RE: Air France – What are they like??

I travelled Zurich-Paris CDG-Toronto return in economy with them last easter, and I wasn’t impressed.

I was travelling as a member of a group of Rugby players, and we weren’t particularly chuffed when the flight ran out of alcohol half way across the Atlantic. But that’s beside the point.

The IFE was pretty poor, and meals kind of small. Coffee was instant stuff, and luke warm at that.

Maybe I just got a bad day for that, maybe the crew were stressed by the amount of alcohol we were consuming (but we certainly were NOT unruly, in fact we spent a lot of time chatting to them, They’re not bad…) And, admittedly, they were about to introduce seat back screens on the A340 we travelled on. Maybe this would have made a difference to my opinion. But their Radio Stations are just one hour loops, which gets a bit repetitve. Films were pretty old, too, as I recall.

Were are you travelling from? long haul or short haul? The 737’s we were on on the ZRH CDG sectors were ok, but considering they were international flights, admittedly only 50 minute sectors, I felt the cup of lukewarm instant coffee and small croissant were a bit miserly.

Anyway, enjoy your trip, and tell us what you thought of them.

RE: BD new colours

maybe… it was just a gut reaction of mine.
But I feel it looks kind of… I dunno. Using curved lines, it reminds me of BWIA, I’d much rather have straight, crisp lines.
However, I’m not a big fan of these all white fuselages, either… I’m just trying to think of a european flag carrier that isn’t white with trim… KLM’s all I can think of. Shame!

RE: first class seats

it’s easy to say get up and move your feet round, but when you’re in the middle seat in a cramped cabin (which make up 40% of seats in a 747, after all), especially during an overnight flight, getting to your feet can be really difficult! The longest I’ve ever sat in a seat was in AF economy YYZ-CDG last year, the fasten seat belt sign was on most of the flight, too, as they claim they were expecting turbulence (there wasn’t any, though).

RE: Help!!!

Loganair is operating under BA colours, so I didn’t include it.
Yes, KLM uk, also flies from Scotland, but I think that Lufthansa only operates in codeshare with BD from LHR and MAN.

RE: british midland

British Midland International? as opposed to British Midland Airways? Sorry, I’m sceptical… if they’re going to change the name for the US market, they’re not just going to change the word that’s not on the planes… the idea was to not sound so regional.
If they do change it to BMI, I reckon that’s as much of a waste of money as the post office changing it’s name to consignia.

RE: Poll for club

I’m up for it, but I’m not bothered who’s in charge…

Oh, and Kabir, I hope your studies aren’t raping you too much… 🙁

RE: LHR – Terminal 5?

To be honest, as I see it, at the moment, airlines are trying to use smaller aircraft on point to point routes (by-passing hubs), with more frequent departures. This can’t go on for long, as Airports are over capacity as it is. (I think this is what BA is doing wrong at the moment, that and concentrating on the high yield [business] market)
So, sooner or later, these flights will become unviable, as the amount of passengers is ever increasing. So smaller planes don’t make sense. Runway slots will become so coveted, that a few flights a day on a specific route with large aircraft will make more sense than lots of flights on the same route with small aircraft.
So, Hubs will regain the importance that they had a few years ago, before the trend of having regional services started. Obviously, highly profitable regional services will remain, but this puts pressure back on the big airports to develop.
Which leads me to believe that NOW is the ideal time to develop Terminal 5, while LHR is in a lull.