Whoever designed these business class seats should never work again

The airline: British Airways

• Route London to Sydney, flight BA15 via Singapore
• Frequency Daily
• Aircraft Boeing 787 Dreamliner
• Class Club World (Business Class); seat 12K
• Flight time London to Singapore is 13 hours, 40 minutes; Singapore to Sydney is 7 hours, 40 minutes

Checking in

Priority check-in is fast and smart and includes entry to the BA lounge in London Heathrow, a wondrous place of Scottish salmon cakes, scotch eggs, English cheddar and British beer.

Baggage

Two checked luggage for each business class passenger of up to 32 kilograms per bag is permitted, plus two carry-on bags. There’s no weight limit for carry-on bags with BA, but its luggage rules state “you must be able to lift your cabin bag into the overhead compartment unassisted”.

Loyalty scheme

The British Airways Club with loyalty Avios, part of the Oneworld alliance, along with airlines like Qantas, Cathay Pacific, Qatar Airways and American Airlines. You’ll earn 13,125 Qantas Frequent Flyer points for this flight, less than you would earn (20,150) if flying with Qantas.

The seat

The 24 seats in the Club World cabin are in a 2-3-2 layout, have a 72-inch (183 cm) pitch (legroom) and are 20 inches (51cm) wide, and lie flat for sleeping. But whoever designed them should never work again. The aisle seats are OK, although they are very exposed and have little privacy from anyone standing or walking in the aisle, while the occupants of the window seats … woe is them! They, bizarrely, face backwards through the plane so are awkwardly pretty much face-to-face with the person in the neighbouring seat until the steward helpfully pushes a button for a screen to roll up between the two.

But, much worse, the weird configuration means the window person has to clamber over the legs and feet of the passenger diagonally opposite any time they want to get to the aisle or to the toilet. It makes for an extremely stressful flight. The more you worry about the climb – and it invariably involves accidentally kicking the sleeping passenger – the more you find you need to go to the bathroom. In addition, your food has to be passed over the head of your neighbour and there’s little space to put personal belongings, bar a small drawer by your feet that you can’t access when the bed is folded out.

BA actually has two distinct business classes in the air – the other one, Club Suites, is excellent, and this one, Club World, is ghastly. The steward tells me this abomination is to be replaced “soon” and not a minute before time! But if you’re unfortunate enough to be flying old-style, make sure you book an aisle seat, unless you have an iron bladder, can sleep for 14 hours straight and simply don’t care about comfort, in which case you’d probably be flying economy anyway.

There’s a power socket and USB port, and the White Company recycled plastic toiletry bag contains an eye mask, flannel, toothbrush and toothpaste, moisturiser, hand cream and lip balm.

Entertainment + tech

The TV swings around from the wall but, unfortunately, mine won’t stay in that swing position to enable me to watch it, until staff stuff wooden drink stirrers down the hinges to make it. The touch-screen entertainment system is nothing special, and is irritating in that it doesn’t list the shows or movies, so you have to scroll through them all. On the plus side, it allows you to have product in the English language and with English subtitles, something many other airlines’ systems don’t allow. There’s no paid-for Wi-Fi on the second leg of the flight – it costs £4.99-£21.99 ($9.85-$43.43) depending on your chosen time – despite staff trying to reset the system.

Service

Service in this class is affable and efficient, albeit a tad apologetic, with staff responding quickly to the call button.

Food

Two meals are served during each flight, and come as a welcome distraction. The first leg has dinner – with roasted artichoke soup as a starter (delicious!) – and then a choice of grilled Scottish salmon, sweet and sour chicken or courgette and truffle pasta. It’s all surprisingly good. The other meal is breakfast, which is pleasant enough, especially considering the end of the flight is nigh.

Sustainability

The airline has a “BA Better World” sustainability strategy, aiming for net zero emissions by 2050 by increasingly using sustainable aviation fuel, investing in carbon removal technologies and improving efficiency.

One more thing

There’s a very awkwardly placed reading light that it seems everyone has to ask the flight attendant to find, and because it’s over your shoulder rather than overhead, it’s not particularly great for reading.

The price

From about $10,200 for business return Sydney to London, roughly twice the cost of premium economy, and more than five times the price of economy (about $1900 return).**

The verdict

Business class should feel like an indulgent, very comfortable treat. By no stretch of the imagination, even if you were lucky enough to nab an aisle seat – with merely the danger of being kicked as your neighbour climbed over you – could this be considered as such.

Our rating out of five

★

The writer flew courtesy of Explora Journeys. See britishairways.com

*For more information about air travel and sustainability, see iata.org

**Fares are based on those available for travel three months from the time of publication and are subject to change.