V-Flyer

I was as dismayed as many about recent changes to FC and VS - and I'm still not convinced they have sorted out the gremlins.

BUT just finished a 6 month work runaround - mainly to the East and back far too many times. At least in business class..... Tried lots of carriers. Qatar business is astonishingly good; Singapore and Emirates are great and some of the European carriers are very decent. But..

Business on BA is a shocker. I did not believe what people said. Sorry.

I didn't get poor service every trip - sometimes great, often indifferent rather than anything. I don't mind that. But BA staff know their product is poor and more than once apologised to customers on the plane. Never enough food options etc etc ,,sorry to have to climb over you to serve etc, no sorry don't have any other pillow etc etc

But it's the seat. 8 seats across. Staring in to the eyes of someone you've never met. Either sleeping in the aisle or so narrow that you can't turn round. Can't stand up near the window. Absolutely no storage in the seat - not even a flap for a cup. Place just gets littered. A TV screen about the span of a hand. I could go on but you all know.

Final straw. - flying back from Bangkok. I go business because that's what I'm doing and I nearly always have to work on the plane. Keep in mind this is the UK flag carrier - flying out of London and back. Power socket - US style. I ask if there is a uk one hidden somewhere - no "it's an American built aircraft". So...... Too cheap to put them in? "Could I have an adaptor please?" - "No, we don't carry them...". Brilliant. My intimate seat companion across the divide kindly offered me his - he couldn't but help hear all this. A nice French guy who said it was his first and last BA business flight - "even Air France is better than this"

I know this is a first world problem, and it's better than travelling Economy (but there is nothing premium about BA PE), and perhaps it's not worth the stress.. They also have so much capacity with 8 seats across that they dump very cheap business fares. But it's just amazing that this is what BA offers - and kept it on their new aircraft.



Apologies for even thinking that BA might be an option. It's embarrassing they have the national flag on the aircraft.

I'm a fan of Dennis Bunnik's travel videos. He did this pretty amusing video of his views on BA's CW seat.

"The best seats for couples are the ones in the middle. These face backwards. The best seats for longhaul business travellers are on another airline.

I do appreciate that VS Upper Class is not the kind of seat for everyone, I can see why people knock it. But to favour BA's 2-4-2 over VS's 1-1-1 or sometimes 1-2-1 or any other carrier is astonishing really. Not a personal attack on you, of course. You have at least seen the light! :P

To quote the often said phrase

"But BA have one of the best business classes in the air"

It's a pity that they mis-label it as FIRST....

Peter

property1925 wrote:I know this is a first world problem, and it's better than travelling Economy (but there is nothing premium about BA PE), and perhaps it's not worth the stress.. They also have so much capacity with 8 seats across that they dump very cheap business fares. But it's just amazing that this is what BA offers - and kept it on their new aircraft.



Apologies for even thinking that BA might be an option. It's embarrassing they have the national flag on the aircraft.

I'm confused are you assessing BA WTP (PE in your quotes) as a business class product?

marshy11 wrote:

I'm confused are you assessing BA WTP (PE in your quotes) as a business class product?

Don't think so but BA WTP is hardly premium ether.


In CW on the main deck BA CW is 8 across (and is not alone in that e.g. some UA planes)

I view BA WTP as more economy than premium, and VS PE as more premium than economy.

To put some balance on this. BA is a bit like Ronseal "It does what it says on the tin" however due to its density in CW it makes it very cost company competitive and in a market where Cathay Is reporting losses Singapore profits dramatically falling, the ME 3 state aid starting to show how much money these airlines are actually loosing and whilst I fully accept that VS UC is a better all round product it didn't save VS from needle to be bailed out by Delta and more lately AF/KLM. On the short haul market Monarch Air Berlin have failed and others are struggling. IAG continue to expand and with the new CW (All aisle access) due in the next 18 months I genuinely believe having spoken to insiders that have seen the new seat that BA will have a product to rival the best.

I know it's often better to have a direct flight over a hop, but I'd take Qatar or any of them... I've got little interest with the far east (I did them to AKL), but they alone make me consider some places over there if a cheap fare appears...

BA business by yourself, and on lower decks, and on 747s, well it's the low end of business class. The IFE is barely watchable (permanent blur), by yourself you're getting intimate with someone you don't know, no storage bins at the edges either...

Some people don't mind the backwards seating, I do prefer it, after the first ding of the bell from takeoff you can pull the screen up and go to sleep in virtually your own suite...

PaulS wrote:To put some balance on this. BA is a bit like Ronseal "It does what it says on the tin" however due to its density in CW it makes it very cost company competitive and in a market where Cathay Is reporting losses Singapore profits dramatically falling, the ME 3 state aid starting to show how much money these airlines are actually loosing and whilst I fully accept that VS UC is a better all round product it didn't save VS from needle to be bailed out by Delta and more lately AF/KLM. On the short haul market Monarch Air Berlin have failed and others are struggling. IAG continue to expand and with the new CW (All aisle access) due in the next 18 months I genuinely believe having spoken to insiders that have seen the new seat that BA will have a product to rival the best.

A seat is not the entire product though. There is so much else that needs to be fixed to provide the complete package. They are my last choice of airline these days. Walsh and Cruz have taken the usual "we answer to the shareholders" and when a C-suite exec starts trotting that out you know what the mindset of the company is. And the result is that the employees and customers are usually the ones that suffer.

BA's new Club World offering is getting fairly good reviews based on its launch route : LHR-NYC.

BA know the product is dated, and are doing something about it.