Gary, *agree* *agree* *agree* ” => “It doesn’t come close to what Gulf competitors Emirates or Etihad offer. And given the choice I’d fly business class in Qatar Airways QSuites or EVA Air. It doesn’t approach what Asian competitors Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, or Japan Airlines offer. It doesn’t come close to what Gulf competitors Emirates or Etihad offer. But it doesn’t come close to what European peers Air France or Lufthansa offer. In other words, the British Airways first class experience is nice the way the world’s best business class products are nice. There’s service at your seat as well for food and drinks, and the lounge isn’t crowded. Food isn’t as bad as it once was, but nothing to look forward to. At London Heathrow there’s the Concorde Room which has sit down dining. British Airways passengers in the lounge do get complimentary paid offerings though, which are unremarkable. In Austin the American Airlines Admirals Club is their lounge, which is overcrowded even when the BA flight isn’t preparing for departure. Ground experience: There’s no escort to the plane, no personal touches.They’re just as small for first class as for coach. Lavatories: Lavatories aren’t upgraded in any meaningful way.The kit was acceptable and would have been very nice for business class. Amenities: You get a wash bag and pajamas, slippers were available in both directions on request.(This was something I had to suggest, the crew wasn’t really proactive or problem-solving.)įlight attendant walked away before I could clarify I wanted my Johnny Walker Blue neat, they brought it with ice. They explained that the nuts are catered out of London “and they must have used too many on the first flight.” I suggested they bring some nuts from business class and they did. Nuts were offered to start inflight service, but on our outbound Austin – London Heathrow flight they ran out of nuts and there weren’t enough to offer to all six passengers in the 14 passenger cabin. In other words meal service is functional if a bit assembly line. While they’re willing to serve you your meal whenever you’d like, there aren’t significant midflight snack offerings and don’t necessarily expect the full menu to be available throughout the flight (eg eat the first service meal as your second service, unless you’ve asked crew in advance to set something aside for you). There aren’t any premium touches that mark a first class product, so catering struck me as a solid business class offering. Catering: The food was fine, though unspectacular.It’s not a double bed, there’s not a ton of privacy, but I can stretch out and get comfortable. I do find the bed perfectly comfortable for sleeping. There are a lot of seats squeezed into the space. Of course there are no doors (something that’s become almost de rigueur in first class but that Cathay Pacific does exceptionally well without) but most of all the footprint of each seat is much smaller than you’d expect from first class. The seats are perfectly comfortable, both for sitting and sleeping, and the bedding is fine. Hard product: The cabin is still attractive, with the lighting and in particular the lamps at each seat, a feature United copied with their new Polaris business class seat.Just as they once offered arguably the best business class in the world, they were an early pioneer of lie flat seating, and they now lag all but carriers still flying with angled seats in business. While British Airways has stood still.In part that’s a function of how much better competitors have gotten with the best business class offerings.The airline does have a roadmap to improve the product, likely with fewer first class seats and unstated upgrades. I took two British Airways first class flights over the past week and it struck me just how much closer to a solid business class the whole experience is. It seems to me that Qatar Airways business class QSuites are better, and possibly even EVA Air’s business class as well. Now that same product, which BA is still flying, doesn’t even qualify as the best business class out there. Six or seven years ago Lucky from One Mile at a Time and I debated whether British Airways first class was ‘the world’s best business class.’ At the time I still felt like BA’s first offered something approximating a first class product, even if it wasn’t one of the better or flashier ones.
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