Various BA product changes/upgrades

There are quite a few product changes/aircraft refurbishments on the way at BA which are worth summarising:

- Senior cabin crew members are to be provided with iPads which will contain detailed information on passenger preferences, flight history, onward connections etc. Initial feedback from trials seems to have been positive.

- Passengers on the London City-New York service and First class passengers on the 777-200 aircraft that do not have AVOD (I think these are the ones with GE engines) are to be provided with iPads in flight

- The aforementioned 777-200s are to be upgraded with the new First, WT+ and WT products and Thales IFE from November

- 7 long haul 767s and 7 short haul 767s are to be upgraded from late December. I don't think these aircraft are getting new seats as such, just a complete makeover of the interior

- WT+ passengers are to be provided with a Club World standard main course served on china from 1 October

- New wines & champagnes are to be loaded on First & Club World from September. I understand Grand Siècle by Laurent Perrier will be served in First.

- A sundae (no doubt to please American Airlines passengers!) will be available in Club World as an additional option on North American routes

- The Executive Club, Airmiles and Iberia Plus schemes are to be "aligned" with an announcement expected in early September.

- The 787s and A380s are due to enter the fleet in Q1 2013

- And (pure speculation) some new long haul routes at LGW may be announced shortly.

Thank you for sharing this information.

ipad's for customers seems like a nice idea, but is surely a very expensive way of compensating for a lack of AVOD?

The entertainment on the CWLCY service is the only thing that lets this service down, so iPads will be a great improvement, but be interesting to see how they change the mounting bracket.

Be even better if they gave them free internet access!

I expect they have got a very good deal if they are also buying them for staff and it also serves as an in flight advertisement for Apple. They can always be kept on aircraft as a back up if AVOD fails after it has been installed.

Is there a public BA source for this info - a link to a press release for example?

Tonty, Business traveller has quite a sizeable chunk on these changes within it's forum though nothing confirmed formally - however, the forum quotes an email from the new Head of Customer Experience at BA.......sounds like a lot of changes are coming......

Tonty, Business traveller has quite a sizeable chunk on these changes within it's forum though nothing confirmed formally - however, the forum quotes an email from the new Head of Customer Experience at BA.......sounds like a lot of changes are coming......

That might be so but it is against v-flyer policy to just cut and paste from e-mails, press releases and articles etc without quoting and crediting the original source.

Tonty, Business traveller has quite a sizeable chunk on these changes within it's forum though nothing confirmed formally - however, the forum quotes an email from the new Head of Customer Experience at BA.......sounds like a lot of changes are coming......

That might be so but it is against v-flyer policy to just cut and paste from e-mails, press releases and articles etc without quoting and crediting the original source.

My post was not a cut and paste.

The iPad information is confirmed in a press release on the BA website. http://press.ba.com

The 767/777 refits were announced months ago and the catering changes were provided to me by crew friends who received Frank van der Post's email and news about the FF programme has been doing the rounds for a while.

My post was not a cut and paste.

The iPad information is confirmed in a press release on the BA website. http://press.ba.com

The 767/777 refits were announced months ago and the catering changes were provided to me by crew friends who received Frank van der Post's email and news about the FF programme has been doing the rounds for a while.

It would have helped if you had included link(s) in your orginal post.

I simply point you in the direction of this notice re v-flyer and copyright

This is for your protection as much as for the protection of V-flyer

Thank you and duly noted. :-)

[mcmbenjamin]

So hmmm (I feel it is slightly OT but also know tech folks will add insight).

MANY airlines, big and small are rolling out iPads for pilots. These have all the charts. United announced yesterday. Loads of the feeder carriers have public rumors.

Perhaps there is a link there.

Oddly enough i delivered and installed a hottub for a BA captain last week and he told me about the fsm getting an ipad to be able to recognise pax with status, oneworld etc etc, so as to make things smoother, I think its a great idea because it has been mentioned that a simple "welcome onboard mr whatever" goes a long way to making you feel valued.

cheers

alex

WT+ passengers are to be provided with a Club World standard main course served on china from 1 October

I had heard of the other things you mention, but not this one. Now that is interesting. By common consent WT+ lags behind the better Premium Economy products, definitely including VS. This would start to change that. If BA gets the newer seats into more of its fleet and differentiates WT+ from WT to a greater extent, then I think they will become a very attractive proposition -- not least because of the ability to upgrade with miles from all WT+ fares to Club World. (Although how long that will be possible is itself an interesting question...)

WT+ passengers are to be provided with a Club World standard main course served on china from 1 October

I had heard of the other things you mention, but not this one. Now that is interesting. By common consent WT+ lags behind the better Premium Economy products, definitely including VS. This would start to change that. If BA gets the newer seats into more of its fleet and differentiates WT+ from WT to a greater extent, then I think they will become a very attractive proposition -- not least because of the ability to upgrade with miles from all WT+ fares to Club World. (Although how long that will be possible is itself an interesting question...)

I agree - VS has outdone most with their great PE service but this could be BA change of direction that challenges them! No resting on your laurels, VS!