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British Airways A350 first flight review – are the new Club Suites as good as they sound?

  • 06/08/2019
  • Michele

Hilton APAC

Today was the first flight of British Airways new A350 aircraft from London to Madrid. So what is it like to be on an inaugural flight and what is the new aircraft like in flight?

In this post:

  • The reception
    • Alex Cruz
  • Boarding the British Airways A350
  • The cabin and seat of British Airways A350 – what is it like in flight?
    • British Airways A350 Storage
    • Privacy
  • What happened on board at British Airways A350?
  • British Airways A350 Entertainment, wifi and charging
  • Conclusion

The reception

British Airways A350

As this was no ordinary flight, I will not be doing a standard flight review. I will take an in-depth look at the new aircraft and the Club Suites. Also, as this was my first inaugural flight, I will be looking at the experience in itself.

The departure had had a cloud hanging over it all weekend due to the planned strike by Heathrow’s staff. Fortunately, at the eleventh hour, the strike was averted, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

British Airways A350 review

I arrived at Heathrow and was greeted at a special desk just for the inaugural flight. You can tell that BA had handpicked their top staff as everyone throughput the day was delightful and bursting with pride about their new aircraft.

British Airways A350 review

Once through security, I headed to the B Gates at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 to have a look at the A350 sitting at the gate. BA was pulling out all the stops at the gate with a special cake and some cupcakes spelling out A350.

Alex Cruz

British Airways A350 review

Next, I headed to the formal press reception in the Galleries Club T5B lounge. Again it is evident that Alex was very proud of the new aircraft. He discussed the replacement program, which will see 11,000 Club Suites eventually in service across the fleets. The A350 will replace some of the retiring B747s. This is the A350-1000 which is larger than the A350-900 and has a longer airframe. BA are expecting a further 18 of them to be delivered.

I asked Alex if BA had anything planned for the weekend of the 100th anniversary, which is over the August Bank Holiday. Alex confirmed that there would be some celebrations, probably in the terminal and onboard, but there were no specific events planned. He was also asked about the new First class seats, but he was very coy in this area and would not confirm any specifics other than a new seat is coming. He also confirmed that BA is committed to continuing with First. We do know that they are reducing the size of the cabins, though. The B777 that will be refurbished will be going down from 14 to 8 seats.

Finally, Alex confirmed that the service onboard the A350 will be the same as the other fleets, unlike Qatar, that has special touches for the QSuites.

 

Boarding the British Airways A350

British Airways A350 cabin

We were allowed to board early to enable us to take pictures and explore the aircraft. I won’t talk about economy or World Traveller Plus in this article but will cover it at a later date.

I had been allocated 6F, which sadly was a middle seat. The good thing about the new layout is there is no such thing as a bad seat. I will look more at the seat in a bit.

As this was the inaugural flight, the service was a bit of mash-up of Club Europe and Club World. It was mainly Club World rather than Club Europe, so this should give a fair indication of the actual service. At the seat was a certificate for being on the inaugural flight.

British Airways A350 review

I was offered a choice of sparkling wines and some nuts as a welcome drink. This was different from both Club Europe and Club World. The new Club World Champagne glasses were in use. They looked better in the flesh than I imagined, but I am sad to see the stemless ones go, being on the clumsy side!

British Airways A350 review

We were also given the new centenary wash bag which is available on flights throughout August. Watch this space to win one in the next giveaway!

British Airways A350 review

We did not have the full White Company bedding, but we did have the pillow, which was useful to assess the comfort of the seat when I lay down. 

The cabin and seat of British Airways A350 – what is it like in flight?

The seats are laid out in a 1-2-1 configuration. Here is the layout:

A350 Club Suites seat map

The main cabin feels enormous, but due to the privacy, did not feel like the B777 flying dormitory as its known.

The first thing I noticed was that the overhead bins above the middle seats are very high and tricky to reach if you are not tall. The ones at the window are the opposite and a bit too low if you are tall.

British Airways A350 Seat

All seats have direct aisle access and feel private. In terms of choosing seats, the best seats are the bulkhead seats for the extra space around the footwell in both Club cabins. I may be tempted to go for the mini-cabin on a day flight, but you are right by the galley for a night flight.

British Airways A350 Seat

So let’s talk first about the comfort of the seat for sitting and sleeping. The seat felt very well cushioned and was very comfortable for sitting in a working position. I am 5ft 6, and I could not reach the footstool without reclining quite a bit. However, there is a leg rest which works independently from the recline. This allows you to have your legs fully raised even without any recline.

Footstool
Footstool out of reach

The seat is controlled via a smart looking touch screen which is very simple. There are 3 pre-set positions as well as being able to control elements individually.

British Airways A350 review

I tried the bed fully flat for a while and found the sleeping position comfortable with enough padding.

British Airways A350 Flat Bed
British Airways A350 Flat Bed

I am a side sleeper, and it felt like there was enough room to lie on my side, and the footwell was not an issue for me. Paul tried it out on the A350 visit last Friday. He is 6ft, so it gives you an idea of how it is if you are taller.

Footwell

The footwells at the front of each cabin are a little bigger.

British Airways A350 Footwell

 

British Airways A350 Storage

This is a vast improvement on the current seat. Two side compartments open with the touch of a button.

