Flight Review: British Airways Club World Suite A350-1000

Review of the first commercial flight with British Airways new A350-1000 in the brand-new club world suite between Madrid and London.

Aircraft

The A350-1000 is really quiet during the flight.  In terms of cabin pressure and humidity, the aircraft is a huge improvement compared to the 777s or old 747s still in service for BA.
The British Airways Club World Suite is divided into 2 sections, one with 11 rows and one with 3 rows. Each row contains 4 suites with direct aisle access.

Boarding

Boarding was very efficient. They divided people in 5 different groups as shown on their boarding passes with pre-defined lanes to board the plane. To my surprise, the people in Madrid stuck to these lines, this time.

The Seat (Suite)

The seat in British Airways World Club, or better say the suite, is simply gorgeous. Let’s begin by the seat itself.
We had a mattress pad already attached to the seat which felt excellent both, to sit and to lie on. The seat can be adjusted by all possible means, with a small touchscreen attached on your left-hand side. Even in the upright position, the seat feels very comfortable.

In the lie flat position, your feet will be positioned under the suite in front of you. However, when I tested the lie flat position, I did not have the feeling that there is not enough space. Due to the door and the adjustable armrest, even side sleepers should not have a problem finding some sleep here.

The seat belt is one you would also find in your car and did not bother me.

I opted in for seat 10A, which offers 2 windows.

The table is under your TV screen and can be slid out and adjusted to 2 positions, it can be folded as well to make it smaller.

The only drawback with British Airways Club World Suite might be, as so often in our days, the storage possibilities. You have one “larger” space, a very small one to place some magazines in (where a mirror is included which is a nice touch), another small one sufficient for a mobile phone and finally one close to your feet which is good for a bottle of water. However, during take off and landing, the storage space near your feet has to be empty. To give you an overview, I was not able to store the case of my Bose noise-cancelling headphones anywhere.

Entertainment

The entertainment screen is state of the art, definitely big enough and touchscreen of course. Entertainment is now available from gate to gate, which is really good. A small digital remote with another small screen is located in one of the storage spaces and looking quite futuristic.

An international power socket, an USB charging pod and the possibility to load your media to the entertainment screen are all located in one of the spaces on your left-hand side. A reading light is located within the seat as well. Personal air vents are not available, but the air felt good the whole flight long.

Other services

Unfortunately, on this short flight with British Airways Club World Suite, no amenity kits were distributed. The pillow however was excellent, fluffy and of a decent size.
Wi-Fi is also available during the flight, however prices are really a joke. 4.99£ for 25Mb up to 17.99£ for 150Mb and no option to choose for the whole flight. Definitely big room for improvement exists here. Specially since they are advertising you to use Netflix, with those Wi-Fi packages, that would literally be money printing for BA. The speed seems to be marginal as well as you see from the test, I bought the small package to see if Wi-Fi does actually work and it did.

Toilets are as usual, very small and nothing fancy or improvement here.

Food & Drinks

Due to the fact that it is a short haul flight, we did not receive a pre-departure drink. Menus were not distributed, but we had the choice between chicken curry, smoked salmon or salad. I opted in for the chicken curry, which was very good. It came on a tray with a small starter, some cheese and a delicious dessert.

Two rounds of drinks were served, one before and one after our meal, as well as coffee.

A small kitchenette is available between the 2 business class cabins, however it was not in use on our flight.

Service

Staff were extremely friendly and offered a couple of times to show us all the new features of our seats and asked passengers how they are doing. This was probably the best service I ever encountered on board of a British Airways flight.

Conclusion

The new British Airways World Club Suite is a huge improvement over their old business class, and now BA has probably one of the best business class seats currently out there. You should definitely try this new, excellent product.

However, in terms of onboard Wi-Fi, there is room for improvement.

In our post here, you may find all BA Club World Suite routes:

British Airways Club Suite Routes with Flight numbers

Guide for BA Club Suite, operated routes with the corresponding flight numbers, overview of equipped airplanes and when they will be retrofitted.

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