Mini Open Skies Premium Plus Trip Report EWR-ORY January 2014
Jan 13, 2014, 4:42 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: New York
Posts: 7,347
Mini Open Skies Premium Plus Trip Report EWR-ORY January 2014
Mini Open Skies Report
January 2014
Open Skies is perhaps one of the best kept secrets in the business traveler world, but the company itself has gone through so many transitions from all business class to two kinds of business class (Biz Bed and Biz Seat), and then towards the more traditional three class (Biz Bed, Prem Plus, and Economy). It has also changed ownership a few times, unless British Airways has its hand on it. Of course, the Biz Seat/Premium Plus product has suffered greatly since I last flew it, and to basically summarize it, Premium Plus is really a slightly upgraded version of British Airways’ own World Traveler Plus product. It is no longer a business minus, but more an upgraded economy product.
January 11, 2014
BA 8004 EWR-ORY Lv2030 Arr1000 Boeing 757-200ER Winglet F-GPEK “Lauren”
Ironically, I flew all three current Open Skies Boeing 757 after this trip, and F-GPEK was one of the birds transferred from British Airways, and had a different configuration than then one promoted on the website. It had a smaller Biz Bed section and for those who loved planes, F-GPEK does not have double over-wing window exits, but a pair of smaller exit door behind the wings. It does not feature the spacious Row 7 exit seats and all seats are pretty much the same, and Row 7 is actually bad because it does not have windows. Here are a few cabin shots!
The seats are still what mainly set Open Skies apart from World Traveler Plus, even the new ones featured on renovated BA planes and the new fleet of 787s, 77Ws or A380s, and the seats are wider and have more legroom and recline.
Seats in full recline position
However the seats are pretty wore out and the F/A had to manually recline my seat, as the “recline” button has long given in. The leg rest also does not want to stay up, and the plane looks very tired. It is clear that these planes are used heavily. This picture will possibly tell you that the plane needs some helps.
The bathroom situation is also pretty bad because of the location of the four bathrooms. Two bathrooms are located all the way up front and the F/As did not allow Prem Plus passengers to use them until the last hour of the flight, when the line was ridiculously long in the back. Two bathrooms behind the Premium Plus cabin are to be shared between Premium Plus and economy passengers. The plane was designed for an all business class configuration, so the original location of the bathrooms makes more sense. However it is a major issue when it transited the current three class cabin configuration. Considered our flight was not full in Premium Plus and economy cabin today, I can’t imagine on a 100% full flight situation.
In terms of amenities, both BA and Open Skies used the same premium economy amenity kit, along with noise-cancelling headsets and a fleece blanket. However Open Skies uses a nicer pillow and a full-sized bottled water was pre-placed at each seat before takeoff.
Catering wise – Open Skies unfortunately has adopted most of British Airways’ World Traveler Plus catering standard, and Open Skies does not even have printed menus. However, they don’t have them before, so you can’t expect them re-introducing them. The only difference is that Open Skies still uses glasses and real cups for the main meal service, and on WT+, you only get glasses when you ask for wines. Dinner is also served without a pre-meal beverage service! I guess it was designed to allow more rest time. Tonight’s dinner feature the same old green salad featured in all BA WT+ and WT meals, as well as cinnamon apple cake. Another difference is that there are more choices of warmed bread rolls for Open Skies Premium Plus passengers, and the meal tray has a slice or packaged Tillamook Cheddar Cheese. Entrée choices are Chicken Tikka Masala or Macaroni and cheese with broccoli – both are typical British Airways fares, but I just don’t understand why Indian food is served on a flight that is not flying to or from India. I was hungry so I ate it all, but that Mac & cheese was pretty bad.
I really missed the old Open Skies dinner with at least a nicer appetizer, a real fruit and cheese plate, and a nicer dessert! They were better in terms of quantity and quality. For breakfast, the old Open Skies served a nice fresh fruit plate with yogurt and warmed croissant, but the new Open Skies featured a breakfast to go bag. It is still better than BA’s muffin service, but is also significantly downgraded. Nonetheless, it still has a full sized bottled orange juice, with a packaged croissant and an apple, along with a beverage service. I like the paper bags used to serve the breakfast!
I also did not quite understand why breakfast service began 90 minutes prior to arrival! Maybe the F/As need more time to deal with the iPad collection. Yes, iPads are the sole source of entertainment and they are collected an hour prior to arrival.
