BA drops Tel Aviv to short haul (A320) with reduced tier points – and will fly via Larnaca

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• John Atkinson says:

  9 Feb9 February 11:05

  Club Europe is pretty pathetic for really short flights coz all you’re really getting is an Economy seat. To use such equipment for such lengthy routes is grim. Twould be a bit better if 2+2 proper Business seats were fitted. And to downgrade the tier points is to add insult to injury.

  • Rob says:

    9 Feb9 February 11:06

    I always assume people who say that have never sat in an Economy seat (behind the exit row) where the seat pitch is actually 2 inches less, the seats are different (the ‘no padding’ thin ones) and you’ve got a seatmate. Do that for four hours and tell me you don’t spot the difference with CE.

    • George says:

      9 Feb9 February 12:51

      Four hours isn’t a “really short” flight though as per the original comment.

      I’ve done both and wouldn’t pay for the difference in cash (reward flights I would obvs)

    • Ken says:

      9 Feb9 February 14:36

      I didn’t realise the seat pitch for BA Club Europe was any different to economy on the A320.

      Never feels any different.

      • Thegasman says:

        9 Feb9 February 14:43

        Only on the refurbed planes & neos.

      • Rob says:

        9 Feb9 February 15:43

        It is different behind the emergency exit. Any economy seats before the exits have the same pitch, but of course CE can go back the full 12 rows.

      • Londonsteve says:

        9 Feb9 February 18:55

        If you only ever fly CE and use status to book economy seats before the emergency exit row, you won’t notice any difference because there isn’t any. The seats behind the exit rows are considerably tighter and best avoided, especially on a longer flight where after 4 hours in the air they’ll push you to the edge of reason. Worst flight of my life was 4.5 hours back from Turkey to Gatwick towards the rear of an A320. I was ready to kiss the tarmac on arriving at LGW in the middle of the night.

• Alex G says:

  9 Feb9 February 11:18

  False assumption. Sitting in economy with someone next to you is perhaps marginally worse than Club Europe. Nevertheless, Club Europe is grim. And I’ve done both. Many times. If a European airline offered a proper business class – like Domestic First in the US – I would fly more. I avoid flying to Europe unless it is absolutely necessary because the flights are so uncomfortable. I would rather take the train, or take the ferry and drive.

  My last Club Europe flight triggered my sciatica. And probably because the economy seats are thinner, my knees touch the seat in front equally regardless of where in the plane I am sitting. Sharing an adjacent empty seat does not lead to an acceptable level of comfort for me. YMMV.

  • Rob says:

    9 Feb9 February 11:26

    The key is to be Gold and always book well in advance, securing Row 1. I’d say that 90% of our family leisure flights end up with us in 1A/C/D/F (we’re doing this tomorrow for half term) and it’s perfectly fine.

    I’m less of a fan of Row 2 I admit.

    • Alex G says:

      9 Feb9 February 11:30

      It was sitting in row 1 that triggered my sciatica.

      • MKCol says:

        9 Feb9 February 12:33

        Why didn’t you sit in the exit row?

    • Londonsteve says:

      9 Feb9 February 18:57

      SZG? Happy hols!

• Ernesto says:

  9 Feb9 February 11:33

  If so, no more BA will be used by me, and I travel all the time.
  Is an insult and a very bad service desition
  Bye bye BA

• Mikeact says:

  9 Feb9 February 11:40

  @Ernesto. No problem, I guess BA will still carry around 20Million+ customers this year.

  • Alex G says:

    9 Feb9 February 11:50

    And I guess RyanAir will still carry 169 million. There are plenty of people who are prepared to tolerate discomfort and poor service to save a few quid. “Cheap flights, cheap flights, I think you must agree, That only fecking gobshites think there’s flights for 50p”

    But I don’t see the sense in IAG using the BA branding – which is still seen by many as a prestigious company – to compete against the Low Cost Carriers.

• kevin says:

  9 Feb9 February 11:58

  It all depends on how much each person values the differences vs the difference in price. I like Alex, have sciatica so I try to do short 1hr or 1.5hr hops to Europe. If CE is a reasonable price I am happy to pay for the extra 2 inches. Oh. As an actress said to a bishop!

