[Tom Otley]

I’ve just flown back in WTP from Bangkok, landed this morning. I have to say, I thought it was pretty good. The meals are unchanged at present. I asked whether we were getting food from CW but was told no, although changes were afoot, most noticeably for the flight attendant that there was no food loaded on to the aircraft for the staff so they would have to hope 14 pax didn’t want food (a fairly safe bet, and so it proved when I inquired at breakfast time).

We had a choice of main courses for the first meal and a choice for breakfast as well. I wouldn’t have said it was delicious, but it was filling.

The dedicated member of staff for the cabin was very professional and polite – couldn’t have been better, really. I was in the front row on the B747 (12) and there were no children in bassinets (no children at all in the WTP cabin), and I slept for 7 hours of the 12 hour flight.

We got to LHR on time, and the bags were out quickly. My goodness, even both lines of IRIS were working at Terminal 3 (this was at 630 this morning).

I realise after the drama of previous posts this might seem a little anaemic, but then I find flying is often like that – just a matter of getting from A to B safely, on time, with all your bags and with little memory of it only a few days later. But I do think for the vast majority of flyers, it’s a similar neither here nor there experience in economy and premium economy (perhaps even in business when you do it often enough).

[Henkel.Trocken]

Is it a mixed fleet route? The crew sound so bright and cheerful that they couldn’t possibly be legacy crew. Presumably mixed fleet don’t get food provided either to save money?

Again of course, the food from C in hyped up about but not delivered in reality. Typical BA, over promise and under deliver.

[RogEdwards]

I think the food from CW is going to be introduced soon but hasn’t yet.

[continentalclub]

Club World catering will be introduced to the World Traveller Plus cabin from the timetable change in October, I believe.

I’m posting this awaiting pushback at T5C on my first Mixed Fleet flight, so I’ll be sure to report back afterwards.

[VintageDom]

Hello everyone,
what interesting and varied responses to my first post.
In response to rferguson – we also flew SYD-BKK in Qantas PE and BKK-SYD in BA WTP. As I mentioned in an earlier post – it is chalk and cheese. Everything mentioned about Qantas PE is what we also experienced.
It is not just about getting from A-B. The journey itself is also important.

[Binman62]

Vintage DOM….Too right, BA have the gall to be charging anything up to £1895 return to SYD in WT+, a fare that 2 years ago would have gotten you Club. For this sort of money you have every right to expect a great deal more than the original poster described and frankly I want more than just getting from A to B. I can get that for less of any carrier!!! Moreover BA themselves position their marketing that the passengers will actually get more too.

[HonestCrew]

Cheeky Henkel!
“Smiles in the Aisles” all the way when off to Bangkok for a few days of green curry and happy endings 😉

Some of us do still put in the effort.

Binman has a very good point. It’s not just about the extra space, we must try to cling on to some glamour/prestige of flying. It makes everyone, pax and crew, enjoy it more.
To be given the tools to give a cracking service is the start. Without those we are already on the back foot.

[Henkel.Trocken]

Aaarrrggghhh Honest Crew, you caught me out!

I think the vast majority of BA crew put in a huge effort every day, my bad experiences of crew are limited (and my most recent one was on a mixed fleet service!). Like others I’ve just read so much on these boards about how wonderful the initiative is I can’t resist poking a bit of fun about it.

I’ve never thought it was clever to recruit people on inferior terms and conditions and I’m old enough to have seen HR management go full circle in a number of industries – staff paid too much, cut benefits, employ people more cheaply and all of a sudden there is huge discontent, big staff turnover, recruitment difficulties, falling standards and sales drop. Much consultancy later they decide they need to value the staff, add pay and benefits, staff are content, retained and sales rise.

I would bet my bottom dollar on this happening at BA probably in about five years which is about the normal cycle for this sort of initiative.

I will no doubt be flamed for this point of view by VK and others but I don’t mind, I’ve been round the block with this too many times and in too many places and BA is no different. Customer facing roles are demanding and require huge experience to get them right.

[rferguson]

Henkel I totally agree with your observations.

Firstly i’d like to make clear. YES I am ‘legacy crew’. NO I am not in any union. And NO I don’t disagree with the concept of Mixed Fleet.

