B777-200 Refurbishment
 

Hi,

Apologies if I am submitting this thread in the wrong topic.

I have recently purchased a ticket on a BA 777-200 from LGW-MCO. I have been reading on the web about the current refurbishment of the 777-200s but I cannot seem to find anywhere if this refurbishment is complete, or if there is a chance that the aircraft I am traveling on will be a refurbished one?

If anyone has some information about this I would really appreciate it. :)

Thanks.

I believe that none of the LGW based aircaft have been refurbished and have not heard of any plans to do so, sorry.

All 772s that were planned for refurbishment have been refurbished. These are all 4-class aircraft - MCO is 3-class, so you're out of luck unfortunately.

Typical! Ah well...looks like I'll have to sit and talk to the missus instead then. Thanks for your help.

Which class are you flying? If in CW, you can always put the divider up (and risk your marriage at the same time).

All our longhaul aircaft have AVOD, you won't have the newer system but still plenty to watch, personally I would rather talk to my wife. :)

Flying economy (I believe this is called World Traveller. Sorry, I'm new to BA). At least I have something to watch then it should take the pain away ;)

I booked the flights through Expedia who allowed me to select seats at the time of booking. I then phoned BA to confirm the seats and they told me I had not been assigned any seats and BA's policy was that the customer can pay to pre-book a seat or choose a seat free at online checkin. I am absolutely fuming with Expedia. I cant believe they can lead a customer to think they are choosing the seat they will be sitting on, when these seat selections are completely useless as BA don't allow free seat allocations at booking.

Naughty Expedia!:mad:

If you're really lucky, you might get the new WT if a 4-class 772 (registered G-VIIA-S) from Heathrow has to be subbed in (and the last time that happened was on 25/07/2013).

I guess I'll tag on to this. I'm looking at flying LHR-JFK (the 18:55 departure) in the middle of next year. Is this likely to a refurbished 777? I would be flying Y.

Now way of knowing until the day of departure. However, all 777s are now equipped with Audio, Video On Demand systems. The refursbished 777s have our newer Thales AVOD system installed.

hello waccoe
 

And hello waccoe, welcome to Flyertalk and a particular welcome to the BA forum. It's good to see you here and it would great if you could continue to post here. Welcome on board.

Unless there is a very clear price difference, there are a number of reasons for booking direct on BA.com rather than Expedia, you have a lot more control over the booking that way, and better upgrade options for cash or Avios.

If you're heading from Gatwick and don't have status/lounge access, remember to pre-book the No1. Traveller lounge. Its cheaper booked in advance, and worth every penny.

This is among the highest quality non-airline lounges I have been in:

http://www.no1traveller.com/gatwick-...nges-north.htm

All BA World Traveller/economy cabins have had seat back TVs and AVOD for many years (since well before the millennium). The old system is fine, the new system is excellent and has bigger screen, higher definition and more programming. However, even on the loop system I find BA's IFE content very stimulating and of higher quality than other carriers.

Being a leisure route, MCO Orlando along with most leisure focussed longhaul Gatwick routes are down the pecking order for new cabins (though all 777s have the latest F cabin, where that is offered). This tells you a little more about the two types of economy currently in service:

http://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/...orld-traveller

...but don't feel like a second class citizen using the "old" cabin; it's a lot better than many airlines which don't even have seatback TVs.

Don't stress about the seat allocation thing; just pay up if it's important to you, but there's really no need, best to wait until precisely T-24 and allocate then. You probably won't get an emergency exit, but those are reserved for BAEC elites anyway.

As others stated, always book on ba.com in future.

Here's some tips for surviving economy:

http://thepointsguy.com/2010/12/17-t...ight-in-coach/

I'm curious ... which airlines doing UK-US transatlantic don't have seat back IFE?

American Airlines sometimes use ageing 767s on the LHR - ORD route, they don't have seat back entertainment...the stated flight time is +1hr compared to a 777 :td:

There are very few these days, so as above it's mostly because of a substitution to an older aircraft.

However, United was also notable for not having seatback TVs on many of its US-UK flights (I think this has recently changed, but not certain). Certainly no guarantee of seatback TVs on their longhaul economy cabin blurb:

http://www.united.com/web/en-us/cont...t/default.aspx

I'm unsure whether the charters guarantee seatback IFE.

This is not true - some of the 777s had looped IFE (ie non-AVOD) until last year iirc.

Indeed, this was the case in all cabins on these 772s. Thankfully they have all now been refurbished with Thales AVOD.

I'm curious as to the reasons for this. Does anyone know if 'leisure' routes are actually less profitable for BA than 'business' routes? Or, are leisure travellers less likely to be put off by older cabins etc? Or both? Or other reasons?

I think in their latest refurbishments VS have upgraded their entire leisure fleet from LGW ahead of some of their LHR aircraft. Maybe high loadings of leisure routes deliver high profits which can be taken for granted? Just a thought, I have no data whatsoever on the matter, just curious.

Leisure routes are generally less profitable, because people don't usually need flexibility and search for the cheapest fares.

Business routes generally have higher numbers of flexible (ie. more expensive) tickets, including last minute bookings. Cheapest fares are usually below convenience in the priority list for business travellers (depending on the company!).

