New First Class

Old Mar 1, 2019, 4:51 am
  #76  
 
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Originally Posted by KARFA
What percentage do you deem to be significant? Any basis for it?
I don’t have precise percentage figures. A good number of people - have come across many myself in my travels - make regular use of CCR ahead of s/haul sectors which of course don’t carry F. Added to that are those CCR holders who choose not to book F when flying longhaul.

Whether or not changes to CCR eventually result - whether in terms of space / or eligibility for access - from changes to F class capacity remains to be seen. But with all else that’s going on, I guess that isn’t really top of the agenda right now.
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Old Mar 1, 2019, 5:01 am
  #77  
 
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Originally Posted by mmxbreaks
The biggest reason to put eight rather than 14 seats up front, really, is to cram more CW seats into the aircraft body (plus that smaller F layout will quickly jump from A-fare availability to F-fare with a huge price). Although WT+ is probably a more lucrative area to increase capacity - as I've seen a lot of large companies drop business travel policy to premium in the last few years and those cabins are often rammed on many routes.
In my experience BA often has all but one F seat available for A class purchase, so you'll see F5 A4, or F2 A1 quite commonly.
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Old Mar 1, 2019, 5:21 am
  #78  
 
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Originally Posted by Cap'n Benj

????

Assuming the number of seats are cut significantly, I dont think BA will limit redemptions, for many of the reasons already discussed, they will, just like for many of the airlines quoted, have half as many to give and therefore be twice as hard to find
OP suggested that this 'BA senior chap in City' said it'll be cash only in future. Or did I misread?
Frankly, BA F is worse than LH/AF/LX, it's always full, but it's not that expensive at the moment. I'm OK for CW+.

Which FTSE 100 company allows longhaul F class travel for most of its employees in travel policy? Name one please.
I used to work for a Canary Wharf based US firm in 2009 and our EMEA Chairman apologised twice to our CFO after said that he wants to retire because flying between NY and London is taking too much personal time, however Willie Walsh is a good friend and he thought BA First was great. And he was #2 or #3 person in the company. I remember "first class is generally forbidden" is written in travel policy.
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Old Mar 1, 2019, 6:40 am
  #79  
 
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Originally Posted by SKRan
OP suggested that this 'BA senior chap in City' said it'll be cash only in future. Or did I misread?
Frankly, BA F is worse than LH/AF/LX, it's always full, but it's not that expensive at the moment. I'm OK for CW+.

Which FTSE 100 company allows longhaul F class travel for most of its employees in travel policy? Name one please.
I used to work for a Canary Wharf based US firm in 2009 and our EMEA Chairman apologised twice to our CFO after said that he wants to retire because flying between NY and London is taking too much personal time, however Willie Walsh is a good friend and he thought BA First was great. And he was #2 or #3 person in the company. I remember "first class is generally forbidden" is written in travel policy.
I dont fly much for work but I know our company travel policy is you can fly F if its cheaper than J and how often does that happen?
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Old Mar 1, 2019, 6:52 am
  #80  
 
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Originally Posted by Nicolasteph17
To be honest the only reason BA have had to discount it to fill seats is because the current offering is frankly crap.

They can kid themselves all they wish about 8 seat cabins and exclusivity but when they actually employ exemplary crew on every flight not occasional ones, when they provide high standard food and beverage not the cheapest option, when they provide chauffeur service etc then people may consider paying it.

The only people who have devalued First are BA and if they really think people are going to pay 7k-12k to have anything other than perfection then they really are stupid. And under this senior management team running it they are incapable of providing that as all they know is cost cutting and budgets.
Cannot disagree with this. My most recent F trip was underwhelming... was upgraded from J but would have preferred to stay there!
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Old Mar 1, 2019, 7:14 am
  #81  
 
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It also seems that 8F vs 14 doesnt currently (always) impact award availability. For instance I wanted to get two LHR-SFO F awards, two flights both with 14F fully open at booking window, none available. But easily got SJC which is an 8F cabin.
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Old Mar 1, 2019, 7:37 am
  #82  
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Originally Posted by BA or bust
... My most recent F trip was underwhelming... was upgraded from J but would have preferred to stay there!
Interesting, would you mind telling us why?
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Old Mar 1, 2019, 10:53 am
  #83  
 
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Originally Posted by Gadot
I would bet the pilots can use the empty seats but cannot get the perks
How many remember when American carved a prime beef in first
...I remember when United asked me how I wanted my tenderloin done 😄
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Old Mar 1, 2019, 11:02 am
  #84  
 
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Originally Posted by SKRan
OP suggested that this 'BA senior chap in City' said it'll be cash only in future. Or did I misread?
Frankly, BA F is worse than LH/AF/LX, it's always full, but it's not that expensive at the moment. I'm OK for CW+.

