Review of British Airways flight London → Madrid in Business

introduction

Hello and welcome to the second report in this new series of transatlantic flight reviews. As long-time oneworld loyalists who've been living between Europe and Southern California for the past few years, we regularly fly a mix of American Airlines, British Airways, and Iberia across the pond. However, due to the UK's ever-changing and complex Covid entry policies, we'd avoided British Airways since the beginning of the pandemic and had yet to try out the new Club Suites Business class. With the UK simplifying Covid travel restrictions in 2022, and eventually doing away with them altogether, we once again felt confident booking British Airways. 

In the previous review we covered the new BA Club Suite product on the sleek A350-1000–if you missed that one, you'll find the link below. In this report we'll cover the intra-European business class experience on the A320, BA's short/medium-haul work-horse. 

routing

Reports in this series:

Transit & lounge

It's been well-known since the beginning the summer 2022 travel season that European airports have been struggling to deal with the high levels of passenger traffic that have come with the summer of "revenge travel" after two years of the Covid pandemic. London Heathrow and Amsterdam Schipol have become infamous for long queues, delays, cancellation, lost baggage and all-around chaos.

Luckily, we had over three hours between flights, so we had plenty of time to deal with long queues, if needed. Heading to transit security in T5A, it didn't seem terribly crowded…

But once up the escalators, there was a queue longer than any I'd ever seen in years or travelling through T5 regularly, and of course, Fast Track lanes were still closed after over two years! I feel like Fast Track through transit security may never return at this point. 

The queue just kept going and going and snaking around…

In the end it took us just over an hour to get through security. I must say between TSA pre-check and Global Entry in the US, I'm not used to queuing up for so long anymore…it was certainly a test for me after an 11h flight and a valuable lesson for my 3-year-old son on the virtues of patience.

Finally after that unpleasant experience, we headed straight for the BA lounges for a bit of relaxation. 

With oneworld Emerald status, we have access to the BA Galleries First lounge at Heathrow. Access to First class lounges, regardless of class of travel, is definitely one of the best perks of top-tier Emerald status. 

The BA horse lamps faithfully guard the entrance to the First lounge.  

The First lounge is large with plenty of natural light and runway views from the windows. 

There is a champagne bar and several buffet areas.

The buffets feature mostly salads, sandwiches, and other cold items. Hot dishes are available for order. 

I usually like to sit in the "patio" area as it almost feels like being on an outdoor terrace. The one downside it that there are less power outlets available in this section. This is usually not a problem as I take care to charge electronic devices on board whenever possible. 

New since my previous visit to the First Lounge in January 2022, was the return of self-serve champagne and wines–previously unavailable due to Covid protocols. 

As mentioned above, cold items are available at the buffet, but hot dishes are available to order. Each table in the lounge has a QR code, which can be used to view the food menu and order right from one's phone. 

Once ordered, the food is delivered to the table within minutes. 

For some reason, our flight did not show on the departures screens just 40 minutes before scheduled departure. Worried about a potential cancellation, I checked in with the customer service desk, who indicated our flight would be departing from the B gates. 

As I was speaking to the agent, I received a notification from the BA app with the gate assignment. Only 40 minutes prior to boarding is a bit short notice in my opinion, especially since the B gates are a train ride away.
 

So off we went to catch the train to the B concourse.

The train was packed and the terminal was definitely more crowded than last time we flew through in January, but it's also summer.

boarding

Our gate was located on the end of the B concourse. I was surprised to see so many people were already at the gate considering the flight wasn't even showing on the departures boards just a few minutes prior and we had moved quickly to arrive at the gate on time. I suppose it's possible the flight display issue was only in the lounge and not throughout the general terminal. 

Boarding began with group 1 right as we arrived at the gate so we were able to go through straight away. 

Our A320 to MAD

There were six rows of Club on this flight. As most of your know, intra-European Business class cabin size can be adjusted by moving the curtain forwards of backwards depending on demand as the seats are essentially the same as Economy but with a bit more legroom and a blocked middle seat for more space. 

Cabin crew handed out masks during boarding as Spain was one of the few BA destinations still requiring masks on board at the time. With most countries having recently dropped Covid mask requirements, the majority of BA flights don't require masks, so most passengers weren't aware of Spain's requirement–or at least weren't wearing masks upon boarding. Good foresight on BA's behalf to have masks ready for distribution.

Our seats were in row 5, which was the last row at time of booking, but an additional row had been added since–nice to see healthy premium cabin demand on this route. 

