Airline: British Airways
Flight #: BA487
Route: BCN-LHR
Class: Club Europe
Seat: 5A
Date: Wednesday 18th March 2026
With my time in Barcelona coming to an end, after a successful and enjoyable trip ticking off a new country and exploring Barcelona itself, it was time to head home. Flying from Barcelona’s main El Prat airport, I’d be flying with British Airways back to their home base of London Heathrow and as with the journey out, my flight back to the UK would be in their Club Europe cabin. Flying at a different time of day, and on a flight not originating at their home base, I was looking forward to seeing how the offering would differ on this flight compared to the one at the start of my trip. If you want to check out the other posts from this trip, you can do so here, here and here.
I had ended up getting to the airport around three and a half hours before my flight and, whilst the BA check-in officially only open two and a half hours before my flight, I thought I’d give it a go and was pleased to find the staff more than happy to check me in early. Barcelona is an airport with an almost constant stream of BA flights to the UK, and so the check-in desks don’t really ever close, but it was still nice to find I could check-in for my specific flight early. Obviously at airports with only a single BA flight per day, the desks won’t open until around the advertised time. From the check-in desks in the 300 zone, it was a bit of a walk down the terminal to reach the fast-track security area adjacent to the 700 zone, however it was worth it as the non-existent queue meant I was through into departures around 15 minutes after arriving at the airport, with most of that being the walking up and down.
British Airways uses Barcelona’s Terminal 1 along with most other airlines, whilst the low-cost airlines easyJet, Ryanair and Transavia use Terminal 2, which is comprised of the former Terminals A, B and C. Terminal 1 was opened in 2009 and so is a fresh and modern terminal, with a large choice of shops and restaurants. Given my trip came amidst the various news articles around EU border chaos, I decided to head straight to passport control as, unlike smaller airports, I was sure Barcelona would have some decent facilities beyond the Schengen border. Passport control ended up being pretty quick, with a scan of my passport to show I had provided biometrics, then an e-gate to actually check my biometrics, before then getting my passport stamped by a human. This hybrid model of biometrics and stamps will eventually come to an end, with the EES scheme meant to replace the physicality of a stamp.
Having made it to the non-Schengen side of the airport, I had a bit of ta walk to reach the D gates and the non-Schengen lounge that I was provided access to by British Airways. The VIP Sala lounge is run by the airport operator AENA and for a generic, non-airline lounge, is pretty good. Its very spacious and wasn’t too crowded, with a good choice of food and drink, including traditional Spanish and Catalan dishes along with the more generic fare. I got to spend a couple of hours in the lounge before my gate was announced and generally it was a nice and peaceful place to relax ahead of the flight, although obviously a random Wednesday in March isn’t peak season.
Shortly after the gate was announced with a message of ‘Go To Gate’ I did just that, getting to gate D14 to find the staff still setting it up, with the inbound flight having just arrived and beginning to disembark. Whilst waiting I did get a good view across the airfield to Terminal 2, where a T’way Boeing 777 was getting ready to form a flight to Seoul, South Korea, along with the plethora of European low-cost carriers. With the departures level of the terminal being quite high, our aircraft was down below us, with G-TTNT operating our flight back to Heathrow. This 3-year-old Airbus A320neo was delivered to British Airways in October 2022 and so far that day had done a round trip from Heathrow to Rome, before forming the mid-afternoon departure to Barcelona.
I was first in the priority boarding queue and so when boarding started at 1845, I was quickly onboard and able to get a good look at the interior of one of the newest aircraft types in the British Airways fleet. Configured for the same number of passengers and the Airbus A320-200, the cabin is laid out in the usual 3-3 configuration, with a flexible Club Europe cabin which for this flight was set to be eight rows. The seats are the same streamlined style as on the older retrofitted Airbus’, however there were no fixed tables in the middle seats of Club Europe, and the power sockets were on the front of each row of seats by your knees, rather than being on the back of the row in front.
