• Home
  • About
    • Where has GhettoIFE gone?
    • For PR’s and Agencies (Changes and Corrections)
    • Privacy Policy
  • Snapshots
  • Trip Reports
  • Travel Plus…
    • … Technology
    • … Photography

Economy Class & Beyond

You are here: Home / Trips / Bucharest 2025 / TRIP REPORT: BA887 Bucharest Henri Coandă to London Heathrow Airport (Club Europe)

TRIP REPORT: BA887 Bucharest Henri Coandă to London Heathrow Airport (Club Europe)

13/03/2025 by Kevincm Leave a Comment

BA887 Bucharest Henri Coandă to London Heathrow Airport (Club Europe)
Miles to Bucharest

Romania Trip Report Cover
Time to look at the Club Europe passenger experience for this 3-hour and 20-minute flight back to London. Will there be any surprises? And will the clouds be clear enough that when the aircraft approaches London, will I get decent nighttime views? 

In this adventure

  • The Last Gasp of Silver (or British Airways did us all dirty)
  • Off to Heathrow and the wonder of Terminal 3
  • Lounging around Terminal 3 with Cathay Pacific and Qantas
  • BA886 London Heathrow to Bucharest Henri Coandă (Club Europe)
  • Exiting Bucharest Henri Coandă Airport and into the City – Of Trains and Trams
  • The Mercure Urinii – An Accor ALL Hotel
  • A Nighttime Walk with an iPhone
  • A Morning Exploration around Central Bucharest
  • Back to Bucharest Henri Coandă Airport and the Visa Satellite Lounge
  • BA887 Bucharest Henri Coandă Airport to London Heathrow (Club Europe)
  • Two Trains, A Tube and a Bus to Home
  • Silver Retained. But a New Battle Awaits

BA886 Bucharest Henri Coandă International Airport to London Heathrow Terminal 3
British Airways
Seat 7F, Club Europe
1,311 miles flown
80 Tier Points Earned,£266.revenue spent, 2,131 Avios Earned.

Heading down the jetbridge, I saw how Bucharest Airport was trying to keep on-time boarding, with passengers waiting on the jetbridge. a plane on the runway
G-EUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

Sigh.

Eventually, passengers were cleared to board the aircraft.  I headed aboard the A320ceo (with no fancy sharklets, only the classic wingtip fences) and was greeted by the crew.

people sitting in chairs on an airplane

Turning right, I headed to the last row of Club Europe.

Utterly premium and checking the seat, again no one reset the headrest.

Since this is an Airbus A320ceo with Collins Pinnacle seats, these retain the cocktail table (compared to the A320neos, which don’t get tray tables unless you’re on the new aircraft with Meridian Seats).

The seat pitch is again tight for Eurobusiness with a 30” seat pitch. At least I could get semi-comfortable as the aircraft loaded up for the flight back to London.

a row of black seats

a black leather seats in an airplane

a seat on a plane

I’d be more comfortable if they replaced the foam in these seats – they’ve been through more bottoms than… ummm. Hmmm. I don’t have a good comparison that would show me in a good light here.

a seat on a plane

With the aircraft filling up for a full flight back to London, the game of luggage jenga came along.

And I’m going to be blunt – airlines made their own rod for their delays when they stopped including luggage in basic fares. By doing that, passengers want to take everything with them and this is where we have luggage jenga.  Of course, this could be avoided with larger overhead bins… but that would involve British Airways and IAG spending hard money.

I swore there. I apologise.

With the A320 fully loaded, the doors were about to close as we prepared for the return to London. We were advised that most of the wind of the storm had cleared, so it would be a smooth ride back to London.

The crew carried out the safety demonstration manually as our aircraft began the taxi out to the far North Runway, as we would be taking off in a Westerly direction.

a hand holding a safety card

a blue book with pictures of airplane and plane

a hand holding a blue card with instructions on it
Safety Card.

an airplane with seats and lights
Cabin during taxi

a group of airplanes on a runway
Parked Ryanair and Wizzair jets 

a runway with a plane on it an airplane on a runway a field with trees and a tower in the background a building with a runway and a parking lot a field with grass and trees in the distance

With a roar the engines came to life, propelling the Airbus A320 into the sky.

an airplane wing and wing of an airplane an aerial view of a city an aerial view of a city  an aerial view of a city an airplane wing in the sky clouds and blue sky above clouds

As the aircraft settled into its climb, the crew came around to give out menus for the flight back to London.

Again, it’s good to see that BA is loading menus for these flight segments in its premium cabin – even if the seating isn’t exactly premium.

a hand holding a menu

a hand holding a menu

As the climb continued, I connected to the on-aircraft Wi-Fi, with the airline offering 1 hour for £4.99, a full flight for £9.99 or a free Messaging session for Executive Club members.

a screenshot of a phone
Buy buy buy! 

a screenshot of a blue screen
Full price… payable with Apple Pay. 

a screenshot of a phone
Although you’ll need to manage in a 300mb limit. 

I also managed to dig into the system and found the European Aviation Network maps of coverage, with EAN using S-Band connectivity for satellite connectivity and ground towers to improve speed.

a map of the united states

I chose the messaging option, as it allows connection to WhatsApp.

