First Club Europe Experience
Jul 1, 2018, 1:05 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2018
Location: Surrey
Programs: BAEC Silver
Posts: 211
First Club Europe Experience
After joining FT and reading a number of the posts, I decided to jump on an upgrade offer to Club Europe for the annual family trip out to BOD. Traveling with two small kids( 2yrs and 4yrs old) can be stressful and I though we could see if flying CE could ease some of this.
Flying out of LGW @ 6:45am, we arrived quite early. The club checkin was quite fast, dispite the woman at the desk having to call 3 different people to confirm my surfboard would be allowed on the plane - never had this traveling economy.
No one else in Gatwick Premium security, so from checkin desk to departures took all of 7/8 minutes which was fantastic but resulted in us having to wait for the BA Lounge to open - not the worst problem to have. Arriving at the BA Lounge level, we were greeted by a large queue filling the hallway. I found everyone waiting very friendly and chatty. No sense of urgency or impatience. Once the doors opened, we quickly made it into the lounge. The lounge itself, I thought was great, a real sense of calm and ease about everyone. Which seemed to settle my kids quite quickly, non of the usually misbehaving. We all found the breakfast selection to be pleasant and more than expected. Staff very friendly and helpful.
Boarding wasn’t much different to that of economy. Having been allocated row 2 seating boarding was a lot faster, not making the long walk through towards the back of the plane.
The seat were no different from economy, apart from the tabled middle seat. In-flight service was pleasant, non of us opted for the breakfast options but rather just drinks, so I haven’t any comment on the food itself. I did find the Club area of the plane quite dirty, which was unexpected. Looked to need a good hoovering and surface wipe, but by no means was it filthy. Disembarking was calm and easy as expected, no rush for bags or people pushing to get closer to the doors.
All in all, I found the whole experience fantastic. It really made our normally stressful traveling experience easy and calm. I understand this is just abit of old hat for most of the members here, but coming from 11 generations of farmers, this was a very pleasant change from the meat market in economy.
Flying out of LGW @ 6:45am, we arrived quite early. The club checkin was quite fast, dispite the woman at the desk having to call 3 different people to confirm my surfboard would be allowed on the plane - never had this traveling economy.
No one else in Gatwick Premium security, so from checkin desk to departures took all of 7/8 minutes which was fantastic but resulted in us having to wait for the BA Lounge to open - not the worst problem to have. Arriving at the BA Lounge level, we were greeted by a large queue filling the hallway. I found everyone waiting very friendly and chatty. No sense of urgency or impatience. Once the doors opened, we quickly made it into the lounge. The lounge itself, I thought was great, a real sense of calm and ease about everyone. Which seemed to settle my kids quite quickly, non of the usually misbehaving. We all found the breakfast selection to be pleasant and more than expected. Staff very friendly and helpful.
Boarding wasn’t much different to that of economy. Having been allocated row 2 seating boarding was a lot faster, not making the long walk through towards the back of the plane.
The seat were no different from economy, apart from the tabled middle seat. In-flight service was pleasant, non of us opted for the breakfast options but rather just drinks, so I haven’t any comment on the food itself. I did find the Club area of the plane quite dirty, which was unexpected. Looked to need a good hoovering and surface wipe, but by no means was it filthy. Disembarking was calm and easy as expected, no rush for bags or people pushing to get closer to the doors.
All in all, I found the whole experience fantastic. It really made our normally stressful traveling experience easy and calm. I understand this is just abit of old hat for most of the members here, but coming from 11 generations of farmers, this was a very pleasant change from the meat market in economy.
Jul 1, 2018, 1:32 pm
#2
Join Date: Oct 2013
Programs: GGL/CCR
Posts: 1,899
After joining FT and reading a number of the posts, I decided to jump on an upgrade offer to Club Europe for the annual family trip out to BOD. Traveling with two small kids( 2yrs and 4yrs old) can be stressful and I though we could see if flying CE could ease some of this.
Flying out of LGW @ 6:45am, we arrived quite early. The club checkin was quite fast, dispite the woman at the desk having to call 3 different people to confirm my surfboard would be allowed on the plane - never had this traveling economy.
