We have a guest post today from my friend, Michael! He just took a couple of fun flights around Europe and to Australia and has graciously supplied some pictures for the blog. The first of these trips was a weekend trip to Iceland. He flew British Airways Club Europe both ways. He has supplied pictures for the London to Reykjavik leg and for the Icelandair Business Class lounge at Reykjavik. Therefore, this review is going to be in a different order than usual. It will start with the plane flight and then end with the lounge, but the overall scoring structure will be as if these two parts were on the same leg.
Michael tends to arrive at the airport as late as possible and to directly board his plane. However, this time, he showed up a full 80 minutes before his flight because he needed to check 2 (two!) bags. He did stop by the BA lounge, but there was nothing of note to report, which is fair.
London to Reykjavik is considered a “short haul plus” or “medium haul” flight by British Airways. These flights are over 1 000 miles and are operated by standard narrow body aircraft but have slightly elevated service (usually) and used to earn additional tier points.
Michael selected seat 8C at check-in. It’s wild how variable the size of the Club Europe cabins can be. I’ve seen anywhere from 3 to 12 rows. He doesn’t have status with British Airways because most of his flights are booked last minute on points, which don’t earn tier credit.
Michael was unable to get a front row seat (I usually get the front row at booking, which has extra legroom), and his flight was on an A320neo, so he didn’t have the middle seat tray table. Therefore, his Club Europe experience was below par for this blog.
On this roughly 3-hour flight, they did offer tiny Club Europe menus, which is great fun!
The offerings were standard for British Airways’ Do&Co catering selection from London Heathrow, with a four-course meal. The starter, cheese course, and dessert were all the same, and the only choice was the main.
Their standard drinks selection was on offer, including a special BrewDog Christmas IPA. Service started shortly after takeoff.
Everything came served on a single tray. Michael selected the pasta and ordered a glass of champagne.
His appetizer was served cold but was refreshing and he found the mousse good but remarkably sweet. For Michael, the highlight of the meal was the cheese course, but the pasta did not disappoint.
Purely going off looks, I’d agree with his assessment. He was pleased with the overall meal experience and found the service to be very good overall.
On the way back, Michael was able to get a lounge visit in. The Icelandair Saga Lounge is, admittedly, far more interesting than another visit to a British Airways Club Lounge for this blog, so I can’t blame him for wanting to feature this one instead.
Michael again arrived uncharacteristically early for his flight because he again needed to check bags. He stayed in the lounge for over an hour. The lounge closes relatively early at about 6 pm, just before his flight started boarding. The BA flight was the last flight with passengers eligible to use that lounge that day, and it normally closes even early at 5 pm. Michael and I hypothesize that Icelandair’s heavily banked schedule, which facilitates connections between Europe and North America, is why the lounge closes so early.
The Icelandair lounge has a variety of seating options available both for different preferences and for groups of various sizes. Michael found the seats to be very comfortable.
There was plenty of room for him to charge his devices and recharge on the various cheese on offer before his flight.
He skipped on the (alcoholic) drinks, however.
In summary, Michael had a successful trip to Iceland that went about as smoothly as any of his trips go. The Icelandair lounge was good for an intra-European lounge (4/5). A non-bulkhead, no tray table Club Europe seat is at best par (3/5). Luckily the meal did not disappoint (4/5), and the service was very good as well (4/5). The IFE on the flight was just the standard messaging/WiFi for sale (2/5). Overall, this gives the flight a 17/25, which is to say that this flight was a typical BA intra-European flight.
Michael booked these flights with Avios and a Barclays upgrade voucher. His roundtrip price was 29 000 Avios + £25. Without the voucher, these flights would’ve cost 51 500 Avios + £25, so his upgrade voucher was worth 22 500 Avios, which is a decent value considering how easily he gets these vouchers.
Michael's travel blog 