Jimmie76

I assume you mean inches from the face of a stranger facing me. I say this because on other airlines you're also inches from the face of a stranger just not facing them. As soon as the safety video has finished it goes up on my flights. That's the only point it has to be down other than for food and beverage service.

710 77345

Sadly this is not the case on BA's new A380s Hopefully the new seat will fix this soon.

Jimmie76

I've only flown F on the A380 so wouldn't have known . Thanks for the info though.

missdimeaner

Is there a fault with the divider controls on the A380 ?
Or am I getting the wrong end of the stick.

Prospero

The A380 divider controls are unique - they cannot be activated until the seat power is switched on, which is usually about 10mins after take-off. They are also deactivated on approach to the destination.

subject2load

i guess your last comment here (my bold) pretty much nails it ^

As others have said in response to the OP's sense of disenchantment with the BA arrangement, it's essentially down to the number of seats you want to pack in to a business class cabin.

Some people are perfectly happy with BA l/h seating & layout. To me it seems pretty outdated. Let's see how things look when the long-overdue new seat arrives. Hopefully it will bring significant improvements and measure up well against other carriers.

Meantime I tend to be more attracted by configs that offer much more privacy (eg the likes of OW partners CX or QR) with all aisle-access, the option of a solo seat, and no screen divider to worry about (for any part of my time onboard, but particularly during meal service).

missdimeaner

Ah, makes sense now - thank you for the explanation.

Frequent flyer 101

The reason BA chose this was because back in the day Business Class was much more dense on most airlines. Upper deck 747 used to seat 28 people with a cradle seat IIRC. Other airlines had similar setups.

BA took the lead with lie flat in business class and went down to 20 seats in the upper deck of a 747. A flat bed vs a recliner is a huge difference to passenger comfort.

In most spaces, the BA Club World seat is the most efficient use of space and gives the highest density, while still having a full flat bed.

To compare, Delta only had 14 seats on the upper deck in its Business Class. Lufthansa has 22 seats, but they weren't flat beds.

For an economics point of view, this is the best use of space. BA can sell more "flat bed" seats per m2 than any other airline. Whats happening now though, is that other airlines have pushed further ahead and offer direct aisle access and things like closing doors on seats. To enable this, the number of passengers per m2 drops. This obviously means that they can't sell as many tickets.

If BA refit their fleet with new seats, they will most likely be able to fit less passengers in their aircraft. This will cause a loss of revenue. There is a fine balancing act between waiting long enough to make lots of money in the mean time, and not falling too far behind competition.

There are other downsides of certain direct aisle access seats such as low footroom. BA also have fairly strong position at LHR and many corporate contracts which also entrench their position.

I don't like many thing BA do as a passengers, but some these things are quite good business decisions for the company.

HIDDY

I'm not a great fan of the layout either however all my CW experiences were cheap as chips so I really can't complain having to look at the wife's face for 14 hours.

At the end of the day it's been a hugely successful product.

missdimeaner

Foot room is something that I enjoy, having what can only be described as claustrophobic feet which causes a mild panic if they feel too enclosed.
I'm certainly a lot better than I used to be but I don't think I could lie flat with a 'foot coffin'. BA win that competition !
I really don't mind the yin yang at all, but usually end up in the aisle as I have short legs and worry about landing in someone's lap should I trip getting out of my seat.

mec72

I may be in the minority here, but I actually prefer backwards-facing CW seats!

Jagboi

I'm obviously living in the wrong place! The only BA service where I live is typically in the £450/hr range. I've never seen CW for anything close to £70/hour.

Sunny 1

Thanks everyone for all of your responses and education (and sorry to belabour a subject that has already been discussed). To "When I Travel The World"' yes, I found the (small) drawer, but i seem to recall it was already pretty much filled with headphones, pillow, blanket etc... My aisle seat was comfortable, it just lacked the privacy and storage the window seat afforded.

Calchas

I prefer sitting facing rearward and I always pick the rear facing seats on my trains.

dougzz

Currently there are £1000 CW fares to Chicago and Washington from Stockholm which would price our at a lot less than £70/hour, especially on some of the TP specific routings involving Helsinki.