Review of British Airways flight from Madrid to London in Business

Introduction

After a wonderful summer in Europe it was time to head back to the U.S. and back to reality. 

As oneworld loyalists, as usual, we went through London to catch the British Airways flight home to San Diego. For this first leg, we just went with the most conveniently timed option, which was just a boring old BA A319. We've done the Iberia widebodies a few times on this hub-to-hub route, but those flights were too early in the morning and we specifically chose to book the later LHR-SAN of the two daily flights to avoid an early morning. 

Routing

Flights in this series

Check-in & Lounge

We arrived at MAD T4 a little over 2 hours before departure. Surprisingly, for a little A319, there were quite a few people in both the Club Europe and Economy queues. 

Luckily it wasn't too long of a wait to check in, about 15 minutes. Our bags were checked through to San Diego and we were on our way. Security was quick and easy as usual at the T4 Fast Track lanes. You don't have to take anything out of bags, which makes the process smooth and painless. 

Being that London is outside of the Schengen area, BA flights operate out of the Terminal 4 Satellite terminal, or T4S for short. It's a bit of a hike to get out there as you have to take an underground train, which is down several sets of escalators. 

Once at T4S, all passengers on non-Schengen flights must go through passport control, which is usually pretty quick, at least with European passports.

The Iberia Velazquez lounge entrance is located inside the duty free area on arriving in the departure area. It's easy to miss if you're not familiar with the airport. 

Iberia have two lounges in MAD T4, the Dali Lounge in the main terminal for Schengen flights and the Velazquez lounge in the T4 Satellite terminal for non-Schengen flights. While I like both lounges, and find they have similar food and drink offerings, I have a slight preference for the T4S lounge as it's huge and usually not very crowded with nice views of the tarmac.

We usually sit at the tables near the buffet as it's the easiest option for a family, especially if you want to have a bite to eat. 

As usual, there is a decent selection of hot and cold dishes. This early in the day it was all breakfast fare. 

By the buffet there are nice views of planes for AvGeeks

Speaking of being an AvGeek, I tracked the inbound flight from London to see it arrive.

There is goes taxiing right in front of the lounge.

Wait…where is it going? It circled back away from the terminal!

Oh weird, a remote stand…that's a first for me at MAD, at least on a mainline aircraft. 

Boarding

Having never been to a bus gate at MAD T4–despite flying in and out dozens of times a year–we left the lounge a little earlier than usual to find the gate. 

Yep, it's definitely a bus gate if it's on the ground level. 

And here I thought we were getting to the gate early…pfff, there was already a long line of people queued up for both the priority and regular lanes. 

Boarding began with Group 0, then Group 1, but honestly there's no point to rushing to be first when there's bus boarding since Groups 0, 1, and 2 are all crammed on to the same bus. 

That being the case we were far from being among the first on board. 

Yes, ground boarding is inconvenient, but I always enjoy the views 😍

There were five rows of Club Europe on today's little A319. 

Despite having gotten the new short-haul cabins twice before this flight, I still find that these "old" cabins continue to look fresh and modern. 

As everyone knows, Business class seats within Europe are the same as Economy but with the middle seat blocked. 

As far as Euro-biz cabins go, I prefer British Airways hard product as there is a cocktail table between seats on most aircraft, whereas most other European carriers just leave an empty seat with nothing special. 

Legroom isn't great at 30-31" pitch, but it's fine for a 2-hour flight. I was disappointed to find that this was one of the random A319s that don't have in-seat power or Wi-Fi. This particular aircraft, G-EUOF, a 24 year-old frame, has since been retired in October 2025.  

Cabin crew distributed water in the Club cabin once boarding was completed. 

The Flight

We departed the stand a few minutes behind schedule. It seems common to take a few minutes delay when boarding from a remote stand, in my experience. 

Nice varied traffic on the taxi out to the runway. 

And we're off for the short 2-hour hop over to London. 

Shortly after takeoff, cabin crew distribute menus. 

Printed menus are not available on most short-haul flights–they generally have them on longer flights and premium routes like this hub-to-hub flight. 

The in-flight service begins with pre-meal drinks and a snack. 

For the main, I went for the Thai prawns, which was tasty and flavourful. 

Red Thai coconut prawn curry
with steamed jasmine rice

My son's child meal was macaroni and cheese with vegetables. What kid doesn't love Mac n' cheese?

Cabin crew were attentive and through the cabin regularly for drink refills. 

Leaving France near the border between Normandie and Brittany. 

It took barely 15 minutes to cross the English Channel and before we knew it we were making our descent with the usual circle or two in a holding pattern. 

I'd been lucky with great views on landing this summer with 4 out of 4 flights. 

As often as we fly into Heathrow, I just never tire of this view. 

Despite the small 5 minute delay on departure, we made up the time and landed early. 

We arrived at the gate 11 minutes ahead of schedule.