Lovely sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean
In conclusion, Open Skies’ Premium Plus is no longer as good as before, and the product is aligning itself with British Airways’ World Traveler Plus product. There are still a few additional things to it, but it is no longer the same. However, I will still fly Open Skies Premium Plus product in the future, as the seat itself is nice enough and Paris Orly airport is easy to navigate, and has a pretty decent network to other Air France domestic destinations, as well as Easyjet’s low cost operations. On a seven to eight hour transatlantic flight, Open Skies is a really nice option. Orly airport is nothing fancy, but is fairly convenient to deal with. I hope this mini review will help out some of the future Open Skies travelers.
F-GPEK getting ready for another flight back to Newark in a few hours!
Carfield
January 2014
Open Skies is perhaps one of the best kept secrets in the business traveler world, but the company itself has gone through so many transitions from all business class to two kinds of business class (Biz Bed and Biz Seat), and then towards the more traditional three class (Biz Bed, Prem Plus, and Economy). It has also changed ownership a few times, unless British Airways has its hand on it. Of course, the Biz Seat/Premium Plus product has suffered greatly since I last flew it, and to basically summarize it, Premium Plus is really a slightly upgraded version of British Airways’ own World Traveler Plus product. It is no longer a business minus, but more an upgraded economy product.
January 11, 2014
BA 8004 EWR-ORY Lv2030 Arr1000 Boeing 757-200ER Winglet F-GPEK “Lauren”
Ironically, I flew all three current Open Skies Boeing 757 after this trip, and F-GPEK was one of the birds transferred from British Airways, and had a different configuration than then one promoted on the website. It had a smaller Biz Bed section and for those who loved planes, F-GPEK does not have double over-wing window exits, but a pair of smaller exit door behind the wings. It does not feature the spacious Row 7 exit seats and all seats are pretty much the same, and Row 7 is actually bad because it does not have windows. Here are a few cabin shots!
The seats are still what mainly set Open Skies apart from World Traveler Plus, even the new ones featured on renovated BA planes and the new fleet of 787s, 77Ws or A380s, and the seats are wider and have more legroom and recline.
Seats in full recline position
However the seats are pretty wore out and the F/A had to manually recline my seat, as the “recline” button has long given in. The leg rest also does not want to stay up, and the plane looks very tired. It is clear that these planes are used heavily. This picture will possibly tell you that the plane needs some helps.
The bathroom situation is also pretty bad because of the location of the four bathrooms. Two bathrooms are located all the way up front and the F/As did not allow Prem Plus passengers to use them until the last hour of the flight, when the line was ridiculously long in the back. Two bathrooms behind the Premium Plus cabin are to be shared between Premium Plus and economy passengers. The plane was designed for an all business class configuration, so the original location of the bathrooms makes more sense. However it is a major issue when it transited the current three class cabin configuration. Considered our flight was not full in Premium Plus and economy cabin today, I can’t imagine on a 100% full flight situation.
In terms of amenities, both BA and Open Skies used the same premium economy amenity kit, along with noise-cancelling headsets and a fleece blanket. However Open Skies uses a nicer pillow and a full-sized bottled water was pre-placed at each seat before takeoff.
Catering wise – Open Skies unfortunately has adopted most of British Airways’ World Traveler Plus catering standard, and Open Skies does not even have printed menus. However, they don’t have them before, so you can’t expect them re-introducing them. The only difference is that Open Skies still uses glasses and real cups for the main meal service, and on WT+, you only get glasses when you ask for wines. Dinner is also served without a pre-meal beverage service! I guess it was designed to allow more rest time. Tonight’s dinner feature the same old green salad featured in all BA WT+ and WT meals, as well as cinnamon apple cake. Another difference is that there are more choices of warmed bread rolls for Open Skies Premium Plus passengers, and the meal tray has a slice or packaged Tillamook Cheddar Cheese. Entrée choices are Chicken Tikka Masala or Macaroni and cheese with broccoli – both are typical British Airways fares, but I just don’t understand why Indian food is served on a flight that is not flying to or from India. I was hungry so I ate it all, but that Mac & cheese was pretty bad.
I really missed the old Open Skies dinner with at least a nicer appetizer, a real fruit and cheese plate, and a nicer dessert! They were better in terms of quantity and quality. For breakfast, the old Open Skies served a nice fresh fruit plate with yogurt and warmed croissant, but the new Open Skies featured a breakfast to go bag. It is still better than BA’s muffin service, but is also significantly downgraded. Nonetheless, it still has a full sized bottled orange juice, with a packaged croissant and an apple, along with a beverage service. I like the paper bags used to serve the breakfast!
