A First Look: The New A350 Club Suite That Will Take British Airways Into A New Era

In its centenary year, British Airways is pinning a lot to the lovely curved wing tips of its first A350. It’s not the first airline to get the aircraft; Qatar and Finnair already have the Airbus answer to the Dreamliner.

However, British Airways has also used it to launch its new Club class product and the airline is putting numbers behind it. There will be 56 seats in British Airways’s A350 Club configuration (when Virgin launches its A350, it will have 44 in Upper Class) along with 56 in World Traveller Plus and 219 in World Traveller. 

First impressions? Especially with the very successful White Company bedding that British Airways introduced last year, the new Club Suite feels like the aviation equivalent of the very stately, Royal Family-endorsed, Kensington pram made by Silver Cross, with the same sense of classic, durable styling. 

Branding-wise, the seats are a wholly understandable dark blue, picked out in white. Recline the flatbed with its noise-cancelling felt at the head and secure the privacy door and it feels like a kingdom. Someone taller than me – 6ft 3 – who tried the bed fully reclined, reported that he could stretch out fully. 

It’s tidy too.The table tucks completely under the biggest of the three screens. There’s a large mirror too if you slide back a panel magazine rack and bags can be stored in an ottoman at the end of the seat.   Above all, there are lidded trays including a shallow one for glasses and a deeper one with USB charging points and a universal socket. The tray lids have gaps for leads.  

The way we travel is changing, in both big ways and small. So has the stuff we take with us; all classes on the A350 will have USB charge points in the seats (World Traveller Plus and Club will have two). 

Club is an airline class with an increasing number of leisure travellers and a key challenge for every Club airline designer is getting the privacy/conviviality mix right. Many would feel that the BA’s former ying-yang set-up had rather too much of the latter. Sleeping top to tail meant you might have to navigate across a neighbour who had their flatbed out.  The new BA Club Suite is a much more industry standard 1-2-1 set up with the window seats angled for privacy; passengers who want to chat will want to be centre seats.

The other classes haven’t seen so many changes although Premium passengers get new foot rests and new blankets and pillows. Look down in the World Traveller Plus and you’ll also see a water bottle holder has been included, an incredibly useful addition. (I wish there were ones in World Traveller too.) 

Until the fall, savvy passengers will be able to experience the A350 for a bargain rate on selected short-haul flights to Madrid, followed by Dubai on September 2, Toronto on October 1, followed by Tel Aviv and Bangalore. 

Will you sleep like a baby? Well, that’s a test for long-haul.