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British Airways first class: then and now

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Old Apr 17, 2014, 5:35 am
  #1  
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British Airways first class: then and now

This might be of interest:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/luxury/tr...n-and-now.html
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Old Apr 17, 2014, 6:09 am
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I saw that article earlier too.

I think the high point of BA F was between the introduction of the flat bed in 1995 and before the degradation of service from about 2003 when a crew member was removed IIRC.
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Old Apr 17, 2014, 6:35 am
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Just reminds me of all of the "enhancements" in F over the years
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Old Apr 17, 2014, 6:48 am
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Quite a bit of marketing spin (at least the most recent posts) to make it all sound better than the reality.

And there's the implication that the LCY services are first class, rather than just Club without the other cabins
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Old Apr 17, 2014, 7:04 am
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Nice article, many thanks for posting. Interesting to see that in the past they used to slow the flight so that there was more time for the passengers to enjoy the service. I would welcome that on some of the shorter sleeper services today!
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Old Apr 17, 2014, 7:07 am
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One thing that stuck me after looking at these was the attention to detail in the movie Wolf of Wall Street. Albeit they did not fly BA to Zurich but the production team really did the research on first class at the time.
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Old Apr 17, 2014, 7:17 am
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Nice article to read. The link through to the article comparing current first options of various airlines was also interesting. Reminds me what I'm missing out on. Apart from domestic AA flights, my budget doesn't quite stretch to first at the moment. Hopefully something I'll be able to do long haul at some point in the future.
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Old Apr 17, 2014, 7:33 am
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How was the food in the 1960's looks lavish?
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Old Apr 17, 2014, 8:22 am
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Nice article...all they need to do is proof read it and it would be a great article. "Dinner serve (sic) for first class passengers...". My mind doesn't like that sentence, nor "ducklinlg". (nit pick nit pick....yes I am bored, working from home in a new country does that to you).
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Old Apr 17, 2014, 8:58 am
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Amusing that the F seats circa 1989, which were at the time regarded as perfectly luxurious, would today be seen as torturous / unsurvivable.
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Old Apr 17, 2014, 9:10 am
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Originally Posted by Land-of-Miles
I saw that article earlier too.

I think the high point of BA F was between the introduction of the flat bed in 1995 and before the degradation of service from about 2003 when a crew member was removed IIRC.
No crew member has been removed from First. There have been three crew since the eighties at least and in fact the number of passengers in First has decreased over the years.

Sometimes if First has less than seven customers, the third crew member can be deployed in another cabin but this has always been the case, but generally there will be three in First as it has been the case for decades.
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Old Apr 17, 2014, 9:17 am
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Originally Posted by Littlegirl
No crew member has been removed from First. There have been three crew since the eighties at least and in fact the number of passengers in First has decreased over the years.

Sometimes if First has less than seven customers, the third crew member can be deployed in another cabin but this has always been the case, but generally there will be three in First as it has been the case for decades.
The CSD used to be actively engaged in the F cabin before the service downgrade.
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Old Apr 17, 2014, 9:23 am
  #13  
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Not that I remember LOM.
The First service in 1989 was the best service we ever offered.
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Old Apr 17, 2014, 9:25 am
  #14  
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Originally Posted by BearX220
Amusing that the F seats circa 1989, which were at the time regarded as perfectly luxurious, would today be seen as torturous / unsurvivable.
Yes the hard product has improved tremendously.....the overall product I suspect has as well.

The passage of time can play tricks with the memory.
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Old Apr 17, 2014, 9:30 am
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Originally Posted by HIDDY
Yes the hard product has improved tremendously.....the overall product I suspect has as well.

The passage of time can play tricks with the memory.
Noticeably hasn't the overall product away from the seat become progressively worse as anyone exposed to the reduction over that time would know. I am sure your extensive personal experience CE would bear this out.

I do remember the best of my early busy flights the CSD was in the thick of things delivering service. I thought this was the standard back the but clearly they were just excellent CSDs much like CIHY.

Last edited by Land-of-Miles; Apr 17, 2014 at 11:10 am
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