[Travel] BA

[dazzer6666]

I’m flying back to T5 from Bangalore tomorrow morning. I’m only on BA Blue - my Sydney and Taipei flights were Quantas or Virgin and points long since spent- but my colleague is silver and got me in the lounge at T5 as a guest. We got the last table and stayed about 20 minutes. I was offered an upgrade to Premium Economy for £200 of my own money on the BA app for the return. It’s a day flight and having seen PE on the way out there’s no way I’d upgrade out of my own money. Seemed barely different to Economy.


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Does depend on the plane a bit - for Bangalore they seem to use one of the old/decrepit 777s most of the time, so probably not as good as it could be. There is definitely more leg room in PE, and the seats recline better and have a footrest so it is more comfortable. Biggest plus though is probably the smaller/quieter cabin though, avoiding the economy zoo as @HT says. If you know there is space in PE, it's worth asking the cabin crew if there is an upgrade available (paid) - they might offer you a better deal, and just occasionally they'll move you without having to pay because they can't be arsed with the paperwork.

 

[Hillian1]

Premium Economy on a Dreamliner is well worth the extra cost.

 

[Stumpy Tim]

Premium Economy on a Dreamliner is well worth the extra cost.

I flew business class to Moscow on the Dreamliner recently and it was glorious. These things often very much depend on the plane

 

[luge]

I fly alot with BA long haul - here's my take out.

Where are you flying from?

If its LGW chances are you are on an old plane. the quality of Economy and Premium is pretty poor - however the seats in premium on these old birds are reasonably comfortable, but I gave up getting premium unless its 150 or less.

There are some refurbed planes coming in to operation. You can tell if you are on one of these if on your seat plan there are four seats in the middle in economy. If you have one of these DEFINATELY take premium as you are packed in like sardines on these planes (they reduced size of seats to compete with Norweigan dreamliner).

LHR

There are a mix of planes and styles. If you are on Dreamliner - take the upgrade as the seats are cramped in economy like the LGW new 777s.

747's are a mix of old and new. If you have an old one, again i don't think the updrade is worth it.

Same with 777. You can tell by looking at www.thebasource.com and comparing with seatguru.com and your booking app.

 

[Weststander]

With a family in tow, we’ll carry on with economy for a while.

Premium economy used to be a small incremental cost. I recall flying to Canada in 1999 and the difference was a bit more than negligable.

 

[arewethereyet?]

where are you flying to ? as earlier poster said depends on aircraft . BA Boeing 777 currently going through a refit so some better than others .if its the new dreamliner or airbus 380 then again its fine .You may find some older 777 or 747 not quite as good but still a lot better than economy .

Indeed they are going through a refit, they are having extra seats added from a capacity of 276 to 330 and they tend to use these on the Orlando routes amongst other high passenger load destinations, so in answer to your question, yes definitely better than economy.

 

[Springal]

I fly alot with BA long haul - here's my take out.

Where are you flying from?

If its LGW chances are you are on an old plane. the quality of Economy and Premium is pretty poor - however the seats in premium on these old birds are reasonably comfortable, but I gave up getting premium unless its 150 or less.

There are some refurbed planes coming in to operation. You can tell if you are on one of these if on your seat plan there are four seats in the middle in economy. If you have one of these DEFINATELY take premium as you are packed in like sardines on these planes (they reduced size of seats to compete with Norweigan dreamliner).

LHR

There are a mix of planes and styles. If you are on Dreamliner - take the upgrade as the seats are cramped in economy like the LGW new 777s.

747's are a mix of old and new. If you have an old one, again i don't think the updrade is worth it.

Same with 777. You can tell by looking at www.thebasource.com and comparing with seatguru.com and your booking app.

LGW have some refitted 777's now. I travelled back from JFK to LGW 3 weeks ago and it had new IFE, seats etc. Even better that only 30% load so got a full 4 seats to myself for my own economy bed! Was certainly better than the 747 from LHR-LAS

 

[Lenny Rider]

Long haul without a doubt, you will be amazed the difference in the start to your holiday as a result.

