Club World: How do they get away with it?
Sep 11, 2018, 6:38 pm
#226
Moderator: British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Jan 2009
Programs: Battleaxe Alliance
Posts: 22,127
It's no worse, and arguably better, than stepping out into the aisle from the window seat in any business class cabin where the seats are in traditional forward-facing pairs, so that the window seat passenger has to step over the aisle seat passenger to get into the aisle. Many airlines still have these. I don't know whether your Air China experience was one of those.
Indeed, with a lot of seat layouts without direct aisle access, I find that the height and width of what I have to step over is larger than you do in CW. CW = lower legs or ankles, which tend to be lower than thighs or even the bottom of the torso in some cases that you need to step over on some airlines.
In simple terms, I have never had to disturb the aisle occupant to get out of my CW window seat, and neither have I ever tripped over anyone to do so. However, on some airlines I have no choice but to disturb the aisle occupant to get out of my seat. There simply is no other way to do it as the height and width of what I have to get over are too great.
There are also direct aisle access seats (even solo seats) where the design is fundamentally flawed like some SQ seats. You cannot recline your seat deeply without twisting yourself (you soon run out of foot space) even though you are in a solo flat bed seat, because the footwell is at the side. That, to me, is a serious design flaw that renders the seat rather ergonomically poor, especially if you have back issues, because you are effectively left with either having very little recline, or put it in a flat bed. I'd prefer CW to those seats even though I love the solo seat arrangement.
Sep 11, 2018, 7:28 pm
#227
Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 33
Flying as a couple rather than solo will affect our choices. When we flew our one and only Business Class trip with Air China the seats were forward facing in a 2-2-2 configuration. There was no way the window seat passenger could unobtrusively get past the sleeping aisle seat person. So for that reason we chose the two middle seats and both had aisle access. Not as private as the window seats, but really, the cabin was so quiet it was not a problem at all. They had lots of little storeage cubbies to store your things. The foot area, why lying down could be a problem for a taller passenger (I’m 5’5”) as it tapers a lot towards the feet. Other than that very comfortable.
I have taken a look at seat guru as suggested and see that the window seats that globaliser suggested are near the galley (row 53). Or just in front of the bassinet area (row 59), horrors,! No thanks to row 59.
Hard to figure out how the window seats in row 53 have direct aisle access. Is there extra space by the window to get out that way? And would the other half of the couple in our scenario sitting in 53B, still have someone crawling over our feet. Just trying to picture that.
I have taken a look at seat guru as suggested and see that the window seats that globaliser suggested are near the galley (row 53). Or just in front of the bassinet area (row 59), horrors,! No thanks to row 59.
Hard to figure out how the window seats in row 53 have direct aisle access. Is there extra space by the window to get out that way? And would the other half of the couple in our scenario sitting in 53B, still have someone crawling over our feet. Just trying to picture that.
Sep 11, 2018, 7:29 pm
#228
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: BOS/UTH
Programs: AA LT PLT; QR GLD; Bonvoy LT TIT
Posts: 12,753
Of course. BA's regular customers are more likely to be more heavily invested in BAEC, and thus slightly more resistant than average to changing carriers.
Sep 12, 2018, 2:46 am
#229
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: London
Programs: Mucci. Nothing else matters.
Posts: 38,644
Row 59 is generally the last to be served, so you could be waiting quite a long time for your drinks and your meal, and if an option has run out by the time you are reached, you may have more limited (or possibly no) choice. Also, immediately behind row 59 are the bassinet positions for World Traveller Plus, so in theory there is a chance that there will be crying babies. (However, my personal experience is that babies in WT+ are generally not noisy, probably because the cabin itself is much calmer than economy and babies are very good at picking up vibes like that.)seatguru is a pretty useless site for BA. There is a lot of information which is out-of-date, or worse, which is and always has been wrong.
This is a much better site: British Airways Aircraft Seat Maps
And for the 380, this is a very good resource: BA Airbus A380: Which are the best seats? Master discussion threadThis is incorrect.
Sep 14, 2018, 1:13 am
#230
Join Date: Nov 2017
Location: GLA
Programs: BAEC: Silver. Nothing else as TopCashBack trumps all hotel programs
Posts: 801
CW is a terrible product. Everyone knows it and only BA fanatics will try and defend it.
How they can make a window seat so claustrophobic and aisle seat feel insanely open and lacking in privacy is quite a skill.
I've flown in each once and never again. In the aisle seat I literally felt like I was sleeping in the aisle. It was so horrible, literally no privacy what so ever. I find WT+ a much nicer experience.