No one else in Gatwick Premium security, so from checkin desk to departures took all of 7/8 minutes which was fantastic but resulted in us having to wait for the BA Lounge to open - not the worst problem to have. Arriving at the BA Lounge level, we were greeted by a large queue filling the hallway. I found everyone waiting very friendly and chatty. No sense of urgency or impatience. Once the doors opened, we quickly made it into the lounge. The lounge itself, I thought was great, a real sense of calm and ease about everyone. Which seemed to settle my kids quite quickly, non of the usually misbehaving. We all found the breakfast selection to be pleasant and more than expected. Staff very friendly and helpful.
Boarding wasn’t much different to that of economy. Having been allocated row 2 seating boarding was a lot faster, not making the long walk through towards the back of the plane.
The seat were no different from economy, apart from the tabled middle seat. In-flight service was pleasant, non of us opted for the breakfast options but rather just drinks, so I haven’t any comment on the food itself. I did find the Club area of the plane quite dirty, which was unexpected. Looked to need a good hoovering and surface wipe, but by no means was it filthy. Disembarking was calm and easy as expected, no rush for bags or people pushing to get closer to the doors.
All in all, I found the whole experience fantastic. It really made our normally stressful traveling experience easy and calm. I understand this is just abit of old hat for most of the members here, but coming from 11 generations of farmers, this was a very pleasant change from the meat market in economy.
Flying out of LGW @ 6:45am, we arrived quite early. The club checkin was quite fast, dispite the woman at the desk having to call 3 different people to confirm my surfboard would be allowed on the plane - never had this traveling economy.
No one else in Gatwick Premium security, so from checkin desk to departures took all of 7/8 minutes which was fantastic but resulted in us having to wait for the BA Lounge to open - not the worst problem to have. Arriving at the BA Lounge level, we were greeted by a large queue filling the hallway. I found everyone waiting very friendly and chatty. No sense of urgency or impatience. Once the doors opened, we quickly made it into the lounge. The lounge itself, I thought was great, a real sense of calm and ease about everyone. Which seemed to settle my kids quite quickly, non of the usually misbehaving. We all found the breakfast selection to be pleasant and more than expected. Staff very friendly and helpful.
Boarding wasn’t much different to that of economy. Having been allocated row 2 seating boarding was a lot faster, not making the long walk through towards the back of the plane.
The seat were no different from economy, apart from the tabled middle seat. In-flight service was pleasant, non of us opted for the breakfast options but rather just drinks, so I haven’t any comment on the food itself. I did find the Club area of the plane quite dirty, which was unexpected. Looked to need a good hoovering and surface wipe, but by no means was it filthy. Disembarking was calm and easy as expected, no rush for bags or people pushing to get closer to the doors.
All in all, I found the whole experience fantastic. It really made our normally stressful traveling experience easy and calm. I understand this is just abit of old hat for most of the members here, but coming from 11 generations of farmers, this was a very pleasant change from the meat market in economy.
BA are competing with very similar products which some people forget sometimes.... (yes I know TK send LH planes to IST daily, but BA do to MAD
)
Jul 1, 2018, 1:37 pm
#3
Join Date: Apr 2018
Location: London
Programs: BA Silver (for now)
Posts: 1,000
After joining FT and reading a number of the posts, I decided to jump on an upgrade offer to Club Europe for the annual family trip out to BOD. Traveling with two small kids( 2yrs and 4yrs old) can be stressful and I though we could see if flying CE could ease some of this.
Flying out of LGW @ 6:45am, we arrived quite early. The club checkin was quite fast, dispite the woman at the desk having to call 3 different people to confirm my surfboard would be allowed on the plane - never had this traveling economy.
No one else in Gatwick Premium security, so from checkin desk to departures took all of 7/8 minutes which was fantastic but resulted in us having to wait for the BA Lounge to open - not the worst problem to have. Arriving at the BA Lounge level, we were greeted by a large queue filling the hallway. I found everyone waiting very friendly and chatty. No sense of urgency or impatience. Once the doors opened, we quickly made it into the lounge. The lounge itself, I thought was great, a real sense of calm and ease about everyone. Which seemed to settle my kids quite quickly, non of the usually misbehaving. We all found the breakfast selection to be pleasant and more than expected. Staff very friendly and helpful.
Boarding wasn’t much different to that of economy. Having been allocated row 2 seating boarding was a lot faster, not making the long walk through towards the back of the plane.
