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My time in Zurich, Switzerland had come to an end. I checked out of the Hyatt Regency Zurich Airport The Circle and headed toward the check-in counter. Unlike my flight from London-Heathrow, the flight back to London was pretty typical of an intra-Europe flight. I might dare to say this was back to pre-covid service.

Business class in Europe is not anything like international business class. Think more economy seats with a blocked middle seat. Since I couldn’t select just this leg in economy, I got to enjoy British Airways Club Europe.

Booking

I’ve previously detailed how I booked this. To be brief, this was a cash fare. No points involved.

Since this is a short hop, British Airways Avios is a great option. Economy flights will cost 9,250 while business class 15,000. British Airways is a partner of Chase, American Express and Capital One. British Airways also has a co-branded credit card with Chase. One of the biggest benefits it a statement credit on award flights.

Check-In

Check in starts two and a half hours prior to departure. There were already about ten people in line when I arrived. Check-in agents arrived about 10 minutes after the stated opening time.

There are two lines for check-in. One for economy and one for Club Europe and oneworld elites.

Once the agents arrived, another agent started verifying passenger documents for the flight to London or final destination. It took about 20 minutes to check the ten passengers in front of me and other fifteen minutes to get my tickets. Today’s check-in wasn’t the most efficient I’ve seen.

With tickets in hand, I headed towards the slow security line.

Boarding

Chaos. That’s all that can describe the boarding process. There were no lines set up. The terminal was busy so it was loud, and you could barely hear the announcements. They started boarding with group 1 which was Club Europe. Once the first person’s ticket was scanned, people started pushing their way forward. There were no further announcements. I boarded about halfway through.

Seat

There is nothing spectacular about these seats so the review will be fairly short. They are similar to Southwest.

I chose seat 6C an aisle seat at the time of booking. There aren’t anything special about these seats. They are the same economy seats you’ll find towards the back of this Airbus A319. The only difference between business and economy was the blocked middle seat. There were a tray installed stopping someone from sitting there.

Legroom was tight even for a shortie like me. If you are tall you’ll want to make sure you select a bulkhead seat.

There was no seat back entertainment. But you were able to watch movies after connecting to the in-flight WiFi.

The tray table was pretty small, but could accommodate a small laptop or tablet.

Food and Drink

Lunch was provided on this flight. Choices were anti-pasta or beet root salad. Since I was planning on checking out one of the British Airways Galleries lounges during my layover in London, I didn’t eat.

Neither looked particularly great as the flight attendants completed meal service.

Flight attendants were great. They proactively refilled drinks throughout the flight.

Bottom Line

I’m not really sure why people would pay good money for these seats. If I could have paid for economy on this flight, I would have. But AA doesn’t allow you to select class of service on individual flights. The flight was unremarkable, but still pleasant.

After about an hour and fifteen minutes it the air, we landed. We disembarked at a remote stand and took a bus into the terminal. Next stop the lounge!

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.