Review: British Airways Premium Economy (A350-1000)

This spring, I decided to go on a tour to visit some good friends in both the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic.

Being located in Edmonton, it can be a bit troublesome to get from so remote a part of Canada’s far West out to many of my favourite destinations, but I was fortunate enough to have a stash of British Airways Avios, and BA flies lots of flights with plenty of availability from Toronto.

So I booked a flight to Toronto to spend some time with family, then the following day, I would fly on British Airways Premium Economy for the first time from Toronto to London.

Booking British Airways Premium Economy

Premium Economy Class	Aircraft	Route	Flight Duration
British Airways 92 (BA92)	A350-1000	Toronto (YYZ) to London (LHR)	7 hours 10 minutes

Personally, I find adapting to the European time zone to be one of the more troublesome elements of going abroad. For whatever reason, the 8-hour time difference always messes me up. So I wanted to rip off the bandaid and arrive in Europe with a mind to have had some rest and get along with my day.

There was no Business class availability, but I figured British Airways Premium Economy (PY), also called World Traveller Plus, would be fine because the cost was very efficient:

This was about the end of my good fortune with my British Airways Premium Economy experience. Not only did I find my experience to be not significantly better than regular economy, but the 60,000 Avios was more than double the regular Economy price, which also only cost about ~$125 in taxes and fees at the time.

Originally, this flight was going to be a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner. Instead, I got the A350-1000, which I’d been fortunate enough to fly on British Airways Business class almost a year to the day earlier. I wish I had remained in it this time.

Cabin Arrangement

British Airways World Traveller Plus on the A350-1000 has 40 seats in the cabin immediately to the rear of Business in a 2-4-2 arrangement.

British Airways is an enormous nickel-and-dimer of customers. I can understand trying to squeeze revenue, but charging full price for seat selection in the premium economy cabin is bull. I already went through this when I flew Business.

It’s not the single cost. It’s the slap in the face that if this flagship carrier thinks it can get a pound or euro or dollar out of you, they’ll try to do so.

And that’s the story of how I wound up in seat 24G because I didn’t want to make someone else get up in case I had to use the bathroom, and so I was stuck choosing between one of 3 seats left 24 hours in advance during online check-in.

Unfortunately for me, it also put me within shrieking radius of a toddler who proceeded to scream for 5.5 of the 7 hours of the flight’s duration.

Seat

While I am annoyed at the seating policies, the seat I got was still pretty nice.

The premium economy seats on these new A350-1000’s are very plush and comfy; you’d put them in your living room if they sold them, that’s how cuddly they are. A hallmark of premium economy class is wider seats and more legroom, and this seat delivered in that aspect.

The entertainment console screen is modern, and there is a small storage pocket on the seatback.

I’m 6’2”, so I also want to say: I didn’t feel squeezed at all. I had plenty of leg room and a very nice little footwell in case I wanted to keep my feet off the ground.

There was plenty of space for my tray table, too.

There’s also a rest to elevate your feet at the base of your own seat.

Controls for the in-flight entertainment console (IFE) and the seat were to my immediate left, and there was a power bank with a universal outlet adapter.

Storage space for my tablet and other miscellany was great, too.

I was a huge fan of the coat hanger next to the entertainment console screen. This was just an excellent addition.

Overall, the seat itself was great. The location in the cabin was poor, but I can’t knock the seat itself as this was very comfy – though, honestly, it’s probably worse than a standard economy bulkhead seat (which were just behind me).

I will say this: it was a bit awkward taking all these photos in premium economy because there are so many people around. People in the cabin were very respectful, and for obvious reasons, I didn’t want to break that.

Amenity Kit

The Amenity Kit – I won’t be too hard here. One can’t expect ultra-luxury in a premium economy amenity kit. It even had this cool faux felt design.

Pretty cool looking, honestly, though they were handed out by the Flight Attendant crew.

Inside were the usual suspects: Polyester facemask, polyester socks, disposable paper dental kit wrapper, plastic lip balm holder – I am sure that the biodegradable, recycled plastic ballpoint pen they included will undo all the environmental damage. We must fight climate change one writing instrument at a time.

And before you ask, yes, I did take the picture with the amenity kit contents on my tablet because the table tray was a bit more of a pain to deploy.

Bathroom

The bathrooms for World Traveller Plus were shared with the Economy cabin. I think having extra toilets for the Business class travellers is now standard procedure, but I do wish the economy class bathrooms were just bigger. These were small on the inside compared to the size of the aircraft!

I also don’t think I saw a baby changing table unless it was up top, so that is something for parents with young children to be aware of, as you might have to go to another set of bathrooms in another part of the plane.

Dining

All dining options were presented on a small menu that shows that British Airways really liked putting the Economy into Premium Economy class.

The selection seemed a bit sparse, but the drinks menu at least was pretty decent. How bad could it be? Medium-low. The answer is medium-low. I would consider this on the poorer end of mediocre.

