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How I (almost) recreated British Airways Club Europe business class on Vueling for £64

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I was in Gatwick’s South Terminal last Thursday reviewing the new My Lounge lounge as you may have seen on Monday.  I was on my way to Barcelona to do a review for Marriott which will run in a day or so.

Flying early in the morning from Gatwick South meant flying Vueling, BA’s low-cost Spanish sister airline, as the BA flights departed too late for my schedule.

Last year we tried to review Vueling’s Excellence business class service.  I say ‘tried’ because Anika’s flight was moved to a charter aircraft and she was downgraded.  Since then, Vueling has dropped Excellence and I wanted to see what had replaced it.

Vueling review

Last Summer I did a popular piece on trying to recreate the British Airways Club Europe experience on easyJet.  This seemed a good opportunity to try the same thing with Vueling.

What does it cost to recreate British Airways Club Europe on Vueling?

In the end, it came out at £64 for the one way trip to Barcelona.  You really can’t complain about that.

The base fare was just €32 (£29).  This came with a 10kg hand baggage allowance which was all I needed.  Unlike, say, Ryanair, at no point was my hand baggage weighed and at no point was I expected to fit it inside a measuring gauge.  The whole experience was very grown up.

I’m getting ahead of myself.  This is how I planned my ‘Club Europe lite’ trip.

The £64 cost broke down as:

€32 (£29) base fare – I will earn some Avios back in my Vueling Club account based on 4 Avios per €1, although this will be after some taxes are deducted

€18 (£16) additional payment for a Row 1 seat, which included Group 1 boarding

£15 payment for access to My Lounge at Gatwick South, which comes with use of the Priority Security lane – and I got 400 Virgin Flying Club miles back via this promotion 

€4 (£4) for a coffee and piece of cake on board – to be fair, I would have needed to spend €10 to get nearer to a Club Europe meal experience

This replicates, almost perfectly, the British Airways Club Europe package with the following exceptions:

DOWNSIDE – Vueling sells the middle seat (and it was sold on my flight); no wardrobes; no checked baggage allowance

UPSIDE – far wider food selection on Vueling than BA; seat selection is included in the prices I quoted; Row 1 is not restricted to elites (as long as you pay up) as it is on BA; boarding is via air bridges at Gatwick and Barcelona (unlike some low cost carriers)

Let’s look at how each part of the package performed in practice:

Priority security

Here is a handy tip.  Premium Security – bookable here – costs £5 per person at Gatwick South.  However, for £15 I booked myself access to the new My Lounge (reviewed here) via this Virgin Atlantic deal and this comes with premium security for free.

If you have a Priority Pass or other lounge access card, you can use the No 1 Lounge at Gatwick South.  This lounge is usually full at peak times, so you should reserve your No 1 Lounge visit for £5.  This £5 reservation payment also gets you access to Premium Security.

At 7.30am on a Thursday, Premium Security was TOTALLY empty.

The lounge

I wrote about My Lounge Gatwick South in my review yesterday.

It clearly isn’t the same scale as the British Airways lounges in Gatwick South which we reviewed here, which are arguably better than those at Heathrow but it did the job.

Subject to capacity I could also have used my Priority Pass (free with my Amex Platinum charge card) at No 1 Lounge Gatwick South, reviewed here.

Speedy Boarding

On British Airways I would have boarded in Group 1 as a Club Europe passenger.

Vueling also let me board in Group 1 as I paid €17.99 for a Row 1 seat.  Only about 5-6 people had Group 1 boarding.  This was VERY well policed by the Vueling staff who were throwing out people trying to sneak through.

On landing I was first off the plane and, as Vueling used a jet bridge, I was the first person at passport control.

Seating

Take a look at my Vueling leg room which is totally on a par, if not better, that BA Club Europe in the bulkhead.  You should also remember that you generally need to be BA Gold to book Row 1 in Club Europe whilst Vueling offers it to anyone who is willing to pay.

Vueling review Gatwick to Barcelona

You can’t complain about that.  I was in 1C.  On British Airways I target 1C or 1D.

