Review of British Airways flight from London to Toulouse in Business

Introduction

Hello and welcome to the return leg of this short series of BA Club Europe reviews.

After a lovely long-weekend in the UK, it was time to head home to the southwest of France–well, home for a few months of the year, anyway.

Unlike with the outbound flight, where an ATC strike threatened to ruin our plans–but ultimately had no impact–there was no stress for this return portion as the strike had concluded the day before. 

For the last day, we headed back up to London from Bath where we had nice views over the city from our hotel room balcony. 

Centrally located in Blackfriars, it was easy to get anywhere in central London on foot to meet up with friends and do some shopping, 

Routing

Flight reviews in this series. 

Check-in & Lounge

It was an easy trip on the Elizabeth line to get to Heathrow Terminal 3. As we weren't in a rush, there was no point in taking the slightly faster Heathrow Express. 

As we'd checked in on the BA app the previous day and only had hand luggage, we headed right from the train to the security checkpoint. 

The Fast Track lane at T3 was mostly empty and we were through in minutes. I was happy to see that they had the newer machines there so we didn't need to remove larger electronics or approved liquids. 

Elite members of oneworld programmes and premium cabin flyers are spoilt for choice with so many great lounges at LHR Terminal 3! 

It was nice being in T3 for a change and getting to experience something different than the BA lounges at T5. 

We decided on the Cathay Pacific lounge as it had been a few years since we'd been–I believe it was still closed the last time we were through T3 where we ended up at the Qantas lounge, which is always lovely. 

We were warmly greeted by lounge staff who directed us to the First class lounge entrance. One of the best perks of oneworld Emerald status is access to First class lounges. 

The Cathay First Class lounge is much smaller than the Business lounge, but was quiet at that time as a Hong Kong flight had just departed. 

We had no problem finding a nice seat by the windows. 

There is a full-service restaurant in the First lounge, but there are also self-serve drinks and snacks available in the main area. 

The selection of snacks is decent including some warm pies and crudités. 

Just a light snack to begin with before heading over to the restaurant later.

Ah, this is the life ☺️ 

As it got closer to dinner time, we left our cosy little corner and headed to the restaurant section. 

We weren't the only ones with the idea, as we got one of the last 2 open tables. Meanwhile, the main lounge was practically empty. 

Here's a look at the menu. I was looking forward to some Asian dishes–oh it all sounds good!

Started off with a dim sum basket and a Char siu pork Bao. Both very good. 

Beef Noodle soup

Grilled Salmon Laksa

Everything was very tasty and the service very efficient and friendly. 

The gate for our flight showed about 50 minutes prior to departure in the BA app. 

We headed off to the gate shortly after. It had gotten even quieter in the main lounge. 

Terminal 3 is older and not nearly as modern and airy as T5, but the lounge options are so much better. 

Fancy buggies! 

We got to the gate just as boarding was about to begin. 

The layout of the gate was actually spacious compared to some of the cramped gates in T5-A. And for once there was no massive hoard blocking the boarding lanes. 

On this flight, there were two Group 0 Ultra-Elite-Fancy-pants who boarded first. 

Group 1 was called shortly after. Nice views of this Virgin 787 on the way down the jet bridge. 

Our aircraft, G-DBCH, is a 19-year-old ex-BMI A319

Despite the aircraft's age, the cabin still looked quite fresh and modern, with the Collins Pinnacle seats being about 10 years old. These seats have held up well over the last decade. While the new Collins Meridian cabins introduced last year look great, I'm not sure they'll hold up as well, as I mentioned in a recent review. 

There were only 3 rows of Club on this flight, same as the outbound flight. 

The cabin looked to the a little more full the the previous flight, but there were still a few open seats. 

T3 is more fun for AvGeeks with much nicer variety of traffic than T5. 

Legroom in row 1 is fantastic, certainly much better than the tight 30" seat pitch in other rows of Club Europe. Unlike the previous flight where we'd had to put our carry-ons a few rows back due to safety equipment in the overhead locker over our seats on the DEF side, there was actually space on the ABC side so we had no issues this time. Knowing that there's no space above 1DEF will still not stop be from booking it again in the future when coming in to Heathrow because that's the side with the good views and I'm a nerd, so there's that. 😆

For all your electronic device charging needs, each seat in Club Europe has access to a combo 110v universal power and USB unit. 

Ok so the ATC strike in France may have been over, but we ended up having a short gate hold for congestion. Ironic that our outbound flight in the middle of the strike was not only on time, but arrived early, and now no strike and we're running late. 

The Flight

No big deal it was barely 10 minutes, then we pushed back and were on our way. 

We taxied past this beauty, looking particularly good in the late evening light. 

That's a good livery!

Off we go on a gorgeous cloudless evening. 

The Wi-Fi was turned on once the aircraft reached 10,000 ft in altitude. 

Members of the British Airways Club have free access to the messaging plan, which lets you use messaging apps, e-mail, and very light browsing. 

For those who don't have a BA account, messaging plans start at £1.99. 

Full Browse & Stream plans are £4.99 for an hour or £6.99 for the full flight. Considering that this flight is barely more than an hour in the air, the full flight at £6.99 plan wouldn't make sense. 

For such a short flight, I'm fine with just the free messaging. 

There is no IFE on short-haul flights, but BA have a digital copy of the in-flight High Life magazine available in the Wi-Fi portal, as well as destination weather forecasts. 

The in-seat power is usually turned on at the same time as the Wi-Fi. 

There was no IFE, but at least there were good views out the window with some beautiful sunset colours. 

For the meal, there were two options, a hot option (I've forgotten what it was), and a Mediterranean salad. I went for the salad as I was still full from the lounge. 

The flight went by very quickly, with a flight time of only 1h15m. The aircraft made the descent into TLS with the last rays of daylight. 

It was fully night by the time we landed…only about 10 minutes behind schedule. 

Welcome to Toulouse…la ville rose 💖