[JollyMartian]

Blimey, some of the posts in this thread…

People do regularly survive long-haul flights down the back you know, its not the black hole of Calcutta!

I’ve just totted up on the BA site and in the last 365 days out of the 61 sectors flown on BA, 26 of them have been Long Haul. And all booked in Y (I did get at least one U/G tho…).

Add in 2 LH sectors on AF to Abidjan just for good measure.

Oh – and I’m 6’4″ and overweight…

[TominScotland]

JollyMartian +1

SwissExPat – have a look at my comparison of the Y and PE offerings of BA, CX and QF. I think BA Y class is perfectly acceptable, especially for a shortish hop across the Atlantic. Most of my experience has been to/ from Asia and even for that its OK. The 777 seat and IFE is far better than that on the 747 so you should be fine. The main meals are generally palatable, second offerings can be disappointing but, hey, you’re almost there by then. Not sure things are that bad that extra rations are required unless you are a compulsive eater!

[dutchyankee]

@SwissExPat – 12/11/2013 15:34 GMT

I havent flown BA Y in ages, but what I can say is you are going to do so on one of BA`s `shortest` Long Haul routes as the flight to Bermuda is rarely the full 7 hours it is scheduled at. And the return is often less than 6 hours. Also on the plus side, I have always found the gatwick based crews to somehow be friendlier and more service minded, probably as they tend to handle the leisure destinations and for the most part, their passengers are in a holiday mood. Enjoy your trip, I am sure it will be fine.

[sparkyflier]

I used to fly to the Caribbean between 2003-2008 3-4 times a year, either on BA or VS, and most of the time in Y and Y+.

I do not think these aircraft have been massively refurbished since then, so will say that the 777 Y seat is actually quite comfortable, in fact more so than the Y+ seat, except with much less space. It is 9 across, unlike 10 across which some carriers now offer, which ensures decent seat width and aisle space. Pitch could be a bit more of course but is not awful.

Go for an aisle seat on the middle bank if I were you, (apart from the sea there is not much to look at out of the window apart from when landing) as the middle seat there is usually the last to be filled.
Crew were generally decent and friendly with drinks runs and water rounds etc. Food declined in those years but may have picked up by now, but it was not awful.

You might even enjoy the experience!

[CplFizzle]

No shame in flying Y at all. In fact most companies nowadays only have an economy only policy.

[SwissExPat]

@CplFizzle

I understand that this has become the case recently.

I genuinely don’t mind making this trip in Y given the start up nature of the business and hopefully if and when the business launches successfully, I and the others will be able to look back and recognize the ‘extra’ hardship endured in helping the business succeed.

However…..IMHO

leaving home early on a Sunday morning; [Losing Sunday]
flying long haul that afternoon;
with a 4/5 hour time zone change
doing 3 busy and intense work days
flying overnight the following Wednesday;
Expecting to be operational the Thu and Fri also

warrants a J ticket for a ongoing and solvent business expecting its managers/executives to perform.

[Although I accept that this may be a debate for another Thread!]

[Bullfrog]

SwissExPat

Your points are very well made. However the issue of Y vs J payable by a company is also related to income of staff, frequency of staff travel & number and level of staff that travel.

[SwissExPat]

I took the flights and though that I should report back.

All told, it was not as horrendous as I feared but given I had an exit row, access to the [quite unimpressive] BA FIRST lounge at LGW and BDA and had a full empty set of 3 seats on the overnight return to sleep on, I believe I did not have the full Economy experience.

One or two other thoughts/observations.

The food and catering offering was not as bad as I expected. All meals served were edible and the bar service was fine.

There was a marked difference in attitude in the crew in the Y cabin. For example, there was absolutely no hint of assisting me in finding space for my carry on bag, even though I was at an exit row. The crew were generally quite abrupt, an attitude that would have been unacceptable in a premium cabin.

I have never been spoken to by so many other PAX [generally they were pointing out where I could store my bags etc when the crew were hiding in the galley]. The level or interaction between PAX was very noticeable and is something that I haven’t experienced before.