Unlike some easyJet and BA aircraft, there was a bulkhead in front of Row 1.  It had a window in it, which was a novelty:

Vueling review Gatwick to Barcelona

The difference between BA and Vueling is that 1B was filled.  There was no fighting over the armrest, however, as the petite woman in 1B was leaning on her partner in 1A.  Due to the curve in the fuselage, 1A looked a bit tight although you obviously got a window.  I was very happy in 1C.

Here’s my handy tip:

All six seats in Row 1 were sold.  However, only one of the six seats in Row 2 was sold.   This is also an ‘extra leg room’ row but I think you pay less than €17.99.

Take a look – it is a decent amount of space:

Vueling review Gatwick to Barcelona

Food and drink

The upside of Vueling is that you get a far wider variety of food and drink than you would get on British Airways Club Europe.  It is not as good, but there is more choice.

There were no easyJet-style bacon sandwiches for breakfast from the Spanish, not surprisingly.  Options included a €4.50 ‘mini sandwich’, €6.50 for a club sandwich (€9.50 as a meal deal), €4 for coffee and a snack (Kit-Kat, piece of cake, waffle etc) etc.  The most interesting options were a meat-based tapas box and a pulled pork sandwich, both at €7.50, but I’d already had two breakfasts by this point – one in the Hilton Gatwick’s lounge and one in My Lounge.

For comparison, pictured below is the Club Europe meal I got from British Airways on my return flight.  In typical BA fashion, I was offered a choice of a salad or a different salad – and both were served with a side salad.  I’m not joking:

British Airways Club Europe meal from Barcelona

It was tasty though, so you’d need to buy one of the more premium Vueling options to get close to this quality.

Drink-wise, I was looking at €2.60 for a Nescafe instant cappuccino, €2.60 for tea, €2.60 for soft drinks, €3.60 for a can of San Miguel Especial, €5.60 for a quarter bottle of wine, €6 for 20cl of cava, €6 for spirits or €10 for a gin and tonic.

Conclusion

For under £65, I got:

  • Premium Security at Gatwick South
  • airport lounge access
  • a flight ticket to Barcelona with 10kg hand baggage allowance
  • Group 1 boarding
  • a front row seat
  • ….. and a coffee and a piece of cake

Arguably you should add another £7-£8 for a bottle of prosecco and one of the posher food options if you want to recreate Club Europe catering.

I earned back 400 Virgin Flying Club from my lounge booking and probably 50 Avios from Vueling.  Spookily for Vueling, the flight was on time too.

The next day I flew back on British Airways Club Europe in the same seat, 1C.  It was an Avios redemption which cost 15,000 Avios plus £25.  I had an empty middle seat and my meal was decent as you can see above.  It was obviously better than my DIY Vueling ‘business class’ package, but I would happily do Vueling again if I could get the same seat.

As I wrote when I did my easyJet piece last year, the low cost carrier experience does not need to be low quality if you, erm, spend more money so that it isn’t so low cost any longer …. but £64 is not exactly expensive for everything I got.

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Category

British Airways and Avios, Vueling and Vueling Club

Comments (115)

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

  • Judge says:
    16 Jan16 January 07:27

    Last time I flew Club Europe from UK I was asked for the first time ever on any airline in any class to put my second hand luggage item (which I have had for 10 years and is genuinely small) in to a gauge, during Group 1 boarding. Of course it fit with plenty room to spare, but I found it very irritating.

  • Leo says:
    16 Jan16 January 07:51

    Well I’m sort of with the pendants on this one Rob. For me the only benefit of shorthaul J is space and you aren’t replicating that. You might not have been so happy if I’d been in the middle seat rather than the petite woman leaning to the other side! That said a useful article as previously I have actively avoided Vueling but now it does seem that it is okay if you throw enough cash at it. I’ll look at them in future.

  • Tom says:
    16 Jan16 January 07:59

    As quite a few others have posted this article is a bit ill-thought-out, sorry Rob. You had no checked baggage allowance, someone sat next to you on the flight and would have had to pay extra €20 for a couple of G&Ts during the flight.

