How You Can Fly on British Airways’ Fantastic New Business Class Product With Closed Suites

British Airways was the first airline to introduce fully flat business class seats in business class in the year 2000. While they updated the onboard entertainment screens and changed some minor design elements of the seats, the overall Club World product hadn’t had a major seat change in 19 years. That all changed when British Airways this year introduced their fantastic new Club Suites product. The seats will debut on their Airbus A350-1000s, although eventually they will also be retrofitted on most of their 777s and 787s. The new Club Suites product represents a massive upgrade over their old signature “ying and yang” business class product, and even is debatably an upgrade over their 747 and 777 first class products! So which aircraft and what routes will feature the new Club Suite product, and how can you fly on them? But first, what is British Airways’ old business class like, and how does it compare to their new one?

British Airways’ Old Club World

British Airways has operated quite a few versions of their old Club World design over the past two decades. However, they all have had the same basic design, which is unique to only British Airways. All of British Airways’ long-haul widebody aircraft up until now have featured those seats. They alternate between forwards and backwards facing seats, and do not feature all aisle access, as you have to climb over someone to get to the aisle if you are in a center or window seat.

The seats are in a 2-4-2 configuration on all of their 747s and 777s, which is simply unacceptable nowadays. However, their 787s and A380s feature slightly better seats in a 2-3-2 configuration, although notably, the cabins are less wide on those aircraft. While window seats do have a lot of privacy, you still have to climb over a seat (when it’s reclined) to get to the aisle, and the aisle seats are completely exposed to the aisle. While the seats are fully flat, they are debatably the worst fully flat business class seats, possibly besides United’s old 777 product. To put it simply, British Airways’ Club World has been in need for an upgrade for years.

The New Club Suites

In March, British Airways unveiled their new business class product, which was surprisingly better than many of us had guessed it would be. British Airways completely took a large jump in the right direction and introduced fully closed suites. These seats use the Rockwell Collins Super Diamond seat, which is popular with many airlines including Qatar Airways, American Airlines, Aeromexico, Virgin Australia, Air Canada, and others. The seat itself is one of the best business class seats on the market. However, unlike any other airline that has the seats, British Airways opted to install closed suites to the product, making it debatably the best business class seat (although the Qatar Airways Qsuite is still probably better, because of its functionality as a 4 person suite and because it has a double bed). British Airways will be the (I believe) fifth airline to install seats with fully closing doors in business class, after JetBlue (in 2013), Qatar Airways, Delta Air Lines, and China Eastern.

This came as a surprise for me at least, especially because it is debatably superior to their first class products. Their 777 and 747 first class products have some of the least spacious seats for first class, and are pretty average for business class seats. Their 787 first class, while more spacious than their new business class, also doesn’t have closed doors. British Airways has yet unveiled a new first class product with closed doors, so as of now, their only product that has closed doors is their Club Suite but not their first class product on any aircraft. So you might just end up in a better seat in business class than first class.

The new seat will debut on their A350-1000s, four of which they’ll take delivery of in 2019. They also will fit two 777-200s with the new seat this year and will continue to fit more of them throughout the next years. What I find ironic is that (some of) those 777s that they will outfit with the new business class product will have first class, but they still haven’t introduced a new first class product for their 777s, so it could be that on the very same plane, business class will have closed doors, but first class won’t. That being said, to have a good premium cabin seat, having closed doors isn’t the only factor, although it does provide a lot more privacy.

Now, back to the actual Club Suite seat. The Club World seats are reverse herringbone seats with closed doors (have I mentioned that already?) in a 1-2-1 configuration on the 777 and A350. According to British Airways, they have 40% more storage than their old business class product, have 18.5 inch entertainment screens (much larger than their flip out screens on their other aircraft), a vanity unit and a mirror, USB ports, and power outlets. Their A350-1000s have a total of 56 seats in business class, which is on the large size for business class cabins (which is a good thing for upgrades and award availability).

Which Routes Will Feature The New Seat?

British Airways will roll out the new Club Suite product on four permanent (and one temporary) routes for the Airbus A350-1000, and within the next several months, on other routes for the 777-200. It’s interesting to note that British Airways will first use the A350-1000 on the route to Madrid. This is because many airlines tend to use long-haul aircraft temporarily on short-haul routes so that the crew can familiarize themselves with the aircraft. British Airways recently rolled out their A350 on their Madrid route. For example, United did it both with the 777-300ER and the 787-10. Madrid seemed like the obvious route because British Airways already uses a 777 daily on that route.

Airbus A350-1000 (All Routes From London Heathrow):

• Madrid (Training Route, currently in service; runs August – September/October)
• Dubai (Begins September 2, 2019)
• Toronto-Pearson (Begins October 1, 2019)
• Tel Aviv (Begins December 1, 2019)
• Bangalore (Begins January 1, 2020)

What I found interesting about the A350 routes was that British Airways put the four first permanent A350 routes on only medium-haul, not long-haul routes. That comes with the disadvantage of not being able to use the A350’s large range. However, this does mean that they can operate more routes with the A350 with only a few aircraft frames, although I don’t really think that Bangalore and Toronto are the best routes to deploy your latest flagship aircraft on. I also really don’t get why they put the A350 on their Tel Aviv route, as that’s only a five hour flight. British Airways will also put their new Club Suite Product on some of their 777s, the routes of which are listed below:

British Airways 777-200 Club Suite Routes (Out Of London Heathrow):