The seat were no different from economy, apart from the tabled middle seat. In-flight service was pleasant, non of us opted for the breakfast options but rather just drinks, so I haven’t any comment on the food itself. I did find the Club area of the plane quite dirty, which was unexpected. Looked to need a good hoovering and surface wipe, but by no means was it filthy. Disembarking was calm and easy as expected, no rush for bags or people pushing to get closer to the doors.
All in all, I found the whole experience fantastic. It really made our normally stressful traveling experience easy and calm. I understand this is just abit of old hat for most of the members here, but coming from 11 generations of farmers, this was a very pleasant change from the meat market in economy.
Flying out of LGW @ 6:45am, we arrived quite early. The club checkin was quite fast, dispite the woman at the desk having to call 3 different people to confirm my surfboard would be allowed on the plane - never had this traveling economy.
No one else in Gatwick Premium security, so from checkin desk to departures took all of 7/8 minutes which was fantastic but resulted in us having to wait for the BA Lounge to open - not the worst problem to have. Arriving at the BA Lounge level, we were greeted by a large queue filling the hallway. I found everyone waiting very friendly and chatty. No sense of urgency or impatience. Once the doors opened, we quickly made it into the lounge. The lounge itself, I thought was great, a real sense of calm and ease about everyone. Which seemed to settle my kids quite quickly, non of the usually misbehaving. We all found the breakfast selection to be pleasant and more than expected. Staff very friendly and helpful.
Boarding wasn’t much different to that of economy. Having been allocated row 2 seating boarding was a lot faster, not making the long walk through towards the back of the plane.
The seat were no different from economy, apart from the tabled middle seat. In-flight service was pleasant, non of us opted for the breakfast options but rather just drinks, so I haven’t any comment on the food itself. I did find the Club area of the plane quite dirty, which was unexpected. Looked to need a good hoovering and surface wipe, but by no means was it filthy. Disembarking was calm and easy as expected, no rush for bags or people pushing to get closer to the doors.
All in all, I found the whole experience fantastic. It really made our normally stressful traveling experience easy and calm. I understand this is just abit of old hat for most of the members here, but coming from 11 generations of farmers, this was a very pleasant change from the meat market in economy.
Jul 1, 2018, 1:39 pm
#4
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2018
Location: Surrey
Programs: BAEC Silver
Posts: 211
Jul 1, 2018, 1:46 pm
#5
Join Date: Jun 2018
Location: Brighton UK
Programs: BAEC-Silver, AMEX-BA Prem' Plus & Standard, Accor Gold, HH-Silver, IHG,IBIS On Business
Posts: 955
Welcome to the Club( excuse the quite blatant and terrible pun). It's always nice to see people's experiences.
LGW is my home airport and I've had the same thing with the lounge queue going round the corner but yes it does seem to be quite a civilised and jovial queue as such things go & the staff seem pretty efficient at processing people. Did you POUG / upgrade for your return sector as well if so it would be interesting to see how the return experience compares. Personally I've had quite mixed experiences on return legs but as I've only had 2 thus far it's a bit early to decide.
As a recent convert to BA I've only a couple under my belt but the OH has gotten a taste for the club lounge and has since suggested that if I want to fly ET i'm quite welcome however she will expect to see an R or I booking class for her in perpetuity.
LGW is my home airport and I've had the same thing with the lounge queue going round the corner but yes it does seem to be quite a civilised and jovial queue as such things go & the staff seem pretty efficient at processing people. Did you POUG / upgrade for your return sector as well if so it would be interesting to see how the return experience compares. Personally I've had quite mixed experiences on return legs but as I've only had 2 thus far it's a bit early to decide.
As a recent convert to BA I've only a couple under my belt but the OH has gotten a taste for the club lounge and has since suggested that if I want to fly ET i'm quite welcome however she will expect to see an R or I booking class for her in perpetuity.
Jul 1, 2018, 1:57 pm
#6
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2018
Location: Surrey
Programs: BAEC Silver
Posts: 211
Welcome to the Club( excuse the quite blatant and terrible pun). It's always nice to see people's experiences.
LGW is my home airport and I've had the same thing with the lounge queue going round the corner but yes it does seem to be quite a civilised and jovial queue as such things go & the staff seem pretty efficient at processing people. Did you POUG / upgrade for your return sector as well if so it would be interesting to see how the return experience compares. Personally I've had quite mixed experiences on return legs but as I've only had 2 thus far it's a bit early to decide.
