[Anonymous]

[Airpocket]

To give you an idea of BA’s totally absurd and delusional pricing structure, take the LHR-MIA leg (outbound 21/7, return 29/7) as an example:options are £1,553 on Swiss at one end and BA at £4,448 at the other.Oh dear, do BA really think they can compete on this route, especially with Swiss (not a bad airline at all and, usually, one of the best in Europe)?
Hands up anyone who thinks BA will need a bail out by Xmas!

[Bigflyer]

The outbound and inbound flights for those days are very busy in club…

[Cameron]

It times like this when agents come into their own I can book BA club with accomodation for £2600 for 1 pax £2300 for 2 pax. I can do First for 1 pax £4500 and 2 pax £4300

[DoorsToManual]

I’m one of the most loyal BA passengers (I hate being called a customer) and have held a EC Gold card for the last 6 years but I had to try something new recently due to the fact that I needed to get to LA and Swiss offered a price of £1700 and BA offered £3000.
Having travelled from London to Zurich on Swiss (delightful) I was excited to get onboard the Airbus A340-300 to LA.

I managed to move from my original booked seat (4G) as there were 2 seats next to the window free (4A/4B) and that way I didn’t have to sit next to an old fella.
The seats are laid out 2(A/B) – 2(D/G) – 2(J/K).
Before I moved prior to take off there were 3 occasions where I thought the old guy was going to knock his champagne over me and sure enough after I moved he spilt a glass of water all over the spare seat…that could have been me.

The seat is comfortable and the lie-flat angle isn’t as bad as the old Virgin product. I managed to get 4 hours sleep on this flight, just what I needed to charge my batteries after my 0530 wake up. To go back a step, the whole connecting in Europe is seamless, I had a bit of a wander but the terminal was bright and modern. The last time I used Europe as a hub was with KLM and that was even easier, it’s just such a shame their product is still so behind, no beds at all but great service.

Where I am sitting, the forward part of the business class cabin there are 12 seats and 4 crew looking after us, they also serve the rest of business behind the galley and there are at least 40 seats in there, so it’s a must to sit in this part of the plane and with an empty seat next to me really rather nice. The crew are ‘functional’, not much conversation but it’s made up for by the international language of a smile…try finding one of those in Club World. There is an endless supply of drinks and the lunch was 4 courses, I started with a trio beef carpaccio which was very tasty and a national dish, that was followed by lamb medallions with fettuccine and veg. (cooked to perfection) and desert was yoghurt (I kid you not). It was all well cooked and well presented. Lipton tea is used and Coca-Cola is from a large bottle.

In flight entertainment is AVOD and the selection is no match for the big airlines but I did manage to watch an episode of The Simpsons (a must on any flight) and for the first time 2 episodes of Gavin and Stacey (I thought the 2 blokes were the stars), I also fitted in an episode of CSI so really can’t complain. There is in-seat power so I’m able to work from my laptop and it uses normal plugs (Swiss/American/European: note, not British).

Washbag: cheap as chips, I didn’t take mine off the aircraft.

Headphones: Not noise cancelling but good quality.

All of the fixtures and fittings and menus etc. are very tasteful and carry the crisp SWISS branding and the white cross on a red background. The blanket is lined so no need for the rough woolen fibres to rub your delicate skin. The toilets are well ‘dressed’ a couple of lip balms and some hand cream. The hangers are designed for jackets/shirts only so hanging my trousers didn’t happen.
Anyone with an addiction to hot towels will also enjoy the Swiss experience as there is no shortage of them.

To conclude: Being so used to one airline [BA] it’s so hard to judge as you seem to compare, not withstanding the service has been good and with the roll out of fully flat beds across the fleet happening over the next 2 years it’s WELL worth trying.

[Senator]

By the looks of it, BA is offering the best deals from other markets. Heading ARN-CAI-MAN in CW/CE for around £1100 in August.

Having looked at several trips in the autumn (ARN-NYC, BKK, SIN, JNB) all of them coming in around £1100-1600 in BA CW/CE. Our preferred choice have been LH, but they are at least 50% more expensive.

LX is a good choice in Europe – their “Business Upgrade” fares allow me to travel in C/J ARN-STR for around £275 non-flex fare. However, I find the 340-300 seats poor for long-haul, will look for trip to NYC shortly to test the new 330-300 seats. They look great.

[Author]

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