Review: British Airways A350 Club Suite, London Heathrow-Madrid

British Airways A350 Club Suite, London to Madrid

For my 200th flight in business class, I had the chance to fly with British Airways´ new A350 featuring their new Club Suites on one of their familiarization flights between London and Madrid. This is definitely a game changer as their old business class seats desperately needed an upgrade. This flight is less than 3 hours so I´m really looking forward to trying the seats on one of their long haul flights.


Flight: BA 464
Departure time in London (LHR): 16:45
Arrival time in Madrid (MAD): 20:05
Aircraft: Airbus A350-1000 (G-XWBA)
Seat: 5A
Duration: 2h 20m
Date of flight: August 28, 2019
*This is an award ticket, Business Class flight #200

Video from my YouTube Channel 📺

British Airways Galleries First, Terminal 5

With my mobile boarding pass already issued the previous day, I headed directly to the British Airways Galleries First located in the South Concourse.

They did have some sponsors occupying a small part of the lounge with this summer atmosphere 🏊🏄

Galleries First, South Concourse 😎

Then I headed to the dining room and browsed the a la carte menu.

I ordered the Salad of Crayfish Tails which was fantastic 😋

Aircraft, Airbus A350-1000 (G-XWBA)

The gorgeous Airbus A350 flying us to Madrid

Boarding, Gate C62

I left the lounge around 4pm for the 4:15pm scheduled boarding as the departure gate is located in gates C where one would need to take a train.

While taking the escalators to the trains, I caught sight of the A350 taxiing to the gate 😍

Trains to C gates

I arrived at gate C62 around 4:15pm and saw that boarding had already started. I boarded and took a left turn to the business class cabin.

Business Class Cabin

The business class cabin has a total of 56 seats from rows 1 to 11 in the bigger cabin and after the lavatory/galley from rows 15 to 17, in a 1-2-1 configuration.

Business class cabin

Seat map

Seat map

Club Suite 5A

Welcome to my suite 5A 👍

This is something a lot of avgeeks have been waiting for for British Airways to come up with: spacious seat with direct aisle access, lovely design and with a privacy door.

The three-point seat belt is similar to the seat belts you use when you drive a car although it is only mandatory to use during take off and landing, and all other times using the normal seat belt (if I remember it right).

18.5 inch HD screen

Personal screen

Movie selection

Watching "The Mule"

Wifi

Seat controls

Storage space

Storage space for headphones ...

... and IFE controller. Inside there´s the AC and USB sockets as well.

IFE controller and headphones

Storage compartment ...

... with the vanity mirror.

Reading lamp

Behind the vanity mirror is a slot for the inflight magazine and club world seat manual.

Tray table

Tray table

The arm rest can be lowered.

Storage for bottles of water, etc.

Safety on board card

Foot cubby

Manual window shades

Sliding door for privacy

Reading lamp but no personal air vents

View of seat 5E from my seat.

Moments after settling into my seat, one of the flight attendants came to my seat to welcome me onboard and to orient me with the seat features.

Airshow

Airshow enroute to Madrid

Pushback & Taxi

At 4:40pm, the captain came on the PA to welcome us onboard, informing us of our flight time of 1 hour and 55 minutes.

At 4:46 we began our pushback followed by the crew with the safety demonstration as there was none shown on the screen.

British Airways Concorde 😍

At 5:02pm, we had our take off.

Dining

Business class menu card

Menu card

Starter

Hummus with Shakshouka

Main

British roast chicken supreme, sweetcorn mash, kale, green beans or
Vegetable korma with basmati rice or
Roasted Scottish beef, grilled chicken, cream cheese, chimichurri pesto

Cheese and dessert

Celebration of British Cheese
Cheesecake bowl with honey and thyme

The Bar

For those flying in economy class, there is the M&S On Board menu card 😉

At 6:08pm, the crew started distributing hot towels and 30 minutes later, they took my meal order. It was obvious that the crew were still trying to work things out considering how long it took to take my meal order.

I chose the chicken supreme and it was phenomenal 😋

DO&CO catering is definitely working for British Airways side, and the presentation is actually much better than on Turkish Airlines in my opinion 👍

Lavatory

1 of 2 lavatories

Toiletries

Lavatory

Landing in Madrid Barajas Airport

Around 7:17pm, the captain was back on the PA and informed us that we would be landing in 40 minutes.

View before landing

At 7:35, the captain announced that we would be landing in 20 minutes.

We landed in Madrid Airport at 7:51pm and reached our gate 6 minutes later.

The gorgeous Airbus A350 after landing in Madrid Airport

From Terminal 4S, we had to go to the main terminal ...

... which meant taking a train.

CONCLUSION

Having flown 199 times in business class flight prior to this flight, I was happy that my 200th flight was on the new A350 of British Airways featuring their new Club Suites. I love almost everything about the new seats: the direct aisle access, the modern design, lots of storage space and the HD personal screen. I was not able to check out the seat in bed mode although I noticed that the foot cubby is a bit narrow, unlike the ones they have on Qatar Airways Qsuite. Of course, nothing beats Qsuite but I definitely think that British Airways Club Suite is one of the best seats out there. As always, DO&CO catering takes the dining  experience to another level. Overall, I had an enjoyable flight and would not hesitate flying Club Suites again 😍