British Airways NEW Shorthaul Seats | Ibiza ✈ Heathrow BA EuroTraveller Reviewed

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• published: 09 Oct 2014
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BA are rapidly rolling-out a new shorthaul product in both EuroTraveller (economy class) and Club Europe (business class), with slimline seats, mood lighting and – most controversially – reductions in legroom. British Airways have increased service to Ibiza significantly in recent years – and whilst I won’t bore you by telling you about the days when we had to fly to Majorca to complete immigration before flying on Ibiza – the difference in frequency to just 2010 is a big improvement. There’s service to all 3 major London airports at a variety of flight times, including one in the early hours to cater for the party animals! We were taking a much more sedate service from the island, leaving at 3pm to fly direct to British Airways’ main hub of London Heathrow. There was a good-sized queue to check-in even 60 minutes before departure, but we were able to use the premium desk which took just a few minutes. Despite all these flights, BA doesn’t provide any lounge access at the airport so we had to reach in to our pocket to get some drinks and a sit down at the ‘lounge club’, located very close to the BA gate. Onboard, things looked good – the refurbished cabin and new seats were impressive. There were some downsides though – BA have taken out air vents above some of the rows, so we were uncomfortably hot until we took off. Leg room was very poor for anyone used to the 34” BA used to provide at the front of these plans – the seats are now 30” apart, regardless of if you’re in business or economy. Once we took off, there was an announcement that the bars were nearly empty as “most of the drinks were consumed on the outbound service to Ibiza”. Despite being in the first row and having shiny cards we couldn’t get the drinks of our choice and made do with some wine. The friendly server asked us to complain to BA, and the Purser later also made a cabin-wide announcement asking people to write in to the airline as “BA doesn’t listen to us crew”. Very professional! The new cabin was in great condition as you’d expect, but our seat pockets were filled with trash from the previous occupants. Either BA isn’t cleaning / checking its planes down route, or they’re not doing a good job. Not the biggest deal in the world, but something that stuck in my mind as I compared them with Norwegian. The legroom seemed awful in business, and the fact that your seat is now no wider than economy makes it a tough sell. The middle seat converts in to a table, but I think most people would be much better off buying economy seats and sitting in the exit row (which has the most legroom out of any seats on the plane). This British Airways video features music 'Son of a Rocket' by Kevin Macleod.