BA announced its new Club World back in 2006 (see Business Traveller, November 2007) and by early this summer it was available on all Boeing 747 JFK flights departing London Heathrow, with an eventual completion date of the end of 2008.
Despite seeing it in-flight on several occasions (usually while walking through it to premium economy or economy), Business Traveller has waited until now to review the seat, so that there's a chance it is either on your next flight, or will soon be coming to that route. The seating will be fitted to BA's 57-strong fleet of B747s and the 43 B777s it operates, but probably not on the B767s. This review, unlike our normal Tried and Tested reviews, focuses solely on the on-board product.
BOARDING For regular Club World flyers, the first change comes when boarding – depending on the configuration of the plane (see box opposite), the premium economy section (World Traveller Plus) may well be in the cabin in front of the business (Club World) section.
I had chosen a rear-facing window seat: good for being undisturbed, bad if you want to get up several times during the flight, since you have to jump over the feet of the person in the aisle. There is a new table and 10-inch TV screen, both of which fit flush into the side of the seat. There are also noise-cancelling headphones and a US plug adaptor for laptops. A new Molton Brown washbag is given out (with the same products inside as the old one) and, when it comes to sleep, a new cotton blanket.
Between the seats, in place of the old privacy fan, there is now a screen made of an electronically-controlled material called Lumisty. It remains down before take-off, which means you have the old problem of sitting almost face-to-face with the passenger opposite, although afterwards it can be left up.
The staff, however, found it difficult to do meal service over this, with some reaching over the top and inviting you to take the tray, and others going around the end of the seat so you have to lean forward and around the TV screen to help them. Neither solution is very convenient for either server or served, and I was told by the staff that it's tough on their backs to reach so far, so some just push down the screen when they need to serve a window seat.
THE SEAT Much has been made by BA's competitors of how little difference there is between the new product and the old, but in appearance there is much to be remarked upon. The colour scheme is brighter, the lines more defined, and there was a neat storage drawer into which I put my shoes, only to realise later that it was meant for laptops. This allows busy executives to keep working until the last moment before landing, without having to stow their laptop in the overhead locker.
Industrial design agency Tangerine, which developed the original flat-bed product, was brought in again to fine-tune the seat, while creative inspiration came from Tyler Brûlé, founder of Wallpaper*, and his design agency Winkreative. The seat flattens out to 6ft (182.9cm) in length, but also reclines into what is called the "Z" position, which extends the seat to 6ft 6in (198cm) and which supports the legs and lower back in a similar way to a sun lounger.
The new seats are 25 per cent wider than before (the armrests disappear when the seat is reclined), but they seem shorter. I am average height (5ft 11in) but found that if I lay flat my feet were against the back of the seat in front. It wasn't a problem for me, but might be uncomfortable for taller flyers.
More problematical was the fact that the seat was slightly defective, in that even when flat, if pressure was put on the seat section (effectively the middle of the bed) for instance by turning over when sleeping, then the top section of the bed flipped up from the horizontal. This wasn't enough to be alarming, but was sufficient to wake me each time. I reported the fault to the staff, who said it wasn't an uncommon one.
The other fault was with the new audiovisual-on-demand (AVOD) system, which after allowing me to watch one film failed to restart after a long pause (when I was sleeping). Despite several attempts by the staff to reset it, I had only radio programmes and the map for company after that. Again, it seems these teething problems are continuing, even after several months, although I have flown in other cabins using the new AVOD without problems, so perhaps I was just unlucky on this occasion.
THE FLIGHT The onboard food is as good as before, with an impressive choice of starters and mains. There's also a revamped Club Kitchen for those who want to snack or drink throughout the flight. By the time I'd woken it had all been eaten, which is probably a good advert for it.
VERDICT For those using BA's Club World on a regular basis, there wasn't a lot wrong with the old product, so this feels more like fine-tuning than a radical overhaul. It looks fresher, has some nice new ideas (the laptop drawer, proper charging for laptops and a better dividing screen, as well as AVOD) and ensure Club World remains a popular choice on premium routes.
Tom Otley
The layout
British Airway's Boeing 747 fleet is configured in what it refers to as a mid-J and hi-J layout, depending on route. The difference refers to the number of business class (J) seats. In the past, this was 38 (mid-J) and 70 (hi-J). This is now being changed to 52 and 70. As a result, low-J will be phased out as the new J seating is introduced.
The two diagrams here show the difference that the new Club World has made to the mid-J layout on BA's Boeing 747-400 fleet (to visualise the hi-J layout, look at the diagram on the right, and replace the World Traveller Plus [WTP] seating with J-class seating). In the new mid-J configuration, WTP has swapped cabins with Club World. The cabin sizes remained constant, allowing the transition to be quicker than if the internal framework of the aircraft had been altered.
Regular flyers will also note that the new layout means that the oft-quoted favourite row of the frequent Club World flyer – row 12 – now only applies in the hi-J configuration. Why is row 12 a good one? Because on arrival, once first class has departed, row 12 is at the head of the queue to disembark, with the rest of business, premium economy and economy behind. It doesn't make too much difference if you have luggage to wait for, but with hand luggage only, this can make a big difference. Since the relaxing of the one-bag rule looks a possibility, number 12 will still be a magic row to reserve for those in a rush flying the hi-J configuration.
(NB: normally, the plane is embarked through door 2 and disembarked through door 1, although this depends on airports and airbridges available.)