    • Chrisasaurus says:
      16 Jan16 January 08:42

      It was an early morning flight – if you’re wanting a couple of G&Ts then I’d say the £20 cost isn’t your main problem…

    • Rob says:
      16 Jan16 January 08:59

      Who takes a suitcase on a one night business trip? And who drinks at 9am?

      • Andrew says:
        16 Jan16 January 09:23

        Fair point but then the article should be titled ‘certain aspects of the CE experience can be added to Vueling flights reasonably cheaply at certain times of the day’. Not as sensationalist but a far more accurate description of what you’ve ended up writing.

        • Prins Polo says:
          16 Jan16 January 09:51

          +1

        • David says:
          16 Jan16 January 10:32

          Don’t ever bother applying for a headline-writing job Andrew…

        • Tom says:
          16 Jan16 January 14:40

          This is a ridiculous comment! I thought the article was brilliant and a great reminder that we don’t need to spend our lives chasing BA CW or status. It can be cheaper (and more enjoyable!) to spend time on other airlines…and as the budget airlines get better, and BA cut more costs, I think it’s important to keep reminding us about this choice.

          Bravo Rob!

      • C77 says:
        16 Jan16 January 10:37

        It depends what you’re carrying to the meeting. Regarding the alcoholic beverages some people would and do. They may not be driving the other end, not be attending a meeting immediately upon arrival or indeed have a strained and turbulent relationship issue with the sauce in question but ultimately its bundled in to the CE offering and there to partake in as much or as little as you see fit.

        • Dev says:
          16 Jan16 January 12:02

          I always check in a bag in CE, even for overnight trips. As I am one of those ‘lucky’ passengers to be given a seat in row 1, in my experience it is always a fight with fellow passengers in row 1, as well as other privileged BAEC members who board in Group 1 but don’t sit in CE, who utilise the space in the overhead compartments above rows 1 and 2 for their bags and I then have to put my briefcase in a space above one of the seats further down the cabin.

          It makes for another circus act during disembarkation to retrieve the briefcase as everyone pushes forward in a huge surge to leave the aircraft and not make way for a punter from row 1 trying to retrieve their briefcase from an overhead compartment further behind. 🙂

          Ah, la politesse est perdu!

      • Judge says:
        16 Jan16 January 13:32

        Well I would always have a little champagne no matter how early…

      • Anna says:
        16 Jan16 January 14:48

        If it’s champagne, me.

      • Lady London says:
        16 Jan16 January 18:38

        Who drinks at 9am? How about 4.30am? You’ve never been in the lounge at Stansted then?

        • Lady London says:
          16 Jan16 January 18:40

          Actually, come to think of it, I suspect you haven’t been in the Stansted lounge at 4.30am Rob… 🙂

      • Peter King says:
        17 Jan17 January 00:44

        “Who takes a suitcase on a one night business trip? And who drinks at 9am?”

        That’ll be me, and me.

        In my defence I usually travel via SAS Plus from MAN to Europe so I’ll be sober by the time I get to the destination city.

        As for baggage I’d rather wait 20 minutes in baggage reclaim at the destination than 20 minutes in a queue at MAN with a bag of toiletries.

  • Alan says:
    16 Jan16 January 08:15

    This is precisely why RFS from the regions has become pointless – for minimum 18k + £70 with BA that buys you a lot with the low cost carriers. For example with Easyjet buying an up front or extra legroom seat gets you an extra bag on board as well as priority boarding. On my Norwegian flight yesterday I got 3 seats to myself in emergency exit as other folks weren’t wanting to pay the small amount extra. As you say you just need to consider the cost of the overall package rather than get too hung up on how costs go up from the base fare.

  • Claire says:
    16 Jan16 January 08:22

    Does the 400 Virgin miles for MyLounge apply per booking or per person? Travelling with the family, so wondering if I should book me+2kids on one booking and husband on the other, so we’d get 400 each (if it’s per booking) or all on one account (if per person).
    Nice to see that kids are even cheaper at £12.
    I guess a 14yr old is an adult despite not being able to drink though.