As a recent convert to BA I've only a couple under my belt but the OH has gotten a taste for the club lounge and has since suggested that if I want to fly ET i'm quite welcome however she will expect to see an R or I booking class for her in perpetuity.
LGW is my home airport and I've had the same thing with the lounge queue going round the corner but yes it does seem to be quite a civilised and jovial queue as such things go & the staff seem pretty efficient at processing people. Did you POUG / upgrade for your return sector as well if so it would be interesting to see how the return experience compares. Personally I've had quite mixed experiences on return legs but as I've only had 2 thus far it's a bit early to decide.
As a recent convert to BA I've only a couple under my belt but the OH has gotten a taste for the club lounge and has since suggested that if I want to fly ET i'm quite welcome however she will expect to see an R or I booking class for her in perpetuity.
Jul 1, 2018, 2:18 pm
#8
Join Date: Jun 2018
Location: Brighton UK
Programs: BAEC-Silver, AMEX-BA Prem' Plus & Standard, Accor Gold, HH-Silver, IHG,IBIS On Business
Posts: 955
I feel your pain our OH's seem to be cut from the same cloth and I simply resigned myself to the fact that while the new CW seat cant turn up soon enough( from what i've read although i'll confess to the fact it will be our 1st experience) there was no way she was flying LGW-PUJ in anything else but a flatbed but to be fair that's for her birthday so I can't really resent it and with an overnight flight on the return leg it will be a welcome extra expense.
We are considering do a Y trip to DME next year as it's super cheap if you use avios & Russia has been on my bucket list for some years but that then fills me with fear that she will only want 1st after that and I'm definitely not rich enough for that to become a habit.
Jul 1, 2018, 2:59 pm
#10
Join Date: Jun 2018
Location: Brighton UK
Programs: BAEC-Silver, AMEX-BA Prem' Plus & Standard, Accor Gold, HH-Silver, IHG,IBIS On Business
Posts: 955
Starting to worry here. OH's of the same mind, hitting Bronze in Sept. If you hit Silver in Nov then we are going to need ask ourselves if we are having an existential crises and are in fact the same person
Jul 1, 2018, 3:11 pm
#11
Join Date: Mar 2018
Location: EDI
Programs: BAEC GGL
Posts: 181
Or alternatively you’re both following the same well-trodden path that a lot of us on FT are already on. Next you’ll find yourself doing back to back flights just to get Gold...
Jul 1, 2018, 3:30 pm
#13
Join Date: Jun 2018
Location: Brighton UK
Programs: BAEC-Silver, AMEX-BA Prem' Plus & Standard, Accor Gold, HH-Silver, IHG,IBIS On Business
Posts: 955
Although with our 4 CE and 1 CW this TP year we have purchased seats on all of them to make sure we are together we both kind of resent having to do so when in BC ( although we realise it's just a reality of modern air travel) and look forward to Silver when they are free at time of booking and have already got a new years jaunt to kick off the next TP year to make sure we maintain it. On the upside all those seats were paid for using the BA Amex Prem Card so we milked 3 avios for every pound BA took us for and are on schedule to get a free 2-4-1 in BC to Thailand and back next year with all we've accumulated and are due to us.
Jul 1, 2018, 3:37 pm
#14
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2018
Location: Surrey
Programs: BAEC Silver
Posts: 211
I’ve got a TPR booked for the end of Sept. LON-JER-HEL-LON for 240tps, I’m still BLUE but should get me over Bronze and closer to silver.
All this because BA gave me a CE upgrade for £49! 🤦🏼.
All this because BA gave me a CE upgrade for £49! 🤦🏼.
Jul 1, 2018, 3:47 pm
#15
Join Date: Jun 2018
Location: Brighton UK
Programs: BAEC-Silver, AMEX-BA Prem' Plus & Standard, Accor Gold, HH-Silver, IHG,IBIS On Business
Posts: 955
They're sneaky buggers aren't they! They got me on a POUG and as with you once you've tasted the lounge you don't want to go back. I have to say that with the introduction of BOB then ( and I know this wont go down well with many here) for the money BA want for a ET seat for a like -4-like flight i'll just suck it up and fly SleazyJet & spend the difference on the hotel. I obviously accept that having said this publicly means that even if I was to get a 400% pay rise I have now excluded myself from ever being allowed to hold Gold status lol