New Club Europe meals: British Airways A320 Neo Club Europe Heathrow to Tenerife

I am sitting here typing this on in the return flight feeling like I went back in time 2 years ago… There are no masks, the paper menus are back, even the breadbasket is back! It’s been a long wait but finally, some normality is returning to air travel.

I will be covering the new British Airways Club Europe meals in an article soon, so if you have a photo of your Club Europe meal since Tuesday you’d be happy for me to include, send it to [email protected] If you’d like me to tag your social media or mention you by name, make sure you let me know.

London Heathrow to Tenerife

Today is the first day of BA’s new Club Europe menus. In past couple of years we went from a sandwich box to the school dinner era more recently. The most recent iteration seemed to consist of a starter of a tiny salad with half a cherry tomato, some sort of school dinner like sausage and mash or pie and a variety of desserts. So what is it like now?

Check-in

There was no Verifly for Tenerife although you were encouraged to upload the Spanish QR code and your vaccination certificate to do online check-in

I used the First Wing which is for Gold card holders and those in first where there was no queue at check in. The check-in agent was friendly and chatty which I usually find is the case in the First Wing. Security was also quiet at around 6.15 on a Monday morning.

This was the day before Heathrow removed its mask mandate so you still had to wear a mask, although there were a lot of people that were not.

Lounge

I walked through the First lounge to see what was available. I will be spending some time at Heathrow in a couple of weeks updating all my lounge reviews at T5, so I will go into more detail then.

The self-service drinks area is available again including a selection of re-mixed cocktails by Mr Lyan The Barton (gin-based), Manhattan (bourbon) and The Lawson (non-alcoholic)  and some espresso martini and margaritas in cans. Champagne, wine, spirits and beer were all available to help yourself to.

I headed to the Concorde Room for a quick bite of breakfast. It was good to see everyone’s favourite bartender Charlie working away behind the bar.

The Concorde Room menu was still the same with options such as a full English, eggs Benedict, smoked salmon with scrambled eggs or avocado toast with poached egg. I went for a few bits from the full English. The scrambled eggs tasted very bland but the rest was OK. I had a quick glass of Laurent Perrier Grand Siecle and some lovely earl grey tea with it.

Boarding

Boarding was from A11 and got delayed by around 15 -20 minutes. It’s always annoying when you leave the lounge only to find you could have sat there for another 20 minutes!

When it eventually started it was initially re-boards and then group one. This was a large group of people and they barely due breath before they announced group 2.

I was still handed one of the Dettol wipes as I boarded.

The cabin and seat

This was an A320neo which means that there are no middle table which seemed to confuse some passengers who sat in the middle seat in Club!

I had booked less than 24 hours before so was stuck with row 7. I had gambled on the seat next to me being emoty as the seat map was showing both A and C empty rather than going for row 12, the exit row. Sadly the second to last person that boarded came to claim the window seat.

Seats on the Neo are quite thin, particularly in economy. The flight was shorter than advertised at 3 hours 35 so it was just about OK for that length of time. But it was beginning to become uncomfortable by the end.

The seat felt wide and there was plenty of legroom for me.

Food and drink

Being a breakfast flight there was no drinks round before the food. The crew was good on this flight being proactive and friendly. There were no menu cards on this flight but the choices were:

• Full English (with bacon)
• Frittata
• Continental breakfast

There was also a warm croissant offered by hand.  As well as the main course there was a lovely berry bowl. The fruit in this was as good as you’d get in any fancy 5* hotel breakfast – sweet juicy ripe strawberries with raspberries and blueberries. There was also a bircher muesli which came with goji berries and toasted coconut. I found this could have done with being slightly sweeter even though I don’t have a sweet tooth. This definitely felt like a step up from before, although the continental was not that different – let’s face it, how much can you improve that? I heard several people that had the full English commenting how good it was with one family saying it was “the best breakfast we’ve had on British Airways in a long time”. I had a cheeky bucks fizz with mine as its still the Nicholas Feuilatte champagne which I am not a fan of.

It was also interesting that being in row 7, they still had all the choices left for breakfast by the time they got to me. The cabin crew member confirmed they were loading more of each option again.

A second round…