  • FlyUpTop says:
    16 Jan16 January 08:25

    LGW – BCN in real BA CE for £159 in March via IB & not via BA which is £40 more for the same flights.

  • IanMac says:
    16 Jan16 January 09:24

    A very informative and useful article.
    Some nice tips to improve the low cost option
    I’m looking at a Lisbon / Madrid / Barcelona ‘outing’ in May June so now have a wider range of options to consider. Thanks

    • Barnaby100 says:
      16 Jan16 January 09:36

      Lisbon in CE you get to go in the Cathay lounge at Lhr as it is a t3 flight.

      • Genghis says:
        16 Jan16 January 09:40

        Barcelona too

      • IanMac says:
        16 Jan16 January 10:20

        BA or Veuling ?
        Would they recognise BAEC GGL if flying Econ ?
        (Trip would be UK to Lisbon then fly/train to Madrid then fly/train to Barcelona then return to UK – likely 6 days (3 concerts) with a small backpack …)

        • C77 says:
          16 Jan16 January 10:39

          Only if booked as a BA codeshare operated by Vueling. Not as a stand alone Vueling flight.

        • C77 says:
          16 Jan16 January 10:40

          Also only at Gatwick where there’s an actual.BA lounge. No lounge at LIS/BCN as these are operated by a third party.

        • Lumma says:
          16 Jan16 January 12:55

          There’s no lounge at all at Lisbon if flying one of the low cost airlines. Separate terminal for all the riff raff

          • Alan says:
            16 Jan16 January 15:11

            Damn, including Easyjet? Flying back with them in a couple of months as direct to EDI.

        • Lady London says:
          16 Jan16 January 18:43

          Personally I’d fly all those and not take the train.

          I did all of those train rides many years ago and they were slow and late. Or, perhaps those who’ve done those trains more recently can advise?

    • Concerto says:
      16 Jan16 January 09:54

      I thought Vueling was the most hated airline among frequent flyers. What a mess back in 2016. Totally avoided them since.

      • ChrisT says:
        16 Jan16 January 11:11

        They used to have terrible punctuality numbers which is one reason they were so hated. They’ve improved though, and the onboard service is as good as any similar airline.

  • Richard says:
    16 Jan16 January 09:52

    Some commenters are being unfairly snooty at rob for claimed inconsistencies to CE,but the snootiness should be reserved for BA, all the article does is demonstrate that if you are not after the tier points nor need a very large luggage allowance, that BA have just made their business class product pointless.

    • John says:
      16 Jan16 January 10:09

      But people keep paying for CE so from BA’s point of view they are doing something right. The CE section is always quite full on my flights even when the ET section is half empty, and I think I fly at a mixture of busy and quiet periods.

      • Alan says:
        16 Jan16 January 10:13

        Although quite a few of those (like me today and judging my the American accents quite a few others in the cabin) will be in CE by dint of connecting onto longhaul premium cabins rather than buying outright.

        • Braburn says:
          16 Jan16 January 10:29

          Criticism of rob is a little unfair. This could be very useful for people unfamiliar with vueling.

    • Andrew says:
      16 Jan16 January 10:27

      So your argument is ‘BA business class is pointless if you don’t need the things BA provide as part of their business class experience’? I can’t really disagree with that

    • C77 says:
      16 Jan16 January 10:52

      It’s not a case of being snooty. More about calling out inconsistencies in the article not matching up to the title. If I wanted a half baked comparison, I’d be reading the Daily Mail. I dont expect it on HfP and I think its important to call out the shortfalls. I find most articles here relatively balanced and unbiased which is why like to drop in and catch up most mornings. Articles are generally interesting and relevant to me. This piece of comparison journalism just isn’t unfortunately.

    • Leo says:
      16 Jan16 January 15:00

      “Snooty”??? Explain please. No-one is being unfair to Rob here – rather pointing out that the comparison itself is not really valid. I’ve already agreed that generally the review is very useful and may make me think again about using Vueling.

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