Originally Posted by
Yachtman
After reading the thread about the missing meals in Club Europe, it reminded me why I try so hard to avoid short haul flights in Europe.
Effectively in Club Europe you have little more then an economy class seat, priority boarding is inconsistant, the lounges at outstations are often very low quality (priority pass standard...), and if you don't have a meal, what do you have?
BA aren't alone in this, but it must be dissapointing for someone arriving in Europe for the first time coming in on First class, and connecting to this... Or even worse connecting to a domestic flight.
Everywhere else in the world, the business class seats on the A320/737 are more comfortable, and you can actually nap properly and feel really relaxed.
In order:
1) IIRC it was a missing meal not meal
s. In all my years of travelling in CE (and that's a lot of flights), I've never ever heard of CE meals missing, except for passengers rebooked off cancelled flights at last minute.
2) Wrong. You get a lot more than an "economy seat". If you've ever travelled CE you would know about dedicated check-in, fast-track at security, lounges, extra luggage allowance, etc etc etc. The CE "product" is more than just a seat.
3) Priority boarding for CE (at LHR) is "Board at your Leisure." It means you can join the queue at any time. It doesn't mean there is a red carpet and you jump the queue. I think BA is quite consistent in this for shorthaul CE. It's not great, but it's certainly not inconsistent.
4) Lounges in Europe are IME better than those offered by other airlines I have flown on. If you fly on some other Star Alliance or ShiteTeam airlines, you may be shocked by their paltry lounge offerings, even at their home airports, let alone at outstations
5) Someone arriving in First and having a 40 minute onward hop in CE isn't going to complain too much, especially if they have saved thousands on the equivalent direct routing.
6) IMPE the seating in 2-2 config on the narrow bodies planes are perfectly acceptable for a short hop up to 2 hours. The longer trips to IST, DME, ATH, LCA etc etc, and the cramped seating on the 767, are common causes for complaints - you're late joingin that party.
Originally Posted by
Yachtman
When I fly short haul business class in Asia, it reminds me so much how the standards have declined in Europe, but the prices haven't.
Actually you are wrong there as far as BA is concerned. Catering aside, standards in CE have generally improved. Seating is now 2-2 instead of 2-3, lounges at LHR are a vast improvement on the old ones, timekeeping is much improved. The quality and quantity of the meal service is the only decline AFAIAC, as well as the dire state of the 767 interiors.
As for prices, well the market determines the prices. On the DME route, CE fares are now available for £900 r/t, about half what the cheapest used to be. On other routes, there is a wide range of prices for cheapie R class leisure fares to fully fleixible D, C and J fares. There are plenty of people paying these prices to keep good passenger numbers in the CE cabins on all the routes I fly.