As I settled into my seat, 5A on the left-hand side for this flight, I was able to see an Air Algeria Boeing 737-600 parked to our right, however there was unfortunately nothing parked on my side of the aircraft. Looking back, I was able to see a handful of Vueling Airbus A32Xs and a Level Airbus A330 parked on some of Terminal 1’s remote stands. Boarding was completed in just over 15 minutes, with the jet bridge being removed at 1902, around the same time as the flight crew made their pre-flight announcement predicting a smooth flight and a flight time of around one hour and 45 minutes. The Club Europe cabin was less than half full, with 14 of us for 32 available seats, and I had the entire row to myself as well as no-one in the half rows in front or behind me, making for a peaceful flight. As pushback started at 1906, the Cabin Manager came around to take drinks orders, addressing us all by name which I thought was a nice touch.
Unfortunately, our taxi was slight delayed as the Air Algeria pushed back in front of us, and around five minutes later we began our taxi by making a U-turn onto the adjacent taxiway before looping around Terminal 1 to head towards the active runway. We ended up being third in the queue for departure with two Ryanair’s departing ahead of us on FR9334 and FR1165 to Marrakesh and Seville respectively. Our turn came at 1921, as we took of from Barcelona’s runway 06R towards the port, although it was unfortunately quite cloudy, so I didn’t get great views of the city as we departed.
The cloud cover continued over most of Catalonia and so as the drinks service started shortly after the seatbelts sign had gone off, all I could see out of the window was darkness. I had gone for the Speedbird OG Brewdog ale, which was served with a pack of rosemary snack mix, with a full bar selection of drinks being available. Dinner was served immediately after the drinks service but was done with a much more personal touch than on the flight out, as the crew came to us all individually to take our orders and then delivered individual trays to our seats rather than using the trolley to delivery all the food at once. For dinner there was a choice of spinach lasagne, chicken salad or beef stew and I went for the latter which was really tender and delicious, apart from the couple of sorry carrots which let the side down.
Our route back to the UK was on a more westerly line than the flight our and I was able to see Bordeaux as the city passed down to our left, along with Nantes and Rennes as we continued north. Throughout the flight the crew were very attentive, taking the dinner trays as soon as they were finished with and offering refills as we got close to finishing drinks. Around 2030 the flight crew made another announcement giving an ETA of around 30 minutes, just as we began to head north along the Cotentin peninsula, on which I could see the port town of Granville lit up. We crossed the French coast at 2036 and less than 10 minutes later were passing the Isle of Wight as we approached the UK mainland over Portsmouth and Southsea.
With Heathrow on easterly approaches, we passed over Aldershot before beginning an S turn to bring us round onto the approach for runway 09L, with a view of Windsor Castle coming just a couple of minutes before we touched down at 2001 local time. After taxiing in passed Terminal 3, we parked up on stand 548L at Terminal 5B at 2007, with the door opening a few minutes later. I was off the aircraft at 2011, but with a bit of a wait for the people mover decided to walk via the subterranean passage that connects Terminal 5 and its satellites. Whilst the longish walk delayed me slightly, there was no queue for passport control and my bag was already waiting for me at baggage claim, meaning I reached arrivals at 2030 and made it onto the 2043 Heathrow Express service to Paddington.
I’ve got to say I was really impressed with the service provided on this flight as it really gave it a personal touch and rounded off what was overall a great experience. The weakest parts of British Airway’s offering on the route were the lounge, which despite being a generic lounge was still pretty good, and the seats onboard, which are just standard economy seats but are also on par with their competitors. Whilst I wouldn’t pay actual money to travel in Club Europe on a narrowbody aircraft unless it was comparable to economy, it can be worth the points to upgrade if you want to make a trip special.
Lounge 3*
Seat/Facilities 4*
Food 5*
Service 5*
Punctuality 5*
Overall Rating 22/25 (read about my rating system here!)
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