[Anonymous]

[rferguson]

Well it’s that time of year again – the results are out!

For me once again a lot of the results do not make sense.

QR took the #1 slot. They also took the #1 for ‘Best Business Class seats’ category. How? Whilst their latest product is very nice as is their 777 J seat there are still plenty of A330/340 aircraft flying longhaul routes with an angled product.

Hainan – one of only seven ‘five star airlines’ as rated by Skytrax yet comes in at #22.

Virgin Atlantic – way down the list at #37.

The not so surprising for me:
BA – #20. A position reflective of what they offer IMHO.
SQ/CX – remain in the top 3.
QF – the only western airline to get a place in the top 10. And a well deserved one from my experience.

http://www.worldairlineawards.com/Awards/world_airline_rating.html

[MrMichael]

Iberia well down the list as I suspected, although surprised they beat SAS albeit only by one place at 56 and 57. The legacy American carriers have done terribly yet again, Delta at 45, United at 60 and American at 77. I cannot help thinking when they see the ME3 doing so well they will be throwing more toys out of the pram. Pleased to see Garuda still doing well, and I have no doubt the position of Turkish will get some debate going on here. In fact Turkish along with BA seems to attract the most disagreement on this forum.

[MartynSinclair]

American Airlines at 79… ??

Wonder how SkyTrax comes to the conclusions they do…

[rferguson]

I really struggle to work out their methodology.

Take ‘Most improved airline’ award.

Air France climbed 15 places (bravo to them) and took the trophy.
Japan Airlines climbed two places on last year and came 6th in the category.
Virgin America climbed TWENTY places on last year – yet does not feature in the top ten of ‘most improved’.

Bizzare.

[AMcWhirter]

Qatar Airways was voted “best airline” but, as we know, its economy seating is tight on the B787.

And now a disgrunted passenger has posted a short You Tube video about the five-star airline.

It’s entitled: “Ode to Qatar Seven Eighty Seven (Cramped seats on Boeing 787 Qatar Airways).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUsyhMg_YTQ

[rferguson]

Haha funny!

Are any airlines other than JAL operating the 787 with the original eight abreast seating?

Thompson Aero has came up with a design for TEN abreast seating on the 787 GASP!

http://www.thompsonaero.com/cozysuite

[AMcWhirter]

ANA’s B787s started like on internaional routes with eight across seating but then the newer B787s were delivered from Boeing configured nine across.

ANA’s B787s come in several different configurations and these can be found on our sister website seatplans.com

Only JAL has the eight across layout on all international B787 flights. But then the yield must be high because the economy zone takes up only one-third of the onboard space (most is devoted to higher yielding business and premium economy).

[SimonS1]

Skytrax lost their credibility when the ASA came calling, so I would take it all with a pinch (or a handful) of salt.

[MartynSinclair]

rferguson – didn’t BA have a 3-5-3 config in their early 747’s?

[AMcWhirter]

Early or original 747s were 9-across from January 1970. That was the month when PA launched the B747 on the routing JFK-LHR-JFK.

The 10-across configurations appeared towards the end of the 1970s.

I don’t believe BA or any other international airline ever adopted an 11-across layout for international service. Where would they find the space ?

[MartynSinclair]

http://ask.metafilter.com/278734/Is-there-a-plane-with-a-3-5-3-seat-configuration

I think I may be thinking of a 2-5-2 config on some other aircraft but some seem to think that there may have been a 3-5-3 on a 747….

[AMcWhirter]

Pehaps for some carriers’ domestic flights ? Here I’m thinking of the Japanese carriers who operated all economy class B747s on selected routes which were geared to Japanese tourists.

But in the economy configuration used by Pan Am, the layout was 3-4-2.

These Pan Am B747s were two-class. In the early 1970s there was no business class, let alone premium economy.

[rferguson]

The ‘original’ 10 across operator on the 777 may also have been in BA colours too. BA went through a phase in the late 1990’s subleasing carrier ‘AML’ to operate flights on behalf of BA from LGW to several leisure destinations. The aircraft were in BA colours and crew in BA uniform (though employed by AML). There were a huge amount of complaints about the aircraft. The configuration was 28J and 355Y! The arrangement lasted two or three years before BA took the routes back in house.

[SimonS1]

Some early Pan Am pics/layouts showing 3-4-3 layout (and smoking accommodation):

http://i.imgur.com/852xQDM.png

http://frequentlyflying.boardingarea.com/vintage-airline-seat-map-pan-am-boeing-747-v-2/

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