Best seats: Club Europe business class, British Airways Airbus A321

If you're transferring to a British Airways flight at Heathrow, or simply jetting around Europe from London, you're quite likely to be on one of BA's Airbus A321s.

In the latest of our series of on-the-plane guides to picking the best seat for your flights we'll show you how to choose the most spacious seat in Club Europe, British Airways' European business class on the A321.

(In Club Europe on the regular A320 or the shortened A319? We've got you covered there too.)

The plane and the cabin

British Airways' A321 planes are the stretched version of Airbus' single-aisle Airbus A320. You'll find the same plane closer to home flying for Jetstar, but BA's have a convertible "Eurobusiness" cabin at the front.

Club Europe is separated from Euro Traveller (economy) by a movable curtain.

Club Europe isn't, frankly, worth the extra fare on its own -- all you get is a slightly wider regular economy seat and a bit of extra legroom, with nobody next to you. (Have a read of our review of the Euro Traveller economy class service for some pictures of the seats you'll find on board.)

Here's the Eurobusiness seat itself, for starters.

But if you're connecting as part of a long-haul business class flight to Australia or elsewhere, Club Europe is likely what you'll be flying.

The best seats on the plane

1C: if you're tall, it's hard to beat the very front seat on the left hand side, where the bulkhead wall in front of you doesn't stretch all the way across. Stretch your legs out to your heart's content, as long as you mind the trolleys from the galley kitchen to your right and the people heading for the lavatory ahead of you.

1F 1D: these bulkhead front-row seats on the right-hand side are slightly wider and have more elbow-room than seats on the left because of the way the convertible Eurobusiness seating expands.

1A: if you like a window seat, this bulkhead is a pretty good choice, and you'll likely be able to hop out without disturbing aisle passenger 1C.

8F 8A 8C: there's no 8D in this emergency exit row, so these seats have heaps of legroom. The downside of selecting this row comes if there's not a lot of business passengers on your flight and the curtain separating economy from business is ahead of row -- you'll be reseated in whatever business class seat is left.

9D: with no 8D, you'll have a heap of room to stretch out, but the same caveat for quiet business flights applies.

D or F seats: the way that Eurobusiness works means that the middle seat on the left contracts and the one on the right expands. So you'll have a bit more personal space on the right hand side of the plane.

The worst seats on the plane

Anything behind row 8: these seats are further back, preventing a quick exit, and closer to the hustle and bustle of economy. Picking a seat back here is likely to end up with you being reassigned to a different spot in the event that there's more demand for economy than business -- a likely situation.

Previously in our best seats series: 

•  Business Class on Malaysia Airlines' A330
•  Business Class on Etihad's A340-600
• Business Class on Emirates' A380
• Club World (Business Class) on British Airways' 747
• Business Class on Singapore Airlines' A380

John Walton

Aviation journalist and travel columnist John took his first long-haul flight when he was eight weeks old and hasn't looked back since. Well, except when facing rearwards in business class.