Well a very good flight from a very motivated and enthusiastic crew.

And yes it's a very good aircraft, which I shall look forward to flying on for many years to come. Now this was just a short flight, so some things - such as atmosphere, noise, service - only become apparent when flying. But cautiously a positive endorsement from me.

The biggest drawback? The coffin shoe box. So if you are fully flat and sleep facing upwards, your toes will risk bashing the top of the box, under the seat in front. If you sleep on your side I can't see that being an issue.

Second biggest drawback is the very narrow aisles, some wider wheelies will need to be carried and passing someone mid aisle will be an intimate experience.

But there are all the pluses: direct access to the aisle for all seats; the seat door; the 4 storage areas at the seat; the gate to gate IFE in Club; larger, more functional IFE; the new seat itself; the solid, robust feel to the fittings; good window aspect, proper Club Kitchen area and many other aspects too. One big one for me personally is that it is now possible to use the laptop on the side area AND have the table out for food and drink, and since I need to work on board this is a biggy for me.

Front or back Club cabin?
This is going to be a matter of personal choice, all I can do is lay out the pros and cons. So this is the main cabin, possible an unflattering angle:



and here is the second cabin, with just 12 seats in it:



Plus points for the main cabin:
- Nearest the galley, so probably better food service and choice (particularly for any second meal).
- Further from the turbines, so quieter
- Only one bassinet seat so less likely to have grumpy infants
- I suspect more overhead cabin space generally
- View isn't obscured by the wing/turbines
- Middle of that cabin is the furthest away from the front galley on the one hand and the toilet/Club Kitchen area.

Plus points for the smaller cabin
- Very intimate and private, it's quite noticeably a small and discreet cabin, however if there are noisy infants in row 15 there will be no escape
- Easy access to toilets and Club Kitchen, given the narrow aisles
- Easy access to 2L, which I suspect will be the main door for entrance and departure. LHR is always 2L.
- Good window viewing except for row 17 which has a lot of wing and turbine in it. Row 16 has one window of turbine, one window with a clear view.
- More resistant to turbulence movement.

I haven't made a final decision, and of course I've not sat in the front cabin for any lengith of time, but I'm inclined to move my Toronto booking from 1A to the second cabin. The Dubai booking already has the front area booked out so I'm already 16A on that service.

The window seats remain the best available, in my view, in either cabin. There middle seats are better for couples, but the privacy effect is greater in the window seats.

Here is my big win - meal and laptop, this impossible on the old seat.



And here is the new Moving Map, love it!



The underlying database is extraordinary. When I zoomed into my farm, it accurately picked out a burn which while several kilometres long, only flows 6 months a year and is about 20 cm wide, 5cm deep.

===
I've taken over 50 photos, covering all sorts of details, so I'll have to sort through those, but here are a few to get going with. But here are some comments about WT and WTP:

WTP is a very good product and seems to fit in well with the space. The bulkhead seat have good legroom, not quite as good as the B787s and A380s but still generous. The IFE screen looks good, each seat has a good power arrangement, and a new drink holder. WT is better than the 787, more spacious in width, still not as good as the A380 upper deck, which is probably the best economy product in the mass market. There were lots of positive comments from the EuroTraveller passengers on departure, not surprising since the full IFE entertainment was also available.

In WTP - AVOID 21E AT ALL COSTS! Well, I guess it's ok for younger children, but this IFE box is huge. This is the only seat on board with anything like this, the rest of WTP is fine.



The front row of WTP and WT have small thin IFE boxes under them, which is in the feet area of the second row. The rest of the seating, WTP and WT has nothing there at all, and the WT row 2 isn't too bad anyway. This shows the thin dark box in some WT seats.



And this is what most WT seats have (and WTP is similarly clear):




So that was a starter, I'll put some more online later.