Your thoughts on the new British Airways Club Suite business class and a seat plan

Not surprisingly, our two articles on the new British Airways Club Suite yesterday attracted a lot of attention.  You can read our two part Club Suite review here and here.

I thought it would be interesting to look at some of your feedback in our comments, since HfP readers have generally been strong critics of the existing Club World arrangement.

Your thoughts were generally very positive.  What intrigued me was that a BA insider dropped me a note to say that the original plan – dropped two years ago on cost grounds – was even better and would have blown even Qatar’s Qsuite out of the water.  Whether that is true or not, and whether the initial plans would ever have been affordable or be able to be engineered, is a different question ….

Here is a new picture which gives the best feel so far of what you will actually get:

One thing I didn’t mention yesterday is that there are no real ‘bad’ seats with the Club Suite layout.  The need to pay £60 – £90 to reserve a Club World seat, if you have no status, should no longer be necessary.  You can’t easily chat to your partner if you’re sat next to them anyway, so if you end up being sat further apart it won’t be a disaster.  You should also find it fairly easy to find someone willing to swap seats to help you, if needed, as the seats are all very similar.

Which flights will Club Suite be on?

Club Suite is now in the British Airways timetable.  You are looking for these flights, which do not show an aircraft type – you can usually click on the flight number on ba.com to bring up the aircraft type, but for these flights it is not there:

• Toronto from 1st October – BA92/93
• Dubai from 8th October – BA106/107

The Madrid test flights won’t be timetabled for a while.

What is the Club Suite seat map?

Yesterday I suggested that we had a 48 + 8 two cabin layout.  It is actually 44 + 12.  Whether it feels a bit dorm-like or not remains to be seen.

This is the seat map, click to enlarge slightly:

What did HfP readers think of Club Suite?

Here are a few quotes:

“It’s a huge step up for BA and I for one (and being a CW hater) will welcome the change. Adding a door does nothing for me its simply something else for BA to break and not repair ….. Direct aisle access is the key and that is delivered. The rest of the service now needs to match starting with grumpy unprofessional crew who talk all night and stomp up and down the aisle like flatted footed oafs.  Food then becomes important and IFE content. I am less concerned about alcohol as I find I drink less and less on board now.  So, 10 out of 10 for effort, roll out of 4-5 years I think will be an issue. Just how long can they keep flogging the 747 on a route like JFK when these seats are flying to other places.”

“It looks amazing!  *searches for business redemption chart while rubbing hands together in glee*”

“This seat is amazing! You’ll never please everyone with everything but it certainly pleases me.”

“Wow is all I can say, This looks class leading.”

“After endless justifiable grumbling about CW over the years, we really should give them credit for this. Let’s just hope they don’t drag their feet too many years in bringing it to the wider fleet…”

“Very good effort. Almost on par with Q Suites which is much better than my expectations were for this seat!  Lets hope that they now fix the onboard service.”

“The seat belt is a positive for me, didn’t like the bumbag belt on Etihad especially when trying to sleep.  Looking forward to trying this out.”

“Looks good as long as they clean it well.”

“CW feels like a dorm of you are in an aisle seat with someone sleeping next to you just across the aisle, with no barriers and no privacy. I can’t see that being a problem with reverse herringbone seating, no matter how big the cabin is. Well done BA. Maybe they have aspirations to become World Class again. Let’s hope so.”

“Wow! I really wasn’t expecting them to push the boat out but credit where it’s due, this is a great effort. Sadly by 2022, who knows what new creations ME airlines will have but it’s still a big step up for folks based in the UK.”

“I still think BA are behind. Poor lounges, some old airplanes, many of them dirty and poor food and wine although BA are slowly improving on the food front but not on wines, like when they ran out of a white on our recent trip from Chile with our first meal!!!  Crew generally are better on BA but not all the time.  For aircraft seating, AA and QR are better in J and for food, QR is miles ahead along with any time dining and good selection of wines as well as pyjamas even in J. CX has also fell behind on food. CX are also way ahead on lounges along with QF and QR not far behind. Theses are only OneWorld ones. I understand it is a personal choice however.  But hopefully with these new seats and the proposed DO&CO food by 2020, BA might make up some ground.”

So …. in general, you’re happy.  Now all we can do is wait for the Madrid test flights to appear in the timetable for August.

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