EXCLUSIVE: We reveal the changes to British Airways World Traveller Plus premium economy

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British Airways has been touting improvements in the World Traveller Plus ‘soft product’ (food, bedding etc) for some time. I’ve now managed to get hold of some information on what is coming as well as some not-seen-elsewhere promotional images of the new meal service.

The changes will come in two phases. The first phase, starting on 1st February, involves the new food options. The second phase later in the Spring will involve new soft furnishings and a brand new amenity kit.

Here is a new World Traveller Plus menu, which has been redesigned:

New British Airways World Traveller Plus food

There will be three main courses to choose from, including one vegetarian option.

The starter and dessert will be improved and will no longer be taken from the Economy / World Traveller meal. This puts BA on a par with Virgin Atlantic which serves a totally different meal in Premium.

New British Airways World Traveller Plus food

Both the main meal and the second meal will be served on china and with ‘real’ glasses. At present only the main meal uses glass.

New British Airways World Traveller Plus food

Here is another mock-up:

New British Airways World Traveller Plus food

The image below is a typical ‘second meal’ for a longer flight. Hot food will now be guaranteed for the first time, instead of the pre-packed sandwiches often provided at present. On shorter flights it will be a hot hand-held snack and on longer flights you will get a hot meal tray, with a choice of two options, such as the one pictured below.

New British Airways World Traveller Plus food

If the second meal is breakfast, it will come like this:

New British Airways World Traveller Plus food

I need to confess that I have never flown Premium Economy on British Airways, Virgin Atlantic or Norwegian so I am not sure how this compares to what the competition offers. It certainly appears to be a major improvement on what BA is offering at present.

New British Airways World Traveller Plus food

Regular HfP readers will know that British Airways is rolling out a new World Traveller Plus seat. It is currently being installed on the Boeing 777-200 fleet, initially on the Gatwick aircraft. This is the smart-looking seat you can see in the photo above. You will also find a version of the ‘larger TV’ seat on the A380, Boeing 787 and Boeing 777-300ER fleets, but not all of the Boeing 747 fleet.

These ‘soft product’ changes do not fully close the gap with Virgin Premium, however.

We did a comparison last year of British Airways World Traveller Plus vs Virgin Atlantic Premium, which you can find here. In almost all respects, the Virgin Atlantic product is better. Norwegian also offers an impressive Premium service which we reviewed here, although Norwegian is no longer offering lounge access on Premium Economy tickets unless you buy a flexible one.

New food may be welcome but, based on the analysis we did last April:

Virgin Atlantic offers free seat selection in Premium whilst BA does not

Virgin Atlantic has a 2.5 inch wider seat than BA

Virgin Atlantic offers dedicated Premium check-in desks, whilst BA does not

Virgin Atlantic offers priority baggage handling to Premium passengers, whilst BA does not

Virgin Atlantic has dedicated cabin crew for the Premium cabin, whilst BA does not

In my view, the best reason to book World Traveller Plus is to upgrade it to a flat-bed Club World seat using Avios.

The cost to upgrade is the difference between a Club World and World Traveller Plus ‘100% Avios’ redemption plus any additional taxes. New York, peak dates, is 120,000 Avios for a Club World return flight and 80,000 Avios for World Traveller Plus. An upgrade from WTP is therefore 40,000 Avios return or 20,000 Avios one-way. This is excellent value.

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Category

British Airways and Avios, Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

TripRep says:

17 Jan17 January 06:57

Nice to see BA improving their food offerings and trying to compete, might get to try it next month, and for the future a bigger seat is encouraging.

I’ve said it before, I really rate the VS PE product, especially for day flights to the US, if downstairs on an old 747 you are usually the first off the plane to get through immigration.
- Roxanna Zea says:
  
  17 Jan17 January 09:13
  
  Agreed – the current WTP food is shocking. I flew DFW-LHR over Christmas and the second “meal” was a croissant (cold, in plastic) and/or cereal bar if you want one. Official flight time was 9 hours but we were delayed in DFW, so on an end-to-end journey of 11 hours and 7 hours after the main meal, a cereal bar was hardly premium.
TripRep says:

17 Jan17 January 07:04

And whilst we are talking BA, any confirmation of the quiet devaluation of Avios by the increase of YQ/CIS?
- TripRep says:
  
  17 Jan17 January 21:08
  
  ps Rob In going to keep calling out poor journalism every time I see this in a HfP article…
  
  “In my view, the best reason to book World Traveller Plus is to upgrade it to a flat-bed Club World seat using Avios. The cost to upgrade is the difference between a Club World and World Traveller Plus ‘100% Avios’ redemption plus any additional taxes.”
  
  They are not all taxes. Please stop this misleading laziness.
ee says:

17 Jan17 January 07:05

Rob – have you heard anything about changes to the F soft product? We were fortunate to be on what I think was the first (only so far?) trial flight to SJC at the start of December.