 

[Captain Sensible]

The T5 lounges were very good but are now extremely busy in my experience but way better than milling around the airport. Good to hear that the new Boeings and Airbus A350 will have a new club layout, about time. It was flying on a comparitively new A380 that really disappointed me. I normally end up on a geriatric 777 as they fly them on most African and Caribbean flights and those are the flights that I have used the most, but to find space cramped and those old design business class on the A380 was a shock.

Trying Virgin next time, as this is a first for me, it’ll be interesting to see if there is a substantial difference.

I find the smaller lounge to the left of security better in the mornings. Lots of space and choice. I’m not sure but I think the 380’s will benefit a refit in club as they only have about 14 of them.
The inflight service has changed on long flights since the spring, much better food and choice leaving London than before. I must admit, i don’t use Virgin because they don’t have the destinations or frequency i require. Competition is always good in the airline industry.. or none of them would change anything at all! Including price and loyalty rewards.

 

[Doonhamer7]

I’ve used BA PE on business trips and wouldn’t consider flying more than 4hours further back. Seat is slightly wider and you get extra leg room you can cross your legs on. I think food is slightly better but I’m not sure as I eat in airport before flying. I’ve generally been very impressed except once when it was an old tired plane that looked like it needed a refit

 

[dazzer6666]

I find the smaller lounge to the left of security better in the mornings. Lots of space and choice. I’m not sure but I think the 380’s will benefit a refit in club as they only have about 14 of them.
The inflight service has changed on long flights since the spring, much better food and choice leaving London than before. I must admit, i don’t use Virgin because they don’t have the destinations or frequency i require. Competition is always good in the airline industry.. or none of them would change anything at all! Including price and loyalty rewards.

Not all flights have the upgraded (club) service yet though...........

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

No idea about BA but I use premium economy with JAL and it's well worth it.

Incidentally, does anyone know what constitutes long haul? At what point does short haul become long haul?

 

[dazzer6666]

No idea about BA but I use premium economy with JAL and it's well worth it.

Incidentally, does anyone know what constitutes long haul? At what point does short haul become long haul?

According to our company travel policy, 3 hours (anything over that we go business class). From a personal perspective I'd put it more like 4-5 (ie I'd fly to the Canaries in economy, but not much further).

 

[Birdie Boy]

Came back from Vegas the other week on a BA 777 which was a complete shit hole with the tv/ media not working for the whole flight and my wife's screen hanging by a wire. Lucky it was on the way back as we slept on the overnight flight.

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

According to our company travel policy, 3 hours (anything over that we go business class). From a personal perspective I'd put it more like 4-5 (ie I'd fly to the Canaries in economy, but not much further).

As little as 3 hours?! I don't travel for work but that seems pretty generous. Or are all companies like that?

 

[Diablo]

No idea about BA but I use premium economy with JAL and it's well worth it.

Incidentally, does anyone know what constitutes long haul? At what point does short haul become long haul?

My opinion would be anything over five hours !!

 

[dazzer6666]

As little as 3 hours?! I don't travel for work but that seems pretty generous. Or are all companies like that?

3 hours is as generous as I've seen it - in my previous 2 firms it was 5 hours. To be honest it doesn't really make much difference to me in my current job as apart from going to Scotland a lot, most of my regular trips are longer anyway

 

[Springal]

3 hours is as generous as I've seen it - in my previous 2 firms it was 5 hours. To be honest it doesn't really make much difference to me in my current job as apart from going to Scotland a lot, most of my regular trips are longer anyway

Blimey I need to change industry! 9 hours for us, but excludes our annual jaunt to the US for 'Sales Kick Off'.

I think you can get PE if over 6 hours but there is only a marginal price increase

 

[dazzer6666]

Blimey I need to change industry! 9 hours for us, but excludes our annual jaunt to the US for 'Sales Kick Off'.

I think you can get PE if over 6 hours but there is only a marginal price increase

**** that !!

 

[Icy Gull]

Came back from Vegas the other week on a BA 777 which was a complete shit hole with the tv/ media not working for the whole flight and my wife's screen hanging by a wire. Lucky it was on the way back as we slept on the overnight flight.

Their 777s really are a disgrace imo, quite a few of them date back to 1997 and BA ranks 57 out of 67 airlines on the average age of their 777s! I was quite shocked to see our national carrier flying such old aircraft on long haul routes. Only 8 of 57 aircraft in their 777 fleet are post 2002