Booking my flight to Reykjavik, Iceland was done via American Airlines. Since they partner with British Airways, I spent part of the flight voyage in their Business Class. The first part to Dallas was American, then due to weather issues in Dallas, I was back on American to London. The next morning, it’s British Airways from London to Reykjavik. But their business class is definitely substandard inside the EU, with them still having 3 seats across. They simply block the middle seat and call it business class! No wide seats, no legroom! Really unacceptable, so be cautious when you book them inside the EU.
Since the booking is via the American Airlines website and not directly with British Airways, it is hard to understand how the flights will be affected when they are transferred to British Airways. My first disappointment comes from not being able to assign my seats in advance, which I always do when I fly business class. I want to get the best options at the time of booking, not waiting till the best seats are gone. To my surprise, British Airways charges a fee for ALL Business Class seats on all flights. After flying 12 different Business Classes on various airlines, this was a first! This fee on the longer transatlantic flights is as much as $175 USD, and at least $50 USD on flights within Europe. After spending 2-3 times more on the basic ticket airfare, do I now have to pay for seat assignment if I wish to choose it before the 24-hour check-in period? This is certainly disappointing and fouls my mood for the upcoming flights!
So my story starts on the British Airways flight from London to Dallas. They mainly use Terminal 5 at Heathrow, but be aware they might not. I noticed 5 flights from London Heathrow to Dallas, and they were both in terminal 5 and 3! Since they were the only airline in Terminal 5, you can have quite a walk from one end to the other for business class check-in. They do provide FastTrack in the security lines, so that goes through quite quickly. There are 2 business class lounges, and the one I was in was quite full!
Food selection is similar to others I have been to, with hot and buffet items and hot and cold beverages throughout the lounge.
After a few hours, I head to the gate to board my flight, and that seems to be a bit disorganized, with no real direction on where to line up. They started calling groups, and they cued them up in another line with stanchions, making passengers wait again after being checked in. I was in a wheelchair, so I was allowed ahead to board.
Then my surprise surprise occurs when I see the seating configuration on this large plane! They were 2-4-2 in business class, meaning where you normally would see 1 seat along the windows, they crammed in 2! And they were reversed, making you basically sit face-to-face with the next passenger. Yes, there were dividers, but you still were claustrophobic in these tiny seats. Then the kicker is, there is absolutely no stowage for anything except for a bottom inconvenient drawer.
This was going to be a long uncomforatble flight! I was seated in the seat right by the window, and luckily, my seat companion switched with me and was able to breathe easier sitting on the aisle side of the 2 window seats. The monitors flipped out and were, of course, older, low-resolution style. The tray table also slipped out of the side, and it was actually very adjustable and made for comfortable meal service.
Meal service started fairly quickly, and the choice of beverage and snack bag was served first, followed by the meal on trays. I had just gotten accustomed to no more trays in Business Class meal service, but here it was. I suppose to match the antiquated plane?
We were served a second meal about 90 minutes before landing, and it was a strange choice of a pork and pear sandwich or a mushroom sandwich. It was not good!
The flight was pretty calm with little turbulence, but certainly the most uncomfortable seat I have ever seen in my flying over 10 different airlines’ international business class. I would never book this plane again and wish it were more descriptive in its online seating configurations. British Airways system of charging for seats even in Business Class is shameful and should not be allowed. I feel this also makes you less likely to figure out the seating configuration and determine which is the best option.
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