But the deal for the guys working those flights are appalling. Despite what others supposedly ‘in the know’ on here claim, it is the worst in the industry. Fact is we are LOSING crew from BA Mixed Fleet to the likes of Easyjet and Virgin Atlantic. This is not ‘Galley FM’. This is not rumour. This is fact. And this is due to their renumeration and lack of time off both downroute and at home port. The turnover is marginally higher than was anticipated (though not as excessive as some would claim on here) and BA are contantly having to lower the bar in terms of recruitment. I’ll give you an example. Initially for the role of CSM the criteria was that you must have had at least a years supervisory experience with an airline within the last five years. After faily to attract enough applicatants the ‘last five years’ rule was removed. In the last recruitment campaign the turnover in the CSM rank was considerably higher than expected, compared to the Main Crew ranks. In fact we had two CSM’s that left QF as CSS’s (second in charge) and then promply left their BA CSM roles and went back to QF, hat in hand. So in the most recent campaign the ‘supervisory experience’ criteria also became flexible in the role for CSM. Simply two years flying experience was deemed enough.

BA has to improve its renumeration for the mixed fleet crew. No, of course I do not expect BA to be paying them on par to us old ‘legacy’ lot. But it has to at least be as good, if not marginally better, than VS/QF/BD/EZY etc.

But maybe you could be right Henkel. Maybe it is a case of BA going for absolutely the lowest of the low in terms of renumeration initially to then tweak it over time until the right balance between cost savings, turnover etc are made.

[SharonWalvin]

Does anyone know the exact measurements of the leg room available flying World Traveller Plus?

[Tom Otley]

38 inches, I think

http://www.seatplans.com/airlines/british-airways/classes/World-Traveller-Plus-(premium-economy)

[SharonWalvin]

Also what angle of repose does the seat go back in degrees please (assuming upright is 90 degrees and horizontal is 180 degrees)? Thank you.

[Tom Otley]

7 degrees

http://www.seatplans.com/airlines/british-airways/seatplans/B747-400-Mid-J/classes

but it’s complicated…

http://www.seatplans.com/faqs

What about degrees of recline?

This can be measured in a number of different ways and despite our best efforts over many decades compiling Business Traveller’s Class Survey we have never managed to standardise it.

Take economy class for instance. Would you consider the angle of recline to be the difference between the seat when upright and when reclined (so perhaps 7 degrees) or should that fully reclined position be recorded as the difference between vertical and the reclined position (so perhaps 25 degrees), or should it be from a horizontal position (so 119 degrees). And if horizontal, should that be from the angle the seat cushion is at (often not horizontal), or true horizontal, whatever that is when an aircraft does not fly horizontally.

In the case of business class, a seat can recline 180 degrees and still not be fully flat, although it will be lie-flat. Some find these seats adequate and certainly you can fit more of them into a cabin than in the case of fully flat, but how can this be recorded in statistics? Beyond a certain point, does anyone care? Well they would if we could find a consistent way of recording it, because a few extra degrees of recline in an economy seat on a 12 hour sector can often seem the difference between life and death – if not your’s, then the person behind who keeps banging your seat, or the person in front, who has reclined too far.

[smith101]

I recently had the misfortune to fly BA WT+. I really don’t believe it’s worth the extra cost – yes there’s a bit more space, but not a whole lot more and still a very limited seat recline. But it was the service that really let it down. The food was nothing special despite the blurb about Club World food – it was the same starter and dessert you’d find in economy, and the so-called Club meals just looked like standard airline food put in a different dish. The service from the cabin crew was pretty much non-existent – there didn’t appear to be anyone dedicated to the cabin, and no-one who seemed remotely interested in responding to call bells within this cabin. Overall a very poor experience.

[VintageDom]

Hi Everyone,
it is over 6 months since my post and BA don’t seem to be listening.
I did use the feedback link that a couple of you were kind enough to provide. Frankly BA was uninterested. Apologetic, but uniterested.
As far as they were concerned – we got what we paid for.
I have, since then, refused to fly on a BA plane. Hope I can keep it up without getting egg on my face.
If I were to continue expressing my thoughts, I suspect that the Site Administrator might have to beep me!

[Author]

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