These days, for short-haul flights, I prefer to be otherwise disconnected, playing CrossyRoad (at least the adverts can’t reach – so it’s a more classical gaming experience, rather than having an advert shoved in your face every time you splat a character in the road).

clouds and a window an aerial view of clouds and a blue sky clouds and a blue sky

Again, this was a much more relaxed service for Club Europe, so there was a separate drink, then a meal service. I was basic and stuck to what I knew. a group of people sitting in an airplane  a drink and a can on a table

Yes. Predictable. Nothing is going to change on this front I suspect in the future. And yes, the crew provided top-ups.

an airplane wing and the sky a view of the sky from an airplane window

However, it was perfect to watch the world go by, as two other aircraft were tracking in the distance.   The meal service commenced, with a choice of items on the menu. They were

  • Sticky chilli chicken grilled vegetables, basmati rice
  • Mascarpone panzerotti wilted spinach, Parmesan crusted cauliflower, Snowdonia Red Fox cheese sauce
  • British roast beef salad

Thankfully, all items were still available by the time they got to me. I went for the Sticky Chilli Chicken. Here’s what turned up. a plate of food on a tray The tray

food in a bowl on a tray
Top left: Smoked chickpea salad with roasted chilli broccolini, oven-dried cherry tomato, Kalamata olives, lemon labneh.
Top right: Red Fox Leicester and Wensleydale Blue with apricot and ginger chutney
Centre: Salted Caramel mousse
Side: Roll

  a bowl of food with broccoli and tomatoes
Smoked chickpea salad with roasted chilli broccolini, oven-dried cherry tomato, Kalamata olives, lemon labneh.

a plate of food with a roll
Sticky Chilli Chicken with Grilled Vegetables and Basmati Rice

a hand holding a cup of pudding
Salted Caramel mousse

Not a bad tray at all. The salad was not a bad presentation, whilst the Sticky Chilli Chicken was filling.

The cheese was passed as usual – whilst the salted caramel mouse was a nice sweet treat.

With the trays cleared down, all that was left was to look out of the window and guess where I was in the world.

an airplane wing with a jet engine and snow covered mountains a plane engine and a landscape

I do wish BA would reinstate a map function, either with an overhead screen or on the webpage via the BA Portal screen via the phone – it would help to spot locations out like this a lot easier, rather than pouring over GPS coordinates in images.

With solutions such as FlightPath3D or even the ADS-B Map that AirFi have deployed and is somewhat easy to integrate, it’s not impossible to give that experience to short haul pasengers.

To be honest, time flew as I was looking out of the window as day turned into night. Soon enough the cloud changed from darkness to twinkling city lights as we began our descent to London Heathrow.

With the cabin cleared down, the cabin went into darkness as we made our approach.

a city at night from above
Docklands, and The Dome

an aerial view of a city at night a city at night from above
East London and Tower Bridge

an aerial view of a city at night
Parliament, The Elizabeth Tower and The Wheel  

an aerial view of a city at night
The West End
an aerial view of a city at night
Hyde Park

a city at night from above a city at night from above
West London 

a view of a city at night from a plane
Football pitches 

With a bump, our Airbus A320 made it to its home base of Heathrow Airport.

The aircraft landed on the North Runway, so it taxiied off the runway at the first opportunity and onto the taxiways, as it began its loop around Terminal 3 (remember that Bucharest flights are serviced from T3).

a building at night with lights
Penalty parking spots 

a large airport at night
Terminal 5 in the distance

an airplane at night
Waiting Speedbirds

a group of lights at night
Looking at the Cargo area

The aircraft made a loop of the T3 complex, passing the usual American Airlines, Cathay, Virgin and Delta gates, as it taxied towards the south runway, then turning towards the Gate 8/9 and the A380 gates at Terminal 3

an airplane at night
And if on cue… an Emirates A380 

With the aircraft lined up for Gate 309 – Gate 9, it began its final approach to the gate.

a street with lights on at night
Back to the beginning. 

With the engines powering down and lights coming up, the scramble for the exit began.  I wasn’t in a rush, but it seemed the rest of the cabin was.

a black and white seat on an airplane  a seat in an airplane

I grabbed my rucksack and waited for the jetbridge to attach. Like a bottle of champagne that had been shaken up, people started flowing out.

When it got to my turn, I thanked the crew.

I was in the mood to head home.

Overall

Again, a perfectly reasonable service – even if I was in the last row to be served. The Club Europe meal was passable to the point of being favourable, whilst not being outstanding. For once, the aircraft departed and arrived on time  – even if its the typical “wait in the jetbridge boarding style”, famous of various European airports.

As for the seat, I do wish BA would spend the money and upgrade to the Collins Aspire Seat (compared to the existing Premium Economy seat, they’re taking a pounding over the years).

However, the most interesting chatter in the cabin was BA’s changes in Frequent Flyer point earning. The natives were not happy in the least (and I noticed this both on the outbound and inbound flights).

Whilst there have been some changes to attempt to please the masses, it remains to be seen if it’s enough to keep them as passengers.

Or me.

Next:

Two Trains, a Tube and Bus – Return to Birmingham


Welcome to Economy Class and Beyond. Your no-nonsense guide to network news, honest reviews, in-depth coverage, unique research, as well as the humour and madness I only know how to deliver.

Our Social Media pool has expanded. You can find us across most networks such as @economybeyond on BlueSky, Threads, Mastodon and Instagram!

Also, remember that we are part of the BoardingArea community, bringing you the latest frequent flyer news from around the world.

Related

Filed Under: Bucharest 2025, Trip, Trip Reports, Trips

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • Bluesky
  • Email
  • Instagram
  • Mastodon
  • RSS
  • Threads

Recent Posts

  • Thai Airways to use the Recaro R3 seat for their upcoming A321neo aircraft
  • Data Storage Adventures with a UGreen NAS – Part 2: Which NAS to go for?
  • Air Niugini adds a further two Airbus A220 aircraft
  • Flix to order Taglo High Speed Trainsets
  • Arlanda Express to purchase new trains from Stadler

Email Newsletter

Sign up to receive email updates daily and to hear what's going on with us!

Privacy Policy
Copyright © Economy Class & Beyond All Rights Reserved.
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Economy Class & Beyond with appropriate and specific directions to the original content.