How they can make a window seat so claustrophobic and aisle seat feel insanely open and lacking in privacy is quite a skill.
I've flown in each once and never again. In the aisle seat I literally felt like I was sleeping in the aisle. It was so horrible, literally no privacy what so ever. I find WT+ a much nicer experience.
Sep 14, 2018, 1:28 am
#231
FlyerTalk Evangelist, Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Somewhere between 0 and 13,000 metres high
Programs: AF/KL Life Plat, BA GGL+GfL, ALL Plat, Hilton Diam, Marriott Gold, blablablah, etc
Posts: 30,520
Sep 14, 2018, 1:33 am
#232
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: BKK
Programs: Mucci Chevalier de la Brosse a Cheveux Dore, SK *GfL, BA Gold, WY G, HH DIA, IC Plat Amb., Hertz PC
Posts: 3,699
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Sep 14, 2018, 1:39 am
#233
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Spitalfields, London
Programs: BA Gold, KFC 'The Colonel's Club' Palladium tier, Mucci des Visions Célestes du Nord-Pas-de-Calais
Posts: 2,319
I don’t love CW but for the price I pay it’s just about OK. It might be the familiarity but I find it unspecial and not feeling luxurious in any way. I also feel very hemmed in once installed in the seat, weirdly I preferred the 777 cabin to the A380 UD as the latter feels extremely tight to me. But the plane itself is a much nicer ride of course.
Sep 14, 2018, 2:45 am
#234
Join Date: Nov 2017
Location: Germany
Programs: BA GGL, CCR - TK G
Posts: 809
HAHA... this "claustrophobic" seats is one of the most coziest spaces to sleep on an airplane for me... great product - most privacy for a J class.
Sep 14, 2018, 5:03 am
#235
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: UK
Programs: BA Gold / Hilton Diamond / IHG Diamond Ambassador / Marriot Bonvoy Gold
Posts: 2,533
In row 53, galley noise. The aircraft is very quiet, especially in the forward upper deck cabin. So what goes on in the galley is very audible in row 53. I've also had an experience of 53E when a trolley was rather "positively" stowed in the galley just by my feet, waking me up because of the thump transmitted through the bulkhead into the footstool.
Row 59 is generally the last to be served, so you could be waiting quite a long time for your drinks and your meal, and if an option has run out by the time you are reached, you may have more limited (or possibly no) choice. Also, immediately behind row 59 are the bassinet positions for World Traveller Plus, so in theory there is a chance that there will be crying babies. (However, my personal experience is that babies in WT+ are generally not noisy, probably because the cabin itself is much calmer than economy and babies are very good at picking up vibes like that.)seatguru is a pretty useless site for BA. There is a lot of information which is out-of-date, or worse, which is and always has been wrong.
This is a much better site: British Airways Aircraft Seat Maps
And for the 380, this is a very good resource: BA Airbus A380: Which are the best seats? Master discussion threadThis is incorrect.
Row 59 is generally the last to be served, so you could be waiting quite a long time for your drinks and your meal, and if an option has run out by the time you are reached, you may have more limited (or possibly no) choice. Also, immediately behind row 59 are the bassinet positions for World Traveller Plus, so in theory there is a chance that there will be crying babies. (However, my personal experience is that babies in WT+ are generally not noisy, probably because the cabin itself is much calmer than economy and babies are very good at picking up vibes like that.)seatguru is a pretty useless site for BA. There is a lot of information which is out-of-date, or worse, which is and always has been wrong.
This is a much better site: British Airways Aircraft Seat Maps
And for the 380, this is a very good resource: BA Airbus A380: Which are the best seats? Master discussion threadThis is incorrect.
As you enter the upper deck the first row you encounter has seats that you do not need to have crampons and a hard hat to negotiate in and out of. This may be considered by others as the last row on the upper deck but, much like the product itself its all a matter of perspective.
Sep 14, 2018, 6:18 am
#236
Suspended
Join Date: Mar 2014
Programs: Regarded as total and utter snob amongst the BAEC community.
Posts: 971
BA should just use the current First seat (with perhaps some minor modifications) and improve First class with a world beating product. While the density will be lower, which will be a relief to many if not all flyers, all they will need to do is just up the price of standard tickets and reduce redemption to keep it more exclusive. This will also result in being less crowded in lounges and higher revenues. Also split lounges like Qatar do for status holding flyers who are not flying in premium cabins get just the basics. Problem solved!