British Airways used the press flight for the new Seoul service to publish its seating configurations for the new aircraft it is receiving next year.
(Have a read at this post for the background to BA’s A380 and Boeing 787 aircraft.)
Here is the seatmap for the 787:
The key thing to note is:
- The lack of First Class on these planes – BA is planning to use them on routes where there is minimal demand for First, and
- The ‘middle seat’ in Club World, which represents a change to the 2-4-2 pattern on the main deck of a 747 or a 777
Here is the A380 seat map:
Again, the key thing is the 2-3-2 layout in Club World. I was also interested by the decision to keep just 14 seats in First Class, even though the A380 is substantially larger than a 777 or 747.
It is worth noting that, whilst the same First Class seat will be used as on the current fleet, there will be more ‘personal space’ per seat because of the wider cabin.
If you are looking for onboard showers, garage-sized bathrooms or an on-board bar, however, you will need to fly with someone else’s A380’s!
About Head for Points
These layouts are hugely dissapointing. To have kept the yingyang layout in club and with it no direct aisle access put club world firmly in the second division of business priducts.
As for First, well it is simply club world plus.
Both products are well past their sell by date and whilst fine for avios redemption would not be worth paying for when carrriers like CX EK EY etc are available.
Very dissapointing
Hey, Lufthansa is even worse! They kept their ‘sloping downwards to the floor’ business class seats in their A380’s!
I think that putting F on the lower deck is a mistake. On the 744, the lack of the flight deck at the front of F is a major plus. On the 388, cc will be bouncing through the F cabin to and from the CSD area and the flight deck. Noise and light pollution are a big minus to me on the 773 and 772 F cabins. The 388 will be no better.
A better, more private space would have been at the front fo the upper deck.
The 9 seats in a row in economy class on the 787 is going to make the flights far less comfortable than the 787 was initially marketed as being.
It’s a small silver lining, but having sets of two seats in A380 Y upstairs is an improvement for long haul economy.
I like the small econony section of the upper deck, world trav plus looks good