TRIP REPORT: Continued Innovation – More Innovations in Hamburg

Continued Innovation
TRIP REPORT: More Innovations in Hamburg

Time to wrap up this trip report, try to draw conclusions and understand what, if anything, we’ve learned during this trip.

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

Going to Hamburg and Aircraft Interiors Expo is an important date in my calendar each year. It’s as important as the innovations and products that are shown on the show floor  – from a little LED light, a lifejacket, safety restraint system, entire cabin solutions, connectivity and yes, seats, right through to things that have been shown that have made it into flight.

It’s shows like this where physicality is important, rather than CGI Renders in a catalogue – after all, a render (AI-generated or otherwise) may not match what you get in the real world.

And yes, there were some rather bad AI elements this year, especially in certain award ceremony submissions.

But there is hope. There’s always an interesting idea out there. I hope I’ve explored some of them during this trip report and through this blog.

With that, let’s get onto the wrap-up.

FlixBus

Hmm. What was a quiet service has gotten busy and gone more than a little downhill. But on the other end, it’s cheap, and it gets me from A to B… if not on time sometimes.

British Airways at Heathrow Terminal 5

Whilst the check-in experience was pleasant enough, it seems the budget axe has drifted over the lounge experience. As for the arrivals experience, it’s as awful as it ever was. I don’t care what land you live in, 50 minutes for a short-haul luggage delivery is ridiculous.

British Airways in the Air

Both flights were passable, with the highlight being the new cabin installed on the Airbus A321neo. What I would love British Airways to do is grab the bull by the horns and roll that upgrade through the entire single-aisle fleet, rather than cling onto Pinnacle much longer.

Food and Drink was passable thanks to Do & Co. But I still hear mooing from that beef salad.

The IBIS Budget St Pauli

I’ll commend the Ibis Budget for getting rid of the lime-green and lemon paintwork that’s been in the room since I’ve been frequenting the hotel. I can forgive them for adding a proper room for the shower and sink. But that’s come at the cost of floor space in that room, which made what was already a small room a very tight space to be. At least the bed is passable and the wi-fi works. Which, for Germany, isn’t a given

Next on the Adventure List… Patience.

Things in the real world have been… unpleasant for months, with very few signs of things improving (unless someone shoves a hot poker where sunshine doesn’t exist up an orifice that has real power to make things people are scared of most – a decision).

As such, for me, the new few weeks – and months – may be sitting patiently for those people to make decisions… and as such, I’m grounded for a while whilst those come to hopefully positive conclusions.

I’ve got a couple of ideas brewing for some short-term breaks, as well as a few long-haul plans – provided things stay settled in the world. And I suspect there’s a fat chance of that in the near future.

But for now, we’ll be back to our usual coverage for a bit, until I get “creative” one night.

And when I get “creative”, chaos is but a few steps away.

Until then, toodle pip.

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 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.