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Good food, good leg room – what I found flying British Airways from London City Airport

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For the first time in quite a long time we flew out of London City Airport last Friday.

Before I continue, I should say that only a fool should try to fly out of City at peak hours on a Friday night.  Trying to do it when most flights are delayed due to bad weather across Europe is positively certifiable.  The terminal was like a refugee centre for people fleeing from persecution in the banks of Canary Wharf.

British Airways BA London City Airport

As there is no lounge at London City, I also had to reaquaint myself with the joys of airport catering.  In the case of City, this goes beyond your standard price gouging as very few passengers are spending their own money – I don’t think I have ever paid £4 for a takeway yoghurt before.

There are, however, some good reasons to fly British Airways from City.  There are even some reasons to book Club Europe if there are no Euro Traveller Avios seats available:

Reason 1: leg room

Following the reconfiguration of the British Airways short-haul fleet at Heathrow and Gatwick, there is now substantially better legroom on the new Embraer 190 fleet out of City.

I accept that the photo below does not look hugely generous.  However, you need to remember that I am 6’2′ and there is still space between my knees and the magazine pocket.  I simply cannot sit like this on a BA short haul flight now except in Row 1 or an emergency exit row:

City1

Reason 2: good food

Take a look at this plate of sausages, beans, mash, salad and cake.  Fancy that?  Tough, you can’t.   This is what you get on London City Club Europe as the kids meal!

City2

Out of Heathrow or Gatwick in Club Europe, kids get a sandwich, a bag of Mini Chedders and a pack of M&M’s ….

Big people in Club Europe get a MENU (yes, a MENU, on a BA short haul flight) with a CHOICE (yes, a CHOICE) of HOT (yes, HOT) dishes.  On Friday night it was either :

honey and ginger chicken with bok choy and water chestnut rice (pictured below) or

line-caught roast fillet of sea bass with chateau potatoes, sugar snaps and lime butter

This was a flight to Switzerland which, out of Heathrow, would only have got me a ‘take it or leave it’ cold salad.

City3

You’ll note that Heidsieck Monopole champagne is also still alive and well on BA if you fly out of City.

Of course, BA has little choice but to spend a few £££ extra on the food in Club Europe.  After all, you don’t get anything else!  No lounge, no empty middle seat, no priority boarding (50%+ of the passengers have BA status so they can all board in the first group!), no extra overhead space (a side effect of not having the empty middle seat).  The only other benefit apart from from tier points and a handful of Avios is sitting at the front.

The reason we did it was that we had little choice.  The kids were in school on Friday so our flight options were restricted to whatever we could get in a small window of departures between 6pm and 7pm.  Any later than that and our 5-year old is liable to become unpredictable …..

Reason 3 (for a couple or family of 4):  2 x 2 seating throughout

The Embraer fleet is 2 x 2 seating throughout.  If you are on your own, this is a negative in Club Europe as you don’t benefit from the empty middle seat.   As there were four of us travelling it didn’t make much difference.

For a couple or a family of four, 2 x 2 down the back in Euro Traveller may well be preferable to 3 x 3 out of Heathrow or Gatwick.  You are guaranteed full rows to yourself.

So, what did I learn on Friday?

You should avoid City Airport on Friday nights if you can

British Airways is more than capable of serving good food, with menus and a choice of hot main courses, in Club Europe when it really wants to

You can still find acceptable leg room on BA short haul if you head to Newham

2 x 2 seating offers real benefits over 3 x 3 to certain customer groups

Bring your own yoghurt to eat in the terminal ……

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British Airways and Avios

Comments (79)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Rob says:
    23 Jun23 June 10:13

    Where have you been, Rob? Love the 190s – the last 34in economy seats left on BA….
    LCY looked crowded this week even early afternoon with no delays – Thursday/Friday evenings are often a nightmare. Trick for out of towners is to fly in to LCY and out of LHR – miss the crowds inbound, enjoy T5 lounges outbound….
    And the summer charters using BA 190s are a dream – Scotland direct to the Med in a small plane and decent seat. Long may they continue….