Dinner

By the time the flight attendant got to me to take my order for the meal service, he apologized for the lamb no longer being available and thanked me for being accommodating (this was more luck of the draw; I just happened to want the trout). It’s again a sign of cost-cutting when the airline doesn’t have enough of a given plate for people who pay more.

It’s more common, fine. But it’s not great. I don’t think it would have made any difference, though, because everything on the tray was tasteless.

First up was the orzo salad: trace amounts of curry powder doing battle with overwhelming sadness, and without the good grace to include the salt that comes in tears.

Then the main, the trout with rice and broccolini.

The single wispy strand of overcooked broccolini was actually pretty good and tasted crispy and lemony. Everything else tasted like absolutely nothing. I ordered a white wine to see if my taste buds had deserted me, but that was just lovely, so it’s the food living up to all the negative stereotypes associated with British cuisine.

The cheesecake for dessert was passable. The pre-packaged Black Diamond Old Cheddar was way better.

Snacks

About an hour after dinner service, the staff came around asking folks if we wanted to have some snacks, and they were quite generous with what they handed out.

I took all three: popcorn, chocolate cookies (or biscuits as they insist on calling them in the UK), and a caramel bar.

Perhaps it’s a coincidence because these are all high sugar, salt, and/or fat prepackaged consumer products, but these were the best things I ate on the flight. These are consumer goods sold to people not entrapped in their seats on a flying metal tube, and thus need to compete against other products.

No complaints here aside from the fact that the Walkers’ shortbread was kept for the poshos in Business class and up. These cookies were great too, though.

“Breakfast”

Notice the quotation marks? That’s because this was horrible. Inedibly horrible. About an hour before landing, the flight attendants came around asking if people wanted “breakfast”, which was a choice of either a meat or vegetarian reheated soft biscotti-looking thing.

I got the tomato and feta. Big mistake. It looked like this after they’d reheated it.

I need to be very clear: this thing was disgusting. It was so hot you could burn your tongue, and worse, it had little flavour. That taste which it did have was thoroughly unpleasant.

I’m fully willing to admit that after my sleepless night, I was in a poor mood, but using my eyes, I saw lots of other passengers voting with their stomachs and throwing out these things with one or two bites in them. Horrible.

Entertainment

Entertainment Console

So one place I have to give British Airways unequivocal points is their IFE system and safety demonstration video.

The safety video is, I think, the best since Air New Zealand’s Lord of the Rings-inspired riff.

It’s a pastiche of British period dramas from shows like Outlander, Downton Abbey, and Jane Austen adaptations. It’s delightful and super entertaining. I linked it so you can give it a watch; it’s great fun.

They also had Amex ads. Premium British Airways American Express cards in the UK have a rate of 135% APR. So remember that next time you complain about interest rates here!

The selection of films I found to be excellent. Maybe it’s just my taste, as I like British series and movies, but I thought the library was overall quite strong, even though I focused on using the Wi-Fi I bought (more on that in a second).

The headphones were also pretty good. They almost drowned out the other noises from the cabin. Almost. But not quite.

WiFi

Wifi was available for £11.99, or ~$22 CAD for 4 hours, or £15.99, or ~$31 CAD, for the entire flight. I opted only for the 4-hour pass because all I wanted to do was browse the web and play Balatro.

I had no issues with being able to browse, and it didn’t eat any of my save games either, and believe me, if you beat Gold Stake on Balatro and then lost the progress because of bad syncing with cloud saves, you know my pain. So no issues there.

Conclusion

Overall, this was a very disappointing British Airways flight. Whilst the service I’d consider to be friendly enough and adequate on BA premium economy, it wasn’t particularly welcoming or warm. It was functional. And functional is fine in the main cabin, but with double the cost in points and, in many cases, cash fares, that’s really not ideal for Premium Economy.

However, the failings were far worse than this. Basically, at 60,000 Avios plus $305 in fuel surcharges, this was over double the cost of basic Economy at 25,000 Avios and about ~$125 in taxes and fees.

I was kept up all night by a screaming baby, so I may as well have been in the basic economy section. The food was also not up to par: it would be hyperbolic to call everything except the awful breakfast truly t bad, but it was both bland and uninspired.

The thing that bugs me more than that is the mentality: in my opinion, it felt like British Airways doesn’t put particular pride into this level of their product. I’ve had better service, food, and overall experience on Air Canada Premium Economy and WestJet Premium Economy products. I don’t feel I’m being harsh here: doing something as small as charging for seat selection in a “premium” cabin is proof of that.

Would I fly BA for any long-haul flights across the Atlantic again? In Business or Economy. I’d rather pay for a bulkhead seat than double the points plus fuel surcharge for bad food.

I can’t in good conscience recommend this product for this length of flight, and would in fact encourage you to bring your own snacks.