Which FTSE 100 company allows longhaul F class travel for most of its employees in travel policy? Name one please.
I used to work for a Canary Wharf based US firm in 2009 and our EMEA Chairman apologised twice to our CFO after said that he wants to retire because flying between NY and London is taking too much personal time, however Willie Walsh is a good friend and he thought BA First was great. And he was #2 or #3 person in the company. I remember "first class is generally forbidden" is written in travel policy.
ha...I've worked for a few...theres the policy, and theres the reality for the bigwigs!
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Old Mar 1, 2019, 11:07 am
  #85  
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Originally Posted by megaloman
Is it? most long haul trips will span way beyond your usual work hours, so you're essentially giving up your family/personal time for your employer's benefit. I see the points you get in return as a little compensation for giving up your free time.
In which case I suggest people should strongly consider changing jobs if their family or personal time mean anything to them.
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Old Mar 1, 2019, 11:12 am
  #86  
 
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Originally Posted by LTN Phobia
That actually happens in some countries for civil servants.

Some larger departments have negotiated fares that do not earn any points/miles, whereas some make you sign an undertaking that you cannot use points/miles earned through work travel for personal purposes.
I suspect a bulk ofpax(self included) do not belong to any of the above catagories. So the question for Icegirl remains: Should be pax like me banned from redeeming for F ?
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Old Mar 1, 2019, 11:14 am
  #87  
 
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Originally Posted by SF1K
It also seems that 8F vs 14 doesnt currently (always) impact award availability. For instance I wanted to get two LHR-SFO F awards, two flights both with 14F fully open at booking window, none available. But easily got SJC which is an 8F cabin.
That is obviously demand based. In the scenario being discussed the likely situation would be 3 class flights to SJC and 8 seats to SFO, at which point you can imagine what the redemption opportunities will be!

Originally Posted by SKRan
OP suggested that this 'BA senior chap in City' said it'll be cash only in future. Or did I misread?
Frankly, BA F is worse than LH/AF/LX, it's always full, but it's not that expensive at the moment. I'm OK for CW+.

Which FTSE 100 company allows longhaul F class travel for most of its employees in travel policy? Name one please.
I used to work for a Canary Wharf based US firm in 2009 and our EMEA Chairman apologised twice to our CFO after said that he wants to retire because flying between NY and London is taking too much personal time, however Willie Walsh is a good friend and he thought BA First was great. And he was #2 or #3 person in the company. I remember "first class is generally forbidden" is written in travel policy.
I think the idea most people are thinking is that by cutting F seats and raising prices BA would be able to offer a LH/LX level of service.

i doubt most FTSE100 businesses offer J travel to most of their employees.

I flew LH f last year from BOS, 6/8 seats full, 3 obviously businessman (all together), a seemingly old money type couple and me a redeeemer.

This I imagine would be the similar make up of BA in any new world. F to only a select few (10-12) destinations, where there is significant high value traffic. No sale discounting, the odd redemption seat.

This would easily allow a much better service, increase the exclusivity, while also offering the odd redemption seat at non peak times

Last edited by Cap'n Benj; Mar 1, 2019 at 11:27 am
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Old Mar 1, 2019, 12:48 pm
  #88  
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Originally Posted by HMPS

I suspect a bulk ofpax(self included) do not belong to any of the above catagories. So the question for Icegirl remains: Should be pax like me banned from redeeming for F ?

Yes.
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Old Mar 1, 2019, 1:00 pm
  #89  
 
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Originally Posted by icegirl
Yes.
why do you care? If peoples employers dont mind them using miles for leisure travel why do you? I dont think it would be humanly possible for anyone to accumulate enough Avios for a an F redemption from travel their employer wouldnt want them to be doing anyway. The number of people who fly considerably more than they have to on their employers money must be incredibly small.
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Old Mar 1, 2019, 1:17 pm
  #90  
 
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Originally Posted by icegirl
Yes.
Hello icegirl. I have to ask, why are you here? Not trying to be funny, but I would think that most people on this forum would like to have the option of redeeming their hard earned Avios for a trip in F, even if those opportunities were very few and far between - to help keep it exclusive, in the new BA World Order! But you appear to be saying that you think that F should absolutely be for paid tickets only. Why is that? That would seem somewhat contrary to the reason for being a member of an FF program. But maybe I'm misunderstanding and/or not appreciating your particular point of view.

rb211.
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