richarddd

Today's NY Times article today with yet another comparison of transatlantic flights. Some excerpts:

For [BA and VS], the stakes are high: trans-Atlantic traffic originating in the United States generates 40 percent of Virgin Atlantic's total revenue, while half of all United States revenue comes from business-class passengers.

Almost two-thirds of British Airways' profit comes from its trans-Atlantic flights, while business-class sales generate about a third of its North American revenue

...

"British Airways is well aware of the fact that it doesn't have the market-leading trans-Atlantic business-class product," he said. "It's trying to keep up with Virgin."

A British Airways spokeswoman said the carrier was expected to announce plans next year "for new seats in business class."

...

"British Airways and Virgin want to make sure the additional capacity doesn't mean they lose premium market share," Mr. Powell said. "They want to remind U.S. passengers there's a far better product in the market" than that offered by American airlines, which he said were "unable to invest in new aircraft and on-board products."

...


J. Grant Caplan, a corporate travel management consultant based in Houston, said the campaigns represented the British airlines' chance "to help defeat companies like US Airways that are on the edge, or to help further weaken other carriers like United and American."

Mr. Caplan predicted American business travelers could switch to either British Airways or Virgin if the airlines can shake their interest in their frequent flier programs. It will be easier to convert executives whose employers do not control their travel-buying decisions as well as infrequent travelers, who are not as vested in loyalty programs, he said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/31/bu...a/31adco.html?

chsb

BA already introducing a new J seat? Gosh we can't even get AA to commit to upgrading their J cabin. Won't this be BA's second revamp of its J class in only three or four years?

SNA_Flyer

And CX is doing R&D for it's new International Business product. Their current J cabin is only a few years old.

krug

BA is already on its third rendition of the nested flat bed seat; you can see the subtle changes here, most obvious in the privacy fan material:

www.airliners.net/open.file/197640/L/

www.airliners.net/open.file/709218/L/

www.airliners.net/open.file/823579/L/

This third rendition (third link down or www.deepersleep.co.uk) of what is fundamentally the same design is being rolled out across the fleet by November 2005; I sampled it last week from Boston and it is much softer than the older seat, which answers many critics of the seat.

Larger individuals complain Club World bed is narrow and shorter; that is why FIRST seats exist.

The new Club World seat has been rumoured for a while; it is likely an effort will be made to make it slightly wider, by using wasted space at the side of the seat, it will certainly feature in-built noise-cancelling circuitry, possibly a whole cabin noise cancelling solution (similar to that employed on the Saab 340), probably AVOD and maybe in flight net access, as well as better lighting.

We are all hoping for a water bottle holder, but we are thankful for small mercies!

In tandem with this, improvements to the medium and short haul Club Europe seat are being examined on certain flights this month, the airline having installed a new 2-2 configuration on certain A320 aircraft, which is an innovative way of actually testing real-world on customers to guage feedback:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...ferrerid=24296

oiRRio

I agree.

I disagree. IMO First exists to provide a more luxurious and private travel experience than business class to those who are able and willing to pay for it. Whilst I agree the BA J seat is uncomfortable for taller and/or wider passengers I can’t believe that you’re suggesting that BA are only aiming their business class product at people below a certain height. Also whilst I acknowledge the BA First product has deteriorated over the past couple of years I still feel it is superior to pretty much every airline’s J offering, and to imply that it is nothing more than a glorified business class alternative for taller people is a little misleading.

GUWonder

.... and what does that repetition (ad nauseam) have to do with this article and BA/VS' advantages? Little.

BA and VS offer a better business product and are more pro-active than AA in that area. The author of the article certainly picked up on the significance of frequent flyer programs to significantly "lock in" customers. What would happen to AA if earning and redeeming miles on BA flights from the US to Heathrow were enabled? More than a handful of frequent flying business travellers would jettison AA in favor of BA for those flights across the Atlantic.

oiRRio

Little, just like the previous post which didn't mention the article the OP referred to or indeed either AA or VS. Instead we simply got regurgitated BA spam including some info on trials for future improvements to Club Europe. Not exactly relevant to to the transatlantic routes that VS, BA and AA compete on.

IME for something to be repeated ad nauseam it has to be done more than once or twice. It's interesting that you don't seem to be as concerned about repetition when it comes to one person persistently posting links to BA promotional websites across numerous threads in this forum. Would I get more leeway if I disliked GWB too?

Thanks for your opinion and contribution to the original topic. I'm sure that you too are more interested in making this forum a place for the exchange of FF information rather than a British airline's marketing material.

GUWonder

Any poster's political viewpoints are largely irrelevant to their contribution (or lack thereof) when it comes to exchanging frequent flyer information and supplying perspective (which can be comparative in nature) on said programs, airlines, etc.

I'm not eager to see marketing spin result in the wool being pulled over anyone's eyes; however, as BA has its passive-aggressive apologists so does AA.

TrishBOS

Maybe AA can buy BA's old seats.

JAGMAP

I second this opinion!

JonNYC

More likely to buy LH's

oiRRio

I take it you haven't visited the Travel Safety/Security forum recently.

I'm happy to defer to your undoubted expertise in this area. One day someone may even feel the need to come up with the term AA Apologist as well.

GUWonder

That's incorrect, but my prior words stand that a person's political views have little bearing on frequent flyer programs -- unless they don't care about self-interest.

There are some FT contributors who play with AA's shares in such a manner that it affects their postings on occassion. Thus the term AA apologist too. That said, I am of the opinion that BA has even more aggressive apologists than AA.