British Airways “to cap Club Europe business class at seven rows”

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• Bkev says:

  21 Feb21 February 08:10

  In other words

  “British Airways is introducing a more exclusive Club Europe cabin.
  Better seats*, and more dedicated service with delicious meals and drinks.
  You will get all the attention you deserve.”
  *Than in Traveller.

• Alan says:

  21 Feb21 February 08:20

  Hmmm, not having enough room for duty free just as Brexit is on the horizon. I know nothing is yet decided about any exit “deal” but you’ve got to think that there is at least the possibility that duty free may be making a comeback when flying to and from the EU.

  So, potentially at least, you wedge a few more seats in – making the customer experience even poorer, but you lose out on a possible money-spinner.

  Would have thought they could have delayed the decision to see what falls out of the Brexit negotiations before committing to the change, but I guess that’s why I’m sitting at my desk and Alex Cruz is running an airline – I know nothing.

  • callum says:

    21 Feb21 February 10:39

    Doesn’t the extra fuel required to carry the duty free trolley cut into the profit margins pretty heavily? United saved over $2m a year in fuel costs when they scrapped their duty free sales.

    • Alan says:

      21 Feb21 February 14:59

      Fair enough, I hadn’t considered that.
      Maybe the future is in purchasing on board – electronically, and having the stuff waiting for you at the gate when you arrive?

• Adam says:

  21 Feb21 February 08:20

  Is there anywhere I can use as a reference guide to lounge access using CE flights. I didn’t know about the Qantas lounge access at T3 LHR and good to read as have a flight booked.

  • Optimus Prime says:

    21 Feb21 February 08:28

    How about this? https://www.oneworld.com/ffp/lounge-access/-/loungeaccess/LHR/-1

    • Simonologue says:

      21 Feb21 February 08:38

      I’m flying LHR-YVR in WT and it is T3. I’m a silver EC member. Does this mean I’ll have access to the Qantas lounge?

      • Rob says:

        21 Feb21 February 08:39

        Yes

    • Adam says:

      21 Feb21 February 08:40

      Excellent, thanks very much!

      • Simonologue says:

        21 Feb21 February 08:44

        Brilliant. Will definitely do this rather than use the BA lounge. Thanks.

    • Sarah says:

      21 Feb21 February 09:11

      Don’t forget you’ll also have access to the Cathay lounge as well

• shd says:

  21 Feb21 February 08:25

  Are we sure the 7 rows is *just* about galley space for the CE service, and not perhaps also about creating a layout with the first 7 rows having better seats and/or pitch, with ET sardines starting from row 8?

  • Rob says:

    21 Feb21 February 08:39

    Yes. The non-recline seats are from Row 12 I think.

    • Ben says:

      21 Feb21 February 09:09

      The tray size was already halved when the catering was updated last year and I’m not sure what they can do to reduce this further!

      As I understand it, the ‘half-size’ meal / trolley bars have 14 shelves and can hold 28 of the current half sized trays, which presumably sets the limitation discussed here.

      Are changes to be made to the front galleys then? Or perhaps the issue is in the new rear galleys where the return catering is stored.

• Anna says:

  21 Feb21 February 09:03

  I thought one of the reasons for introducing CE on domestic flights was to keep premium passengers happy – e.g. someone who has paid a lot to fly in F from the US to London but might then be unhappy about a ET connection to Edinburgh. If they reduce the number of CE seats, then presumably some of those passengers are going to have to start taking their connecting flights in economy again?

  • shd says:

    21 Feb21 February 14:34

    They could hold back domestic CE inventory for l/h connecting pax….

    • Lady London says:

      21 Feb21 February 15:11

      Which based on my own searches for British Airways domestic seats, they already do hold connecting seats back for international passengers…unless the searcher is at least Gold so far as I can tell.

• Nigel says:

  21 Feb21 February 09:10

  It all sounds very badly thought out via a series of rushed knee jerk reflexes based around the primary desire to cram more steerage passengers in.
  Had the whole model have been thought out properly with the model being mocked up on paper at each stage and the implications studied, then the refashioning could have been done in a logical manner.
  I have little doubt that there will be yet another fare increase in CE and that there will also be disgruntled long haul passengers having to fly steerage to connect at LHR.
  Is BA serious about remaining a full service carrier? This race to reduce service and space, increase queues for washrooms and increase premium fares…….on European sectors (!)……may well backfire on them. Meanwhile our modestly overweight population will struggle in the smaller back end rooms and the somewhat further overweight are expected to put up with a world class dated business class product for the forseeable future.
  Why do I continue to give my substantial self funded business to BA??

  • Thomas Howard says:

    21 Feb21 February 13:32

    BA (and possibly IAG) don’t seem to have a strategy any more which is why I opted to collect tier points with Qantas rather than BAEC – the consensus seems to be this is a poor idea, however, over the long term I don’t think BA has a future. It seems to be working on the basis that it can provide a Ryanair service for full service prices, while outsourcing everything it can with some high profile and notable failure in IT.

    It seems to survive on little more than a dated reputation and a lions share of landing slots at Heathrow.

• Ben says:

  21 Feb21 February 09:37

  I’ve always found the CE meal service to be incredibly slow, clunky and unsophisticated and thought there was plenty of room for improvement. Even with only 7 rows it always seems to take forever and watching the crew peel the foil off the main course, peek inside, attempt to scrunch it up and add it to the tower of scrunched plastic on top of the cart makes me cringe. I guess its not practical with such a large CE cabin but I would much rather than crew prepare and check the tray in the galley and then bring it completed to me.
  There’s plenty of options to use less space and still maintain (or improve) the food quality but yes the presentation is likely to suffer. I could see them moving to some sort of gourmet box/hamper arrangement, containing (very) good quality, well presented food inside. SAS do this already. It would be very quick to serve without trays and would not require as much galley space. Of course the old fashioned pax would bemoan not being served an oversized tray with loads of cutlery they don’t even need and nowhere to put it but don’t right, this could be a sensible solution.

  • Linda says:

    21 Feb21 February 10:17

    I absolutely agree with you Ben. We’ve had food served both ways direct from a trolley and also on completed trays prepared in the galley it obviously depends on the crew. I like the idea of a box/hamper too. It’s not rocket science to get this right but there doesn’t seem to be anyone in BA who has the common sense to achieve this.

• Stephan says:

  21 Feb21 February 09:39

  OT Can you use a recently cancelled platinum amex (not expired) to get into the eurostar lounge in London and Paris? I remember last time I used it they didn’t check if the card worked.

  • Genghis says:

    21 Feb21 February 09:57

    Nothing has changed

  • Rob says:

    21 Feb21 February 10:21

    Yes

    • Stephan says:

      21 Feb21 February 12:09

      Thanks both

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