REVEALED: Here is the new British Airways A380 First Class seat!

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• Qrfan says:

  26 Nov26 November 06:52

  So in reality this is a business+ offering right? Miserable food and beverage, no additional onboard amenities (e.g. shower) etc. just a slightly wider seat than club with no foot cubby. Elemis spa pre booking long gone, buddy dining seemingly gone…

  • masaccio says:

    26 Nov26 November 06:56

    No, instead each person gets a nice seat rather than a miserable stool to sit on. I personally found the buddy dining on BA and Virgin uncomfortable.

  • Kowalski says:

    26 Nov26 November 07:09

    Only Emirates has a shower in First on the A380. A lot of airlines don’t even offer First anymore or are in the process of phasing it out. BA are investing in it. Surely this is a positive?

    • Qrfan says:

      26 Nov26 November 07:21

      “Only” emirates, who operate the vast majority of the A380s in the sky. Several airlines offer a better business class product than this supposedly first class offering, especially on the soft product side. That’s my point. It much more closely resembles the business plus offerings we’ve seen lately.

      • The Savage Squirrel says:

        26 Nov26 November 07:34

        Better to see it as glass half full? BA continue to offer 1st and intend to fly their A380s for long enough that the refit is worthwhile. Both these are good things in comparison to many competitors….

        • Rob says:

          26 Nov26 November 08:09

          And 12 seats which should mean decent redemptions.

    • Alastair says:

      26 Nov26 November 07:25

      Etihad have a shower too.

      • Kowalski says:

        26 Nov26 November 07:33

        Ah yes, I was thinking its only for The Residence, but there is 1 for First passengers also!

        @Orfan, BA are not in a game of competing with the ME3. This product looks competitive for the market they’re in.

    • Pat says:

      26 Nov26 November 09:33

      The airlines that giving up first class actually offer way better business than BA First. Just Because BA is trying to ‘invest’ in their first class does not mean they are doing a good job. Most airline that still offer first put BA to shame

  • BBbetter says:

    26 Nov26 November 12:10

    Lol, comparing an airline that’s bankrolled by a rich government to one that’s listed on the equity market and is subject to profit pressure every day.

    • Rob says:

      26 Nov26 November 12:17

      Ignoring the fact that BA got 50% of the slots at Heathrow for free (record sale price $75m for one pair), Qatar and Emirates are highly profitable. They pay the same for their aircraft as other airlines (adjusted for bulk discounts!), the same for their food / drink and the same for their fuel as all other airlines using the same airport. The Middle Eastern airlines also lease many of their aircraft (at, obviously, standard rates albeit with a small discount because of the implied Government guarantee) instead of buying them outright.

      The reason they make money is a) 24/7 operation, b) multi-runway operation and c) you may not have noticed but the UK is no longer the centre of gravity for the world and hasn’t been for a long time. Neither is Western Europe. The Middle East is now the geographc centre of the wealthy world (including India and China) which is why they are now natural aviation hubs.

      Oh yes, they also command FAR higher fares than BA in premium cabins because of their superior offerings, which leads to higher profits.

      • Scott says:

        26 Nov26 November 13:53

        I tend to find fares on QR, EY etc. can be a lot better than BA.
        Sure there are times when they can be eye watering, buy there are a lot of bargains out there.

      • BBbetter says:

        26 Nov26 November 16:01

        Fair enough Rob, but how many years were they in losses before reporting profits now?
        And they can call the shots at their hub unlike BA who are constrained by both HAL and the government.
        The current slot value is irrelevant as BA is not selling slots regularly. I do agree they fly some of the busiest routes.

        • Rob says:

          26 Nov26 November 17:19

          You need money to start an airline these days. At £300m per long haul aircraft nation states are the only game in town.

• Christopher says:

  26 Nov26 November 06:56

  This looks great. With rising demand, it’s a shame Airbus can’t restart the A380 programme. Could this ever be possible?

