dk9

Yes, you read this right, I am comparing British Airways Club Europe to Easyjet for a 4-hour flight from London Heathrow to Thessaloniki, Greece and then back.

Cost
BA: Cash £70.50 + Avios 9,750 [cash price was £400+]
Easyjet: £46.76

At the airport:
BA:
Fast-Track not honoured. I had to use the standard queue for boarding. Took 30 minutes+
Lounge: Used Galleries Lounge. The staff unhelpful and rude. Could only stay for a few minutes due to the delays with security.
Boarding: Priority boarding not honoured. Free for all basically.

Easyjet:
No Fast-Track but Thessaloniki airport's security was a breeze. Cleared security in 5 minutes.
Lounge: Used SkyServ with Priority pass (this is also the same lounge BA is using for its business class). Friendly staff but limited food options.
Boarding: I didn't pay for priority boarding, but I could see there were two clearly separated lines one for priority and one for standard tickets. So if you decide to pay for it, it's honoured and worth it since it comes with free luggage on the plane.

On the plane:
BA
Seating: The usual intra-European seats for business class - i.e. Economy class seats. The usual middle empty seat NOT honoured. The passenger next to me decided to bring her son and the flight crew didn't say anything..
Food: All meat options run out, when they reached my row. I've had some very mediocre Vegetarian food. This is the third time that they run out of all the options when they reach my row. I don't even know why they bother giving menus.
Staff: As it's a true tradition for BA now, one of the crew was the best ever and one of them was the worst; full of sarcastic comments and rudeness.

Easyjet
Seating: Same pitch length as BA. Middle seat empty!!
Food: Buy on-board options. I had a reasonably tasty meal that I paid for £8 (20% discount if booked before flight).
Staff: Lovely staff throughout the flight.

Conclusion: While I understand it's not a like-for-like comparison and one flight was from the UK and the other the return leg, I think it's still fair to say that if you would like to have a premium experience, flying with EasyJet could give you a far more premium experience than flying with British Airways Business Class. In this flight, I didn't even pay for any priority seating or boarding and my experience was still better.
If you have millions of Avios to burn: BA. If you want a premium experience: EasyJet.

corporate-wage-slave

Seems quite a poor CE trip, I can't say that collection is anything that I've experienced, and I've done quite a few CE trips. Are you able to explain a bit more why you could not use Fast Track at LHR? Were you actually connecting at LHR rather than going from landside? I'm not aware of any recent time when North and South FT have been closed, though they were at various times during the pandemic.

dreamingbeyond

Funnily enough, I had similar issues with the fast track at LHR T3. Fast track by virtue of status, however the scanners went red and denied me entry. I explained to the security guard manning the gate that I had access by status, they said they didn't really know what that is so just overrode the system and let me through.

It does sounds like you had a poor experience with CE, especially with the meal options and middle seat which to me is the main differentiator between CE and ET. It was very cheeky for your neighbour to use the middle seat, and I hope that they paid for the privilege of sitting at the 'pointy end'. Glad to see that there wasn't too much of a dent on your wallet, but sorry to read about your experience.

I would definitely take the opportunity to write a complaint, you may be able to recoup some of the avios lost from this.

Luckily I haven't encountered this but it's stories like this that really highlight how much a joke CE can be sometimes, especially if you have status in ET.

percysmith

Middle seat can be occupied in CE? I thought it was a key differentiating feature between CE and ET.

Is the child (I am going to assume the mother “upgraded” her child unless corrected) entitled to CE meal?

GentleGiant

Did you say anything about the seating arrangements.

Should have spoken to the in flight manager about it.

Why didn't the security work? Did you say anything to them?

leosantos

Easyjet like for like beat BA most times. You get what you pay for on EZY , with BA you pay and pray.

Duck1981

All time when in Thessaloniki I need to indeed use the standard queue as BA obviously doesn't pay there for fast track

By reading it sounds like son of pax was in Y and came into CE for most of the flight, sitting next to his mum. I wouldn't have an issue with that for a few min, but not for the whole duration of the flight (which is long from Greece). A matter for crew to sort though.

mikeyfly

Was the child actually a lap infant? As in under two years old and meant to be “on her lap”

volar

I think the BA flight was from London so it’s surprising there was an issue with fast track.

I’m guessing this was a Neo with no central console which allowed the seat to be occupied. I certainly would have complained about somebody being in the middle seat, since the extra space is a large part of the CE offer.

Misco60

On a packed flight yesterday with a Club Europe cabin of 14 rows, with the cabin crew rushed off their feet and unable to offer anything more than the bare minimum in the way of service, I found myself thinking that this is a far from premium experience, and a very long way from the impression that BA likes to project in its marketing.

Club Europe: "A bit better than being down the back."

davidcamp6

Poor CE experience, of that is no doubt, however which airport did you return to? What times were the scheduled flights? There are many factors that dictate the value for money and convenience not just the bottom line.

NickB

I really don't understand the point of those anecdotal comparisons: the OP happened to have a particularly crappy CE flight versus a U2 Y flight where everything went well. Well, fine. It is a bit llke saying: I had a lovely sunny holiday in Sardinia whereas it rained all the time when I was in Sicily. That may well be so but, to the extent that it is meant to throw light on whether the weather is nicer in Sardinia than Sicily, it fails.

BA or bust

I think the point is that BA CE is marketed (and priced) as a premium product, but that premium product/service/experience was not delivered. Whereas Easyjet did exactly what it says on the tin.

NickB

I think that you missed the key word in my post: "I really don't understand the point of those anecdotal comparisons" (emphasis added for your reading convenience). Comparing one bad BA experience to one good Easyjet experience does not tell us anything, anymore than comparing a day of sunshine in Sardinia to a day of rain in Sicily tells us anything about the comparative quality of weather on the two islands.

percysmith

I'm not sure if operating as scheduled is on the Easyjet tin; if it does operate as scheduled, I considered I already got a bargain.