British Airways announces First Class ‘soft’ cabin improvements, live from 31st March

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• Harry Hv says:

  7 Mar7 March 06:43

  What about the simple fixes urgently needed
  1. Dont ration food to the extent F clients cant get their first choice
  2. Dont offer wine worse than standards of J class (on other airlines)
  3. Dont offload F-Class latecomers
  4. Dont substitute “Afternoon Tea” for meals, that experiment has failed before
  5. Dont cut back on cleaning the planes
  6. Dont cut back on cleaning and tidying the F lounges

  • Catalan says:

    7 Mar7 March 07:37

    I agree with all your points above except point no.3.
    Why should I and 200+ other passengers be kept waiting on a plane for ‘F-Class latecomers’? Did they get published a different departure time to everyone else?

    • Shoestring says:

      7 Mar7 March 08:07

      Because F latecomers will be staggering there from the lounge & it would take longer to find their checked suitcase in the hold than waiting 10 mins on the tarmac?

      • Catalan says:

        7 Mar7 March 09:12

        I’d rather wait the 10mins on the tarmac to offload their luggage than to just sit there in the hope that they might just turn up.

  • shd says:

    7 Mar7 March 07:59

    > What about the simple fixes urgently needed

    Sadly all of those things sound like they’d involve actually spending more money on the product, which is a bit of a non-starter when “cost-cutting’s in the DNA”:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/05/29/devotion-cost-cutting-dna-british-airways/

  • Paul says:

    8 Mar8 March 00:09

    If they didn’t do that how would the staff travel and where would the capatains wife sit?

• mike sanders says:

  7 Mar7 March 06:43

  I hope the slippers include size 11 I never get a pair that fits as for the sleep wear current one is OK.
  The Liberty bags are nice we have too many now personally I preferred the Anya Hindmarch which are great for all those accessories and gadgets one has to carry now.
  Glassware looks very nice just upgrade the £5 plonk and we’re good.

  • Alex Sm says:

    7 Mar7 March 11:05

    and the opposite – hopefully not all the pyjamas are L and XL. I understand that many people get slightly obese by the time they can afford flying in F but not all of them!

    • Rob says:

      7 Mar7 March 11:18

      M is XL anyway ….

      • Alex Sm says:

        7 Mar7 March 12:18

        if they are made in China, it should be the opposite!
        I bought some garments recently from AliExpress and they turned out to be XS while in Chinese sizes table it’s M!

• Cat says:

  7 Mar7 March 06:49

  I’d say that Elemis is a major step up, I’m not a fan of Aromatherapy Associates (I feel the same way about the hand cream as most people feel about the old Hilton shower gel, and as for that awful deodorant that pops out of the case…). It’s a shame to lose the Liberty bags though.

• E says:

  7 Mar7 March 07:05

  Elemis was previously in Club I think, before the White Company stuff?

  • Cat says:

    7 Mar7 March 07:18

    It was, but the Ultra Smart range is new and is at a much higher price point – £210 for the Serum and £145 for the eye treatment. I’d never pay that kind of money, but it is their premium range at least.
    Also, hopefully the deodorant won’t pop out of the case and fall on the floor each time you try to use it!

  • reddot says:

    7 Mar7 March 07:20

    Indeed. Will miss the Liberty bags, and +1 to the above comment where they say that austerity has taken on a toll on hardware such as toilets and lights by the seat.

• Hunter says:

  7 Mar7 March 07:17

  These ‘tweaks’ add up to a really decent overall improvement in my view. I was going to buy some Bose headphones, as the current F ones are rubbish, but won’t bother now. Hope they stick to those timescales though, as fly to HK on 9th April!

  • Genghis says:

    7 Mar7 March 07:42

    If you travel often I’d encourage you to buy your own quality headphones

    • Doug M says:

      7 Mar7 March 09:27

      Agree. If you’re flying F then the price of good Bose noise cancellers must be loose change.

    • Alex says:

      7 Mar7 March 13:42

      I bought mine for £40 on Amazon and they do the job.

• ChrisC says:

  7 Mar7 March 07:23

  I’ve seen a few wine snob sniffy comments about the £5 bottle of wine that are based purely on the price and the supermarket that sells it for that price.

  But what does is actually taste like once you’re up in the air?? That’s the important thing surely? We should all know that food and drink tastes differently at altitude.

  We’ve all read the reports that in blind tastings Aldi gin gets more points from the supposed experts that bottles costing £40 quid and more. Ditto with champagne and wine tastings.

  • Shoestring says:

    7 Mar7 March 07:34

    sniffy comments not based entirely on fact, as HfP knows full well – makes a good headline or throwaway comment, though 🙂

    for a start, it’s £5 for 35cl on promotion in Morrisons (not 70cl)

    there’s a FT thread on it if you’re interested

    • ChrisC says:

      7 Mar7 March 08:32

      Yes I read some of it when it was started and stopped reading when it was clear most people commenting on it hadn’t even tasted the wine yet were happily criticising it based on the incorrect price and supermarket involved.

