1sttimeflyer5

I’m booked on my first “over the pond” flight, are Seats 28 G & D good? Any and all comments are welcome. I still have time to change them if the consensus is negative. Thank you so much.

Globaliser

Welcome to FT, 1sttimeflyer5!

Do you know which aircraft type you're booked on? Or perhaps you can give us the flight number and date?

corporate-wage-slave

And greetings from me 1sttimeflyer5, welcome to the BA forum on Flyertalk. I'm guessing it is a 747 or 380, but yes, please clarify - with the forum the more specific information you can provide the better the quality of the answer. And more likely to get exact experience information and anecdotes. Welcome on board.

1sttimeflyer5

It is a 744, but I don't know which version, I understand from "Seatguru" that there are 3 versions and that version 1 is the most commonly used aircraft. I am booked on flight 275

1sttimeflyer5

Thank you for the welcome and the advice. I did try to clarify to the last post. My itinerary says its a 744. It looks like a bulkhead seat in the middle 4, I am wondering where the entertainment stuff is? Do the arm rests stow away so you can stretch out if there is no one next to me. And I don't understand about the bassinet (?) I mean I know that could mean babies, but do they put them in the seat or hang them from something on the wall in front? Any information is greatly appreciated. I don''t mind babies but I'd like to have the ability to put the arm rest down and stretch out if no one has the seat next to me. Or if this is a seat that is best changed I still have time for that.

Thank you again

Welcome On Board

Globaliser

Ignore seatguru - it's rubbish for BA aircraft. One of the three versions it lists has not been in use for years now, yet still clutters the seatguru list.

Better seat maps are available here: Seat Maps | The BA Source

The two 744s are:-
14F52J36W235Y | The BA Source
14F86J30W145Y | The BA Source

If you're in economy, then it's the former seat map that's relevant, as that's the configuration that has row 28 in economy.

1sttimeflyer5

moral_low_ground

On the high business class plane there are only 145 seats in Economy. Therefore you have a much reduced chance of the seat in the middle being free. Normally choosing something close to the back has a better chance (of middle seat free) and you should try for an aisle in any block of 4 (as that gives you just one person who will want to get out to go to the bathroom).

Also, if going to the US then bear in mind that the further back you are the longer it takes to get off the plane and the bigger the queue at immigration.

corporate-wage-slave

You are on what is referred to on this forum as the "Mid J" 747, with 235 seats in World Traveller, the other and much better 747 is the "Super Hi J" with just 145 seats in economy. Now it depends a bit when you are travelling since by around November the MidJ will have left the BA fleet and by about July there will only be a few left. Now I've got a booking in October and yet it still shows a MidJ even though there is scheduled just to be one aircraft left in MidJ at that point. And I know BA's aircraft allocation process simply cannot be that precise with just one potential aircraft. So in other words, if you are travelling a while off, I would not take the BA.com seat plan too seriously since you could be moved to a Super Hi J instead. To confuse the issue, some Mid J will be refurbished but not have their seating changed or more significantly the Inflight Entertainment system changed. If you search for "Mid J" (don't forget the quotation marks) then you'll find a lot more information on this aircraft type.

However as things stand, depending on date, day of the week, route and what not, you are on an aircraft which may have empty middle seats on it, but usually the best hunting ground for that is around two thirds to three quarters of the way down the cabin. It's always amusing on some services to see everyone cheek by jowl at the front of the cabin, then towards the back passengers having one empty seat on both sides of them. On a 45 minute run to Newcastle that doesn't make much difference, on 10 hours to California it's a different matter.

So it is about trade offs, and which is the more important to you. but there is one thing you could try which is 52B, which is an FT secret so don't tell anyone: a window seat right at the back with extra side space. And since there is only one seat next to it, any single passenger needing an aisle seat is unlikely to select it. Ditto 52J.

Globaliser

Have I missed some drastic change?

As far as I can see, the mid-J fleet will be soldiering on until the end, along side the super-high J. These are the retirement dates from the tracker thread, where known:-

corporate-wage-slave

No, but you did cut out the end of my paragraph!

The status of each frame is in the 747 Mid J thread, which indicates which will be just refurbished and which will be given the full refit.

Globaliser

But the refurbished mid-Js will still be mid-Js in exactly the same configuation as before. So never mind a booking in October 2019, if you make a booking for February 2020 you will still see lots of mid-Js around - because there will still be 15 of them.

I wouldn't want anyone to see "Now I've got a booking in October and yet it still shows a MidJ even though there is scheduled just to be one aircraft left in MidJ at that point", and consequently think that even if they book a flight now showing a mid-J configuration they have an excellent chance of actually flying on a super-high J because there'll be almost no mid-Js left.

1sttimeflyer5

Thank you so much for the information, I really appreciate it,