The last British Airways A350 arrives: how is the Club Suite roll-out progressing?

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• Olly says:

  19 Feb19 February 07:17

  Article mentions that 787-8s are being updated this year but list doesn’t reflect that at all. Guessing that this is because Rob doesn’t know which routes will get them first but feels a bit errant not to mention that

• Paul W says:

  19 Feb19 February 07:23

  Looks like Gatwick isn’t just bottom of the list, it’s not even on the list!
  Gatwick has an aging fleet and I’m super curious as to what will happen next.

  • Andrew J says:

    19 Feb19 February 07:38

    Nothing. The article says there are no plans for the refurbishment of the LGW fleet.

    • Paul W says:

      19 Feb19 February 07:40

      Perhaps when the Gatwick fleet starts hit 30 years old some planes from LHR will be moved across. Just a thought.

  • Miles says:

    19 Feb19 February 07:42

    I think it’s absolutely unacceptable BA have no plans to update their Gatwick fleet, they operate plenty of long haul flights out of LGW – I know they class these more as “leisure” destinations, but why should that mean passengers have to experience a subpar product??? The total BA Club World identity should be Club Suite.

    • LittleNick says:

      19 Feb19 February 08:23

      Couldn’t agree more @Miles, this attitude of just doing what’s enough will always be BA’s downfall and why they’ll struggle to always be at least considered amongst the best, Consistency is key, something they don’t seem to understand

      • Thegasman says:

        19 Feb19 February 09:04

        Why do you think BA want to be considered among the best airlines in the world? They want to be the most efficient/profitable & they do a pretty good job of that.

      • Lady London says:

        19 Feb19 February 10:05

        It’s not BA’s downfall it’s how they make money.

        Always finding the balance of doing just enough, only just soon enough.

        That, plus holding tight to their corporate customers – whose actual travellers can’t get away from BA because their employer has a corporate deal (noting that in some accounts BA sometimes addutionally makes sure the very senior corporate travellers of their accounts often also receive privileges their run of the mill travellers don’t).

        BA would be unhappy if many of their customer satisfaction scores were higher than they are, as that would mean they were overdelivering.

    • Paul says:

      20 Feb20 February 02:48

      BA has plans for Gatwick, just not finalised and public plans.

• The Streets says:

  19 Feb19 February 07:37

  I’m sure my flight to Maldives next month is the new Club Suite

  • Rhys says:

    19 Feb19 February 07:48

    That’s because this list is for the summer season which starts at the very end of March 🙂

• TooPoorToBeHere says:

  19 Feb19 February 07:39

  > Gatwick has an aging fleet and I’m super curious as to what will happen next.

  I would imagine that once CS is on everything at LHR, BA will look to the next generation of business class seats, and LGW will eventually inherit ratty and tired CS aircraft with broken bits, duct tape & tie wraps.

  • Paul W says:

    19 Feb19 February 07:41

    Sounds highly plausible 😀

  • Doc says:

    19 Feb19 February 08:48

    What do you mean, when it becomes tatty and tired.😀
    Last two trips in CS, they are already tatty and tired. Two panels would not close fully and one was indeed stuck down with tape. Scary considering how old the CS is and how quickly it is breaking down.

    • JDB says:

      19 Feb19 February 09:12

      That’s because BA unfortunately doesn’t maintain the new Club Suites and doesn’t properly clean them.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        19 Feb19 February 09:25

        And they’re of poor build quality in the first place

        • Mark says:

          19 Feb19 February 09:47

          Exactly. I flew in Club Suite in February 2022 on an aircraft that had been in service about a year and my seat was missing the cover to the section that has the power sockets and remote. I remember thinking at the time they’re not built/maintained to withstand service usage for long. It would interesting to know how the longevity compares to other airlines using the Collins Super Diamond seats, and whether this is, in part at least, down to BA selecting the cheap options.

• Not Long Now... says:

  19 Feb19 February 07:49

  Swings and roundabouts I suppose. Our November SJO-LGW was changed to one of the refitted 777s borrowed from Heathrow, which was a nice surprise as in Premium Economy which was a considerable step up from the old version, especially IFE wise. Next month’s LHR-CPT has been changed from A350 to old style 777, so pretty rubbish IFE, however being 6’6″ I much prefer sleeping in the ‘old’ ying-yang, so much more room for your feet/knees than the admittedly much smarter looking suite. Incidentally, the American Airlines 777 version of the ‘suite’ we were on in January was hugely more comfortable and spacious for sleeping.Yes OK no door, but personally I don’t really care and would much rather have room to at least lie comfortably if not actually fully stretch out.

• Bernard says:

  19 Feb19 February 07:51

  How can this all take sooo long.
  Other airlines will have been through two generations of seats before BA is done.

  Long haul is a lottery, even on 777s. The rogue Gatwick three are still at Heathrow. How hard is it to refute those?
  Given current progress they’ll be lucky to be done by 2030, not 2026.

  Another shambles legacy left by the inept Alex Cruz and his backer Walsh.

  • Rhys says:

    19 Feb19 February 08:08

    If you think this is long let me tell you a story about Lufthansa and their Allegra’s seats…..

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

    19 Feb19 February 08:29

    It’s taking g so long because the seat manufacturer can only make a certain number of the CS suite each day/week/month and BA has a lot of seats to fit.

    Then there are the scheduling issues to remove a plane from OPs for a couple of weeks for the refits to happen – though they try and align that with the C and D heavy maintenance checks but those aren’t always spaced regularly.