Storage

These can be used for taking off and landing. The larger one has the remote control and sockets in it.

seat control

There is a third area that can only be used in flight that is an open compartment and perfect for a water bottle.

compartment

Finally, you have a vanity area although you probably couldn’t really get much in here!

vanity area

Privacy

Privacy was also excellent – no more trying to avoid staring into the eye of the person opposite you like now with the yin & yang design. Even without the door shut, I couldn’t really see anyone else from my seat with the privacy screen in the middle closed.

Privacy in British Airways A350

With the door closed, it did not feel claustrophobic as the doors are not that high. Here is the view of one of the middle suites from inside with the door closed.

Privacy

 

And finally…..

There are also four toilets for the Club cabins.

Toilet

 

What happened on board at British Airways A350?

We were served lunch from a special menu, which was a bit like a one tray version of a Club World service.

Here is the menu:

Menu
Menu
Menu
Menu
Menu
Menu

The food was pretty much what I would expect to get on a standard Club World flight with BA apart from the dessert. It was all delicious but on a 1 hour 40 minute flight there wasn’t much time to savour it!

British Airways A350 IFE Screen
British Airways A350 IFE Screen

One feature I loved was the fact that the table can not only lock into different positions close or away from you but also you could easily get out of the seat even with your tray still on the table. 

Food

As you would have on a long haul flight, there was a Club World kitchen with snacks and drinks laid out.

Most importantly though, I managed to catch up with Vlogging legend Sam Chui and get an inflight selfie on an inaugural flight! Coming soon on social media.

Club World Kitchen
Club World Kitchen

Airplane

British Airways A350 Entertainment, wifi and charging

British Airways A350 Entertainment
British Airways A350 Entertainment

The TV screen was also a massive step up from the current Club World screens. It was 40% larger than the current one and HD. Like now, the screen can be controlled on the screen itself by touch or by using the handheld remote. I found the screen a little lagging at times, but no so much as to be a nuisance.

Handheld remote
Handheld remote

The entertainment had all the usual categories though such as films, TV and games. I didn’t have much time to explore the selections but there were plenty of new options as well as some special BA programmes. There was a moving map, but sadly BA did not go for the camera option on their A350s which allows you to see views outside the aircraft.

Socket
Socket

For charging there are a multi-country socket and two USB ports. These are housed in one of the storage compartments, so there is enough of a gap for the leads to run under the lid.

The aircraft had wifi with the usual long haul pricing displayed, but everyone got it for free on this flight. I got it working, and it seemed to work well if a little slower than usual. This is probably due to the sheer numbers of people using it since it was free! Plus a cabin full of bloggers on social media!

A350 at Madrid
A350 at Madrid

Conclusion

Although you can’t judge a product fully on a short press trip, this definitely gave me a good idea of what the new Club Suite is like to fly in. I always found the current seats comfortable but hated the lack of storage and aisle access. The next product answers these concerns as well as adding in more privacy and a better in-flight entertainment system to boot.

It is not quite as good in terms of space as the Q Suites, but I did find the seat much more comfortable lying down due to the padding. Overall it is a fantastic business class product that is up there with the best of the current business class seats. 

 

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Michele

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7 comments
  1. Business Traveller says:
    06/08/2019 at 9:08 am

    Thank you for the write up. I think it is high time for BA to update their business product, as it’s generally knackered and tired. The competition are also offering much better products. Can’t wait to try it – I hope they don’t increase the price too much to make it non-viable when compared to other carriers!

  2. Chris Potter says:
    06/08/2019 at 2:36 pm

    I don’t think that BA are getting 18 A350s in 2019 as stated above.

    1. Michele says:
      06/08/2019 at 6:41 pm

      I did wonder that myself so I went back to check the slides from Alex’s talk and it does say 18 in 2019. However, that could be 18 new aircraft total not a350 as the slide shows. I will try and get clarification from BA.

  3. Henry says:
    07/08/2019 at 10:09 pm

    When is service to Bangalore commencing. I thought it was slated for January 2020 but have seen it pencilled for February in the presentation Alex Cruz gave featured on Sam Chui’s Video…

    1. Michele says:
      07/08/2019 at 10:10 pm

      They had filed it for January but the presentation said different.

  4. journeying john says:
    07/08/2019 at 10:33 pm

    Do you think they’ll start cleaning their longhaul cabins now? Loading enough catering to offer the paying customer the choice promised in marketing? Will the absence of the third galley used by the vast majority of 350-1000 operators mean additional issues with the already sparse catering? Most of all, any chance of having a similar step change iin customer services?
    As todays 4th year in a row major IT meltdown (+the data breaches) demonstrates cost cutting can go too far and even with this lovely plane, anything that costs (external cameras, 3rd galley, air vents has been…
    Ex-BAEC (70sectors p/a) “enhanced” to try the alternatives who would love to return but simply doesn’t believe BA reliably deliver a competitive product in 2019

  5. duck ling says:
    08/08/2019 at 5:46 pm

    While it’s great to see that BA have improved their Club seat i’m speechless that they have taken delivery of a brand new aircraft designed for ULH routes that have a number of economy seats (I believe six) that have no recline!

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