Clubbing at 35,000 feet? A review of British Airways' 777-200ER Club Suite

We definitely lucked out on this trip. Not only did we get to experience the excellent Singapore Airlines A350 Business Class on our long trip home, the date coincided with British Airways running their widebody fleet to several European destinations providing a much better Business Class experience than usual. Even better than that, the aircraft equipment changed last minute to the newest Club Suite seat launched just a couple of years ago! Great review content 😉

And no…this flight was not from Heathrow to Heathrow as the in-flight entertainment liked to suggest…it was Rome to Heathrow.

Before the flight

As I’ve noted before, document checks are a reality during Covid. They’re here to protect you and fellow travellers ensuring you are vaccinated or tested prior to your journey. My frustration however comes from airlines that insist on physical checks at a check-in desk - it’s simply not necessary. British Airways, at least on some flights, are offering digital document checks by uploading your vaccination certificate to BA.com 24 hours prior to your journey. There could be improvements, such as better explanation on the process, but it worked - and we were able to get our boarding pass digitally, which was crucial for our journey to ensure we could connect between both our flights.

Connecting flights at Rome FCO Airport

I was expecting this to be a difficult process but it was in fact a breeze. Our bags had been checked through to British Airways from Singapore Airlines at check in whilst at Copenhagen Airport. Thanks to the digital document checks, we could easily go through the Schengen Border Check and head straight to our gate - which was necessary due to our inbound flight to Rome being late running. 

Lounge access

Whilst we were travelling, British Airways’ Rome Lounge was closed, however it has recently reopened since our journey. It seems to have been refurbished since Covid and looks pretty nice for a British Airways Lounge. 

Although it would have been good to visit and review this lounge, I would always rather take a better seat during the flight than lounge access - particularly considering the short layover we had.

Boarding process

Here’s where things got a little bit messy - and I don’t blame the airport staff for this. There was a requirement by the Italian Authorities to complete a paper-based document to leave the country with all our passport details on. We couldn’t board without it so we filled it out, and then passed it over without it being checked. Completely pointless and makes a sham of the document verification process.

Cabin feel

The decor of the British Airways Club Suite is quite cold and plain with splashes of monotone colours. It’s nice and modern, but does lack character, with the Singapore Airlines A350 business class far classier and impressive in person.

The seat

I have travelled on the old British Airways Club World seat for a similar length 2.5 hour flight which is quite decent for this length of flight - but it is not as good as what other international airlines provide. Club Suite is a response to this changing competition. What makes this seat a ‘suite’? The door which provides extra privacy whilst at your seat. This is very much inspired by the likes of Qatar Airways’ QSuite, but a step or two down. 

The interior of the Club Suite is covered in a rough, scratchy material which doesn’t scream premium - but I assume it is quite durable. The door itself is not particularly high and one can easily see over it when sat upright. 

In addition to the actual door, there is a privacy divider between the two central seats - in case, like me, the person in the next seat was not travelling with you.

The seat itself transforms into bed, as you would expect, and is pretty comfortable. Despite the door height not being particularly high, you cannot see over the door when in lie flat mode making it extremely private and relaxing. It also acts to block some noise out because you are effectively cocooned in your own little utopia above the clouds. The Club Suite also has a three-point seatbelt, versus one with an airbag, which is far more comfortable for passengers. 

Adjustments to the seat, as well as the light switch, are done via a little control panel to the left of the seat.

The cubby hole where you fit your feet is a little tight, as it is on every airline that uses this seat, and is somewhere that the old seat with no feet height restriction excelled far more. Similar to Singapore Airlines A350, you’ll probably need to take your shoes off to get comfortable here - and I am only a UK size 8!

I didn’t use my laptop on this flight, but I did use my tablet (similarly sized to the iPad Pro latest generation) and it was a great place to work from. The tray table was sturdy with little flex whilst the ability to adjust the seat made this the perfect workstation…now if I only there was an HDMI port for an secondary display!

Storage is particularly excellent in this seat. Besides the large overhead bins, there’s several pop-open storage compartments that can hold valuables as well as charge electrical items safely.

In-flight entertainment and WiFi

Comparatively to a regular European flight, this journey was excellent. European flights with aircraft that have in-flight entertainment (IFE) can be a bit hit and miss as the airlines do not always pay for the rights to show programming on these flights - since they are usually operated by flights that do not have IFE. Despite the system being locked until after takeoff, it was turned on shortly afterwards in which we got access to the excellent new .air IFE system. Compared to the old Club World, this system is very well designed, extremely responsive, has a touchscreen and remote (unlike Singapore Airlines) alongside an excellent selection of films. This is an excellent quality system regardless of whether you take this flight on a short or long haul journey. 

The aircraft was also equipped with WiFi - it was of average quality (5 Mbps) but fast enough to use Google Docs and a few web searches online. Pricing on these routes are decent too since they are based on per-hour (GBP 4.99) or whole-flight pricing (GBP 7.99), as opposed to data allowance, which is far more preferable. 

Food and drink

The food on this flight was good - not great but certainly better than Singapore Airlines. No menu was provided but the options were a Chicken Pie or Vegetarian Ravioli. I opted for the Ravioli and really enjoyed it. The portion could have been a little larger but it was more than enough for this two hour flight. 

Drinks were average and it would certainly be great for British Airways to invest in proper espresso machines on their aircraft. These are offered by the likes of Singapore, Qatar and Emirates but really elevate the quality of the coffee on-board which has traditionally been very poor. Sparkling wine and other alcohol options, including British Airways’ special Brewdog beer, were available. 

Cabin crew, amenities and toilets

Amenities on this flight were limited to The White Company soap and moisturiser in the toilets - nothing else is provided on this flight and is akin to service on a regular European flight. The toilets really show the age of this aircraft, over say an A350, since they’re pretty cramped and just look dated with yellowing plastics. Thanks to the newer seats, these are one of the only things that would suggest you are on an old aircraft.

As for the cabin crew, they were extremely pro-active and took a lot of care and attention with all guests. I did find being addressed as Mr Elsdon a little awkward but it came from a good place and they did all they could to make sure we were both comfortable on this journey. This journey definitely affirmed that British airlines such as BA do have a different working and slightly more relaxed working environment when compared to their Middle Eastern and Asian counterparts. 

Conclusion

This is quite a short journey, scheduled at around 2h30m, which does question whether or not you should pay the extra to travel on this flight. Myself - I would be happy to travel in Economy for this flight and only upgrade if a cheap upgrade was available. I was lucky in that happening but regardless of the cabin you are travelling in during a widebody flight for short haul routes. Experiencing this new seat was excellent and would make me a lot more willing to travel British Airways long haul over their competitors - although you are almost always better served travelling on a Middle Eastern or Asian airline. For this journey, you can’t fault it particularly for its value and how much better it is when compared to the usual aircraft that would ply this route day in, day out.

Another airline mirror selfie…