Pleasure and Business – BA962 London Heathrow to Hamburg in Club Europe

Pleasure and Business – BA962 London Heathrow to Hamburg in Club Europe

In this adventure…

• Pleasure and Business Mixing things together (again)
  
• Off to Heathrow
• Cathay Pacific Lounge and the American Airlines Lounges
• AA47 London Heathrow to Chicago O’Hare, Main Cabin Extra aboard a 787
• US Immigration Adventures
• Intercontinental Chicago North Michigan Avenue
• Deep Dish Pizza fun
• Travel Technology: Canon 40mm F2.8 STM with a Canon 100D
• Hyatt Regency O’Hare
• Back to O’Hare, British Airways Terraces Club Lounge
• BA294 Chicago to Heathrow Airport in World Traveller Plus
• From pleasure to business, BA Galleries South
• BA962 London Heathrow to Hamburg in Club Europe
• IBIS Budget Hamburg
• Currywust Nacht
• Back to Hamburg Airport, Hamburg Airport Lounge
• BA967 Hamburg to London Heathrow in Club Europe
• Pulling it home
• My calf muscles hurt…

BA962 London Heathrow Terminal 5 to Hamburg Airport
British Airways, Airbus A319, Seat 2F, Club Europe
464 Miles Flown, 0 Tier Points Earned, 0 Avios earned (Redemption flight)

Boarding the plane, I was welcomed aboard and headed to my home for this flight to seat 2F. With me boarding early, overhead bin space was not an issue.

Oh B/E Pinnacle Seat. How I loathe thee. 

British Airways uses the B/E Pinnacle seat, which I’ve talked about time after time on this bog. And my opinion hasn’t changed about it in the least – it’s not that great in terms of comfort – and hardly any good as a seat in a premium cabin.

The view from 2F 

Looking down. Just about enough leg room.

This being a Club Europe flight, the middle seat was blocked off, and used as a table.

Table.

The Pinnacle seats are wearing well, however, they’re not particularly comfortable over any distance. Whilst it’s a last-generation slimline seat, it feels like there could had been more to design a better seat experience.

Whilst on the ground, I decided to entertain myself with the new in-flight entertainment British Airways offer on short-to-mid haul flights.

No, not TV’s, on-board streaming or anything like that. I’m talking about the Buy on Board food provided by Marks & Spencer.

Here’s the leaflet from April:

What’s the term… if you’re in EuroTraveller… or if you want a bite to eat that’s not from the provisioned Club Europe menu, To Fly, To Charge comes to mind.

Speedmarque

It seemed our departure was held back. On top of the late arrival of the plane (due to the fog earlier in the day), it seemed that two people failed to make the flight – meaning luggage would have to be off-loaded.

At this point, my plans for the day were in disarray, so I sat back and waited for the off-load to occur.

Should had been in Hamburg by now….

20 minutes later (and by this point – I had lost track of the total delay), the A319 pushed back to commence the journey to Hamburg.

Iberia Airbus A321

With a long taxi to the other side of the field, there was plane spotting to be done.

British Airways Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner taxing

Singapore Airlines A380 rotating.

Eventually, our A319 lined up, and roared into the sky.

Climbing out 

 
Turning and climbing

 
Bubbly clouds 

With the plane airborne, the cabin crew closed the curtains creating a quiet mini-cabin in Club Europe

Club Europe.

To start the service, hot towels were offered.

Catering soon followed. First up is the bubbles that are served in British Airways Club World. Gone is the horror that is Monopole Blue Top. Instead, Champagne de Castelnau Reserve Brut NV is now offered.

If you didn’t like Monopole Blue Top, you won’t like this.

To put it bluntly – it’s pretty acidic, and not that pleasant – even compared to Monopole Blue Top. I suppose it could be better if it was chilled better, but this is British Airways were cooling seems to be at a minimum. I thought it was a one-off, and would check again on the way home.

Two options were offered – a salad or a beef and cheese ciabatta. It was a ciabatta. Extra bread was offered – and was politely declined. Because you really want a bread roll with a bread service…

This is the tray. Yes. Welcome to the new Club Europe Catering.

The Ciabatta.

The Ciabatta itself was reasonable, and not overly hard – with the beef warm inside

So yes, no side salad, no… well… nothing. And British Airways call this premium catering.

Admittedly, on the return leg, they upgraded the service (more on that in a few segments time, or you can see here what they served me on the return leg).

To say the catering is turning into a very sore point in Club Europe is a truth.

The flight continued onwards, and the trays were cleared down, whilst the plane crossed the English Channel, over The Netherlands and finally crossing into Germany where our descent begun.

With the plane descending, the cabin was prepared for landing, and the dividing curtains were pulled back.

All that renaming was the vectoring in of the plane as it lined up for one of the runways at Hamburg Airport as the pilot brought the plane to the ground.

Landing at Hamburg Airport with a reasonable thump, BA962 taxied past the Lufthansa Techniks maintenance facilities as well as the private jet apron

Lufthansa Techniks Hamburg

Expensive Private Jets.

Germanwings A320

Germanwings A320 and KLM Embraer.

Air France Airbus A318 lining up for take off. 

Wizz Air Airbus A320

With a quick taxi to the gate, the Capitan apologised again for the delay, and we were released to disembark.

Thank you BA962!

With the flight over, it was time to head into Frankfurt – and the joy of a week of Aircraft Interiors.

Overall: There wasn’t many directions the British Airways Club Europe product could go with the current seating (and if you’re in Club Europe, watch out for the A320neo series). It’s good to see an all-day food service appear – but this variation of it appears to be the laziest possible product British Airways could muster.

If I was paying for Club Europe, I’d be disappointed. As a redemption, it was bearable. But there is work that needs to be done with Club Europe to improve the passenger experience.

Next: The IBIS Budget St Pauli.