BA964 London Heathrow Terminal 5 to Hamburg Airport Terminal 2
TRIP REPORT: More Innovations in Hamburg
In this week of passenger experience fun:
- Back to Hamburg Again. And yes, keeping it simple
- To Heathrow Airport with FlixBus and Terminal 5
- British Airways Galleries South, Terminal 5
- BA964 London Heathrow to Hamburg (Club Europe – New Configuration)
- The joy of the European Entry/Exit System and into Hamburg
- The Ibis Budget St Pauli (Refurbished)
- A walk through the Hamburg Dom Fair (Spring Fair)
- What you might have missed from Aircraft Interiors Expo 2026
- Off the Camera Roll – Exploring Hamburg during the quiet moments
- Escape from the Messe and Return to Hamburg Airport
- Hamburg Airport Lounge and European Entry/Exit System queues
- BA969 Hamburg to London Heathrow (Club Europe – Old Configuration)
- A Luggage Mess and a Messier Coach Ride Home
- Continued Innovation
London Heathrow Terminal 5 to Hamburg Airport Terminal 2
British Airways,
Club Europe, Seat 2A
Airbus A321neo (new configuration)
Boarding the aircraft, there was something a little different, as this aircraft was brand new to the fleet when I boarded it.
How convenient.
This variant of the Airbus A321neo that British Airways operates features a new interior (with the Airbus SpacebinXL… and more importantly, new seating.
Cabin
My Seat
Seatbacjk
High Output power at the front
Air Gasper
Seat Controls – S
British Airways looked locally for its A321neo mid-life change, turning to Collins Aerospace for their Meridian Seat (the follow-on from Pinnacle).
Nice detail in the embossing…
And the embossing.
Now, this plane was brand new a few days after I boarded it, so it had a very fresh cabin smell to it, with new leather seat covers that had not been broken in.
It’s pitched around 30” – around the usual for Club Europe and Eurotraveller, although Meridian’s design helped to create some extra space. I found it to be not too bad at all, given some of the abuse the PPinnacle seats have had with passengers on BA. As a new seat, the foams were comfortable, with some nice design elements on the headrest.
Legroom
And yes, there’s one important thing that’s made its re-introduction – with the cocktail table unit being in place again (and yes, it’s a pull and remove thing, which can be stowed under the centre seat – have a look at our preview of the seat.
The return of the cocktail table.
In terms of the SpaceBinXL, we’ve seen it on countless other airlines (it’s where you put your wheeled luggage in sideways, as opposed to laying it flat. Considering how many handbaggage customers there were, this is no bad thing (also, there was no “We have a full flight and limited space announcement – a good sign the SpaceBinXLs are doing their job.
Give me all the space.
Boarding proceeded at a pace, given it was a full flight heading out to Hamburg, with some familiar faces recognised as I saw them board.
With boarding completed, it was time to get going, with an on-time pushback.
The safety demonstration was completed manually – it might be a new aircraft, but BA didn’t invest in overhead screens for map and safety demonstration information.
With the demonstration completed, our aircraft taxied its way towards one of the runways at Heathrow Airport. And yes, I was struggling to be awake at this point. There’s something about airplane white noise that can help me shut down quickly.
Inbound A320
Our taxi took us past Terminals 5, 3 and 2 as we proceeded to the south runway.
Branded A320
Long-haul birds
Long 777-300ER is long.
Team Blue
Team Red
Eventually, it was our turn to take off, which the A321neo did with ease, as it headed off to Germany.
Past the reservoirs near Heathrow
Cruise.
Our route would take us north of London, striking out to the North Sea towards Rotterdam and Hamburg. A pretty run-of-the-mill route to Hamburg.
With the seatbelt sign off, the crew started to prepare their in-flight service. I had a few things to explore.
First up is connectivity. I was able to connect to the BA inflight portal and sign in to it for the free messaging service. Even through british airways has signed up for Starlink, the airline offers Viasat’s European Aviation Network (nee Inmarsat).
For the sake of a one-hour flight, I chose to connect to the messaging service only and skip the connectivity. I was still able to chat with friends and family – although I was unable to send images through the free messaging chat layer.