My kid wanted the window seat so of course I obliged (begrudgingly on the inside ?)

Legroom is fine by European Business class standards at a 30-31" pitch in the forward cabin, but a far cry from the comfort of true Business class recliner seats seen in most other parts of the world. 

There are combo AC/USB power units below the seats, though they are usually not turned on until after takeoff. 

This aircraft is also equipped with Wi-Fi, as is the majority of the BA fleet. 

Both cabins ended up being completely full. 

Cool to be able to see the flight deck from the aisle seat as boarding wrapped up. 

At the end of boarding my son wanted to switch to the aisle seat–no complaints from me! Yay, back to the window ?

The view out of the window. Being parked in the B concourse, the majority of aircraft were widebodies.

the flight

We pushed back from the gate about on time despite a crowded terminal and long queues at security checkpoints. 

A short taxi to the runway with a nice diversity of aircraft to see along the way.

We took off facing east with views of T2 and T3, which is somewhat uncommon in my experience.

Views towards London and Twickenham stadium on takeoff. 

The wireless system confirmed 2h flight time takeoff to touchdown. The Wi-Fi was not available until we reached cruising altitude. 

It only took a few minutes to reach the southern English coast.

I was surprised to see printed menus on this flight. Something I hadn't seen in Club Europe since before Covid. 

Unlike the flight from San Diego, the pre-ordered child meal was delivered promptly after take-off, prior to the regular service. 

Once again, good quality and tasty, but way too much food for a 3-year-old.  The happy-face chocolate mousse is always a hit, though. 

Meanwhile, aperitifs were served in the cabin. I had a champagne, which was a Nicolas Feuillatte Réserve 

Now for the adult meal, I went for the beef option.

Starter:  Greek salad, beluga lentils, whipped feta
Main: Braised beef cheeks, mashed potatoes, seasonal vegetables, braising jus
Cheese course: Selection of British cheeses 
Dessert: Chilled strawberry and mango macchiato 

Everything was good, though perhaps the main was a bit heavy for a summer day.

Note that the appetiser and dessert portions are the same as were on the long-haul from San Diego, which definitely wasn't the case pre-pandemic, where portions were naturally larger on long-haul flights.  

Cabin crew were through the cabin regularly checking on passengers and refilling drinks. Coffee or tea were offered after the meal. I decided to go for a digestif instead. 

Baileys on the rocks.  

Water bottles were also distributed after the meal. 

By the time the meal service was completed, the flight was more than halfway over, but the Wi-Fi never seemed to get turned on. No worries, I wasn't planning of buying access for such a short flight, but it was curious as no announcements were made about the Wi-Fi being inoperable. 

Another feature on the Wi-Fi portal is access to the "Speedbird Café" buy-on-board menu for Economy passengers since menus haven't been printed since the beginning of the pandemic. 

Arrival

Soon we were making our descent into MAD over the dry high plateaux of central Spain.

Greener scenery in the mountains north of Madrid, where we passed closed to the summits. 

And back to a sea of yellow and brown. 

Short taxi to Terminal 4 as usual–especially to the T4S satellite gates, which are right there by the runway. Being that the UK is outside Schengen (and now the EU since the beginning of the year), BA flights generally park at T4S rather than the main terminal.

Love that beautiful architecture. 

We were through immigration in minutes–What a nice change from the chaos of London Heathrow! Madrid really is a fantastic airport–very underrated, in my opinion. 

Then it was off to the train to the main terminal to collect our luggage at baggage claim. 

Coming off the train was basically the only place where it was a bit crowded–otherwise the terminal felt spacious and open everywhere else despite the summer crowds. 

¡Hola Madrid!

After a very long wait at baggage reclaim, unfortunately BA had managed to lose our stroller–again…every trip they either leave behind a car seat or a stroller!

Luckily there's a children's play area in the baggage claim area so my son could play while we waited for the bags and subsequently filed a claim for the lost stroller. 

I was glad to see that there were separate baggage service counters for Business class. So while there was a long queue for the Economy desks, there was no wait for us, which made the situation a lot easier to swallow. 

The stroller had been left behind at LHR, which is difficult to understand considering the 4h connecting time and the fact that everything else made it. But this often happens with odd or over-sized items like strollers and carseats, in my experience (though it shouldn't). Luckily we didn't really need the stroller for a few days as it took 3 days for it to finally make its way to us. I guess with all the chaos at LHR this summer with baggage, I should consider myself lucky it was found at all.

Thanks for reading!