Review: British Airways Airbus A380 Club World to Singapore

Flight BA11 is one of two the British carrier sends down to Singapore every evening, with BA15 – operated by a Boeing 777-300ER – continuing on to Sydney. I recently flew BA11 in Club World (BA’s business class), departing London at 19.10, arriving in Singapore at 15.55 the next day. The Airbus A380 is configured with a four-cabin layout, including First, Club World, World Traveller Plus (Premium Economy), and World Traveller (Economy), for a total of 469 seats. The lower deck has First, a Club World section, and World Traveller, while the upper deck has Club World, World Traveller Plus, and a small World Traveller cabin.

I arrived at Heathrow early afternoon on a short-haul BA flight. Making my way to flight connections, I turned a corner to find a massive queue snaking its way towards the desks where onward boarding passes are checked. Thankfully, having a business class ticket comes with a Fast Track lane, which took only a few minutes – easily saving me over an hour of waiting around. Despite there also being Fast Track security, the staff guarding the lanes kept opening them up to the crowds coming up the escalators, defeating its purpose entirely (not an uncommon sight at Terminal 5).

Having cleared security I completed the circuitous route needed to get to Galleries South, BA’s multi-floor lounge complex. A business class ticket will give you access to Galleries Club, but since I have an Executive Club Gold card (the BA equivalent to Oneworld Emerald status) I went to Galleries First instead. The lounge was busy, and is starting to show signs of wear, but I managed to find a seat near a window to settle in and get some work done. I did make a beeline for the Elemis Spa, located on the same floor, to see if there were any slots available, and booked myself in for a complimentary facial a few hours later. Galleries First has both buffet style food options and a limited menu that you can order from; although passable, in the years I’ve been coming here I’ve always found the food wholly unremarkable to sometimes just, well, bad. Many people like the fact that Galleries First has champagne you can help yourself to, but I’m not a big drinker (and even less so when flying) so it’s not a selling point for me.

My flight left from the terminal’s C satellite, so when the gate was announced on the screen, I made my way to the little train that takes you there in a just a few minutes. The flight was completely sold out (in fact, there were people on the jump seats), so the gate area was naturally overflowing with passengers eager to get on board. Luckily, Fast Track boarding again made it possible to avoid a lot of waiting around. Club World on the A380 is an evolution of the product BA has across (almost all) of its long-haul fleet, with forward/rearward facing yin-yang style seats. On the lower deck, the configuration is 2-4-2 from rows 10 to 15 for a total of 44 seats between First and World Traveller. On the upper deck, given that fuselage isn’t as wide, it is 2-3-2 between rows 50 to 53 and 56 to 59 for a total of 53 seats. While not nearly as preferable as the upper deck on a Boeing 747, I would still recommend picking a seat upstairs if you can. Window seats come with the added advantage of storage bins underneath the windows. Ideally, I’d pick a window seat in rows 51 or 52. Avoid row 50 and 59 at all cost: row 50 is uncomfortably close to the curtains and the forward bathrooms, while the aisle seats in row 59 align with the bassinets of the World Traveller Plus cabin.

As I was settling into my seat, a crew member came by with a choice of champagne, orange juice, or water, and a choice of newspapers. The aircraft still being relatively new, the cabin looked smart and in good condition.

This being an evolution of the BA Club World seat, the same principles apply. The seat adjusts to a fully-flat bed by meeting a separate footstool. Given the yin-yang set up, with the divider between the seats lowered you look directly at the passenger sitting next to you. This is great when you’re travelling together, but if you’re solo then you’ll be grateful for the divider. With the divider up, the window seats have a lot of privacy, which is why I’d recommend them, but given the huge progress that’s been made in business class, with many carriers offering all-aisle access and additional space, Club World is losing some of its edge.

Each seat has a personal video screen, a table that folds out, and a little drawer to store valuables, and at-seat power. Upholstered in a dark brown fabric, a pillow, blanket, and headset were waiting for me when I sat down, with amenity kits handed out a little later on.

The A380 has BA’s latest Thales in-flight entertainment available across all cabins. In Club World, you press a button for the screen to fold out, with both a remote and touchscreen functionality to navigate through the menu. Despite there being quite a bit of choice (movies, boxsets), I browsed for a while before settling on something to watch during the meal, as I planned to catch as much as sleep as possible afterwards.

Shortly after we had taken off, the crew started taking drink orders, which came along with the usual selection of nuts. There were three champagnes, two white wines, and two red wines on the menu – I had a few sips of the 2011 Châteauneuf du Pape with my main course, which was very nice.

As a starter, I opted for a terrine of chicken, smoked duck, and mushrooms, which was fine. The main course of beef (always a risky choice when 30,000 feet in the air) was good, with a tasty sauce and mashed potatoes. I had some fruit to finish off the meal and went in search of the bathrooms to change.

One big advantage of being on the A380 and on the upper deck in Club World is the access to two extremely spacious bathrooms at the front. They’re spacious to the extent that one has a small bench in it, so freshening up or changing (though BA does not provide pyjamas in business class unfortunately) is a breeze. A few hours outside of Singapore, the cabin lights came back on and breakfast was served. I had some fresh fruit, a smoothie, and a croissant, but full English as well as a number of other options were available. During the flight, if you are in Club World you have access to the Club Kitchen, which was some snacks and drinks you can help yourself too – although I have read and heard that the selection is being cut back and on some flights, pretty much removed. Oh, the cutbacks.

With a bottle of water from the crew and earplugs, I called it a night. Setting yourself up for sleep is straightforward: flip the handle and the footstool comes down, press the button in the panel and the seat reclines into the shell until it is fully flat and meets the footstool. I’ve flown the A380 a few times now, and the relative silence compared to older aircraft remains really nice. The cabin quieted down quickly, and I managed to catch a good night sleep. Though I’m a little too tall to stretch out completely, which is why I’ve always aimed for the extra legroom seats on a 747 upstairs, I generally sleep well on the Club World seat.

Overall, I was happy with the flight. My main objective was getting to Singapore with sufficient rest, as I was continuing on to Australia just a day later, which I achieved. The A380 makes for a very comfortable flying experience, and being in a business class seat that allows you to lie flat obviously makes a huge difference. British Airways’ Club World isn’t the newest or the most spacious that’s out there, and I’m looking forward to seeing what new product they will bring to their Airbus A350 when they start joining the fleet, but I would – and will – fly them again.