(Serious question) Does BA plan to improve its F product in the near future?
 

Had another two flights in BA F and I find them extremely underwhelming all the time. Clearly two leagues below the other three European competitors and what ME3 and the top Asian carriers offer. No need to comment on the miserable experience in detail, enough has been written about it here. I have a serious question that maybe some here that are closer to BA developments may answer: does BA plan to make any improvements to its F product? It seems they are making an effort on longhaul Business. Or are they happy with the way things are? I know they are penny-pinchers these days and they might find that the cabin fills up just OK and makes money.

Any insights or ideas?

There was talk of F improvements coming at the end of the year after CW but that may change...CIHY may know a bit more!

No news yet, there are rumours but I wouldn’t hold your breath.

Are they making an effort on longhaul biz? I just landed this morning from an embarrassing CW trip from MIA to LHR. The "White company" amenity kit (in lieu of the ridicolous blue bag they gave earlier) was the only notable difference, and totally irrelevant to me. The seat is appalling. If you seat aisle you'll basically sleep on the corridor, if you chose window you'll have to jump your neighbour. If you are middle, well, good luck.

The F product is as poor on air. It gets better on the ground at LHR though, the First wing and Concorde Room are quite something.

If there are just rumours, considering the schedule of the current CW improvements and what the end result might be, i am afraid that he answer is No.
Maybe in mid term though.

I honestly have no clue why anyone would pay for F when you can travel on the likes of CX/EK/EY/SQ/QR at a similar price point in their F, obviously TATL is a different story, but still. I agree with those who say BA F is the" best business class in the sky", but even then QR sometimes gives them a run for their money. I made the choice years ago to not pay for BA LH premium cabins anymore, shifted to ME carriers being namely QR and EK and never looked back.

I increasingly find the BA crews to be apologetic about their product. And... when you have experienced the First lounges of EK, QR, and even QF... the BA CCR is more than a few steps down.

I think it’s time we face up to the fact that booked at a good time of year (i.e. in one of the half a dozen sales or so), First can be extremely good value over Club. In December, I have NYC flights booked for around £2,200 return in First - at the time this was £150 more than Club each way. No brainer!!

I actually like the CCR but I'm still at the novelty stage with it and I won't be back until August (maybe that's the key?). LPGS is a winner and on its best days the food can be equal to QF F at SYD and MEL; in my opinion CCR wine is better than the rapidly diminishing QF F Lounge wines these days.

Would people be happy with the reduction in network coverage that a significant F upgrade would surely necessitate? BA deploy F on a much wider range of routes than most (any?) of its competitors. You have carriers like QR who only offer F on a handful of routes, which means comparisons of superiority are somewhat redundant.

I would be inclined to favour a product that BA was able to deliver on a significant part of its network. In other words, I want to be able to use it, rather than enter into an academic Top Trump discussion on what's the best.

More than EY/EK?

Absolutely I would.

If you want a cabin that is offered on almost every route and gets you there in comfort but not especially luxury, that’s what J should be for. Offering a mediocre F product increasingly at close to J prices is something I find really strange - from my understanding of the historical examples most airlines that have let their F cabin suffer a lack of differentiation from J have eventually either scrapped it altogether or decided to massively reduce the size of the network to up quality.

QR is also an extreme example with one of the smallest long haul F networks in existence - the likes of LH manage to offer F that is far superior to BA but to a reasonably wide network of places (albeit, yes, a materially smaller range of them than BA).

Is it just me, but I feel like BA doesn't want to improve F because they don't want to change CW (or maybe it's the other way around).

I think that a reduction in network coverage for F is an acceptable price to pay for improving it. I remember taking BA F around 7 years ago and the seats are more or less the same as it was back then. It was fine when the other airlines did not yet introduce their next gen F cabins; but now that more and more 'premium' airlines are updating their F product, BA should at least be planning to change theirs by next year at the latest.

I'm reasonably happy with the compromise of a lower quality F product with good Avios availability (on the whole) at a reasonable redemption price...a better product would almost certainly lead to an increase in redemption cost in my opinion...and a lower density on less routes so less availability

As someone who only flies BA on redemption in F (and the odd domestic, given i'm a Northerner) it's something I'm happy to accept...it's really pretty good on the whole, despite what you might think if you're a regular on here...

If I'm paying, I'll go for a decent J product (usually QR) over BA