British Airways and the mystery of the missing super-thin seats

Links on Head for Points may pay us an affiliate commission. A list of partners is here.

We ran an article last week about the return to service of G-MEDN, the first British Airways A321 aircraft to be ‘densified’ with additional seating. This was primarily due to the two loos being moved into the back wall of the aircraft.

The other change was meant to be the introduction of super-thin Recaro seating in two thirds of the aircraft, from row 12 or row 14 depending on aircraft type.

British Airways BA A320neo

And yet, in an article published late on Friday night, British Airways spoke to Business Traveller to refute this.

This is a summary of what British Airways said:

All of the people writing about the new configuration online are confused

The new A320neo and A321neo aircraft, to be delivered from April, WILL have a mix of the current and super-thin seating

However, the existing A320 and A321 fleet is not changing. All seats will be the current (‘Pinnacle’) seat, albeit reworked to include USB and power sockets.

This creates as many questions as it answers. This is what British Airways told the City:

How can British Airways have the same numbers of seats on an A321 with the current seating and the forthcoming A321neo aircraft with super-thin seating? Has the seat pitch been reduced even though the seats are the same?

Here is the only picture I have seen so far of the new BA ‘spaceflex’ cabin on G-MEDN. It doesn’t help much as it is taken from the front where the seats would be the same anyway:

To make things even more confusing, Iberia is definitely retro-fitting its super-thin seats onto its existing Airbus aircraft as well as on its new deliveries. The article does not, admittedly, imply that BA was planning a retro-fit.

It is all a bit odd. It is even odder than BA is telling Business Traveller that ourselves, Flyertalk, PPrune and various other sites have been printing incorrect information, when they could have contacted all of us directly. If we have been sharing incorrect information about the new seats then, BA, we’re sorry ….. but you could just have rung us or even invited the media on the Glasgow flight on Thursday. It probably didn’t help that the entire travel press, including ourselves, was in Berlin last week for the ITB trade show.

It seems that we may end up with two types of Airbus short-haul planes at Heathrow. New neo ones with a mix of current and super-thin seats, and the older Airbus aircraft which just have the current seats. All with have the new thin toilets built into the back wall. Confusing …. and unhelpful if you want to avoid the new Recaro seats.

How to earn Avios points from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards. Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios:

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

(Want to earn more Avios? Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)

Category

British Airways and Avios

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Ian says:

11 Mar11 March 06:56

I wonder if they are keeping these planes for when club Europe is too busy for 8 rows…
- Save East Coast Rewards says:
  
  11 Mar11 March 13:05
  
  The limit to 7 rows is due to galley space and these aircraft have limited galley space due to the reduction in the rear galley to fit those new mini toilets.
  
  I believe the row limitation is only for the longer flights as they have more extensive catering, although this is just as frustrating as the longer the flight the more likely you’re going to want to upgrade.
Kiran says:

11 Mar11 March 07:08

Are there any European regional airlines with decent seats anymore? I was on Lufthansa business class flight from FRA to MUC on n A319 and the seat was pretty horrible and cramped.
- Ian says:
  
  11 Mar11 March 08:57
  
  Yes, Air France refitted its A320s a few years ago with a new seat. It’s quite thin and doesn’t recline (GOOD). I’ve only flown internal flights of 1 hour+ (where at least until recently you were still served a drink and biscuit) and found them quite comfortable. I’d probably choose Air France all the time for Paris-London flights if they didn’t use T4 at LHR.
  - Bob says:
    
    11 Mar11 March 11:53
    
    And Iberia has bought one year ago one Airbus A319 from Air France which had the AF recaro seats.
    
    Iberia has not refitted anything and this plane is used by Iberia, with the Air France seats, probably not to LHR I guess.
    
    Just think about this.
    Ryannair said at the time, it will choose non reclining seats.
    And Air France, 10 years ago already now I think, was the launch customer of this recaro non reclining seat.
    Before Ryannair had started any roll-out of its non reclining seats.
    
    Now on a Orly-Toulouse flight, you have the choice of a 180 recaro seats A320 with Air France or a 180 recaro seats A320 with easyjet.
    Only the color changes.
DS says:

11 Mar11 March 07:33

Iberia Express got the slimline seats 2 years ago https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/iberia-airlines-iberia-plus/1745423-iberia-express-new-slimline-seats-seat-usb-socket-reviewed.html
Mikeact says:

11 Mar11 March 07:58

A classic case of the left hand / right hand etc.
Dave says:

11 Mar11 March 08:19

For consistency I wonder why they don’t take the back rows from the existing fleet and put them at the front of the new aircraft. Then they’d only be buying the slimlines.
- Save East Coast Rewards says:
  
  11 Mar11 March 13:08
  
  All the seats on this aircraft are new. It was a bmi midhaul aircraft which had proper lie flat business class seats and the economy seats had seat back screens therefore they needed to replace all the seats on here with the new style. That’s another reason why it’s odd they never added the slimline seats.
Harry says:

11 Mar11 March 08:31

Best not to try to avoid the new Recaro seats, just avoid BA!
- Mikeact says:
  
  11 Mar11 March 08:45
  
  Hey Harry….you been away or AWOL?
  - Save East Coast Rewards says:
    
    11 Mar11 March 14:10
    
    But apparently it’s not got any of the wafer thin seats, just the wafer thin toilet!
- Mike says:
  
  11 Mar11 March 21:12
  
  Harry – welcome back
  - Crafty says:
    
    12 Mar12 March 02:57
    
    Looks like a different Harry to me…
Jane says:

11 Mar11 March 09:25

So does this mean that the pitch will be even less at the back of the refitted planes?
- Rob says:
  
  11 Mar11 March 10:27
  
  The new planes, definitely. We simply don’t know on the retrofits. Perhaps I try to fly G-MEDN this week, diary is very clear.
  - Save East Coast Rewards says:
    
    11 Mar11 March 13:10
    
    I wanted to fly it this weekend but it doesn’t seem to be operating (or is there a way for BA to hide its movements from Flightradar24?)
Mark says:

11 Mar11 March 09:28

What I don’t get is it says there’s 205 seats on the 321. Where’s the odd seat?
- Nick says:
  
  11 Mar11 March 10:10
  
  Ever flown on rather A321? It has a few rows of 2 seats near the emergency exits (currently – on BA at least – rows 8 and 20). On the left there’s a gap, on the right there’s crew jumpseats by the doors. Add a few of these in and you get an odd number.
  - Lumma says:
    
    11 Mar11 March 10:18
    
    There’s one non exit row which only has two seats too, which makes the odd number.
    
    On the a321 it’s better to avoid the 2 seat exit rows as they don’t seem to have any extra space than the normal seat. The other exit rows are great as you can get up from the window without disturbing the other two passengers