I do also think that regular travellers (more likely business travellers) have higher expectations in regard to cabin products etc.

Thanks, what you say does seem to make sense, but do you actually have data for this, or inside knowledge? You see, I'm wondering if what you say is just the general perception, but may be surprisingly not the case. For instance, business routes may have lower loadings, and some leisure routes people will pay very high fares, especially in school holidays etc.

A mixture of general perception and a little insider knowledge ;)

Well thanks, interesting :)

I'd also concur with Genius1. At lunches and other events for Prems and GGLs the BA management are quite open in saying that business locations give them their highest returns, with various nuances. For example business travel on many routes is tied to the economic cycle, whereas some leisure routes are more inelastic (and I'm almost sure that this particular service, one of the very few I've never been on, falls into this category). The other aspect of leisure travel which important to any leveraged airline is that leisure travel can generate very helpful cashflow (not profits) at the right time. But having said that, I'm pretty sure Chengdu weighs more strongly in the corporate vision than, say, Fort Lauderdale. And rightly so.

Thanks. OK, no axe to grind here. Most of my own travel has been to 'business' locations, albeit for leisure reasons. I think if I had to choose which were more profitable for BA, then on balance I'd also come down on the side of business routes.

However, that said, are we really that sure? LGW probably has a much lower cost per passenger base than LHR for a start considerably helping profitablity. Inflexible tickets come with a hidden cancellation/change bonus for the airline, whereas flexible tickets come with a further cost if change or cancellation is enacted. Leisure routes often have high loadings. And, I'm not asking if BA takes more revenue from business routes, I'm questioning if the profit per passenger really is that much higher, if at all. I'd be very interested in any hard stats on this, although accept that is unlikely they will be forthcoming!

Hi, bit confused from the some of the answers given above - to confirm - no 777s from LGW have the new AVOD / Thales system?

You would struggle to tell anyway unless you knew the difference and are in J or F with the larger screens. IMO.

None of the LGW based B777s have the Thales system but they sometimes get one down there while their aircraft are under maintenance.

INVAUGHAN 123

None of the Gatwick based 777s have been re fitted with the new wt and wt+ product.

If one of these aircraft has a technical issue or other reason for not flying (scheduled maintenance , etc) then a plane may be flown in which may have the new products....

Thanks Skipcool. Will be in either CW or F, depending whether I upgrade at the airport. Seems like you can tell the difference between the old and new content and certainly the screens on the large TVs.

Not true, I flew on a B747-436, B! 21 LHR-SIN-SYD back in Feb 2002 (being just after the collapse of Ansett, it was originally a QF flight which BA took over as QF aircraft were needed elsewhere, and it was definitely looped, in no way was it AVOD.

Dave

They don't have Thales AVOD, but they do have Rockwell Collins AVOD. Not as new, but still AVOD.

a small bump to this thread.

Flying BA2039 LGW - MCO next Friday and had a few queries.

I'm one of those people that cannot sleep on planes, so I always end up viewing as many films as possible! It doesn't help that I'm also a video quality snob either! Last year I flew to NYC with ba but it was an AA codeshare. The plane came fitted with touchscreen tablets on each headrest, and the selection of films and quality of the video was outstanding! Does anyone know what the plane I'm flying with next Friday is going to be like? Are the 772s from lgw to mco still the un upgraded ones?

Thanks in advance!

LGW aircraft all have Rockwell Collins AVOD and the older WT/WTP cabins.

I wish I knew what that meant!

Is that a good thing or a bad thing. Any pictures floating around?

Relatively speaking, it's a bad thing: the Rockwell Collins system is much worse in quality than the new Thales system.

Basically if you're used to an iPad or similar, you will definitely find the screen and controls to be very outdated. However it's still sufficient to keep you entertained on a long flight and most importantly is 'on demand', i.e. you can pause and rewind your films.

One thing you must do though is bring your own headphones as the supplied ones are pretty useless. I recommend either in-ear buds (good for sleeping with) or noise cancelling ones if you have them.

Here is an image from google of what to expect:

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/43/80...4f2b17ed88.jpg

BA have images of their new and old cabins on their website:

World Traveller Plus:
http://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/...traveller-plus

World Traveller:
http://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/...orld-traveller

A Google Image Search will also prove fruitful.

Rockwell Collins AVOD (Audio Video On Demand) is the previous generation IFE system, so has less of a choice than Thales AVOD (which is the latest generation system), and has a lower quality picture. Rockwell Collins and Thales are the companies who made the IFE systems.

Thanks for clearing that up guys! That's an awful shame to hear, but guess I can't complain too much, at least there's something to keep me occupied.

I've noticed on basource that on some occasions they have a different plane do the lgw-mco route...14F/48J/40W/124Y

I'm assuming that one is the refurbed one...fingers crossed although not holding my breath

Unfortunately not. Those aircraft are still part of the LGW fleet, and thus have the older WT/WTP cabins.

However, occasionally an aircraft is subbed in from the LHR fleet and this may have the newer cabins. I see this happened on 16 August (G-VIIH) but it is fairly rare.

Cheers mate!

Is there anyway of knowing beforehand what plane(registration) you'll get?

Not really. Only if an insider can be persuaded to post the information, and even then it can change at a very late stage.