apron which is great. Boarding was from gate A22 which is only a short walk from the lounge. The gate has self-service boarding which is quite convenient.

On Board

Once on board, the Captain came on to advise that there would be a short delay while we waited for the last baggage to be loaded. Our 13:35 departure time came and went and we finally pushed back nearly an hour late just before 14:30.

Heathrow was very busy and we had a long taxi to the runway followed by some holding. It turns out that we spent more time on the ground on the final flight than we did in the air. To save time, the crew delivered the hot towels during our wait. Eventually we took to the air, with a flight time expected to be 50 minutes. With so many passengers to serve, the crew had their work cut out for them, so they started service very quickly.

A Meal On The Final Flight

Three cabin crew operated the Club Europe service, two on the food trolley and one with the drinks trolley. They kept pushing the duck option rather than the panini but both were available.

Happily the food was quite nice and I had finished most of my panini before the drinks arrived. The crew member was really friendly and I found out they were stopping in Dublin then operating the first service the next day back to London, then they were off to Keflavik. Food devoured, I sat back and enjoyed the view along with my Champagne. Lots of clouds throughout this flight but there was plenty to see as well. Once the service was completed, the crew cleared the cabin quite quickly and we descended and landed into Dublin. British Airways use the 200 gates at Dublin which means stairs. Luckily it was not raining so nobody got wet, which is always a good thing. In the end we were just over half an hour late which is not too bad.

Overall Thoughts

For the final flight of the year, it was a pretty good one. Everything with British Airways is generally quite consistent. The food is the same, it tastes fine and there is always plenty of Champagne. Nothing to complain about for a 50 minute flight really, overlooking the delay to the service.

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