    • David S says:

      7 Mar7 March 08:40

      Wine on BA, particularly in J is not great. I am not a wine snob at all but usually find something I like when flying but the only wine I wanted on recent SCL-LHR ran out by dinner time. I was given a small measure of a white from First class and said no more refill were available. Poor effort BA.
      I do agree with some comments that other airlines J wines are much better than BAs.
      Ultimately I am not bothered if the wine is £5 or £500, if it tastes ok on its own or paired with food when flying. I can see people upset however when you pay 1000s of Pounds and get served £5 wines, unlike the recent Emirates First class review by Rob.

• Nigel the pensioner says:

  7 Mar7 March 07:34

  As there are way fewer F seats than J seats they jolly well should turn the changes around – or i expect that would be Cruz’s illogical comment!
  I expect the contract for Liberty to supply rock bottom priced goods (or even pay for their product to be used) has reached the agreed spend / numbers, hence move on to the next company. What is in them gets thrown into the bin in the loo except the pen. The bags as suggested can be used for IT accessories or medicines etc. Maybe HfP could offer a prize (of a Liberty bag) for the most novel suggested use of an F or J amenity bag?!! 😁
  The wines – well its pretty disgusting that it is budgeted so atrociously. Im afraid that mostly it does taste pretty awful and is at the low end of any good region if chosen. It needs to improve. On the other end of the scale the bling approach of some if the Arabic carriers is also unnecessary. It needs to be said that Dom Perignon is NOT the worlds best champagne imho – it may be the best known, but there are better and I dont mean “Ace of Spades” either!!
  Must go or ill be late for football training!! 🤣

  • Shoestring says:

    7 Mar7 March 07:38

    the bling approach of the ME3 is deliberate & not designed to appeal to you, a Western European with impeccable European tastes!

    no more than you would (I hope) take up collecting stuff from the Pokemon franchise 🙂

    • Rob says:

      7 Mar7 March 08:02

      My son wants a cuddly pikachu for his 8th birthday.

      • Doug M says:

        7 Mar7 March 09:30

        Get him an England shirt and tell him to sort himself out.

      • Cat says:

        7 Mar7 March 20:16

        Get over to Build a Bear!

    • PeekAtYou says:

      7 Mar7 March 13:14

      It may surprise you to learn of the huge Pokemon communities in the cities of the UK who are almost all adults and some of who read this blog frequently!

      • Joan says:

        8 Mar8 March 14:55

        Scarily true

  • Rob says:

    7 Mar7 March 08:03

    I am actually using some Aromatherapy Associates stuff here in Berlin which my wife got on her last F BA flight!

    • LB says:

      7 Mar7 March 09:00

      …and you look fabulous Rob!

    • Alex says:

      7 Mar7 March 13:40

      …because you are worth it!

      • Cat says:

        7 Mar7 March 21:46

        You deserve better Rob, get on the Elemis!

  • ChrisC says:

    7 Mar7 March 08:38

    The reason why the CW changes too so long was because it was an entirely different method of doing the service than previously and so cabin crew needed to have special training on delivering it properly and try organising that training when people are all over the world.

    These F changes are only things like new crockery which are easy to do and don’t require any training to implement. Just like the changes to the CE meals last year. It was essentially Big Bang because only the food changed not the delivery.

    • Sarah says:

      7 Mar7 March 10:18

      That doesn’t explain why it took so long to roll out the bedding, which I can’t imagine required much in the way of training.

      • ChrisC says:

        7 Mar7 March 12:44

        the issue with the bedding was the first batch didn’t meet safety regulations so had to be redone and that delayed the roll out.

        • Rob says:

          7 Mar7 March 12:49

          It delayed the initial roll-out. I don’t think there is a factory capacity issue on blankets!

          On the other hand … the factory making the new Club World can make 3 seats per day. This is from Alex’s mouth at a recent staff briefing. You can therefore start to work out how long the full fleet refurb will take.

      • The Savage Squirrel says:

        7 Mar7 March 14:20

        3/day? Seriously? Hahahaha is it being hand-carved by a man with a beard in his shed in Devon?

  • Anna says:

    7 Mar7 March 11:30

    After all these comments I’m going to be tempted to go round the F cabin asking the other passengers if they intend to throw their amenity kits away! It could keep me in Elemis unguents for months 😂

    • Cat says:

      7 Mar7 March 20:18

      😂🤣

  • Will says:

    7 Mar7 March 12:04

    I enjoy the odd glass of something nice but I’d happily trade expensive plonk for a nice fresh food offering in the lounge prior to departure.

    Both buffet and a la carte options are very poor for “first class”.

    A fillet steak is about £10 cost price. Keep the expensive wine and champagne and offer me that cooked well with nice accompaniments and I won’t want to eat ok the plane.

    Im happy to pre order it to save on waste.

• Mikeact says:

  7 Mar7 March 08:01

  I don’t think your wife will be too upset. My wife received some of these products last Christmas and was quite impressed.

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