[RogEdwards]

I thought on the Neo BA has fitted non-reclining EasyJet style seats in Euro Traveller – but the Club Europe seats are the same as the old ones with proper headrests and recline.

So if you want reclining seats on BA – go Club!

[Folium]

[quote quote=929813]There’s one factor not being taken into account here….

BA’s business model is heavily dependent on transfer traffic, not point to point.

I’ll happily sit upright for a Ryanair flight to and from Edinburgh to Alicante. I’ve started and ended my journey at each end.

Not sure if I was a Greek passenger flying from Athens to Los Angeles I’d be as happy.

Possibly tolerate the seat from ATH to LHR, but on the way back after a long night in Y , I’d not be at all impressed.

And , if I had forked out for a Club world ticket, I’d be even less impressed, I’d want to maximise my comfort as best I could.

You can’t replicate a LCC model if you stive to be a premium long haul carrier .[/quote]

How many European airlines have a proper business class for shorthaul anymore as opposed to a modified economy seating arrangement?

[canucklad]

[quote quote=929819]How many European airlines have a proper business class for shorthaul anymore as opposed to a modified economy seating arrangement?[/quote]

Too true, I sat in row 4 , right behind the open curtain separating LH’s business class offering.
exactly the same pitch, exactly the same seat. 4 of the 18 seats occupied.

Apart from the food offering and the ratio of crew to customer , I can’t see how I’d justify the price difference.

I’m assuming the 4 passengers were connecting long haul business class passengers, otherwise i’d have felt cheated !!

[Chutzpahflyer]

[quote quote=929819]You can’t replicate a LCC model if you stive to be a premium long haul carrier .[/quote]

Quite!

[Folium]

That quote was from Canucklad, not me!
It would appear you can replicate a LCC model and still be a premium long haul carrier, for instance SQ/Scoot, QF/Jetstar, AC/AC Rouge, LH/Eurowings (despite recent performance), and more recently CX/Hong Kong Express.

[Chutzpahflyer]

But what was the name of BA’s LC subsidiary based at Stansted that lasted – what? – only a couple of years?

And I’m ignorant as to whether the premium/LCC pairings you mention work as connection flights, and how those long-haul business passengers feel about their link flight being in a seat with no recline, not much leg room etc. As already mentioned here, that’s BA’s model – using LHR as a hub. As shown by the number of pax on my flight from AMS yesterday who headed for Flight Connections at T5 – I’d guess about half. Connections was right there at the top of the escalator from the gate so it was pretty obvious whether people headed for passport control or FC.

[capetonianm]

[quote quote=929842]But what was the name of BA’s LC subsidiary based at Stansted that lasted – what? – only a couple of years?

GO, their futile effort to compete with EZY, and run by Barbara Cassani.

[nevereconomy]

I was clearly designed to fly, being a 5′ 8″ shortarse, so all these problems of the taller variety do not apply. I am perfectly comfortable in the BA shorthaul seats – come to that I don’t think I have been uncomfortable in any economy seat in a long while. If I were over 6 feet I would seriously consider not flying.

[AircraftLover]

Reduced aircraft seat pitch is a big concern for all passengers, but especially for pregnant women, elderly people an passengers with reduced mobility

[No Name]

Totally agree with you. BA is doing something right here!
Where BA wins is that one can use Terminal 5 and depart from/arrive in city-centre airports on the Continent. And BA knows this!

Using Terminal 5 and their lounges at easyJet prices = WIN!

[NTarrant]

Travelled from Rome to LHR few weeks ago on the neo, was expecting it to be awful but it was better than I expected. What has happened to the screen with the map and video safety briefing

[IanFromHKG]

[quote quote=929728]As a ‘tall pax’, are you not relieved that the person in front won’t be reclining into your space / knees?[/quote]

Ah, that old fallacy…

If you buy a reclining seat, it isn’t reclining into someone else’s space, it is reclining into YOUR space. The fact that YOUR space extends beyond the back of your seat when it is upright doesn’t change the fact that it’s YOUR space.

I rarely recline on short-haul flights, but sometimes I do, and I don’t feel apologetic about it. Nor should I. Furthermore, although on some airlines (BA being a notable example) this does make the seatback unpleasantly close to someone else’s face, they have two choices – recline their own seat (admittedly, not if they are in one of the two or three rows that don’t permit this), or travel on an airline that has non-reclining seats or greater seat pitch.

1 user thanked author for this post.

PeterCoultas

[SimonS1]

[quote quote=929843]

Chutzpahflyer wrote:

But what was the name of BA’s LC subsidiary based at Stansted that lasted – what? – only a couple of years?

GO, their futile effort to compete with EZY, and run by Barbara Cassani.[/quote]

What was futile was that BA sold it for £100m to a PE backed MBO, only to find that less than a year later they flipped it on to Easyjet for £374m. Almost 300% return in less than a year. A bit like winning the lottery.

BA must have been advised by a bunch of buffoons. Nothing has changed there then.

1 user thanked author for this post.

PeterCoultas

[lostantipod]

Spare a thought for the crew too. Was in a new 320 to IST last week. Rear galley is a crammed jumble of cart stations, and two toilet doors leading to very narrow toilets in the very rear of the plane (ie you would sit facing the direction of travel). Doors open outwards into 2 crew trying to prep or close the galley. Pax will have to queue down the aisle, there isn’t room in the rear exit area to queue if the crew are working. Pax comfort and staff efficiency have taken second place to, I presume, an extra row or two of seats. Also, I was in an exit row seat and it was the most uncomfortable SH seat I have sat in for a while (although leg room was great, but that’s down to the row I was in).

[Ah,Mr.Bond]

Having just flown on the Neo, I can also advise the following – there was no overhead video/map screen so manual safety demo [saves watching that cringe worthy video though] and passing through the J cabin there was just an empty middle seat, no nice leather tray insert or fold down bit. Not sure if this is all standard, or whether this was either not working, trays not loaded.

[Author]

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