[MartynSinclair]

I thought the crew had to be stationed by doors on boarding. How come they were able to find time to “hide”…??

[stuartv]

Marketing for my own small business I regularly fly economy / WT+ long haul and rarely have a bad experience apart from the food which I’ll never eat. The sushi at T5 or fresh sandwiches are, in my opinion far better than the offering in economy. As a Silver member I get access to the lounge and the ability to select a seat ahead of many which makes the trip far more bearable. The exit row seats are certainly worth checking back for closer to departure. As for upgrades, call BA a few days prior to travel and they will often have Avios upgrades available. As for the advantage of upgrading to WT+, I really do think it’s worth it as long as you can get a seat that isn’t in the middle of three! The cabin is smaller, the food is often edible and the seat far more comfortable.

[SwissExPat]

Agree Stuart,

I am making a very similar trip again in Feb and on the outward leg, the fare in WT+ [Europe to NYC and connecting in NYC to BDA on American with the Euro sector in Economy, LHR to JFK in WT+ and then American Business to BDA] is only Euro 350 for the outward section compared to Euro 850 in Y ?!?! [The return sectors will be in Y]

Looks like I will get to sample WT+

[handbag]

MartynSinclair

You are correct that it is a mandatory requirement of a Crew Member to be in the vicinity of all right hand doors whenever the aircraft is on the ground with pax onboard.

I can honestly say I have never known a situation whereby for anything more than a minute or so (whilst Crew are dealing with something) that this would not happen.

As a Purser in World Traveller, I would sometimes be getting some preps done during the start of pax are boarding, but the rest of the Crew would be in the Cabin or at the boarding doors. Someone may also be doing preps in the other galleys too. This enables the service to get started more quickly and efficiently after take off.

Therefore if I was still doing a few preps at the start of boarding In WT on a 777 there would still always be someone at door 3 and on a 747 there would still always be someone at door 3 and 5.

The rest of the Crew from WT will either be assisting at the boarding door or helping in Business where pax have paid extra and therefore more Crew are made available to assist pre take off.

Just the number of passengers in relation to Crew will mean it is totally impossible to give the same amount of time to each passenger in WT as it is in Club.

If a Pax in WT says that they cannot find a place for their bag, of course we would assist, but it would not be part of the WT service to actually be asking pax if we can assist with their bags. Crew are usually busy with seat belt extensions for babies (explaining how to use if necessary) and larger persons, giving out children’s bags, showing non regular travellers where there seat is, juice, hot towels, menus and papers for Wt+, reassuring nervous pax, trying to move people so that those split up can sit together, find a different seat for those that are desperate for a window or an aisle, answer questions on whether a special meal is onboard, what is the food today, service numerous glasses of water etc etc.

2 or 3 crew could be doings this for over 200 passengers. In Business there could be 4 crew for 50.

Today on a full flight in WT it was obvious that lots of people were having a problem finding place to stow their bags and the Crew helped approx 15 pax find space.

[Speedbird_ABZ]

What is the second meal in WT+ these days please? I’m heading to Miami next month and I’m sure I had sandwiches and scones last time in economy flying LGW/MCO.

[FormerlyDoS]

Speedbird_ABZ

Caveat I am relating an experience on a flight on the London-New York route, may be different for you.

Take some nutrigrain bars or similar is my honest advice, the last time I was in WT+ (where the main course is different, but the second meal is the same as Y), the second meal was a shrink wrap muffin that looked like a candidate for testing aircraft windscreens 😉

The nutrigrain bars will be better for you and taste nicer.

The main will be a club world dish, but you will get it on a single tray with the starter and dessert (which I prefer in many ways.)

[Speedbird_ABZ]

Oh dear. Thanks Fdos. I recently did ABZ/AMS/JFK in KLM Economy Comfort and the second meal was pizza or an apple crumble-type thing. Oh well, Nutrigrain it is.

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