john205

They look the same as Vueling use, just without the antimacassars (although the Vueling seats also recline slightly). That makes somewhat sense as previous IAG investor days suggested they were trying to unify the fleet. I can confirm that the Vueling ones aren't any less comfortable than standard BA seats have flown on both last week on ~2hr flights (BCN, BLQ). My OH moaned that she was sliding forwards on the Vueling seat.. I said she should be grateful there is room to slide forward into! The Vueling seats also do not have the nets in the knee area to put things in (like a bottle of water) which I found as the biggest annoyance. Not sure if this is also the case on the BA NEO?

john

florens

There is storage according to the pictures posted upthread.

Deltus

It's because U2 is very open about being a LCC. Everybody knows the procedure - if you're not in the front 90 people in the queue, you get your bag taken off you. Gate agents are able to be quite militant about it.

With BA, the expectations are very different. There is no orderly queue forming at the gate at T-45. There are plenty of DYKWIAs who want to keep their bags when they turn up at T-21. While BA claims to be a premium carrier, it can't enforce carry-on restrictions in the same way.

megaloman

That's an emergency exit which has the old seats... not the new ones.

Cap'n Benj

BOH

Read my post! I said perhaps those in boarding groups 1 and 2 should be guaranteed as these groups both have the CE and status pax in them. Then someone could turn up at T-21 and still board with a large carry-on. It would be a simple computer algorithm to work out at say T-45, based on the number of seats checked in on each flight to know at what point in the boarding process to start putting bags in the hold at the gate....still allowing for a DYKWIA GCH knob to turn up at T-21 with the large rollaboard, large laptop bag and suit carrier As for BA claiming to be a premium carrier, as someone said about 10 posts ago....every man and his dog knows this is utter BS.

florens

Indeed. Sorry about that!

BA6948

Seen the new AA 738MAX cabin and configuration. In Economy, all have headrests, USB sockets and holders for tablets. They also have wifi onboard which is not really new. And let's not talk about free snacks and drinks. Who would have thought a few years ago that we would be praising US airlines in this forum?

rockflyertalk

Now that’s more like it

Deltus

I don't agree - every man and his dog who reads FT/HfP/Business Traveller knows it, but there are a lot of men and a lot of dogs out there who don't. There are a lot of once-a-year flyers who still think BA is a step up - I was speaking to a colleague only a few weeks ago who was shocked when I told her that BA charges for drinks in short-haul.

BA *could* fix the storage problem by taking the cases off everyone in Group 4/5, but pax will be a lot more reluctant to go with that than they are on FR/U2.

BOH

I don't agree at all, everyone understands that there is a finite limit to the number of carry-ons in an aircraft cabin. A passenger can be "reluctant" as he wants to be....if the choice is the baggage goes in the hold or he/she does not fly then it is a simple choice to make. Once boarded they will see with their very own eyes that the overheads are full. BA / FR / U2 all use the same type of planes (320 or 737 series) so it will not reflect badly on BA in any way. Anything is better than the current farce of BA often allowing everyone to board (mainly at the outstations) and only then miraculously discovering that not all bags will fit on a full flight. Other airlines (not just the budget ones) manage this very well and bags are proactively taken from pax at the gate. BA now have the mechanism with the boarding groups to actively manage this rather than the current farce.

Mordac

Are the new seats the same as Iberia Express has on their A320s? Been on them in LGW-MAD, and didn't find them that unpleasant, tbh.

wythy

And so who is responsible for carrying out said task. There's a reason you wont see it as much at the outstations for 2 reasons, firstly, BA put the handling agents under huge pressure in terms of On Time Performance, i.e it's quicker to allow everyone to board and if there are any baggage issues (Most of the time there is not - even on full flights), than to take a quota of bags on each flight. Secondly, BA are demanding ever cheaper Handling cost. This directly impacts the number of staff available at the gate. BA are soon to eliminate the Turn Around Co-ordinator position completely in the interest of saving more money giving even fewer ground staff to deal with the turn. Believe it or not, RYR and EZY are prepared to pay for more staff during the Turn-arounds.

BA6501

Yes, the same. I quite liked them too, to be honest, but anything is better than IB/I2's current seats.

TonyVD

What I find the most annoying about the BA A320neo is not the seats but that BA was too cheap to fit the Airspace XL luggage bins which are available for this aircraft despite the well known issues with cabin baggage.