• New York JFK (October 27, 2019)
• Seattle (January 2, 2020)
• Nairobi (January 14, 2020)
• Chicago O’Hare (January 28, 2020)
• Abuja (January 30, 2020)
• Tel Aviv (January 30, 2020)
• Kuwait City (February 1, 2020)
• Boston (February 2, 2020)
• Jeddah (February 20, 2020)
• Philidelphia (March 11, 2020)

British Airways has not scheduled the frequency of each of the routes listed above, so I would guess that a lot of those routes will be only operated a certain amount of times a week before they can become operated with the new aircraft daily. Be sure to check the BA website when you book to see the configuration, and that it is in a fully forward facing 1-2-1 configuration, not something else. The first route for the new 777-200s will be to New York, which is in clear opposition to Virgin Atlantic, which is debuting their new A350s with a new business class on that same route (and because it’s probably the most competative international route in the world). Overall, just because your flight is beyond a date that’s listed above and you’re booked in business class, it doesn’t 100% mean that you’ll get the new Club Suites. It’s also worth noting that British Airways hasn’t really scheduled the Club Suite on any ultra-long haul routes yet.

How You Can Fly British Airways’ New Club Suite

Now that we’ve covered the routes that the Club Suite will fly on and the specifics of the seat, are there any ways that you can fly on the Club Suite for cheap or on miles? The answer is yes. British Airways’ Club World (including the Club Suite seat) are bookable through multiple award programs, including British Airways Executive Club, American Airlines AAdvantage, and Alaska Airlines mileage plan.

British Airways’ Executive Club is one of the awards programs that has a fixed mileage chart, and it isn’t actually ridiculously expensive, like other airlines have. Their award chart is both distance and time of year based (peak meaning summer and holiday season, peak meaning mostly fall, early spring, and non holiday season winter). You theoretically could score a flight in the new Club Suites on the A350 from Tel Aviv to London for only a bit over 31,000 Avios (BA’s points currency) off-peak, although that is highly dependent on availability, as it’s in the 2000-3000 mile category. Additionally, a few transatlantic flights fall into the 3000-4000 mile category which only costs 50,000 miles for an off-peak flight in business class, such as their flights with the new seats to Boston, Chicago, New York, Toronto, and Phillidelphia. This can theoretically be a good deal, although it’s important to note that their prices go way up on-peak dates.

British Airways Avios can be transferred from Amex Points and Chase Ultimate Reward Points. To earn British Airways Avios, you can either fly on them or one of their OneWorld partners, or you could get the British Airways Visa Signature Card, which has a 100,000 point bonus that could theoretically get you a roundtrip transatlantic ticket with the new seats just for spending the sign up bonus minimum amount. However, lastly, it’s important to note that redeeming miles with all programs for British Airways flights, there are considerable surcharges.

Secondly, American Airlines also has an award chart for redeeming points. On all transatlantic flights, American charges only 57,500 miles for saver business class flights. This can come as a pretty good deal if you fly in their newest Club World Suite. In fact, American seemingly has unlimited saver award availability on their A350 flight to Toronto, which will be their first flight to North America with the new Club Suite, which can be booked for only 57,500 AA miles one-way. They also have some great award availability for most other Club Suite routes, including the one to Tel Aviv, which is bookable for only 42,500 miles. Generally, American Airlines has great award availability on British Airways flights, even on the Club Suite routes. However, the high surcharges still do apply if you book with AA.

The last and final option that I’ll be covering is booking through Alaska Airlines miles. Alaska Airlines has a moderately sized partnership with British Airways which allows them to access some of BA’s award space. Alaska Airlines has amazing mileage prices on some airlines, such as Cathay Pacific (70,000 miles for a one-way flight to Asia in first class), Hainan Airlines (50,000 miles for a one-way flight to China in business), or Fiji Airways (55,000 miles for a one-way flight to Australasia in business). However, British Airways is not one of those airlines that has unbelievable award prices.

Alaska Airlines charges 60,000 miles for a one-way flight in business class to Europe on British Airways, which is more than both American and Britis Airways charge. Alaska Airlines also does have similar award availability to American and British Airways on Club Suite flights. Although, do note that the same surcharges still apply if you book the flight through Alaska. Alaska doesn’t really have many transfer partners, so Alaska miles can be harder to come by, although they do have a 40,000 sign-up bonus credit card. However, with the surcharges and relatively high prices, British Airways (even the Club Suites) is not a very good use of Alaska Airlines miles.

Again Alaska Airlines does impose significant surcharges on BA flights to the point that it sometimes is probably just worth it to pay full out, if you want to fly business class without playing the upgrade lottery game. If you are just desperate to try out the new Club Suites, British Airways sells business class tickets from London to Madrid (which for some time will have the new seats) for only a bit less than $400 roundtrip. Additionally, British Airways also sells the Tel Aviv flight (on select dates) for $1,400 roundtrip, which is the least expensive permanent flight with the new seats. Finally, British Airways also has reasonable fares from London Heathrow to New York JFK roundtrip for about $1,800, although AARP members get a $200 discount on BA business class flights, and the BA credit card can get you a 10% discount, which can bring the price down to about $1,400 for a roundtrip transatlantic ticket with Club Suites.

Conclusion

British Airways’ Club Suites represents a massive improvement over the older Club World product, which has been around for almost 20 years. They are one of the first airlines to feature closed suites in business class, which is also ironic, because their first class product doesn’t even have doors. British Airways seemingly will introduce the Club Suite product rather rapidly, with putting the product on five routes total by 2020, and by retrofitting 777s with the new product over the next years. I sure hope that British Airways will retrofit their aircraft with the new product as fast as possible, as their current product isn’t that great.

What do you think of British Airways’ New Club Suite Product?