BA new First a bit cramped on 747?

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Viewing 15 posts - 16 through 30 (of 104 total)

  • Binman62
    Participant

    £100 million investment, alledged new seat, much hype on the emails and adverstiseing ………..but not a game changer???

    Oh please.


    RichHI1
    Participant

    I would hope the A380 seats in First woild be bigger. A few inches longer and a few inches wider would make a bug difference. The blinds will be old hat once people get used to dimming windows. The peoduct ghey have to fix is Club World. As they improve WT+ the difference becomes the seat. Once a leader it is no longer.


    Henkel.Trocken
    Participant

    LondonCity – 23/04/2012 13:45 GMT

    I think you may have misunderstood me, LH have sixteen C seats in the nose of the 744 where BA have fourteen F seats. LH used to have sixteen F seats on the upper deck where now they only have eight.

    VirtualKrug, I love your latest apology for the poor state of BA F, it wasn’t meant to be a game changer? Why would you spend so much on a new seat that wasn’t? It’s a poor refresh of a tired product and it doesn’t step up to the mark as long as you are flying east. High loads in the premium cabins, upgrades and award tickets I think you will find.

    It’s disingenous to suggest that they are more successful that LH too, LH have offered F on all routes up until now, in future it will not be offered on some routes. BA have not offered F on all routes for a very long time.

    You may find it helps to check your facts before posting.


    GordyUK
    Participant

    Henkel, as yet, i seem to be the unluckiest BA F traveller in the world. Every route i take, for one reason or another has landed me with old F so i still havent’ seen it.. grr

    Not to go off on a tangent too much but i really worry what they will do with F on the 380. There is far too much whispering about cost cutting and removing F when ideally (for us obviously, lol) we want even more bang for our buck. The front spaces on the upper desk also worry me. Will they go amazing with Shower suites a la Emirates, or mess the whole thing up with a nice “air France Gallery”

    i think i need to get out more


    FlyingChinaman
    Participant

    VK: I fear you have an obsession to defend BA irrespectly of whether it offers a geniune good hardware product or not?


    LPPSKrisflyer
    Participant

    There goes VirtualKrug again defending BA.

    The main problem with BA being that others offer a far better product both hard and soft.


    Henkel.Trocken
    Participant

    Haven’t you got the SIA A380 add on for your simulator yet VK? That will give you an idea of what a real first class should look and feel like rather than keeping up the boring BA is best line. Didn’t you know that BA stands for Best Avoided?


    rferguson
    Participant

    Is BA FIRST worth the price??

    Well this is an interesting question because the answer to it is more complicated than it seems. What ‘price’ is being paid for FIRST seats?

    Well according to BA, not a lot. From an internal training course last year we had a chap from revenue management giving a chat. The up-shot was that FIRST is the last in the race for earner per cabin on the average flight. Apparently if all of those 14 seats are filled on an average flight only THREE passengers will be paying those massive figures you see on ba.com. The others are likely to be on miles upgrades, free miles tickets, largely discounted corporate deals, invol upgrades and staff.

    So why bother offering FIRST?

    BA says for a number of reasons:
    – To be considered a ‘premium airline’.
    – Some corporate contracts require that certain levels of staff travel in First Class on flights.
    – It allows BA to overbook Club World without having to downgrade passengers.
    – It gives an incentive to Frequent Flyers to use their miles for something other than free flights in Club (which they’ve experienced a hundred times again.

    And the A380 will have the current product. Though there is bound to have a ‘less cramped’ feel about it.


    ThomasCox
    Participant

    Being of an age where I can remember old, old First on BA’s 747 fleet (where there was a carvery table in the middle, big recliner seats in a 2-2-2 config.) I remember thinking the last iteraftion of First with the demi-cabin was something rather special. Certainly far better than the old Club World cradle seat, as was. But with the introduction of the sleeper seat (with the fan-like partition in the middle) and subsequently the most recent iteration of Club World any sort of First offering needed to differentiate itself quite substantially. Having just returned from Narita on new F in a BA 777ER I thought that the new F seat was a revelation. I’m 5’10” and of medium build, and I found the seat while sitting and working to be extrememly comfortable, especially as the new control mechanism allowed me to raise it upright while I was writing and eating. When relaxing with a movie on the excellent new IFE it was again very easy to get comfortable and sleeping was a delight. On a purely ergonomic level, so far, so good. But what made it for me was the quality of the materials – the leather backs to the chair heads, the fabrics and the colour and material pallete throughout. Also the blinds are really rather clever,and the excellent lighting I find to be soothing and sleep-inducing.

    The big thing for me is that I want the privacy and the space, but I don’t want to feel cut off from the crew or the other passengers (like in the Emirates ‘Suites’). To that end I find the BA First product very good indeed.

    Finally, as for the Jeckyll and Hyde cabin staff, I have never had a problem with them (and I fly long haul and short haul a lot). Since the new BA management has been installed with Willie disappearing to head up IAG, and with the resolution of the BASSA disputes, I’ve found the cabin crew in CE, CW and F to be polite, professional and helpful. Indeed the CSD’s now make it a point of principle to come around and personally welcome all the gold exec card members on board. It’s a nice touch but then I think it’s the smaller details (rather than any ‘game-changing’ innovations) that make the premium BA products as good as they are.


    CXDiamond
    Participant

    rferguson Very informative post as usual thank you.

    It doesn’t surprise me that there are an average of three full fare payers in F. On the rare occasions I fly BA I am one of them but it is always obvious that the cabin is full of upgrades, people give it away by their behaviour – amazed at the amenities which they are not used to or playing with the seat or treating the crew like the hired help or the like, it just stands out a mile.

    My view on whether it’s cramped or not? Most definitely it is, my usual F experience is on Cathay with nine seats not fourteen. I don’t think anyone fits more F seats in the nose of the 747 and if they do, it’s not called F.


    MartynSinclair
    Participant

    rferguson – 26/04/2012 12:20 GMT

    A very interesting and open post. at 2.30am I can not find the thread, but I do recall a previous discussion from a poster who claimed that First was anything but full of free loaders and staff upgrades. 3 /14 seats on full revenue, does make you wonder why First is necessary – enhance Club World – Concorde Class perhaps a very elite sounding name


    Binman62
    Participant

    rferguson – 26/04/2012 12:20 GMT

    Absolutely correct. It is all about status not just for the passengers but also for the airline. The movers and shakers who dictate travel policy demand it and that, along with your further comments are all correct.

    I was aware that prior to the collapse some major corporate clients were paying the equivalent of a discounted M class fare for seats in J with F class for not a great deal more.

    One corporate customer was responsible for one route in particular to the USA and it demands resulted in the route moving out of T3 and back to T4 at the time……


    CXDiamond
    Participant

    Of course you do wonder where these corporate types would go if BA refused to comply. I suspect most would accept their lot and get on with it. Flying west the options are not huge though my recent experience of American still sticks in my mind as very good, it’s flying east there would be more of a problem.


    Tete_de_cuvee
    Participant

    It is a great product when you are experiencing it virtually Krug, reality is somewhat different.

    On a plus point I enjoyed an extremely tasty Crab Terrine with an extremely fresh Salad last week. A marked improvement.


    CaptainGaz
    Participant

    Latest 747 (high-J) returns from Cardiff with NF. That completes all high J’s. Only a couple of mid-J left to do.

    I wonder will they do more mid-J given the fact that the 787 and A380 are been slightly delayed…….

Viewing 15 posts - 16 through 30 (of 104 total)
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