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After arriving at London-Heathrow on my American Airlines flight, I needed to transfer to Terminal 5. If you’ve never transferred at LHR, it involves walking, a bus transfer, more walking, security, additional walking, a subway transfer, before walking to your gate. Because of the delays and this transfer process, I barely made my flight as I was one of the last people on the plane. This also meant I missed checking out one of the British Airways Galleries Lounges.

I was really looking forward to this British Airways Club Europe flight to Zurich as it was operated by a wide-body 787-8 plane. This meant I would get a lie flat seat for the one-and-a-half-hour flight to Switzerland. Typically, this flight is operated by a single aisle plane. I’ll be publishing that review later.  

In this Article:
Booking
Check-In
Boarding
Seat
Food and Drink

Booking

Since this flight was part of a larger booking, I’ll refer you back to that post for how I booked.

One of the best options to book this flight is through British Airways since they use a distance-based award chart. You’ll pay 9,250 Avios each way for an economy flight. Business class seats (like this review) will cost 15,000 Avios each way. Taxes out of London plus British Airways fuel surcharges are high. Always check the cash price.

You can easily transfer points from Chase, American Express and Capital One. If you are looking for extra Avios, Chase has three different Avios earning cards. All with high welcome bonuses plus a statement credit on taxes when using Avios towards flights.

Check-In

Luckily, I didn’t need to check-in since I was traveling on one itinerary. But if you need to check-in due to a separate ticket the check-in desks are prior to security after arriving in the terminal.

Boarding

Boarding had already begun when I arrived. There are two agents checking passports and scanning boarding passes. There were no dedicated lines for business class or elite members.

Seat

I was looking forward to this flight not only because I was almost to Zurich, but also because I was getting to try and new seat type.

British Airways used a Boeing 787-8 for this short flight. The Club World cabin is arranged in a 2-3-2 seating pattern. Three rows of Club World are in the forward cabin. The gallery separates the rest of the remaining two rows of Club World. I assigned myself seat 2D; a seat on the outside of the middle section. I love the British Airways logo in the front of the cabin.

I quite like the color scheme of the seat British Airways has for Club World. The seat is a dark navy with a white accent.

The seat didn’t provide a lot of storage so you’ll need to rely on the overhead bins. When I arrived, all the overhead bin space above me was filled as my business class section was completely occupied. There was barely any space in the bins across from me. There was a small pull-out drawer at the foot of the seat you can store some items. You’d be able to fit an iPad here, but not a laptop.

Across from the seat is a foot stool. It also functions as the rest of the seat when in the fully lie-flat position. This must be stored during take-off and landing.

The IFE is sized okay. Its about 12 inches. It was just a tad bit too far to use the touchscreen. It also wasn’t very responsive to touch. It also tilted down making it easier to see when not sitting up. Controls for the IFE were on a remote near your head.

Below the IFE, was the tray table. It was a nice size. You could accommodate a 15-inch laptop. It also folded in half if you wanted to use part of it.

The seat itself didn’t offer much in the way of privacy. When the divider between seats is down, you can easily see your seat mate. If traveling with someone that’s probably an ideal set up. Though you’d probably prefer the two seaters along the exterior walls. For a solo travel, not so ideal. You could also easily see your mates across the aisle.

The divided is supposed to be up during take off and landing, but the flight attendants didn’t seem to mind. It was up when I arrived. The controls are located at the top of divided.

A couple items were already at my seat when I arrived. There was a blanket wrapped in plastic, a pillow and headphones. The blanket was light yet warm. It was also a nice size. It probably was about the size for a full-sized bed. The pillow was firm, but not made of feather or foam. The headphones were also wrapped in plastic but not of good quality. I used my own headphones.

Food and Drink

I wasn’t expecting food and drink on a short flight was pleasantly surprised when I saw them preparing.

As soon as take-off was complete, flight attendants began preparing for breakfast.

First, we were brought a tray with fruit and Greek yogurt. You also had your choice of drinks including water, coffee and alcoholic beverages.

A couple of mins later the main was brought out. You could choose from a ham and cheese croissant or a veggie croissant.

I chose the ham and cheese option. There was tons of ham on the sandwich. Maybe too much in my opinion. It was also really cheesy. The fruit was cool and delicious. Greek yogurt was pretty good as well.

About 30 minutes after meal service started, my tray was picked up.

Bottom Line

After finishing my meal, I was pretty tired since I didn’t get much sleep on my trans-Atlantic flight over. I reclined my seat back and next thing I knew we were preparing for landing.

Flying inter-Europe in a widebody was a treat. You probably can’t get a better seat for flying such a short flight. I would have preferred a bit more privacy. I will be reviewing a window seat in a future review that provided much more privacy.

Flight attendants constantly went through the cabin asking it people needed their coffee or water refilled. They were also always smiling and kind when interacting with passengers. That’s more to say on my American Airlines flight to London.

This was a perfect way to end my journey to Zurich.

If you’ve flied inter-Europe with British Airways, let me know your experience in the comments.

These opinions in this article are the author’s not those of a bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.