  • JDB says:

    19 Feb19 February 09:20

    @Bernard – for all the justifiable criticisms of BA, this isn’t a fair one. BA has actually been at or close to the forefront of business class seating improvements for decades particularly amongst European legacy carriers. The ‘cradle’ seat was considered very pioneering!

    The criticisms we see here for the allegedly excessive time taken for these refits, installation of new scanners or baggage systems at Heathrow actually just demonstrate a lack of knowledge about these programmes, supply chains etc. It is in absolutely nobody’s interest that these projects take longer than they have to.

    • Andrew says:

      19 Feb19 February 09:47

      You assume that cost isn’t the main constraint. 8 years is long enough to fix a manufacturing constraint if you’re willing to put your hand in your pocket.

      • Rhys says:

        19 Feb19 February 09:49

        United Polaris took seven years. Unless you have a small fleet (like Finnair) then 5+ years isn’t uncommon. Some airlines don’t even commit to full fleet refurbishment. The only airline that I can think of off the top of my head that is moving very fast is Emirates with its A380/777 refurbishment, but even then it isn’t doing every aircraft in the fleet.

      • jjoohhnn says:

        19 Feb19 February 10:51

        Indeed. And you’d imagine if Emirates had gone to said seat manufacturer and said they wanted to buy their seats to fit out all their A380’s then they would have found ways to increase productivity..

    • bernard says:

      19 Feb19 February 13:37

      a fair point historically. but not anymore.
      BA has bought what is an old design, and shoved some doors on it.
      There’s nothing innovative about what it does nowadays. Innovation at BA for its premium seats died 20 years ago!
      So really, how hard can it be. They knew the scale of the task, so should have picked a manufacturer up to the job, which this one is n’t!
      Look at the speed at which AF, KLM or Iberia have moved. Or AA plans to move. All of which make BA look slow. so slow. and therefore still a lottery flying them – even on a 777 route where the 3 Gatwick orphans can appear or you might get one of the yet to be done 777-300ER where suddenly 8 F meals need to stretch to 14 (6 upgrades) and there can be a mass of invol downgrades to pleb plus from club.
      Its a mess because they just cant or wont get on with it.
      Perhaps if they had to hand out avios when the old knackered 1999 genesis ying yang seats appear it might focus minds at BA a bit more….

      • Rhys says:

        19 Feb19 February 14:49

        Come off it. It’s not an old design, it’s totally in keeping with virtually any other off the shelf seat available right now. Is it Qsuite? No. But it’s virtually identical to Iberia’s new Recaro seat, Virgin’s A330neo Upper Class seat or any other seat airlines are installing in 2024.

• Matthias says:

  19 Feb19 February 08:00

  On a related note, one of the Hong Kongs indeed seems to be moving to a 777-3 with the insane number of Club seats (72?) at least for the month of May.

  This has resulted in lots of Avios availability, normally quite hard to come by, in case anyone’s interested.

  • Bernard says:

    19 Feb19 February 08:04

    Unfortunately they don’t seem to have increased galley capacity along with the seats. With predictable consequences.
    Like the A350 this can lead to very slow meal service.
    You’ve got to wonder how BA can be so incompetent on basic stuff like this.

    • LittleNick says:

      19 Feb19 February 08:26

      Practical consequences are always second to BA, they look at all that increased revenue they could generate

      • Chabuddy Geezy says:

        19 Feb19 February 09:03

        I feel delayed meals are worse on the a350 vs the 777. If you want to be served quicker you need to sit at the very front or back of club world and not in the middle.

    • Paul says:

      19 Feb19 February 09:09

      Are they still banning you from the for loos?

    • Sarah says:

      19 Feb19 February 09:16

      I flew to CPT on the A350, I was impressed at how quick they were with the dinner service – my main course was served within an hour of take off. Guess it helps to have a decent crew

• Mark says:

  19 Feb19 February 08:22

  Many airlines don’t bother to refit older aircraft at all. Look at Emirates and their 777 seats, Qatar with their old pod A330/777 pod seats (those expecting QSuite are likely to be very disappointed on those aircraft) or Virgin. Atlantic.

  I have my doubts that three ‘Gatwick’ configuration aircraft with 14F seats will ever be refitted now due to their age and seat production priority for new and newer aircraft.

  One reason the refit will speed up is due to the 787s having much smaller Club cabins (compared to the 777-300ERs), and the rate of new long haul aircraft deliveries slowing now that the A350 deliveries are at an end.

  • Mark says:

    19 Feb19 February 08:23

    Meant to be in response to @Bernard….

  • TGLoyalty says:

    19 Feb19 February 09:44

    Agree on the last point. The seats were being manufactured for lots of new planes and retrofits. Why the 2026 doesn’t seem so unrealistic.

    • jjoohhnn says:

      19 Feb19 February 10:58

      Presumably they will need to be manufactured for new planes still though, although I suppose they can delay a lot of the 777X seats until once they are closer to certification. And that assumes that BA don’t go with a different design by then!

  • Pauls1 says:

    19 Feb19 February 10:17

    Having flown on one of the Gatwick configuration 772s from BOS-LHR back in January, I agree that it’s unlikely those will ever be refurbished, the one I was on was almost 25 years old and very tired in terms of fit and finish. I can’t see them getting many more years out of it in passenger service to justify the cost of a refit.

    • Mark says:

      19 Feb19 February 10:37

      At least they were ‘refreshed’ back in 2018. The worst are the remaining 777-300ERs. We flew on G-STBB a year ago, and even then my tray table had lost it rigidity to the extent it sloped downwards quite significantly to one side!

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