That’s the price of free (as well as the information I gave BA by signing in).
There was a big bright spot, however, and that was that one no longer has to dive under the seat to find the USB outlet – rather, it’s at eye level.
It’s not difficult to do this, but it makes it a lot more accessible. In the Club Europe Cabin, there is a 60watt USB-C/15 Watt USB-A outlet, whilst down the back, its 15watt for both USB-C and USB-A. That’s more than enough to get a decent charge in an hour (and enough to keep a laptop topped up in Club Europe).
It would have been nicer to roll it through the cabin, but seeing USB-C in the cabin is an uplift.
As for other in-flight entertainment, you had the window and the shop.
Even though there was a full cabin, the crew needed to get their catering run done. As such, there was a choice of two salads – either a vegetarian salad or a salmon tartare.
I went for the salmon tartare… and this is what I got.
Not a bad tray at all, to be fair,r for a Club Europe one-hour flight (and considering some domestic flights have been done really dirty with catering changes, I’ll stick with what I can get). The salmon didn’t taste too fishy – a good sign it’s been stored correctly; the bread was warm, and the dessert pot was a good shout.
Although the usual rule applies, if you want something substantial, go to the lounge before you fly. I did notice that a lot of people skipped the food.
Each to their own.
People, however, were getting drinks – for me, that’s Gin and Tonic, with Tanqueray gin being served.
And no matter how hard I try to go through a full one, I always seem to handle 1 shot (around 25ml, as opposed to the full 50ml). Some would call it control. Might others see it as a sign of weakness? For me, let’s say I had a G&T later on in Hamburg.
Although there was no shortage of people grabbing a glass of bubbly, too.
This could be Rotterdam or anywhere, Liverpool or Rome…
It seemed the crew raced through the cabin with both drinks and food, given that this is a 1 hour 20 from wheels up to wheels down on a bad day.
At least my camera, passport and battery had a visible home. Gotta love a cocktail table.
My tray was cleared away reasonably quickly, so I had some space back (along with the cocktail table – always a good home for a camera when it’s not working).
I also wondered how much weight BA saved with their new cabin speedmarque.
It certainly is an outline of its past self. I suspect the weight saving of not having a full cast or the metal filled in will add up to something over the life of the aircraft. It will need a little more intricate cleaning – more than a quick run of polish and rag…
Meanwhile, the A321neo continued its journey towards Hamburg.
This could be Rotterdam, or anywhere.
But a short flight is a short flight, so soon enough, drinks were cleared away, and it was time to button up the cabin for landing.
Our aircraft continued its descent, vectoring towards Hamburg Airport.
Eventually, we made a landing on one of the runways at Hamburg Airport, ending the short hop.
Our aircraft taxied back to the terminal area, heading towards the A/B gates. A perfect time to see some visiting traffic as we positioned towards the gate
Summer sun with Pegasus and Sun Express
Aer Lingus A320
Air Baltic Airbus A220-300
Windrøe De Hallivland Dash 8-Q400
So many Lufthansa Group tails. And SunExpress and Pegasus.
Eurowings Airbus A320
With ease, the aircraft parked up at Hamburg. With murmurs changing as the chat was changing from leisure to work.
The joy of a trade show shuttle
Vacated.
The now-empty row.
With the doors being opened quickly, I retrieved my bags and headed off.
It was time to enjoy the joy of the European Entry/Exit System and what an omnishambles it is in person. Or not.
Who can tell?
Overall:
I’ve moaned more than a few times about the previous seats that British Airways has put on their short haul and the lack of care that went into the cabin. Well, in this new cabin, British Airways has pushed the boat out in terms of comfort and amenities, with a comfortable seat (even if it’s tightly pitched at the usual 30″). There is certainly comfort to be had, and for those in Club Europe, the return of the cocktail table is more than welcome.
Food and Beverages were rushed – but that’s not a surprise, given a full cabin of passengers in Club (and I suspect a full cabin at the back too).
It was a reasonable flight, brightened by the new cabin deployed. I just wish British Airways would grab the bull by the horns and refresh the fleet to the same standard.
Next:
Into Europe and Germany. And the first hit of the European Entry Exit System.
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