Back in the days when I was flying all over the world for work, this was in the period of about 2015 to 2019, more often than not, I found myself in the Premium Economy cabin on a British Airways plane. The airline because I was based in London and BA flew to all the destinations I needed. In Premium Economy because that’s the highest cabin my company would allow me to pay for. They would prefer I arrived a day early in a new time zone than fly business, as it was far cheaper to pay my expense than pay the fair difference. I didn’t mind either, I quite like Premium Economy, and I’d often either upgrade myself with points or I’d get upgraded to business automatically when the flight was full. And of course, if I was only in economy the chances are I’d only get upgraded to premium, not business.
What’s so good about Premium Economy?
Back in the pre-pandemic days, Premium Economy was often sold at a good price, more than economy, but significantly less than business. For your money you would get a much bigger and nicer seat in a smaller cabin area. This seat is wider and came with an incredible recline, which really helped with sleep, loads of leg room and a footrest. The service was better too, you’d get a pre-fight drink, usually including sparkling wine, a hot towel and at least one meal from the business class menu. There were even a snack basket and drinks available for self-service at the nearest galley, on some aircraft and routes.
All in all, I always though the Premium Economy product on most airlines was the best of both worlds, good value for money and a comfy way to fly, (if you can’t afford a business seat that is).
What is it like today?
I flew to the USA for my honeymoon (Sept 2022), I booked with BA, outbound London to Chicago and return San Diego to London, all in Premium Economy. This was an open jaw ticket, allowing us to travel in America, see my article about that here.
I know your first question is going to be “why didn’t you fly business for your honeymoon?”. The main reason is we couldn’t afford it, weddings are expensive! And the prices in post pandemic times were far too high.
The outbound flight was a daytime flight on an A380, the return was an overnight flight on an A350, two of my favourite aircraft.
London to Chicago
We arrived nice and early for our 10:30 departure, checked in nice and quick through the business class check-in area, using my BA Silver status for both of us (I had lost gold during the pandemic). We then headed to fast-track security, another benefit of Silver and we were quickly through to departures. After that my partner wanted to buy some essentials and a book before we headed to the lounge. At Terminal 5 you have a choice of three BA lounges, North, South and B-gates. Again, as a silver member I get myself plus one guest access to the business class lounge. On a busy Monday morning the B-gates lounge is by far the quietest and the best lounge to go to if you are departing from B or C-gates. If you are leaving from A-gates don’t go there, getting back can be annoying as you have to walk through the tunnels. We were leaving from C-gates, so we headed down to the little train out to the B-gates building. One question I get a lot is “If I’m going to C-gates, can I stop at the B-gates lounge?”. The short answer is yes, you just pop back down to the train and reboard to the final stop.
The lounge had by then returned to the pre-pandemic service of self-serve food, rather than ordering at your seat, which I think is a shame, but I suppose it was not sustainable. There’s a small selection of hot and cold breakfast foods out and the usual soft and hard drinks, including sparkling wine. We whiled away our time there until it was time to board. Then headed back to the train to head to C-gates for our departure.
One of the reasons I really like Premium Economy on BA’s A380 is the cabin is entirely upstairs. The lower deck has First, Business and Economy, whilst the upper has Business, Premium and Economy. I much prefer the upper deck on an A380, it’s quieter, feels more intimate as its smaller and if you choose a window seat you get storage bins beside you. We boarded in Group 2, our final Silver perk and headed straight to my favourite choice of seats, left side window and aisle seats, second row from the front. I like a window seat, my partner likes the aisle seat and the reason for second row is the first row is a bulkhead seat. This means your screen is in your arm rest, meaning you can’t use it during take-off and landing, and you don’t always get a footrest in front of you.
Upon boarding we did get offered a drink, but orange or water, no sparkling wine. The crew seemed to be one step behind for the whole flight. From the surprise of doing a manual safety demo, to service food where the trolley was not stocked correctly. The food was ok, my chicken tikka masala was clearly cooked chicken with a sauce on it, as the chicken wasn’t all covered. As a day flight I watched a lot of films, snoozed for a bit and we were offered occasional drinks during the flight. I was somewhat disappointed with the food offering at the end of the flight, it was a drink and small warm pastry, given we’d been flying for 8 hours, and lunch was a good 5 hours ago we were ready for dinner. We landed on time into Chicago and headed to immigration.