Amongst the other 3 or 4 passengers on the flight, one of the others posted a textual account on FT to which I then added a number of pics of the menu and food.
- Rob says:
  
  17 Jan17 January 08:08
  
  No.
John Battram says:

17 Jan17 January 07:15

The is about time. You mention that BA is rolling out a new WTP seat. That seat was launched over 10 years ago and it still does not feature on all aircraft. BA has focussed its marketing on the ‘new’ seat since it launched however, which has been very misleading. I got caught out flying from Gatwick a couples of times where none of these aircraft had the new seats until fairly recently. BA were silent on the Gatwick fleet not being refreshed for nearly a decade after the new hard product launched.
PGW says:

17 Jan17 January 07:20

Can somebody explain to me how it is that I can find flights in WT+ LHR-JFK for £856 which earn 10k Avios but the very same flights upgraded to CW cost £1,500 + 48k Avios? Doesn’t look like excellent value to me unless I’m doing something wrong here (which is entirely possible)..
- TGLoyalty says:
  
  17 Jan17 January 07:42
  
  Never upgrade while buying the flight it throws up far higher upgrade costs than it should
  - Pgw says:
    
    17 Jan17 January 07:49
    
    Thanks for that – so the best way is to buy the ticket and then upgrade once it’s in place? Is there a way to know what the cost will be before buying the ticket?
    - TGLoyalty says:
      
      17 Jan17 January 08:14
      
      The difference should be the difference in fees between a PE and CW redemption.
      
      One other reason for not doing it at the same time is that they will back out of the 24hour cooling off period you get when booking online
  - Matt says:
    
    17 Jan17 January 07:53
    
    Rob should mention in the article that the cost is avios + difference in taxes. I was unaware of this because all the GTSP and HfP articles seem to only mention avios. It’s a likely £100 extra per person per leg.
    - BigSi says:
      
      17 Jan17 January 08:04
      
      Matt, there is no extra government tax between PE and Biz. Might be a few £ due for ‘other taxes’ but that is it.
    - Mikeact says:
      
      17 Jan17 January 08:06
      
      And the rest…
    - Matt says:
      
      17 Jan17 January 08:30
      
      BigSi yes you’re probably right it’s additional fees not taxes but I just use that term generically. I wouldn’t call an extra £100 per person per leg a few £!
      
      We got caught out upgrading WT+ RT to San Diego recently as we weren’t expecting to be charged an extra £400.
    - BigSi says:
      
      17 Jan17 January 09:12
      
      Matt, wow that is a big difference! My experience is different but maybe depends on the destination.
    - Mr. AC says:
      
      17 Jan17 January 10:52
      
      I’ve upgraded WTP to CW using Avios a couple of times (great value indeed), and the extra taxes were always less then one pound! Very silly feeling when you give your credit card number over the phone to be charged £0.62…
    - Lady London says:
      
      17 Jan17 January 18:12
      
      Here we go again. As UK departure tax does not vary between Premium Econony, Business and First, any more money demanded by British Airways in addition to avios, to upgrade between these three, is pure Carrier Greed on the part of British Airways and is assuredly not truthfully “taxes”. Howver “taxes” is the catch-all term we use for real taxes+carrier greed elements including YQ or CIS etc that does not include just the government tax.
- PGW says:
  
  17 Jan17 January 12:00
  
  I bit the bullet and called BA about upgrading to CW on a LHR-MIA return in September (off peak). WT+ fare was £900 and to upgrade in both directions required an additional £200 (+ 60k avios) so it seems that might be a standard charge for UK-US upgrades although I was told CW to First requires a higher payment.
  - Matt says:
    
    17 Jan17 January 12:54
    
    Mr AC and BigSi where out of interest were you flying where difference in fees is low?
    Maybe it’s just UK-US where it’s high?
Mike says:

17 Jan17 January 07:27

Rob – thanks for this article. I for one would certainly interested to see other articles reviewing airline Premium Economy (PE) offerings. If I am paying my own money for leisure travel I will offer use PE unless there are good Business sales on or AVIOS seats available.
- AndyGWP says:
  
  17 Jan17 January 17:45
  
  Likewise – I’d be interested in Lufthansa but I would be surprised if Rob would want to pay for that experience (as he doesn’t need or want to fly it), so it will all be about Lufthansa stepping up to the plate with an offering for one of his staff to try out 🙂
Marcw says:

17 Jan17 January 07:38

Virgin may have a slightly better core product… But in terms of network there’s a clear winner, which outcompetes any other smallest difference.
- Rob says:
  
  17 Jan17 January 08:06
  
  Obviously depends where you’re going 🙂
John says:

17 Jan17 January 07:43

Good news re the second meal; on the flights I take I don’t want to eat the first meal which tends to be served at a silly time (going eastbound, it might be midnight-2am destination time, so I’d rather get straight to sleep. And in any case I’ll have eaten in the lounge/hotel breakfast). With the current crap 2nd meal, it means that I need to remember to bring extra food on board or go hungry.

“I need to confess that I have never flown Premium Economy on British Airways” disadvantage of an all-J travel policy 🙂

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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