  • Mark says:

    26 Nov26 November 07:55

    It’s difficult to rule things out completely but the manufacturing capacity is deployed on other Airbus programmes. This seat will also feature on 777X so it’s not a prerequisite for it to go
    Into an A380.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      26 Nov26 November 08:34

      I doubt it would now I imagine there’s lots of tooling and facilities that have been repurposed or scraped after 3 years

  • Pat says:

    26 Nov26 November 09:34

    Looks like a business class from another airline this day. Nothing first about this seat

  • BBbetter says:

    26 Nov26 November 20:35

    Only if they find a way to make it fly on two engines.

• George K says:

  26 Nov26 November 08:15

  First impressions are great, and that’s an achievement by BA standards. Looking forward to it.

  Based on the fact that this seat is touted for the A380, was there any talk about the state of the A380 fleet considering their known issues? Are things getting better? Or not?

• BajanNation says:

  26 Nov26 November 08:16

  I think it looks great. Classy. And a nice shift of colour to further distinguish it from Club. BA need to back this up with an exceptional soft product.

  Those looking for ground-breaking were realistically wanting gimmicks.

• Andrew. says:

  26 Nov26 November 08:21

  On the display panel. Is that a camera or a vent?

  • BajanNation says:

    26 Nov26 November 08:25

    Or a light? A vent would be good. A camera would be interesting…no call button but video in your order instead.

  • Paul says:

    26 Nov26 November 08:25

    Vent

  • john says:

    26 Nov26 November 09:40

    That’s the ‘instagram lighting’ button

• Olivia says:

  26 Nov26 November 09:52

  Looks nice, but given the reliability issues seen on the BA A380’s, wouldn’t of thought they’d invest this heavily into updating their F cabin. Feels like a “coming to a cancelled/broke A380 near you soon”.

  • Scott says:

    26 Nov26 November 13:50

    Just what I think.
    They really need to concentrate on the absolute basics before “putting lipstick on a pig”. It’s not like they won’t fill seats in old CW, Club Suites, First or New First anyway.

    The new seat doesn’t excite me, although I don’t doubt people will be queuing up to throw £4k or whatever at a mixed bag product, and still keep coming back for more when it doesn’t quite deliver.

• Pat says:

  26 Nov26 November 10:17

  Im so excited to see the wide variety of toasties they will be offering on this!

• Jake says:

  26 Nov26 November 10:42

  @rob: what’s your view on the entire program? Something like the below or other?

  Obviously it is a nice upgrade. It it is evolution only. Given it won’t be market leading there will not be a halo effect there could have been.

  I suspect the footprint will be relatively dense and fares competitive so a very good revenue generator for BA but with all the recent bad press have they missed a trick in not creating something to carry the brand

  A bit like emirates with their outrageous first but substandard business class

  • Rob says:

    26 Nov26 November 11:47

    Rhys is doing a piece tomorrow to look at this. It’s not exactly a private cabin with 12 seats (Virgin has A350s with only 16 seats in Upper) vs, say, Air France with 4. No ‘car to plane’. No private terminal. Usual Heathrow chaos for anyone connecting. Food and drink which the Middle Eastern carriers wouldn’t dare serve in Business.

    It’s also, until the 777X roll-out, not even going to be on the most lucrative routes, because that isn’t a determinant of where the A380 fleet goes.

    • Jake says:

      26 Nov26 November 11:55

      Yeah agreed. It appears a solid product but the entire offering won’t be market leading. It’s probably yet another good balance between profit and quality but nothing to generate hype.

      Also on an unrelated note what’s the latest on the lounge refresh program. That seems to have gone quiet. I thought spades would be in the ground by now on the arrivals?

      • Rob says:

        26 Nov26 November 12:20

        Singapore and Washington are being done at present (not sure to what extent) but, yes, very little happening here.

        • Jake says:

          26 Nov26 November 12:56

          Thanks!

      • LittleNick says:

        26 Nov26 November 15:07

        Interestingly Cabanas are back in the CCR albeit without beds now. Like private rooms.

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