New FIRST Suite on A380
Mar 13, 2024, 2:29 pm
#1
Original Poster
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New FIRST Suite on A380
Crew in F on today’s A380 LAX-LHR proffered some (unsubstantiated) inside info on the upcoming fleet refit.
Forward cabin will consist of eight FIRST suites, offering full sized beds (parallel to window) plus separate seat. The refit works necessitate strengthening of floors due to additional load.
The remainder of upstairs, through to the rear, will be Club Suites.
They mentioned the first A380 is due to be fitted in December 2024. This doesn’t fall in line with what I’d heard about it being 2025, but we’ll have to see.
Forward cabin will consist of eight FIRST suites, offering full sized beds (parallel to window) plus separate seat. The refit works necessitate strengthening of floors due to additional load.
The remainder of upstairs, through to the rear, will be Club Suites.
They mentioned the first A380 is due to be fitted in December 2024. This doesn’t fall in line with what I’d heard about it being 2025, but we’ll have to see.
Mar 13, 2024, 2:36 pm
#3
Join Date: Jun 2013
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I do like a bit of crew-mour (!) although as CIHY says the people who really know aren’t going to be saying!
8 seats would make more sense to me than the previously rumoured 6, and I for one will
be glad to be upstairs and off first rather than after the entire top deck once they have eventually connected the lower jetty!
It certainly sounds like the Acumen design although there is a strong possibility of circular self-perpetuating rumours here…
8 seats would make more sense to me than the previously rumoured 6, and I for one will
be glad to be upstairs and off first rather than after the entire top deck once they have eventually connected the lower jetty!
It certainly sounds like the Acumen design although there is a strong possibility of circular self-perpetuating rumours here…
Mar 13, 2024, 2:43 pm
#4
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Mar 13, 2024, 3:15 pm
#5
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Mar 13, 2024, 4:42 pm
#8
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...
Forward cabin will consist of eight FIRST suites, offering full sized beds (parallel to window) plus separate seat. The refit works necessitate strengthening of floors due to additional load.
The remainder of upstairs, through to the rear, will be Club Suites.
...
Forward cabin will consist of eight FIRST suites, offering full sized beds (parallel to window) plus separate seat. The refit works necessitate strengthening of floors due to additional load.
The remainder of upstairs, through to the rear, will be Club Suites.
...
Mar 13, 2024, 5:12 pm
#9
Join Date: Jun 2015
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I know it’s said in jest but sadly it’s easier to source and fire a staff member who might leak or break an NDA, versus an entire organisational process which has been conducting itself wrongly for years within ‘legal bounds’ but knows it’s wrong and a easy cop out! That’s the corporate world for you. The little people always lose, the boardroom/main shareholders will try to win.
Mar 14, 2024, 2:02 am
#11
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Not that I've flown BA F - or am all that likely to - but I have to say I'm a bit puzzled by this move to put a genuinely competitive product on one fleet when the rest have just been refurbished with a significantly lesser product. I can't see BA revisiting the 777 and 787 fleets to retrofit this vastly larger suite in the near future, which means that a maximum of twelve rotations a day - which currently cannot include the actual flagship route and are generally just routes seasonally needing high lift - will have this product. If nothing else the FT threads about aircraft swaps will be endless.
Mar 14, 2024, 2:15 am
#12
Join Date: Jun 2016
Location: London
Programs: BAEC Gold
Posts: 2,221
Not that I've flown BA F - or am all that likely to - but I have to say I'm a bit puzzled by this move to put a genuinely competitive product on one fleet when the rest have just been refurbished with a significantly lesser product. I can't see BA revisiting the 777 and 787 fleets to retrofit this vastly larger suite in the near future, which means that a maximum of twelve rotations a day - which currently cannot include the actual flagship route and are generally just routes seasonally needing high lift - will have this product. If nothing else the FT threads about aircraft swaps will be endless.
Mar 14, 2024, 2:19 am
#13
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Doc Copper
Mar 14, 2024, 2:25 am
#14
Join Date: Mar 2017
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No doubt you're right on the marketing differentiation, but I think the important part is how these are handled WRT pricing. Presumably BA will want to monetise this step-change in product well before the entire fleet has it, and being switched from a seat+bed product to a mere seat would seem to me much more grave than the current CS to CW seats even before considering any surcharge which might have been paid.
Mar 14, 2024, 3:00 am
#15
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: UK
Posts: 577
I do like a bit of crew-mour (!) although as CIHY says the people who really know aren’t going to be saying!
8 seats would make more sense to me than the previously rumoured 6, and I for one will
be glad to be upstairs and off first rather than after the entire top deck once they have eventually connected the lower jetty!
It certainly sounds like the Acumen design although there is a strong possibility of circular self-perpetuating rumours here…
8 seats would make more sense to me than the previously rumoured 6, and I for one will
be glad to be upstairs and off first rather than after the entire top deck once they have eventually connected the lower jetty!
It certainly sounds like the Acumen design although there is a strong possibility of circular self-perpetuating rumours here…
