[AllOverTheGaff]

NIRscot – 02/07/2013 09:14 GMT
Blinkin’ British Airways. Why oh why oh why can’t they be like Emirates who never do anything wrong ever. Or Qantas. Or Cathay. Or easyJet. easyJet extra legroom seats are better than BA First. BA need to remember that Emirates, Qatar, Air New Zealand, Virgin, Loganair, Etihad and Emirates are better. They can’t just expect business to come their way. Oh and why oh why oh why did WW want to merge with Iberia. Aer Lingus is better than BA. And so is Icelandair. And Eastern. And bmi regional. And Ryanair. And FlyBe. At least you know what you’re getting. And Malaysia Airlines. And Emirates. And Thai. They are all better than BA. For my money I only fly with Emirates, even to places they don’t fly. You can’t buy that kind of quality.

You exaggerate.

Ryanair shouldn’t be on the list.

But the rest I agree….

😉
Rgds.
AOTG.

[judynagy]

Thank you, Ian! Two excellent, entertaining stories. My only contribution is a flight to Boston on AA years ago, we were seated in biz among maybe 5 other passengers, 2 people in first. When my husband attempted to use the first class loo, the FA told him he’d have to wait until the one in biz was available. Since I had hoarded my TWA points for the flight after they went under and AA bought them, it was more amusing than annoying.

[HongKongLady]

Oh Ian you made me giggle and it reminded me of the time I left my husband unaccompanied at Manila airport for less than 10 mins. I got back to find him a little flustered at the attention 🙂

[pdtraveller]

I fly First when I can and in over 25 years have had only one horror story. SIN SYD with a full cabin and a celebrity (no longer with us) who got pissed and started a full blown brawl and punch up. Glasses were smashed, Champagne went everywhere and it was all really rather horrible. My wife and I were on our honeymoon trip this was the last thing we needed.
What was amazing was that the entire incident which impacted on every passenger in the cabin was not noticed by those in Club behind the curtain.

I have had 6 glasses of champagne deposited in my lap and the seat beside me which led to a cabinet minister sitting in the floor for much of the flight from SIN to LHR. That was funny.

More recently it has all be very dull, flat and lacking in any wow factor. IFE does not work, food is mediocre and crew very mixed. It no longer provides value for money on many airlines though one or two are stand out exceptions. Some aspects of leaving from LHR kill first such as bussing which is ridiculous for First passengers and frankly shows a total lack of commitment to the product by those who allow it.

[ZKSmith]

Bad first class, probably not. Disappointing, yes.

I’ve only flown first class on four airlines (soon to be five when I finally try Emirates suite this autumn).

The only time I’ve been seriously disappointed was on SQ of all airlines. On a business trip with one of the company’s top execs, so I got to fly with him in the fancy end on a 777. The seat was near identical to business class (too wide and too firm). The entertainment screen is too large and far too shiny, meaning that all you can see during any darker scenes of a film is a reflection of yourself. Much of the food was the same as business class. Compared to business there are more FAs per passenger, which ended badly as the highly attentive crew couldn’t leave you in peace. The only benefits were nicer toilets and a nicer amenity kit. Glad it wasn’t me who had to pay several thousand pounds more (I assume) for a worse than business product.

Otherwise, TAM – perfect; Lufthansa A380 – faultless; Lufthansa A340 – superb apart from the dated, but still extremely comfortable, seat; United – great, but the amount of grey plastic around your seat means it doesn’t feel special or luxurious, and the menu could have been a little better.

For me first class is a rare event resulting from finding a bargain or using up a heap or miles, so it’s still always special, even if it sometimes isn’t as perfect as I might hope.

[LuganoPirate]

To answer Airborne’s question, I’ve never had a nightmare First Class Flight. Now some First’s have been better than others, and some worse, but never bad!

Papillion. Nothing wrong with being a gorgeous, mature, experienced grandma at all. I for one love them! ;-),

[openfly]

To HongKongLady and others……..

If, as a Gold/Silver card holder in First or Club on BA, you have a problem tell the CSD directly, immediately…face to face. Let them try to sort your problem. Be friendly…it is worth it.

Broken seats. no IFE in First or Club etc can be fixed sometimes. But if they cant there is a matrix for Avios compensation directly from the CSDs iPad. I had a broken seat in Club and there were no others to move me to. I received 80,000 Avios and a direct apology from BA within 48 hours. A broken seat in First is 120,000 Avios. I have had a useless screen in F and that gave me 20,000 Avios straight away. A noisy drunken passenger and his wife in First generated 20,000 Avios.

I know that the Avios are not the answer to the problems, but at least BA, more than most airlines, accept that there are problems and address them in a speedy and apologetic way…if you handle it well in the first place. After all the problems are not the crews fault. If the CSD handles it well…put in a complementary letter. It all goes on your profile on the iPad, for future crews to see.

[esselle]

Flew in CA first yesterday PEK-SHA.

During a two hour delay on the ground waiting for take-off, one pax decided to have a phone conversation. Loudly. With his phone on speaker.

Nobody said a word to him (I am limited to English).

Different strokes.

[IanFromHKG]

openfly, or others, what happens if you are on an alliance airline but not your home airline? Avios are no use to me, but Asia Miles would be since my home airline is Cathay

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