  • Danny says:
    23 Jun23 June 10:45

    LCY is one of my favourite airports, even on a Friday evening it still works wonder.
    I use it every 2-3 weeks to see my partner in the Netherlands for the past 5 years and the flights (majority with BA) are rarely late. If you can plan and book well in advance, you can often have return HBO fares for as low as £80. The convenience, quick and cheap DLR journeys mean you avoid all the costs and hassle of flying out of Gatwick and Heathrow.

  • Leo says:
    23 Jun23 June 10:53

    The food on Sun Air is even better – best plane breakfast I’d ever had, and the friendliest cabin crew too!

  • Anon2 says:
    23 Jun23 June 10:59

    I’m here now and echo Rob’s sentiments. A French ATC strike has added to the chaos. Anyone know of a nearby pub? £5.75 a pint is a bit steep.

  • Peter Taysum says:
    23 Jun23 June 12:00

    Thanks Rob,

    I love “our five year old is liable to become unpredictable…” Well done that’s not “all the time…” 🙂

    I’m in Madrid, in the lounge after a lovely shower awaiting return to LHR. My last time here was from GIG in November (£600 plus Avios thank you in BUS). This time after a “silent” retreat. The Cava and Chorizo (it was vegetarian alcohol free) are AMAZING…

    I’m day dreaming of HNL, I feel I need the “babybus” again.

    PS Another reason for the Iberia card, Avios on purchases in Duty Free at T4… 🙂

  • flyforfun says:
    23 Jun23 June 14:21

    I have a BA Amex PP 241 about to expire in a few weeks. Might blow it on ex LCY flight just for the weekend if I find availability.

    • Billy Buzzjet says:
      23 Jun23 June 20:02

      Hi Raffles.
      Perhaps you could do a feature on the new Club Europe i experienced on the Gatwick fleet this week. Row 1 now has plenty of leg room since BA have removed the bulk head and wardrobe in front so theres now nothing between you and the crew sitting in their jump seats opposite you. So now you truly do get to feel like part of the crew by practically sitting in the galley as the crew prepare service , other passengers treading on you as they board, no privacy, no seat pocket to put your lap top in , no over head storage above you, And this is a premium seat !! What are BA thinking ?!??

      • harry says:
        23 Jun23 June 20:13

        Sounds an improvement if you have long legs.

        • Billy Buzzjet says:
          23 Jun23 June 20:26

          I do . I’m 6’4 . I’m pretty sure no else will agree .

          • harry says:
            23 Jun23 June 20:36

            So basically you want to have a rant about the design of the plane? (Which you are not going to change or remotely influence.)

            Isn’t rants what FT does particularly well?

          • Billy Buzzjet says:
            23 Jun23 June 20:39

            yeah , yeah , whatever . i can’t even be bothered .

      • Rob says:
        23 Jun23 June 20:46

        I had that with easyJet when I flew from Southend a few weeks ago. Not had the joy of this from LGW yet though.

        • harry says:
          23 Jun23 June 20:55

          It’s fairly common on LCCs. Just keep your knees in or get on after the crowds if you don’t want to be bumped.

          The other bits such as nowhere in front of you to store stuff, ooh people can look at me: trade off for getting off first & loads of legroom.

          • Rob says:
            23 Jun23 June 23:43

            I always feel a but guilty when people walk past my 5 year old in F or J as they shuffle towards the back 🙂

          • Lady London says:
            24 Jun24 June 08:59

            you should.

            nearly as bad as those little three-year-olds on French ski slopes performing tumbles and Olympic manoeuvres and annoyingly NOT landing on their a$$…

      • barry cutters says:
        24 Jun24 June 02:06

        The new club seats with no bulkhead are loads better. If like me you are over 6 ft the bulkhead made the journey very restrictive. I always get on towards the end of boarding as I don’t really want to sit in the seat foe 20mins longer than I have to. That way i dont have to deal with 100people walking past me too. I totally disagree that this is a negative change

      • Ian says:
        24 Jun24 June 03:36

        I flew that too, was very old plane. Looked it up and it was on lease from TAM airlines I think it was…

      • Alan says:
        24 Jun24 June 11:18

        Sounds good to me for the increase legroom! I liked 1C in that you could stretch out but never a fan of the rest of row 1 due to the bulkhead.

