[FDOS_UK]

[quote quote=800537]

esselle wrote:

Couple of thoughts;

The corridor in your video looks very bland and unwelcoming. Is it that bad? Good to see them selling some of the space though.

Also, whilst £400m is a lot of money, it is difficult to benchmark. How does it compare with investments made by other airlines upgrade programmes?

esselle

I can’t answer your question, but to add perspective, in the year to 31 December 2015, BA generated passenger income of £10,164,000,000.

£400,000,000 is 3.9% of that. Doesn’t strike me as being particulalry high, especially if you consider what would be set in reserve as provisions for ongoing operational maintenance, repairs and replacement of lounges etc. Plus the Gatwick lounge investment was driven by external factors, not necessarily BA’s choice.

[/quote]

[Tom Otley]

[quote quote=800526]Couple of thoughts;

The corridor in your video looks very bland and unwelcoming. Is it that bad? Good to see them selling some of the space though.

Also, whilst £400m is a lot of money, it is difficult to benchmark. How does it compare with investments made by other airlines upgrade programmes?

[/quote]

My understanding is that the corridor will have shops in it – on the left hand side where those adverts are. So at the moment, I would agree it’s nothing to get excited about – apart from the fact you are then straight into the lounge.

Hard to say because there’s no breakdown of that £400 million between the two lots of Gatwick lounges, the First Wing and then the CW improvements. My guess would be that the majority went on the LGW lounges and then the First Wing, but I might be wrong.

[LuganoPirate]

Looking at the photo, the lounge seems very cold and crowded and not very well laid out. Admittedly the crowds could be due to all the journalists invited that day but the layout does not seem particularly welcoming or that private.

If I compare it to the First Class lounge in Zurich or Frankfurt, they are miles apart, warm and cosy with a good degree of privacy afforded it if you want.

Do BA drive you to the plane or must you walk yourself?
At FRA not only do they drive you, but you enter the dock from a side door bypassing all queues, and walk straight on board and to your seat.
At Zurich there is a separate lane for First/Business again allowing you to avoid the queues. Last time I flew BA you had a separate desk for presenting your boarding pass, but then everyone was herded into the same finger dock to board!

[FDOS_UK]

[quote quote=800740]Looking at the photo, the lounge seems very cold and crowded and not very well laid out. Admittedly the crowds could be due to all the journalists invited that day but the layout does not seem particularly welcoming or that private.

If I compare it to the First Class lounge in Zurich or Frankfurt, they are miles apart, warm and cosy with a good degree of privacy afforded it if you want.

Do BA drive you to the plane or must you walk yourself?
At FRA not only do they drive you, but you enter the dock from a side door bypassing all queues, and walk straight on board and to your seat.
At Zurich there is a separate lane for First/Business again allowing you to avoid the queues. Last time I flew BA you had a separate desk for presenting your boarding pass, but then everyone was herded into the same finger dock to board!

[/quote]

The only place BA drives first class pax is to distraction, by boarding some from coach gates and ramming them into crowded coaches with the smelly classes 😉

[MartynSinclair]

It may only be one small piece of a much larger jigsaw puzzle, but the First Class Wing and alleyway, with or without a retail outlet, is indeed a very pleasant product enhancement.

Well done BA, now let’s see what else is coming….

[747foreverforus]

I used the First Wing on Thursday morning at around 8.30am, a rather pleasant experience even the security staff seem to have re-programmed to provide a polite service. It was very quiet when I passed through so no issues at all, even though it’s slightly strange checking into the lounge and then going through security, though I assume it has been set this way to ensure that only eligible passengers are admitted, it’s a shame that BA don’t police the boarding policy in the same way! Overall an improvement, now for the rest of the promises………..

[IanFromHKG]

[quote quote=800623]

esselle wrote:

My understanding is that the corridor will have shops in it – on the left hand side where those adverts are. So at the moment, I would agree it;s noting to get excited about – apart from the fact you are then straight into the lounge.[/quote]

How is that going to work? Will these be shops marketing their products exclusively to First and emerald customers, or will they perchance be the back entrance to existing shops? If the latter, what is to stop someone walking through from the other side?

[Tom Otley]

Yes, that’s right – they will be high-end shops for high-end customers, not shops with front doors for one set of customers and back doors for another…

[IanFromHKG]

So long as they include a Jo Malone with free samples, I will be happy 🙂

[Nogbad01]

Had my first trip through “the first wing” yesterday. On the whole a big improvement from the usual overcrowded security.
Lots of helpful people hanging around, and through security in 5 mins.

The first lounge seemed improved too with better food options (the salads and burgers available to be brought to the seat were new I think, unless I have always missed them before).

This coupled with the introduction of CE on the Manchester shuttle made the whole trip much more pleasant. CE food was great (not what I was expecting after some dire offerings on recent trips to Europe) and stewards managed to get everything served and collected efficiently.

I was sat in row 1 though, so had plenty of leg room 🙂

[Window-seat]

I just used the first wing for the first time if you will pardon the pun. A huge improvement. Quick, chic, efficient. I even liked the advertising screens in the corridor (professional interest). They would be better used for some kind of art installation but you can’t have it all. Big improvement. Now lest hope the redesign the sound so it doesn’t look like it was designed by the Daily Mail.

[FDOS_UK]

Having used it for the first time, last week, I thought it was v good.

However, given that much of BA’s connecting premium pax will not get to use it, it’s a shame that they will not experience the calm and courteous reception and still have to fight their way through the normal channels.

[IanFromHKG]

Nogbad01, you must have just missed them before – the burgers (at least – can’t speak for the rabbit food) at the table have been a longstanding and welcome option, although I think that a while ago they started hiding the menus in order to discourage people from ordering them. A little like the way they don’t have champagne at the self-service bars in the J lounge and you have to ask for it.

[openfly]

First Class Wing….the best thing to happen to BA Premiums since BOAC!! Just a shame the premium service falls apart at the gate, where premiums are almost the last to board. Going to CPT two weeks ago there were 41 preboards!

[Author]

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