FLIGHT REVIEW: British Airways Club Europe from Corfu to London Heathrow

This article follows on from yesterday Corfu Imperial Hotel review (here).

The end of European holiday season is here which means lots more long haul flight reviews are lined up over autumn and winter, including Michele’s BA First Class A380 experience to Los Angeles, my Business Class flight with American Airlines to Miami and Dubai Business Class with British Airways. Plus, many more are in the works.

Corfu to London Heathrow

• Flight Number – BA655
• Travel Date – October 2024
• Aircraft Reg – G-TTNN
• Aircraft Type – Airbus A320neo
• Aircraft Age – 3 Years Old
• Cabin – Club Europe (Business Class)

Booking

As mentioned in our hotel review (here), we booked this flight very last minute and were surprised to find that it only cost us £500 each in Club Europe (return). Costs for CE have been terrible since Covid but I feel things are starting to soften a little. Long may they soften!

We added a hire car which cost £300 for a decent Audi Q3 for the week that meant we qualified for the double Tier Point promotion. Netting us all 320 tier points at £1.80 per Tier Point. Not bad at all.

Check-in & Security

As we had a hire car, we dropped this off just outside the terminal. It was nice and close although not as easy as the impressive Larnaca in Cyprus.

Getting to the terminal from the car hire drop off location with suitcases and a pushchair in Corfu is more akin to some sort of Navy Seal training. Up that kerb, down that kerb, over that rough bit of road, around that stranded taxi, and narrowly dodging a bus! We made it!

We arrived with just under two hours to go before our scheduled departure time with almost no queue. Just a couple of people in the Club Europe line. One of the check-in agents who was on the standard check-in side was proactive and moved some barriers for us to be seen by him. We don’t get that very often anymore! Usually, when the queue is shorter in standard check-in, we’ll just take that but after the obstacle course of getting into the terminal, our training was done for the day, so we chose the easy route.

Once checked in we proceeded to security which can be hit and miss here. Scanned in and sent down the fast-track line but not because we were in Club Europe but because we had a pushchair. I’ll take all the advantages I can get at this point.

We only had to wait a couple of minutes, and we were through security which was nice and quick compared to our previous visits to Corfu.

Airport and Lounge

In general, Corfu is not a great airport, and this was our fourth time flying from it and each visit has been average at best. Once through main security and into the terminal, it is always very busy with very few places to sit, and most shops and cafes have large queues.

British Airways doesn’t have a contract with the only lounge here, so we didn’t have access to one and didn’t fancy paying 50 euros each to visit the only other option.

Instead, we usually just head straight through the secondary security and find a seat at our gate. (Gate 2 for this flight)

Exit Security & Boarding

Almost immediately we spotted a huge queue snaking its way through the terminal. Katrina took position in the queue whilst I inspected what I had expected, that this queue was for security, and I was right. It was the longest queue I have seen here and looked like it would take a very long time to get through.

Luckily for us, after about 10 minutes of queuing, us along with another family behind who also had a pushchair was asked to join another queue, a much shorter queue. As mentioned above, I’ll take it!

We still took another 15 minutes to get through as they halted our queue to allow Ryanair passengers whose flight was about to close to go ahead of us. I heard from another passenger on my flight that it took around an hour from start to finish.

Due to the fog southern England was experiencing, we had a short delay of about 30 minutes. We were the lucky ones as prior to leaving our hotel I had spoken to other BA passengers on later flights who had a 4-hour delay and their daughter’s flight was cancelled altogether.

Once called we were scanned and walking to the aircraft in no time at all. Thankfully, with gate 2, we were able to walk from gate straight to the aircraft whereas earlier in the year we were bussed no more than 10 meters, which was the most ridiculous thing.

Up the steps at the front of the aircraft and straight to row 7 where we occupied 7A, 7C and 7D.

 Cabin & Departure

Being on a 3-year-old A320neo, meant we had no middle tray table in Club Europe. Usually, this would frustrate me however travelling with our toddler it actually makes things a little easier. Katrina and I sit in the A and C seats whilst we pop him in-between us in B. The crew are always ok with this, and it means we leave our 7D seat vacant for the flight. Sometimes they move someone into our empty seats, but they didn’t on this occasion.

With such a quick turnaround the aircraft clearly wasn’t cleaned very well as we found numerous wrappers from the previous flight in the seat back.

Also strangely, with nobody in 7F (this was blocked from booking as a gold card perk) the crew also moved everybody from row 8 into the vacant exit row seats behind, in case of an emergency. It felt great and strange not having anyone next to or behind us.

Boarding happened very quickly, thanks to being able to board from the front and the back of the aircraft and before we knew it, we were on the move.

I always like the departure from Corfu because after about a minute of flying, they turn sharply to the left to avoid certain areas of the Island.

Food and Drink

We were handed menus that looked ok but not great and then 10 minutes later a crew member was asking all passengers what menu we had as he had handed out the wrong menus. These were quickly changed and the correct ones were handed out.

None of the options appealed to me too much but I opted for the lamb shoulder and Katrina ordered the curry.

Not being a lamb lover, I asked for an extra bread roll to help mop up the jus. To my surprise, the lamb was pretty good, and the rest of the dish was warm and lovely. I’m glad I added that roll now!

BA do curries very well and today was no exception. Katrina really enjoyed her meal and totally finished it.

Without being a wine snob, if you follow us on social media, you’d know that I think the white wine selection is terrible. Whilst they are drinkable, they are far from good enough to serve in business class.

Little man had his pre-selected kid’s meal which was macaroni cheese and one of the most unappealing looking desserts we have ever seen. He didn’t eat any of his main but I did and can confirm it tasted great!

Flight & Crew

I would say for the 10^th flight in a row I have not received a gold welcome. Not once during all of those flights have any crew greeted me by name or thanked me for my loyalty. I personally don’t need this, but I mention it because they are meant to and it’s so inconsistent. It appears this has been totally stopped. Has anyone else received a gold welcome recently in Club Europe?

We had a fantastic sunset which always draws my eyes out of the window in awe of how lucky we are to travel

The crew were ok, to be honest. They did their jobs, and we were served efficiently, and I have no real complaints. However, it just seemed like they were going through the motions instead of actually enjoying what they did, unlike the outbound crew who were fantastic. No trolly service. Every single tray was run individually and arguably quicker than with a trolly.

The flight was smooth most of the way until we passed the Alps where we had some minor bumps and seatbelts had to go on. This is where we used our Joker card for entertaining our toddler. Being a total aviation geek and pilot myself, I had to buy him this at Heathrow and I am so glad we did because he loved it. Although it came with a hefty price tag for something he’ll get bored of after 24 hours. How much would you pay for this set?

We started our descent into Heathrow and in just under 3 hours of flight time, we were down.

Arrival and Bags

Thankfully we arrived at the main terminal (A) which meant we didn’t need to get the train and could walk all the way to security. Once at security we were seen straight away and through immediately. Result.

Now, onto the unpredictable bag situation at Terminal 5. It could be 15 minutes or 3 hours or never if you are really unlucky like quite a few people this year.

For us, it was the former, just 15 minutes. Bigger result!

From exiting the plane to walking to our car, it took just 20 minutes. I really wish this was the case all the time.

Summary

On balance, I would say that was a solid flight. The delay was mitigated by the speed at which our bags arrived, and the onboard service was pretty decent too, so overall we were happy with our experience.

I just wish there was some consistency in the way the service is run so we know what to expect.