June EuroTrip Part 3: Milan to London

On my way back from Milan, I had intentionally set up an overnight layover in London, since British Airways tickets let you take a free stopover in London.  This “stopover” was technically just a layover, however, because I stayed in London for less than 24 hours.  Specifically, this meant that I didn’t need to pay the UK departure taxes (which are over $200 in business class). 

I ended up getting to Milan Airport a bit earlier than intended and so was second in line for check-in when it opened, haha.  After clearing security, I proceeded to the British Airways lounge, which, interestingly, is in the Schengen area of the terminal. 

The lounge is very nicely appointed for an outstation lounge.  But that does make sense because BA does have a lot of flights to London from here, and it’s a big business destination.

The entire lounge, however, is just a single (but decently-sized) room.

Along the side was the coffee and pastries section.

In the middle of the lounge was the buffet area, which had some basic Italian food.

I opted to get a selection of the breakfast area and selected some pastries and fruit.

Then I got a mimosa to go with it.

Then I went back and tried the soup. It was fine.

When it was almost time to board, I exited the lounge to find the bathroom and refill my water bottle. I then cleared passport control.  The non-Schengen part of the airport was pretty small, with just a couple gates.  So, that does, at least, make some sense why the British Airways lounge was on the Schengen side.

Boarding started with Group 0, which was a new boarding group at the time for British Airways Gold Guest List status holders.  But it didn’t matter because it was a bus gate. Since there was nowhere interesting to sit around the gate, I ‘boarded’ early.

As much as I hate bus gates, I do really like walking up to planes. It was also very easy for me to find my seat: 1D.

This seat was typical for an intra-European business class product: an economy seat with a blocked middle seat. And since this was a standard A319 and not a neo (not that BA has any A319neos in its fleet currently), I had a tray table in the middle!

I also remembered that 1D is slightly better than 1C if you’re boarding early because of the way the aisle is set up (you get bumped less as people walk by).

Shortly after takeoff, the inflight service began. First, they came around and took drink orders; I ordered a gin & tonic, as I often do on British Airways. The meal service was their afternoon tea service. On the one hand, afternoon tea is not exactly a substantial meal, but on the other hand, it’s extremely British and appropriate for an afternoon flight between mealtimes. So I can’t really complain.

A scone, three tiny sandwiches, a dessert (and tea if you want) is just perfect for the BA brand and for a 90 minute flight. I wasn’t a big fan of salmon sandwich, but that’s not an uncommon experience for afternoon tea for me.

Shortly after the meal service finished, they came through and did a second drinks service. Since the flight was only 90 minutes, I was impressed they managed to do two drinks services and a meal service before having to prepare the cabin for landing.

In summary, this short-haul intra-European Business class flight was good.  The ground experience in Milan was fine; the lounge was good for a European outstation (3/5). This seat was standard for Europe, but I do appreciate the tray table and extra legroom in row 1 (4/5).  The service on this flight was good, but nothing special (4/5).  The afternoon tea dining concept was great for a short flight between meal times, and I appreciated that we got a good sampling of sandwiches (4/5). The in-flight entertainment was standard; BA now offers free messaging onboard, which is starting to become the median in Europe (3/5).

I booked this flight as part of an American Airlines ticket from Milan to New York and then back from San Francisco to Spain (via London). Apparently the pro-rated cost of this flight was around $150. Therefore, it earned me 40 BA tier points and 885 Avios. I also earned 600 Bilt points, for a total points return of around 15%, which is standard now.