Review of British Airways flight Newcastle → London in Economy

Newcastle Airport and the ASPIRE LOUNGE

Hello and welcome to a domestic flight from Newcastle International Airport down to London Heathrow Airport. 

I made my way over to the NCL Airport on the cities Metro train station. After arriving it was a short walk over to the Terminal and then I had to ascend one level up to departures, I managed to save a few minutes of que time by using my Fast Track benefits as OneWorld Sapphire.

I arrived about 3 1/2 hours ahead of my flight to ensure I had a nice stay in the Aspire Lounge. British Airways closed their dedicated BA Lounge at Newcastle Airport in 2020 due to the Pandemic, but the space is now occupied by Aspire Lounge who have extended their existing lounge and they offer a premium lounge space as an extension to the standard lounge I'll be featuring here.

Various drinks were offered, both soft and alcoholic from a bar, but hot drinks were available from public free to use coffee machines. Some hot food offerings were there too including a carbonara, tomato/pepper soup and two other options. Various cakes and salad items were available from the cold section.

I chilled out in some different seating areas, a few tables were "reserved" off. I enjoyed the basic but satisfying carbonara and must admit to having two servings during my stay alongside a portion of the tomato and pepper soup. Nothing fancy, but it did the job and was something that could be easily catered.

I was able to find an area to charge up my GoPro and mobile phone for a bit which was ideal as well as relaxing on their comfortable chairs. There were some quiet areas to go where you couldn't make calls to allow people to sleep or relax. 

The lounge wasn't busy, however, it seemed to be dominated by business people- so I felt a little out of place, but I was able to use the lounge for my own needs. I did notice in the corner two booths for people wanting to have some privacy if they wanted to make video calls or phone calls without anyone "snooping in".

Overall its a nice lounge for a "Contract Lounge" and its all you're going to be able to have when flying from Newcastle Airport, I would pay for entry at the right price, but to get free access its a good one at that sort of expectation.

BA1337: Y-I, Man!

There's a bit of an "in-joke" which UK readers will likely understand, but for the benefit of the "non-UK" readers who might not get my references, here is why this is a bit of a joke.

There is a phrase in Newcastle that goes "Why-ay-Man" and British Airways happened on this evening to send up their Airbus A320-ceo, G-EUYI… You can probably see where this is going.

G-EUYI was delivered brand new to British Airways in June 2010 and has been flying for BA ever since. It was put into storage at Palma De Mallorca from November 19th 2020 to March 24th 2021. The plane is fitted with 180 seats with the first 12 Rows can be flexed to be Club Europe or Euro Traveller depending on demand of a single flight.

My seat for this evening was Seat 9A, right next to the engine No.1 for the evening.

It didn't take long to board the aircraft, we were fully boarded just before departure time, though we had a short wait before we could leave as there was a delay for a slot to get into LHR, but our schedule had enough time built in to allow an on time arrival regardless.

We pushed back and taxied over to the departure Runway 07, we had a rolling take off, we climbed into the clouds and before we knew it we were at our cruising altitude above the clouds.

Something I did notice on this flight was that British Airways has reintroduced their Buy-on-Board menu for Euro Traveller for the first time since March 2020, featuring the current Speedbird Café!

This features items you are able to buy in flight, but there are likely some items that still require pre-ordering.

In terms of the service on board I did get the usual snack and water like everyone else, but I had preorderd a hot coffee and a box of Joe & Seph's popcorn, a very popular brand in the UK!

We passed across England, heading South during the evening's Golden Hour, I picked a good time for this flight- that is certain!

The rest of the flight was pretty standard, I took some cabin shots from my seat, showcasing the normal cabin lighting as well as the A320ceo evening mood lighting as we approached London Heathrow toward the end of the flight. The mood lighting isn't featured on the A320neo family.

If you enjoy the "Golden Hour" and seeing planes flying alongside a beautiful evening sky, you're in the right place for this flight report!

Eventually all good things must come to a conclusion and we landed into London Heathrow pretty much on time, we made the taxi over to Terminal 5A, parking on the South-side of the T5A complex where the BA domestic flights tend to congregate on arrival in order to help make easy access for the UK domestic and CTA arrivals and avoid mingling with international arrivals from Europe.

I opted to be one of the last passengers off the plane, so I could grab a few final cabin shots of the near empty plane.

And thus concludes another "milk-run" with British Airways in Euro Traveller for me. I grabbed a final shot of the plane in the walkway as I made my treck over to domestic arrivals, the night was quickly blanketing Heathrow and the final evening rays of sun were fading out.

A quick question for anyone who reads to answer, whilst these flights are all good in economy class (Least I think that) would anyone here actually do this flight in Club Europe (Business Class)?

I would do it if offered either a free upgrade on BA or even as part of a wider itinerary including a longer Club flight.