Wowww, big wowww. I have seen and sit myself all BA new seats for longhaul….I am impressed. Appart from the bed cabins for first, it´s probably the only airline with also bed for business. And a third cabin like a economy plus but business seats and a economy with a head supporter (for not to falling to all sides while sleaping) good inclining angle, good pitch, feet supporters and individual screens for economy with telephone fitted. Indeed the World favourite airline again. The seats were displayed at the Madrid tourist fair last week.
By: mongu - 6th February 2003 at 18:20
RE: BA new seats
Forwardjumpseat, first you disagreed with me then you agreed with me.
WTP seats are about the same as cheap Club seats – when I travel, whatever class, I always book the cheapest available seat. even when my company will reimburse me, I might book in Club, but it will always be the cheapest I can get for the travel dates I need. I suspect I am similar to 90-95% of Club passengers in this regard!
Therefore, for 90% of your Club passengers, they are only paying £1 or £2 more than the WTP fare. In other words, WTP is the same price as Club – which means it is NOT by any means an economy product, more like a cut-down Club World.
Regarding world traveller class, I actually don’t think it is too bad. The seat pitch is silly, the 747-400 fleet used to have only 31″ whereas the domestic/shuttle fleet actually had 32″. I think they changed it now. But all the same, world traveller is exactly what you expect and I compare it favourably to the economy product of any other airline, apart from the obvious ones like Singapore and Emirates.
By: Elation Airways - 6th February 2003 at 14:06
RE: BA new seats
I flew World Traveller Plus in December to Piladelphia and then back to Heathrow in January. I found it to be excellent, better than amny airlines Business class product. It was very comfortable, the entertainment was great and you got everything you could possibly want. I was very lucky to pay for an economy class seat and then get upgraded both ways thanks to a friend of mine who is a Senior Captain on the 777 and on the way back because I agreed to travel a day later due to overbooking.
Club class onboard BA looked amazing and as for first….Wow! WT Plus doesn’t seem to come close to those, but it was fantastic anyway!
By: forwardjumpseat - 6th February 2003 at 10:28
RE: BA new seats
Mongu
I’m not sure where you have got your information from but the new World Traveller plus seats are available on many more destinations than you suggest. They are slowly being added to all long haul aircraft operating to destinations where there is a demand for seats in this cabin. Also, the cabin/seats were diffinately not created for upgrade purposes. BA were responding to a demand from mainly business travellers, those paying the full economy fare, who wanted a separate area with more space to work and relax. The fare for these seats is also quite differnet from our Club World fares. You need to look at the whole picture and compare like for like. The fare sectructure is such that we have discounted J class (club world) fares that are only slightly more than the full W (traveller plus) fare. Then we have discount W fares that are slightly more than the full fare in the M (economy) cabin. Those discounted fares though do carry heavy penalties, advance purchase, no changes, refunds etc. Normally, the aircraft I operate on have all four cabins, First, Club World, World Traveller Plus and World Traveller. I have to be honest and say that I think our economy passengers are packed in like sardines. I think the economy seat pitch on Virgin is better than ours and I know American Airlines have added an extra inch to all economy seats, maybe it’s time we did the same.
I know we (BA) don’t always get it right but I believe we have an excellant premium class product, on the whole I only get complaints on board from economy passengers, most of which are trying to get an upgrade. The excuses they give are brilliant, I could write a book with some of the things I have come across with passengers. In fact when I retire maybe I will, there’s nothing like the travelling public, but then nobody would really believe some of the stupid things passengers do and say!!!!!
By: mongu - 5th February 2003 at 22:51
RE: BA new seats
I will admit (despite some bad experiences) that BA are a good airline. Their frequent flyer scheme is one of the best around, they fly all over the place and the seats are really good if you pay for them.
World Traveller Plus is only available on some routes though, for some odd reason. At the moment just US and Australian routes I think, even though it’s been around for a few years now. There might be a few Far Eastern destinations too.
Also, it is very, very poor value. It is something ridiuclous like £1 or £2 less than Biz class! It is certainly NOT “ecomoy plus” in pricing terms. I assume they introduced it for upgrade reasons or for special offers, and not for sale to the general travelling public.
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February 5, 2003 at 10:04 pm