Flight Review: British Airways A320 Economy Basic
Flight #: BA482
From: London Heathrow (LHR)
To: Barcelona (BCN)
Flight time: 1h 50min approx.
Aircraft: Airbus A320-200
Class: Economy
British Airways’ economy class is not new to this site. We reviewed Britain’s flag carrier World Traveller class back in 2017 on a flight between Moscow (DME) and London Heathrow on a Boeing 777 (a relatively short flight for this type of plane but one that gave us a chance to try the product).
This time the flight report is about an even shorter flight, the roughly two-hour hop between London Heathrow (LHR) and Barcelona-El Prat (BCN) on an A320-200.
Fares and Service Classes
This flight was on the Euro Traveller (this is how BA calls its European/short haul economy class).
In the last few years, BA has been hybridising its product, gone are the free food and drinks, the newspapers and, for those flying on Economy Basic (the cheapest available fare), the checked-in luggage.
As you can see, for some additional €30, the slightly more premium Economy Plus fare (all within the broader Euro Traveller fare family), lets you choose your seat, check in a bag and get onboard a little bit earlier than Basic passengers (but you still would have to pay for food - more on this later)
On the positive side, the pre-flight check-in process was really smooth and fast (on web, I did not try the app), and so was the after-flight missing miles claim (not the fault of BA - I forgot to add my Executive Club number to the reservation), particularly compared to the notoriously clumsy equivalent process at Air France. Here it was just enough to enter the ticket number to get the missing miles credited to my Executive Club account, 2 seconds in total.
The Cabin
The cabin had a very contemporary look.
New generation slim seats with the adjustable headrest (the seats were not branded but I guess they are Recaro seats). All very neat and tidy.
The sober, dark colours give it also a business-like appearance, even on Economy.
The seat pitch, correct, but nothing extraordinary.
Inflight Ancillary Services: Food and Wi-Fi
As mentioned earlier, no free food and drinks anymore (not even a glass of water), but you can buy from Marks & Spencers. The choices looked quite appetising, although did not try it (in fact, I saw few people ordering, perhaps because of the length of the flight and time - early evening)
There is also wi-fi onboard, but you need to pay for it.
I would not say the pricing is cheap, but connectivity has been “unbundled” so you have different options to consume it to choose from, depending on what you need it for, from very light applications such as messaging to broadband intensive uses such as Netflix (the fact that Netflix is advertised so prominently is possibly a sign that the broadband available is of quite a good quality and stability) or whether you need it for just one hour or for the whole flight.
One thing I remarked, though, is that the wi-fi option is not very intensely promoted in the cabin, I stumble upon it, because I kind of guessed connectivity was going to be available and I checked, but otherwise, not sure I would have noticed.
In any case, even if you don’t pay for connectivity, by logging into BA’s wifi platform, you are able to see the progress of the flight in real time for free. It is not quite the moving map, but a simple information panel with some of the flights key indicators can be a powerful anxiety-assuaging tool with a disproportionate contribution to the passenger experience.
There were also overhead retractable screens on the cabin, but these were only used once: for the safety video, which was quite an original piece with several famous actors taking part in it.
I am not sure this version that I found on Youtube is exactly the latest version, if it’s not, it is very similar to the one currently used on BA’s flights.
And after an uneventful flight and before wrapping up this flight review of BA’s Euro Traveller class, a view of the A320 cabin, so that you can get a better idea of how it looks like.
Our take:
BA’s Euro Traveller and, more particularly, Economy Basic is a decent product for short and medium haul intra-European flights, but not sure it justifies the price premium (vs. low cost airlines and even other legacy flag carriers) that BA often commands in some key markets where it operates.