• lumma says:

  9 Feb9 February 12:20

  For someone without Silver or above status, Club Europe can be a decent upgrade, depending on the departure, for lounge access, fast track, premium check-in.

  However, once you hit Silver, it seems like your paying double avios or up to 4x cash fare for some mediocre food, drinks and to have no-one in the middle seat. Unless you can pick row 1, you might as well sit in an exit row in economy and buy a meal deal from WH Smith

• MKCol says:

  9 Feb9 February 12:38

  The comments section is almost getting better than the article itself.

  • Lady London says:

    9 Feb9 February 12:46

    As it usually is 🙂

    I’ll refrain from commenting about the recent Daily Mail fiasco which for me did not sit right.

    • MKCol says:

      9 Feb9 February 13:49

      Oh I’ve missed this fiasco 👀

    • cin3 says:

      9 Feb9 February 14:24

      What fiasco?

      • Rob says:

        9 Feb9 February 14:35

        No fiasco. The Daily Mail offered to do an online article on our awards, so we let them. End of story. Huge amounts of good PR for everyone concerned on the UK’s 12th biggest website. Seems like a good deal to me.

    • Lady London says:

      10 Feb10 February 00:11

      OK I’ll bite.

      Fair enough except those who completed the survey wondered…

      Tuesday 30th January – Awards from the survey of HfP readers are presented at the Awards Dinner with the great and good in attendance.

      Thursday February 1st 2 days later – Award results published in the Daily Mail. Nowhere else.

      Monday 5th February 6 days later – Photos and name checks of the industry dinner attendees appear on HfP. No actual list of who won the awards.

      Wednesday 7th February 8 days later, 6 days after the Daily Mail published it, an excellent article on HfP finally telling us who won the awards.

      Excellent achievements but to wait 7/8 days after the actual Awards dinner was awfully long especially as the results had been in the Daily Mail, but still not on HfP, 5/6 days earlier than HfP readers saw them.

      A bit like debentures at Wimbledon? 🙂 sold off to the great and good, but fans of the sport still find it hard to get tickets 🙂

      • Rob says:

        10 Feb10 February 05:33

        Centre Court Debentures are back next month. Probably £160k for a pair covering 5 years. Should yield 8% if you sell them all.

• Tracey says:

  9 Feb9 February 13:26

  If LHR-TLV doesn’t become a reward saver route, the extra stop in LCA makes it worth considering a LHR-LCA reward flight plus a cheap LCA-TLV with another airline. Summer 2022 I flew LHR-TLV, TLV-LCA, LCA-LHR as I needed to be in Cyprus for a few days after a holiday, the return flight was £50 with CyprusAir plus 50p+ Avios with BA.

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

    9 Feb9 February 16:09

    BA won’t be selling LHR-LCA on these flights though.

    • Tracey says:

      9 Feb9 February 17:20

      But if you are stopping in LCA anyway, the idea of paying £180+Avios for LHR-TLV with BA vs LHR-LCA on BA for £1+Avios plus a £50 cheap flight LCA-TLV from another airline is attractive.

      • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

        9 Feb9 February 17:43

        They are stopping for 45 minutes to change the crew only.

        They won’t be selling LHR-LCA tickets full stop.

        • Tracey says:

          9 Feb9 February 23:21

          They do sell LHR-LCA, just not on the flight that goes on to TLV. So you could go the cheaper way by booking one of those flights.

    • Jonathan says:

      9 Feb9 February 18:15

      How do we (or you) know that faith freedom rights ?

      • Jonathan says:

        9 Feb9 February 18:16

        *fifth

        damn auto spell corrector !

        • Nick says:

          9 Feb9 February 22:17

          Let’s clear up a myth. These will NOT be sold to pax stopping in LCA, and they will not be selling standalone LCA-TLV tickets. It’s an old-school single flight with a ‘tech stop’ (crew change and/or refuelling). For this reason they’ll also attract the full APD, not the reduced shorthaul one. The location of the tech stop is non-contractual and could be changed with no liability to passengers. Fun fact, Ethiopian recently did exactly this on their ADD-US flights, changing their tech stop from DUB to FCO.

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