I also did not quite understand why breakfast service began 90 minutes prior to arrival! Maybe the F/As need more time to deal with the iPad collection. Yes, iPads are the sole source of entertainment and they are collected an hour prior to arrival.
Lovely sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean
In conclusion, Open Skies’ Premium Plus is no longer as good as before, and the product is aligning itself with British Airways’ World Traveler Plus product. There are still a few additional things to it, but it is no longer the same. However, I will still fly Open Skies Premium Plus product in the future, as the seat itself is nice enough and Paris Orly airport is easy to navigate, and has a pretty decent network to other Air France domestic destinations, as well as Easyjet’s low cost operations. On a seven to eight hour transatlantic flight, Open Skies is a really nice option. Orly airport is nothing fancy, but is fairly convenient to deal with. I hope this mini review will help out some of the future Open Skies travelers.
F-GPEK getting ready for another flight back to Newark in a few hours!
Carfield
Jan 14, 2014, 3:13 pm
#3
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Italy 90% - Rest of the World 10%
Programs: Marriott + Hilton. Fly BA and AZ
Posts: 2,912
Thanks for the TR
Personally thought Biz Bed was a big
Crew were poor but seat wan't great either and the I pad selction of films was next to nothing. Not good
Biz seat? Looks a lot better than WT+ but I would definately pick CW over BIZ BED
Personally thought Biz Bed was a big
Crew were poor but seat wan't great either and the I pad selction of films was next to nothing. Not good
Biz seat? Looks a lot better than WT+ but I would definately pick CW over BIZ BED
Jan 27, 2014, 7:26 am
#4
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 104
Thank you and seating queries
Thanks for such a great trip report! It's quite helpful.
We are booked on this same flight in May, and currently in PremPlus.
It appears to be G-BPEK as well, as the seating chart would indicate in MMB.
The return is on one of the other 2 airframes, and has the "featured" seating configuration.
I am wondering the following for the flight to ORY:
It appears that you may have sat in 6 D/F (or at least took pics from there). If you did, was it assigned to you at checkin? It's greyed out in MMB. I presume it's held for basinet, etc.
If you did sit in 6D/F, did you like it (aside form the seat recline issues)? We are trying to select seats, and have row 8 now (two of us) but from looking at pictures others have posted, 7 and 8 both appear to be missing a window.
Any other considerations (rest room issues aside) that you would suggest one consider when choosing seats? Any overhead bin issues or cold/warm/noise experiences not mentioned on your report?
Thanks for your consideration!
BuckNjeff.
We are booked on this same flight in May, and currently in PremPlus.
It appears to be G-BPEK as well, as the seating chart would indicate in MMB.
The return is on one of the other 2 airframes, and has the "featured" seating configuration.
I am wondering the following for the flight to ORY:
It appears that you may have sat in 6 D/F (or at least took pics from there). If you did, was it assigned to you at checkin? It's greyed out in MMB. I presume it's held for basinet, etc.
If you did sit in 6D/F, did you like it (aside form the seat recline issues)? We are trying to select seats, and have row 8 now (two of us) but from looking at pictures others have posted, 7 and 8 both appear to be missing a window.
Any other considerations (rest room issues aside) that you would suggest one consider when choosing seats? Any overhead bin issues or cold/warm/noise experiences not mentioned on your report?
Thanks for your consideration!
BuckNjeff.
Mar 27, 2014, 9:54 am
#5
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 10
My wife and I also am flying on OpenSkies for the first time in May, also in Prem Plus, and also from EWR-ORY-EWR. Interested to know the answers to the above question about preferred seats in Prem Plus since it's our first flight to Europe and we don't want to end up with a seat location with no windows!
Thanks in advance!
Thanks in advance!
Mar 27, 2014, 11:30 am
#6
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: LONDON
Programs: CX DM, BA G4L, QR PLT, EK PLT, Hyatt CourtesyC, HH DM, SQ PPS, BonvoyTit, UK, VS, UA, DL, AA
Posts: 1,715
Great TR - Thanks, FYI chicken tikka masala is considered classic British Pub food nowadays. I can understand its strange to have it on a flight between USA and France, but ex UK or into UK its just as British nowadays as it is Indian
Mar 27, 2014, 1:24 pm
#7
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: SJC
Programs: BAEC Bronze, AS MVP Gold 75K, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 488
As you have highlighted the Open Skies flights are catered following BA mainline menus and standards. It appears that, as with WTP, you are served a CW meal. Chicken Tikka Masala is of course one of the most popular meals in the UK (and, ISTBC, but is also not actually really eaten in India- think of it as more of a western world adaptation).