British Airways to “Cap Club Europe at Seven Rows”

British Airways has a not-so-welcome surprise for passengers flying in Club Europe: you’ll soon have to fight over just 28 seats, the new maximum for that cabin in the airline’s planes. Economy passengers can expect some unwelcome changes also with restricted duty-free and rearranged bathrooms.

We’ve known for a while about British Airways’ plan to cap the amount of fliers in Club Europe, and that limit has finally been set—to only 28 passengers, or seven rows.

It may seem like a small amount, but the airline has a pretty good reason for it. The limit is all about the catering service on board. Currently, Club Europe members get a tray-based catering system. In order to keep that catering style in place, the seats need to be limited because otherwise, British Airways just can’t afford it. Ultimately more changes could be on the way as far as the style of catering in that cabin, including no trays at all or smaller dishes, Head for Points suggested.

Economy cabin members should be expecting some changes as well. There’s a space problem on British Airways flights in the form of too little galley space. So for economy travelers, that means no more in-flight duty free, bathrooms moved to the rear wall of the plane, and an ultra-slim seat that doesn’t recline and only has a 29-inch pitch.

More seats will be crammed into the cabin with the smaller setup, and more rows will take the place of where the bathrooms once were. And heads up, these new aircraft changes are also coming to Aer Lingus, Vueling, and Iberia.

For the FlyerTalk on this topic, head to this thread.

[Image: British Airways]