billinghamn

I wondered what the key ingredients are for a good BA TR. So what makes a good BA TR for you?

1. Reporting on all flights on the trip? Or just the BA flights?
2. Including information about the locations visited on the trip? Or just the flying related aspects of the trip?
3. Keeping the TR short (perhaps one or two posts summarising the whole trip)? Or do you prefer a live TR?
4. Including photos of all aspects of the trip? Or just the flying related aspects?
5. Making the TR personal? Or keeping it as objective as possible?
6. Making it humorous?
7. Including loads of technical detail? Or keeping it high level?
8. Generating interesting debate about related topics?

Interested in people's thoughts on this. Feel free to highlight the things that you like to see in a TR, or the things you don't like to see in a TR - your call.

Magic01273

I love long Trip reports that go in to lots of detail about:

The flight experience on ALL flights - not just BA (incl. airports, lounges, boarding, seats, service, food, IFE etc)
The destination (as long as it's an interesting destination - subjective I know)
The Hotels/Resorts visited, rooms, locations, food etc

Generally I prefer lots of detail - and I know that well written, very detailed TR seem to get highest praise (they do from me!)

Humor is not essential in my view - factual, well written and nicely detailed are my personal criteria. I don't mind personal opinion from the TR'er as a combination of detail, fact and opinion usually inspires a good debate, although the opinion will often be ripped to shreds (especially when it draws comparisons between BA and other carriers)

Doesn't have to be a live trip report.

Pictures are usually a must for me to be honest - although if the author writes well enough, I can just about manage text only

baggageinhall

I like trip reports that:

1. Walk me through the trip from arrival at the airport to the end of the flight / an arrivals lounge
2. Have plenty of photos to illustrate the journey. That said, if you want to publish 27 shots of the wing, perhaps you could include just 1 and a link to the other 26
3. Reviews the seat, service and food. I may be wrong but I'm fairly sure that people read a trip report to live vicariously for a moment. I doubt people read reports for the simple reportage of what sitting on a plane is like
4. Descend into the level of detail that I want. Difficult to describe this. Detail about the experience rather than technical detail necessarily
5. Humorous and personal is almost always better than staid
6. I'm not particularly interested in a report on the destination

It's perhaps no shock that I believe that my trip reports can be defined as above. I think that trip report writers prefer those who write in the same style and level of detail that they do. I occasionally read a report that is completely different and enjoy it, but that's the exception rather than the rule.

chris1979

Lots of pics of the flying aspects (airport, lounge, plane etc). Less interested in sights or meals eaten at destination but love pics of the flight.

billinghamn

Some good suggestions already, especially including only a few photos and then links to additional photos to keep the TR concise.

stu1985

No omission of critical details such as broken IFE, smelly toilets and undercooked sausages!

Oh, and compensation levels of unredeemable Avios obtained subsequent to the above

pipsi

I'm also one for details. I like it when people post about specific issues they had, mention others they meet on the trip such as interesting characters they get chatting to inflight especially if the person writing the trip report is travelling alone. Pictures are also good, but getting the right balance is important too, as someone else already mentioned lots of plane wing photos get a bit boring but pictures of food offerings, particularly interesting viewed etc are interesting.

I'm actually thinking about writing my own trip report on an upcoming NCL-LHR-DUB-JFK-CLT-TPA journey. The LHR-DUB leg is in CE but the rest is in economy cabins so it will be slightly different to many of the reports we have on here from 'up front'. I'll have lounge access before my first two legs and someone has kindly offered to guest me into a lounge in JFK but elsewhere I'll be slumming it with the masses, again offering a slightly different spin to most.

layz

All of the above.

It's good to see different styles rather than everyone using the same template. It's good to learn about the unknown, different airports, airlines, etc.

windowontheAside

I agree with most of above. I like to feel something of the person's personality though, so I like a bit of humour or enthusiasm rather than just a factual list of what happened when.

I also appreciate those written with FFs in mind so minimising some of the basic aspects of the travel and getting right to what made this trip so good/bad/interesting/boring etc.

I'm not that interested in the destination stuff - a paragraph or two maybe and the odd photo but any more and I skip over it.

corporate-wage-slave

Sex, drugs and rock & roll work best for me. The most enjoyable travel writing I've ever read was Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

I'm a bit wary of the standard "forumula", excessive use of photos and little textual analysis can get monotonous. Something unusual or different will help, but this can't necessarily be planned in advance. I also like it when the underlying point, excitement, gratification of travel comes out.

LondonElite

1. I don't want to see people's legs/feet, unless they are really worth looking at.

2. Please spare me photos of lame stuff, like a tray of economy food, or a cup of coffee.

T8191

A timely thread, as I'm about to do a TR on our trip to Malta. No pictures of wing, LGW lounge or an A319 ... But loads of pictures/narrative to filter for a 2-centre holiday on one of BA's newer/reinstated routes. I'll try to get some meaningful photos of MLA/Lounge

I shall read the whole thread again before I start writing later in the week

stu1985

Looking forward to this one. Got my trip to Malta coming up next month!

T8191

Working title is "A Tale of Two Cities" ... in this case M'dina and Valetta.
We try to avoid Sliema and St Julian's

OverThereTooMuch

#1 - Posting in the right forum