  • Catman99 says:
    23 Jun23 June 14:26

    Hi a lot off-topic…….as some of you might remember I missed my cheap Qatar from Oslo as my Air Norwegian flight ended up being 7-8 hours late. Instead I jumped on a direct flight the next day to Bangkok. I understand that my outward flight would be cancelled in its entirety but have I also lost my return flight as well?

    This really is a nightmare!!!!

    • Rob says:
      23 Jun23 June 14:27

      Almost certainly yes

      • Ed says:
        23 Jun23 June 17:14

        Ouch. Ex-EU’s come with a health warning, though sounds like you’ve been hit pretty bad

      • Catman99 says:
        23 Jun23 June 17:41

        Hi Raffles an article on what to do in these sort of situations would be very helpful. These deals are spectacular when they go right but obviously they do go tits up sometimes and having some options ahead of time would save a lot of grief.

        What did other people do? Who pays for the mess….

        • Polly says:
          23 Jun23 June 17:51

          There really is nobody to sort this mess out but the pax. We did advise him to call the QR MAN centre to get his flight changed that day. When on a J ticket they are very accommodating, as we found out last year when we needed to change our return flight home. There was lots of support for him, but ultimately you got to be in that city the night before. It’s the only fail safe way to make it. Such a shame really . There’s always his travel insurance to claim on, perhaps, as his positioning flight was well delayed.
          We are going over to CPH and to OSL the night before, last flights in, just in case. Be it bad weather or whatever that could delay us.

          • Alan says:
            24 Jun24 June 11:05

            Agree, I always go out the night before – makes things much less stressful on the day and you can treat it as a mini-citybreak!

        • Rob says:
          23 Jun23 June 18:58

          My feeling is he should have gone to Oslo and asked QR to send him the next day. Very likely they would have agreed if he was there in person in the terminal looking helpless.

          However, insurers know return is cancelled if outbound missed so if he is covered it should be fine.

          Plan B would have been to approach Qatar at Heathrow and get on a London service. It would cost Qatar nothing (well, APD) so they might have done it.

          • Catman99 says:
            24 Jun24 June 01:44

            Thanks Raffles

            I called Qatar Airways but because there was less than 3 hours to go, they said there was nothing they could do to change my flight. But maybe I was just unlucky and didn’t get someone helpful. Unfortunately I was in Gatwick so no QA desks to ask in person, although I could have tried the next day.

            I also rang my insurers but neither they or Qatar mentioned anything about my return flights also being cancelled. I can’t really see the logic of that myself.

            If it happens again, I will try the throwing myself at the mercy of Air Qatar in Oslo. I certainly don’t advise trying to leave Gatwick due to all the security obstructions they put in your way – you can’t just leave the airport from the Departures Hall. You have to wait until someone comes to collect you to take you through a staff exit. Then Immigration where you can’t even use the eGates as you didn’t arrive on a plane.

            It was the 1st time I have ever missed a flight so a new experience for me plus you are tired and hungry from waiting around at the airport all day.

        • James67 says:
          23 Jun23 June 20:40

          Only common sense is needed; adequate travel insurance, ideally a short break or overnight in city of departure if possible, and preferably HBO which is now even more important given interline restrictions on OW.

          • barry cutters says:
            24 Jun24 June 02:08

            Agreed

          • Catman99 says:
            24 Jun24 June 06:37

            The funny thing about common sense is that it isn’t very common….I am blessed in that I have uncommon sense!!!

  • AndyR says:
    23 Jun23 June 15:41

    Sorry for OT – do HMRC charge a fee to pay your tax with the Supercard or do I remember reading that it treats it as a debit card? Thanks.

    • TimS says:
      23 Jun23 June 16:13

      I think that was the case with the pilot version of the Supercard.

      It hasn’t been put to the test with the new Supercard yet as far as I am aware.

      • imbruce says:
        23 Jun23 June 17:03

        I had to pay a small bill of £229.93 to HMRC,to use the Curve card the charge was £4.65,to pay with Visa it was 95 pence, a big difference. When you are on the HMRC website after you have entered the amount of money you are paying you will then be asked to input the first 8 digits of your card it will then tell you the amount it will charge you for using that card.

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