I went on ahead to get our bags, as I have Global entry allowing me fast entry into the US, while my partner went through normal immigration. Turned out to be a waste of time as the bags took ages to arrive. When they did it was to a belt that was nowhere near big enough to handle and entire A380’s worth, so they staggered the arrival of the bags. Unfortunately, the system of giving some customers priority baggage rarely works. Our bags had been marked priority due to my status, but they arrived almost last. By this time, we were starving, and our honeymoon started with a quick McDonald’s in the arrival’s hall of Chicago airport!
San Diego to London
After an amazing honeymoon, which included a beautiful 55-hour train ride through the Rockies, a stunning 2 day drive down the pacific coast and finally a short train trip to our final destination, we were ready for our flight home. San Diego is a great city for the plane spotter, the airport is right in the heart of the city, sitting on reclaimed land right in the bay. You frequently get approaching aircraft flying low over the city.
When it was eventually time to head home, we headed to the airport that we’d been passing on trams for the past three days. We arrived in good time, checked in at the dedicated priority desk for British Airways, but were then informed that the lounge at San Diego airport is a third party partner lounge, i.e. not run by British Airways or a One World airline, and they may not honour the rule of allowing me to take a guest in. They suggested we tried anyway so we did. We headed to security, which did offer a fast-track option, although it was so quiet it made no difference. Once through we looked for the location of the lounge.
The lounge at San Diego for One World customers is the Aspire lounge. Unfortunately, it was located in the exact opposite direction to our gate, luckily, we clocked this early on and made sure we left plenty of time to get back to our gate afterwards. There was no issue with me bringing a guest in and we headed inside. The lounge was pretty small, I know the airport doesn’t have many major international flights, but with a mixture of American Airline flights, Japan Airlines, and British Airways it meant the lounge was quite full. There was a light selection of food, all cold. Tea’s, coffees and a very small self-service bar. Since our flight was an overnight flight and we’d been out all day in the hot sun, I wanted to shower and change before the flight. After a quick search around the toilet area, I found a combined toilet shower wet room that was empty, I asked the staff and they said that it was bookable, and nobody had booked it. So, I booked myself in, they just wanted to clean it quickly before I went in. They provided towels and basic toiletries, and there was plenty of space inside. After a refreshing shower, I grabbed a snack and a drink, and we played cards while we waited for our flight.
The flight itself was on the new A350, but BA had cancelled the flight the day before, the one we originally booked on. They did this a good six months ago, but I suspect many of the people booked on that, like us, were moved onto this flight, so it was completely full. Boarding went smoothly and we were soon sitting in our seats. Again, we’re in premium economy and in my favourite location, left hand side 2nd row back. Given this was the new A350 it also had a slightly newer design of premium economy seat. The screen in front was definitely newer and more responsive, and the seat itself came with a leg rest that comes up from underneath your seat, the outbound flight didn’t have this. The only issue being that my partners screen did not work, it took 3 different types of reset to get it working, but we got there in the end.
The service on the flight was again just lacklustre. No sparkling wine before take-off, no hot towel, dinner eventually arrived, but again the trolley was not so well organised. After dinner we managed to get some sleep.
We were woken for breakfast 2 hours before landing. This was at least a hot breakfast, offering full English. When I asked for orange juice it seemed like it hadn’t occurred to them that people would like orange juice with breakfast.
All in all, a fairly unremarkable flight. After landing we were walking to passport control and my partner commented “It’s very hit a miss with BA these days isn’t, the service seems very inconsistent”. This coming from someone who really doesn’t share my passion for flying and generally doesn’t notice these things, I think is very telling.
Bottom Line
I can’t quite put my finger on it, but there was definitely something missing from the flight experience with BA in both directions. They have certainly lost their attention to detail and the sense of customer service being their top priority. Maybe flying might not return to what it was in pre-pandemic times, but I am certain that other airlines are offering a much better product for your money, and I hope that BA will take notice and keep working on improving. Yes, the new seats in most of their planes are nice, but it takes more than a good seat to make a great flight.
