No pressure, BA. Singapore Airlines launches its new First and Business Class.

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• ankomonkey says:

  3 Nov3 November 12:48

  These products look nicer than my house.

• Daniel says:

  3 Nov3 November 15:16

  There’s a tradition here of giving BA a hard time around their premium products.
  I’m based in Frankfurt thus often forced to fly LH: on long distance even on their newest product you’re still sitting directly next to someone in business, either footsie-cuddling or shoulder-rubbing. Weirdest ever. So much better sleep in CW on BA.
  Virgin UC has direct isle access for everyone which is better than BA/LH in many cases, but I too have found it noisy and cramped.

  • Mikeact says:

    3 Nov3 November 17:41

    I agree, complainers should definitely go elsewhere…..it could be better for them, and BA. They won’t have to continually deride BA on various forums….BA won’t have to read the on going comments so everyone’s a winner.
    Me, BA may not be the best, whatever that means, but as my national carrier I’ll stick with them.

    • the real harry1 says:

      3 Nov3 November 18:07

      I could use EJ, Wizz, Ryanair and some others – but none of them have a points-earning loyalty scheme that would allow me to get one-way RFS flights out for £17.50 plus points that have cost me maybe £22.50 (ie 7500 Avios)

      total – £40 for decent airport + good slots + luggage + free drink & snack…er, just the first 3 🙂

      we always fly peak and the LCCs are cute about those dates as well

      plus the recent strategy on ultra cheap HBO fares really is attractive to us as an option/ part option – even though it somehow undermines the hard work put into acquiring the Avios

      having said that, I have been squireling away Avios @ 0.8p using the part pay method Raffles described the other day – some 160-200K a year @ 0.8p, in the hope that my wife and I can get better value long haul in a few years (when chicks fly the nest)

      (I concede that most complainants are talking about LH business/ first)

    • Paxtonfan says:

      3 Nov3 November 18:48

      BA are not the national carrier. They are not even British and should be made to change their name. My suggestion would be Spanish Consortium Airline

      • the real harry1 says:

        3 Nov3 November 18:57

        I guess Mikeact knew that when he wrote it 🙂

        My suggestion would be Brattish Whooerways – as the Mixed Fleet is far too inexpert, underpaid & useless/ rude – and the older team is well past it (fat and slow), apart from the ‘jolly Rogers’ – guys who love their job and surely would never rub your leg in a Dubai bar lol

      • Genghis says:

        3 Nov3 November 20:29

        🙂

      • Leo says:

        3 Nov3 November 22:49

        Back to your normal offensive self I see RH1.

      • Catalan says:

        3 Nov3 November 22:50

        Oh sush please. So all Virgin passengers must be virgins then? It’s a name. Nothing else! SMH

• JohnNI says:

  3 Nov3 November 16:08

  O/T After 2 emails to rolling luggage chasing the 1000 avios I got an email from them telling me to call Avios. I have emailed back to advise that it’s for them to deal with as my contract is with them. Shall wait and see what happens next.

  • the real harry1 says:

    3 Nov3 November 18:32

    I share your disdain

    glad I changed tack & sent in a query early – as we seem to be the only ones getting the 1000 bonus

    they probably ran out of ‘Avios budget’ and are reluctant to lose more money

    no excuse for not keeping to their obligations, which happen to form a contract

• Clemens says:

  3 Nov3 November 17:46

  This looks amazing. Well done, SQ!

• JamesB says:

  3 Nov3 November 19:23

  Interesting comments today on relative merits of different premium products. For me the key factors are 1. how much time my journey takes, and 2. how well I feel when I arrive at my destination. Therefore, I have little interest in a two-stop itinerary or a one-stop exEU when I can fly direct or with one stop exUK. This is true regardless of the perceived quality of ME3 or other airlines that some go out of their way to fly. If I am flying daytime the most important factors for me are a comfortable seat, space and privacy. If flying nightime, a comfortable bed to sleep so that I arrive feeling properly rested. The rest is largely irrelevant to me. I don’t need IFE, I can take my own. I don’t care that much about the food so long as it is edible because even the best airline food I’ve tasted is only on a par with an average restaurant. Drinks are of no interest as I rarely drink anything inflight except water as I feel better after the flight. Once asleep I couldn’t care less about anything at all as I’m totally oblivious. This is just as true of economy as first but I expect the likelihood of awaking with aches and pains in economy is greater. During the last 35 years I have flew about thirty airlines in business class and eleven in first class IIRC. In business I cannot honestly say that there are huge differences: within any era most airlines eventually converge on similar standards. Any differences that do exist are not sufficient for me to compromise on the two important factors for me that I set out at the start of this comment. I flew BKK return in CW in September and I honestly could not fault the experience in either direction. Three years ago I flew Etihad longhaul in economy and that was totally fine too. By contrast the return flight was upgraded to business class and it was the worst flying experience in my life on any airline in any class. If I were to choose between airlines I would be more inclined to do so on the basis of the aircraft than the relative merits of their business class products; the a380 would be my first choice by sone margin, and the 777 my last. Having experienced inflight WiFi it is now an important factor for me but would still not be a deciding factor. When paying for flights myself, and not relying on employers or FF miles, I am generally willing to pay 1.5-2x the best acceptable economy fare for premium economy, and 2.5-3x for business class.

  • Temp says:

    3 Nov3 November 19:56

    I’m with you James. I know I’m probably preaching to the wrong crowd, but I just don’t understand the fascination with all these bells and whistles, on a flight usually over in a few hours. I want to get somewhere as quickly and comfortably as possible (ie. within my budget). While BA certainly isn’t the best, it usually does the job.

    I guess it depends on income, lifestyle, expectations etc… If I was loaded, and lived my life in 5-star luxury and fancy cocktail bars, maybe I’d care more about all of this stuff. But to each, his/her own.

    (My main gripe is about BA’s biz pricing policy, but that’s another story…)

    • JamesB says:

      3 Nov3 November 20:50

      BA charge what they do because they can, mainly due to their dominance at LHR. Where budgets are limiting it is always worth checking out premium economy. There are some good deals around, they usually earn 100% of miles flown, and apart from a better seat and more space can have other benefits like improved upgrade chances, extra luggage, free seat selection etc depending on the airline.

• Mr dee says:

  3 Nov3 November 22:59

  Paypal is a mess, there doesn’t seem to be a standard across all users and it is very confusing when you get an error and no explanations. If you have a business account and update the details sometimes half of them don’t update and no way to get them all changed.

  Unfortunately they are now so big it is unlikely to get better, all I can hope for is a bigger company to come along and beat them in all areas

• Alex Sm says:

  4 Nov4 November 17:29

  “I have felt a bit lonely”, says the person who never talks to fellow passengers onboard. You need to decide what you really want. Without being too Alan Partridge 🙂

  • Rob says:

    5 Nov5 November 10:24

    Just because I don’t want to chat to other people doesn’t mean I want to sat in solitary confinement …..!

• Alan says:

  4 Nov4 November 22:46

  No Bits today, but airline-related – rumour has it that Flying Blue will be moving to revenue-based earning come April 2018, with press release due on Monday. No mention of any redemption changes for now…

  • JamesB says:

    4 Nov4 November 23:03

    That rumour is about a month old already Alan, you must have been up in the air at the time 🙂

    • Alan says:

      5 Nov5 November 14:58

      LOL – I saw it a month ago when they released the new pricing engine by mistake, this was more of an update that an official announcement is expected to be imminent 🙂

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