Fifth Second

Old Feb 9, 2019, 8:07 am
  #1  
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Fifth Second

In the spirit of the various ‘First First’ threads that appear around here I thought I’d post a few notes on my fifth BA sector in Club World.

I very rarely travel long haul business with any airline, and my experiences with other airlines long haul in business were many years ago. My last Club World was a couple of years ago. So my views are definitely not those of a seasoned long haul business traveller who has an extensive set of recent comparisons to make.

The flight was BA95 (LHR YUL) which was on a 787-800 Dreamliner. It was a family treat (would have taken First had it been available). I’ve not flown a Dreamliner before and was slightly excited about this.

The service throughout was attentive and pleasant. The food between me and partner was a bit of a mixed bag - satisfactory but not great. Drinks were good quality, and the glass ware for my GnT was nice. The amenity kits and bedding provided looked new - I guess part of the White Company upgrades I’ve read about here on FT. No surprise that most people have ‘stepover’ seating when the seats are in bed mode. I snagged a no-step window seat like all good FTers should. :-) Shortly before landing the crew dished out some ice creams which apparently aren’t part of the Club service but were very welcome. Not much evidence of a club kitchen during the flight though, some chocolate or snacks would have been nice. Managed to get my son into the cockpit for a quick look around after arrival -- he was extremely happy with that.

Overall nothing much to complain about. I’m of the view that Club Europe is a terrible product, well, the seating is terrible anyway. It's very hard to justify the cost increment over ET. This Club, however, is great. I know the world is full of better long haul business classes but IMHO there’s actually very little to complain about on BA J on the basis of my last flight. And clearly the little incremental improvements are coming. Probably not fast enough for the ‘regulars’ here but noticeable and welcome to me. I’ve flown indirectly in the past to get better fares (eg LHR via CDG to SIN) but there’s no way I’d fly indirect just for a better quality J. It’s good enough for my purposes and direct is always a winner when travelling either for leisure or business. In terms of the quality of J I think really big ‘miss’ isn’t the stepover seat, it’s the lack of WiFi. I can see how a couple of well-timed flights with WiFi might just tempt me away from a direct routing with BA, just as much as a saving of cash might.

Unless work takes me to the States I’ll not be doing long-haul J again for a few years with any airline. If it’s with BA, hopefully we’ll have a new seat and fleet-wide WiFi by then. :-)
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Old Feb 9, 2019, 8:14 am
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Nice and balanced review. ^

CE - have to agree, we only do it for the TPs ex-JER.

CW - yes, it's 'OK'. Done it often enough now to see the negatives, but give me a flat bed and I'm basically content. Difficult to get excited about airline food in any cabin, TBH! And personally CBA about WiFi ... possibly an age thing, and owning a Kindle!

Thanks for reporting!
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Old Feb 9, 2019, 8:26 am
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Pretty much nailed it.

While there are obviously better products out there. CW is still a more than pleasant way to fly and there are actually many aspects of the seat that will likely be missed when the new product is rolled out.

A 2-3 hour connection in a desert in the middle of the night is not my idea of a better journey, somewhere to place a pair of specs or not!
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Old Feb 9, 2019, 9:18 am
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Originally Posted by Cap'n Benj

A 2-3 hour connection in a desert in the middle of the night is not my idea of a better journey, somewhere to place a pair of specs or not!
Exactly this!
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Old Feb 9, 2019, 9:35 am
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Indeed. I guess if you have to get off the plane somewhere anyway (eg flying to Australia) then why not? Otherwise I'm not tempted.
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Old Feb 9, 2019, 9:40 am
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Originally Posted by Cap'n Benj
A 2-3 hour connection in a desert in the middle of the night is not my idea of a better journey, somewhere to place a pair of specs or not!
Originally Posted by The_Editor
Exactly this!
Originally Posted by memesweeper
Indeed. I guess if you have to get off the plane somewhere anyway (eg flying to Australia) then why not? Otherwise I'm not tempted.
For those who do not (typically) depart ex-LON, a connection somewhere may be mandatory therefore it may not be so black and white as described here.
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Old Feb 9, 2019, 9:48 am
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Originally Posted by rossmacd
For those who do not (typically) depart ex-LON, a connection somewhere may be mandatory therefore it may not be so black and white as described here.
And preferable... Why fly BA via LHR when you can fly SQ / CX/ QR / EK / EY / WY etc. when heading east. And most of them do not involve a middle of the night connection.
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Old Feb 9, 2019, 9:51 am
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Originally Posted by DYKWIA
And preferable... Why fly BA via LHR when you can fly SQ / CX/ QR / EK / EY / WY etc. when heading east. And most of them do not involve a middle of the night connection.
Price, on direct flights to Sin in F.
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Old Feb 9, 2019, 10:24 am
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Originally Posted by rossmacd
For those who do not (typically) depart ex-LON, a connection somewhere may be mandatory therefore it may not be so black and white as described here.
Have taken the plunge for the night-stop in DOH for the TPs on the way to CPT. But then we have time on our hands (for now).

We’re always content to play a ‘creative routing’ if it isn’t too arduous ... and Sectors means TPs
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Old Feb 9, 2019, 11:18 am
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.....

Last edited by DYKWIA; Feb 9, 2019 at 12:06 pm Reason: Obviously, attempted humour is now banned on the BA forum.
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Old Feb 9, 2019, 11:24 am
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Originally Posted by DYKWIA
But BA F is equivalent to J on the other airlines.




















More than happy for you to travel J on another airline whilst I travel F on BA.





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Old Feb 9, 2019, 11:25 am
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Isn’t it a shame that a member can come along with a thoughtful, insightful, balanced post about CW and yet this board persists in reverting back to a stereotypical view of BA J and F.

Have some respect for the OP, please ...

/mod
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Old Feb 9, 2019, 1:16 pm
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Originally Posted by rossmacd
For those who do not (typically) depart ex-LON, a connection somewhere may be mandatory therefore it may not be so black and white as described here.
Ineed, toss up then is say 1x1 and 1x12 hours or 2x8.

Pros and cons to both I imagine
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Old Feb 9, 2019, 1:21 pm
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Originally Posted by DYKWIA
And preferable... Why fly BA via LHR when you can fly SQ / CX/ QR / EK / EY / WY etc. when heading east. And most of them do not involve a middle of the night connection.
With QR and EK, youre pretty much guaranteed and middle of night connection at least one way, if the middle of the night being, not actually necessarily being the middle of the night there but where you're coming from or trying to get to. Its just the nature of what it is.

As above though, there could indeed be pros to this on the jet lag side of things in certain cases.
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Old Feb 9, 2019, 1:33 pm
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Originally Posted by Cap'n Benj
With QR and EK, youre pretty much guaranteed and middle of night connection at least one way, if the middle of the night being, not actually necessarily being the middle of the night there but where you're coming from or trying to get to. Its just the nature of what it is.

As above though, there could indeed be pros to this on the jet lag side of things in certain cases.
Not really. From MAN, take an 8:30 am flight to DXB or DOH, and arrive about 18:00. Then get a 21:00 connection. Similar coming back.
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