787 DREAMLINER DELAY TO BA

Hello travelworld

“just look how cramped the first class seats are on the early Pan Am aircraft … “

Yes, but this where a photo doesn’t tell the whole truth.

First class downstairs appears cramped with today’s first class but then passengers had use of a separate dining room on the upper deck.

http://www.retroist.com/2013/01/01/pan-am-had-dining-rooms/

But at the same time, look at Pan Am’s economy class cabin. See how spacious the economy seats were on Pan Am’s early B747s.

That’s because the B747 seating in the 70s was 9-across rather than the 10-across of today.

@flyingcanadian, it is Ethiopian that flew today, not Etihad.

I wouldn’t get too excited about this aircraft, it’s all about playing sardines and will be especially unpleasant in Y, due to lack of shoulder width.

I am inclined to agree with FDos about the 787.

The more I learn about aircraft, especially the seating layout most airlines are adopted, the less excited I am about flying it, and thus choosing it.JAL and ANA appeal, but Japan is sadly not really on my likely travel plans.
A friend of mine flew an ET 787 a few months, who is real aero geek, was quite “excited” about it, but was glad to get off!

The latest report from ‘informed sources’ on FlyerTalk appear to suggest

Hearing that the first flight will be on the BA 265 to IAD 4th July

http://www.thebasource.com/b787-8seatmap.html

Thanks londonlad for showing me the seatmap.

Thanks for that rferguson – does sound very interesting & exciting, especially the new way of working.

Here’s hoping it will engender a better sense of teamworking.

Hey Canucklad,

No, for whatever reason the current BA management are determined to keep the fleets separate. Amongst the crew themselves there is majority support on both sides of Mixed/Legacy fleets to work alongside each other. But I guess the reality is, BA does not want legacy fleet crew to have any sense of comfort in the longevity of their current T&C’s. I think the wish is that over the next 5-10 years as our share of flying continues to shrink (especially the lucrative earning routes) the majority of us will just leave the company – take redundancy, part-time contracts,perhaps eventually there will be a carrot dangled to give up our contract and transfer to MF (the ex BMI crew were offered £10K to take a Mf contract). But yes, I think the plan is for within ten or so years for legacy fleet to basically not exist. Allowing the two fleets to work alongside each other would hamper this outcome.

What we are seeing with the 787 I guess is more Mixed Fleet ways of working in terms of closer performance management and development. With such a huge amount of crew on the legacy fleet and down to the fact that you very rarely fly with each other it is easy to be terrible at your job yet slip through the net. Short of being caught stealing or being witnessed trashing your hotel room, it is very difficult to sift out the bad apples. When we will be flying with the same team and manager every 4-6 weeks, it will be a lot easier to identify those that aren’t doing their job properly. Which is perhaps why there are some very vocal opponents to the ‘team’ concept within the crew community. But the plan is to trial this on the 787 fleet, followed by the A380 fleet and eventually being rolled out across legacy fleet.