Review of British Airways flight London → Reykjavík in Business

We live in Iceland and we went to Australia for the end of the year holidays to see relatives who live there – we hadn’t been there for five years. And as Australia is quite far from Iceland – the distance between Keflavík and Melbourne would be 16,960 kms if there was a direct flight – I went to a few places in Asia before and after Australia.

I booked the following flights:
Keflavík to London, Icelandair, business class, B737
London to Abu Dhabi, Etihad, business class, A380
Abu Dhabi to Jakarta, Etihad by Wamos, business class, A330
Yogyakarta to Kuala Lumpur, Air Asia, economy, A320
Kuala Lumpur to Manila, Philippine Airlines, business class, A321
Manilla to Sydney, Philippine Airlines, business class, A330
Canberra to Melbourne, Qantas, economy, B717
Melbourne to Hobart, Virgin Australia, economy, B737
Hobart to Melbourne, Jetstar, economy, A320
Melbourne to Manilla, Philippine Airlines, business class, A330
Manilla to Kuala Lumpur, Philippine Airlines, business class, A320
Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok, Malaysia Airlines, business class, B737,
Bangkok to Hongkong, Emirates, first class, A380
Hongkong to Manila, Air Asia Philippines, economy, A320
Manila to Panglao, Cebu Pacific, economy, A321
Cebu to Singapore, Singapore Airlines, business class, A350
Singapore to London, Singapore Airlines, business class, A380
London to Keflavík, British Airways, business class, A320

My last flight on this long trip was with British Airways from London Heathrow to Keflavík. I booked it separately. The price was very reasonable for a three-hour one-way flight: business class on British Airways was cheaper than economy on Icelandair.

I had arrived from Singapore the previous afternoon. I could have taken a late evening flight with Icelandair from London to Keflavík but I preferred to spend the night at the Sofitel Heathrow Hotel to better adjust to the time difference.

I walked to Terminal 5 at about 05.00 in the morning. There’s a large and nice check-in area dedicated to business class passengers but I had already checked in on-line and only had hand luggage. 

The automatic gates to check the boarding passes didn’t work so I was invited to go through the gate used by the airport staff starting their morning shift. Priority security was available but was not particularly quick. I was nevertheless airside by 05.25.

I went directly to the British Airways Galleries South Club Lounge.

The lounge is huge, beautiful and was almost completely empty so early in the morning.

The presentation of the drinks is especially beautiful.

Breakfast was available.

My breakfast at the lounge:

I enjoyed my stay at the lounge but I can imagine it's less pleasant when full.

The gate was not far from the lounge. Priority boarding was available.

Our plane this morning was an A320-200, registration number G-TTNR, built in 2021.

As you probably all know British Airways’ business class is called Club Europe for flights within Europe with regular economy seats in a 3+3 configuration with the middle seat blocked. There’s a movable divider so the number of business class seats depends on the demand. 

Legroom is limited.

Push-back was on time at 07.40. We took off at 07.52.

Breakfast service started shortly after. Here’s the breakfast menu: there’s a choice of three mains which is quite impressive for an intra-European flight.

I had the Original Full British Breakfast. It was much better than the typical onboard breakfast.

I had tea and tomato juice with my breakfast.

The cabin crew was excellent: they were not only efficient and professional but also chatty, friendly and in a very good mood. Drinks were offered many times. I took 18 flights during this one-month trip to Asia and Australia and the two flights with the best cabin crew were Emirates’ first class from Bangkok to Hong Kong and this British Airways flight.

The Sun started to rise only when we were approaching Iceland.

The view of Iceland a few minutes before landing.

We landed in close to zero visibility and the captain asked all passengers not only to put their phones on flight mode but also to turn them off completely.

Here's the METAR for Keflavík Airport when we landed: 

We landed at Keflavík International Airport at 10.52 and were at the gate at 11.00 for a scheduled arrival time of 10.55.

The view of our plane from inside the terminal building:

Thank you for reading my flight reports. Please feel free to comment.