BA new First a bit cramped on 747?

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Viewing 14 posts - 91 through 104 (of 104 total)

  • JohnHarper
    Participant

    I suspect that if like SQ, BA only had revenue passengers in F and the very odd award ticket, eight seats would be enough and the standards could rise. The upgrades from C are what fill the current cabin, not paying passengers.


    LPPSKrisflyer
    Participant

    Some interesting points here but I think the point remains that regardless of how you look at it, BA F is overcrowded on the 744. The pictures of others really show that and in some cases like TG they weren’t even of their latest product.


    MartynSinclair
    Participant

    JohnHarper – 21/06/2012 11:18 GMT – agreed + staff upgrades.

    F should never be used as an overflow. Better to preserve the exclusivity as an added value.


    JohnHarper
    Participant

    MartynSinclair – but they do fill F with overflow C. My brother is and has been for many years a loyal and frequent BA flyer and high spender, think twice a week to JFK on Concorde when it was running and if anything his spends are much higher now.

    He never books anything but the cheapest C tickets and somehow never manages to travel in his chosen seat but always is upgraded. He maintains he wouldn’t pay for BA F but for lowest C fare, it is acceptable. I’ve seen him, his wife and two friends accompanying them all upgraded before and at the point of on line check in.

    Something is wrong when that is happening all the time. What you have is a product which does not live up to the exclusive feel that F should have. I suspect the average fare paid is around 20% of the published fare going on what he says about others who are upgraded with him.


    GordyUK
    Participant

    John, i think if your brother is flying that often then he’s in a special category of High yield Gold card, if not Prem and BA have a tough decision on their hands. Do they leave him in C and risk pissing him off, and lose all the his revenue or do they upgrade him frequently and keep the cash rolling in.

    i’m not saying its right and if i had paid for F and became aware it was full of upgrades, i’d choke on my non vintage, but perhaps your (very lucky) bro, is not the norm ?

    personally i think upgrade should be from WT to WT+ & WT+ to C, and no higher. F should be for paying and the odd redemption


    epeek06
    Participant

    Going back to the topic,

    Yes First is cramped on a 747, but does it not give a bite of what London is also known to be beautiful for?…small street’s and alley ways, hidden places.
    First class seat is very cozy, e.g. its individual lamp gives that feeling of dark alley at night.

    Anyway thats my opinion!


    GordyUK
    Participant

    epeek, i love your sense of sentimentality over this. Not sure i’d want to pay £9k for a nice lamp, even if i could take it with me.

    i was part of a group who were invited to preview that NF when it was still a mock up in a warehouse and those bloody lights were a nuisance. if you were in a middle pair with the divider open, you were blinded by the other passenger’s light and the tv monitor was so large it smacked into it.

    hopefully they made asjustments to this before it went into rollout

    (i’m just bitter because every flight in F i’ve taken since NF was rolled out has had me in a OLD first.. not once have i managed to get a NF config!.. rudness!


    pdwtrip
    Participant

    Have to agree about the lights – poor design as they are in the ceiling and hard to use to read plus light up fellow passengers if in centre seats.
    Prefer the old position behind your shoulder.
    The new lamp by the TV is in the wrong place – combined with a sadly cheap and poor quality TV display it is a missed opportunity.
    On the other hand have had good service and food on trips this year.


    first_class_please
    Participant

    Just back from San Francisco with new first on a 747 (i usually travel 777 routes )and what a miserable experience.

    Seated in row 3 as 1 and 2 already full. You end up standing in the foot space of 4E to be able to get into the overhead lockers.

    Food was worst I’ve ever had on BA, small and extremely average taste and unfortunately the crew were also only average.

    The 777 with new first on my outbound transatlantic flight was much, much better.

    Also the First lounge in San Fran was full, and majority were gold with guests. F passengers had to struggle for seats in main lounge.

    When 13 of the 14 F seats are booked, the lounge should be F passengers only.


    CXDiamond
    Participant

    I endured BA F (new) during the week HKG-LHR as CX was full. Next time I will take CX in C on the 773 as I really do think the C offering and seat are superior to BA F. There is at least as much room, the food is edible, studio CX is far better and the crew are consistent. On BA, I left my meal and the crew were the sort of people who had better things to do than be at work, they weren’t downright rude, just totally disinterested and offered nothing with good grace to anyone.

    Leaving HKG, a lady close to me when asked what she wanted to eat asked what could be offered quickly, she was told she could have a bread roll and anything else would take time….


    BeckyBoop
    Participant

    CXD you are right again, one of my clients flew the NEW CX business class last week (regional) and he raved about it to the point that he now finds it hard to justify paying for first in BA and CX for that matter. However he felt if you sit in the middle row that you dont get enough privacy from the neighbouring middle seat. I would be quite interested to see how the AA one turns out.


    rcfyelee98
    Participant

    I just flew CX on business class and I thought it was miles ahead of BA club. And BA first is only marginally better than CX business in terms of size and comfort of seat, food, tv screen. Unfortunately, if you are London based, BA still seems to be the best of a bad bunch.


    IanFromHKG
    Participant

    Becky, I haven’t tried the new CX C class in the middle row yet but from what I have seen your client is probably right. Although the seat does roll forwards (in case you want to talk to your neighbour) and backwards (for “privacy”), there is no privacy screen per se. It is possible to leave the door of the vanity cabinet open as a divider, but I am told it tends to wobble and be generally annoying. Perhaps that is something they should look at as and when they do a refresh! (along with changing the armrest on the aisle side and allow it to swivel to be in line with the seat itself – about the only thing I find genuinely annoying about the new seat)


    FlyingChinaman
    Participant

    It is very very hard for any airline to please all passengers in all situations as we want complete privacy on biz trips and also able to inter-act intimately with our travel companion/children on leisure travels.

    The new CX C is the closest one can get at this point in time and I am loving the middle seats PLUS the great service on-board..

Viewing 14 posts - 91 through 104 (of 104 total)
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