FLIGHT REVIEW: British Airways Club Europe – Venice to Heathrow Including New Interior

Our first article since introducing ourselves yesterday is a review of our recent flight from Venice to London Heathrow on British Airways Club Europe which has BA’s new short haul interior.

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Venice to London Heathrow

• Flight Number – BA579
• Travel Date – July 2024
• Aircraft Reg – G-TTNV
• Aircraft Type – Airbus A320neo
• Aircraft Age – 1 month old
• Cabin – Club Europe (Business Class)

Check-in & Security

If you’ve ever been to Venice, you know how special the transfer into the airport can be if you’re lucky enough to have a private water taxi, as we did. You pull into the airport’s jetty directly from Venice. All very James Bond style.

Like a lot of BA outstations, check-in doesn’t open until 2 to 3 hours before the flight and by the time we arrived there were two long queues. Once they got going, we waited 20 minutes to be seen.

Security was a dream. Fast Track security has always been good at Venice (my 6th time). We were scanned in and were the only people there which is very rare but it definitely took the pressure off, especially when traveling with a toddler and everything that comes with them, such as a pram, bag of toys, food and everything else that is needed.

Airport and Lounge

I really like Venice airport. It’s modern, clean, and easy to navigate, although the walk from the water taxi to the main terminal is quite long. It’s made a little easier as the airport is mostly accessible with plenty of lifts and travelators. I say mostly because this is the second year in a row that the main lift to the lounge has been out of service and the only alternative lift is a decent walk in the opposite direction. Surely it’s not been out of service for a whole year?

Flying in Club Europe allows you access to Marco Polo Club Lounge. On our visit, the lounge was very busy however we luckily found a few seats without doing too many laps.

This has to be one of the better partner lounges. Ultra-modern, large with several different types of seating areas, and it even has an outside terrace that overlooks the runway.

The lounge is very light with floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook the runway and also has a very calm feeling about it with many small trees and plants dotted around.

The food offering isn’t extensive, however, what they do put out is nice and suited to the time of the day. Mostly finger foods such as sandwiches, muffins, croissants and fruit. The drinks offering is quite extensive with a server serving all drinks. I believe they introduced this during COVID but have kept it going and I’m not exactly sure why. It feels awkward and a little unnecessary that you are not allowed to open a fridge by yourself to grab a bottle of water. Instead, you have to queue whilst the only server makes coffees and other time-consuming drinks.

Exit Security, Boarding & Departure

On our way to the gate, we had to visit passport control for our exit stamp. This next bit totally ruined what was a great experience at Venice airport. The queue didn’t appear too long, but it actually took 90 minutes to get through, with only two officers serving. Quite honestly, it was carnage, with a decent amount of people arguing both with each other and the staff. We ended up getting through 10 minutes after our scheduled departure but thankfully we had an hour delay so made it to the gate with almost no time to spare.

As seems very common with British Airways these days, boarding was via a bus. Being in group 1 is pointless when you get on a bus because you usually board with groups 1, 2, and 3 all together. We could see our aircraft from the bus gate but we seemed to get a full tour of the airport before arriving at our brand new aircraft.

Once on board we pushed back quite quickly and were on our way. I was lucky to be in the window in seat 2A which gave me a fantastic view of Venice on our departure. We departed one hour late.

Cabin

We were lucky to be on a 1-month-old Airbus A320neo as it has the new BA cabin. I have been excited to try this out since the launch of British Airways’ new short-haul interior which I would say visually is a massive upgrade and in reality, is a great product.

As I am sure most of you know, that the seat configuration in Club Europe is the same as Economy however the middle seat is blocked creating a 2-2 layout. If you are on an older aircraft or a brand new aircraft you will have a useful tray table blocking the middle seat.

We asked for this to be moved as we entered the aircraft and the crew were happy to do this. This meant our toddler could sit between us, which makes things a lot easier. It also freed up our unused seat 2D which the crew moved a fellow passenger into who had just had an argument with another passenger about kicking the back of her seat.

I have explored the new cabin in more detail here in a follow up article. 

Food and Drink

Being in Club Europe we are offered a hot meal and a full drinks service included in our fare.

As we were in row 2, we were quickly offered a drink. Unfortunately, I was driving so didn’t opt for my usual glass of wine; instead, I had a Coke Zero which was served with the usual pack of nuts, which I really enjoy.

Unlike our outbound flight, we weren’t offered a menu for this one which is very inconsistent and a familiar theme with previous BA flights. Soon after drinks service, we were served our food and as it was 2 pm we were offered lunch.

Both Katrina and I opted for the Pea Gnocchi which we both thought was, unfortunately, pretty bland, tasteless and chewy. To the point we didn’t want to eat it. Luckily for us, our toddler had eaten lunch in the lounge but was still served his kids meal that was a Tomato, Mozzarella Gnocchi that was served with a Wimbledon Special strawberries and cream dessert. This was much nicer than ours, so we shared this.

Overall service was quick and efficient from a solid crew, albeit no pleasantries.

Arrival and Bags

With a nice view of Windsor Castle, we arrived into Heathrow landing on Runway 09L which had a short taxi to Terminal 5. We were already 1 hour and 5 minutes late and to add insult to injury we had to wait on the taxiway for a further 30 minutes for our gate to become available.

Like a lot of the time with Venice flights, there are a lot of people catching connecting flights to the US so we had quite a few people standing up and walking to the front of the aircraft before we had arrived at our gate whilst we were still moving. The poor crew were understandably getting very frustrated.

We eventually taxied to an A gate which doesn’t require a train, thankfully. We were through security very quickly and our bags arrived within 20 minutes of us reaching the belts. Not too bad based on what I have heard recently at Terminal 5.

Summary

Had it not been for a 90-minute delay I would have been much happier. Trying to entertain a toddler during small delays can be very stressful.

Overall, it was a mixed experience for us. Issues such as passport control, food onboard and  the delay weren’t great but the new cabin along with a good crew helped balance things.