nicdigby

Tobias-UK

On the B773 the toilets are at the rear of the First cabin, so the lavatory will be behind 4A and 4K. The First class galley is at the front of the cabin so there is risk of noise/light if in 1A/E/F/K. I usually sit in 1A/K and I have not been disturbed by light or noise, although others have.

I am doing this trip (in reverse) this weekend, On the SIN-SYD-SIN I have selected 1K out and back. The SYD-SIN is a day flight so noise shouldn't be an issue.Given the choices you have, I'd probably take 4A. Even thought the lavatories (and the Club galley) are at the back of the cabin, I think there will be less noise and light at the back of the cabin than at the front.

corporate-wage-slave

Some of us never tire of repeating the point that seatguru is not at all accurate these days, if it ever was. It has seating options on aircraft which have long been sitting in the desert for breakup, with seating which was updated twice after the last seatguru update, and before they were removed from service. For more accurate information, either use this forum's Dashboard, or thebasource.com

The 777-300 makes a huge amount of noise, and while galley work is an issue on the the 787s and 380s, simply because they are quieter, on a 777 you won't hear much from the galley areas in any part of the CW seating. It will be all drowned out. That "may" word - a nice way to prevent being held accountable for accuracy - should be more accurately changed to "will not"

LTN Phobia

I'd say 4E or 4F among the options you have on 773 if you want to stay away from the noise. (Proviso: no potential passenger noise has been accounted for, except for the loo noise.)

There are double-curtains behind Row 4, i.e. there are curtains, then a loo behind 4A/4K, then another set of curtains, and then the CW galley. It's not very likely that you'd be bothered too much by the light because of it (the area between those two sets of curtains is quite dark, and double set of curtains also dampens down the noise from the CW galley).

You are less likely to be disturbed the loo noise directly behind by sitting in 4E/F (whereas you might hear it in 4A/K), and also less likely to be disturbed by the light/noise from the First galley that you may get in row 1.

formeraa

Using the earplugs often helps me avoid the noise!

flatlander

Boeing included a very effective white noise generator as standard in the 777 series aircraft. It also has a secondary function as a ventilation system.

So you won't hear much of anything else: neither galley prep, nor other passengers. nor your travel companion, nor the IFE through BA's headphones, nor anything else.

Don your earplugs or good noise cancelling headphones according to preference and enjoy your flight; plugged into the IFE, such headphones will allow you to hear the soundtrack.

irishguy28

BA staff indeed work hard, and service may indeed be slow, but the chances of your cabin crew toiling (and chatting) away noisily in the galley for the entire duration of your SYD-SIN-LHR sectors is highly, highly, unlikely.

Bring earplugs!

Romelle

Could you please tell me where the Dashboard is?

rfarlz

I have to concur with CWS and flatlander - the 777's ventilation system is so noisy that any other noise is really not an issue on this plane. In my experience on AA and EK B77Ws I've convinced myself that there is some component of the HVAC system right in front of door 2 that makes this the loudest part of the plane as well.

So if you like white noise sleeping won't be an issue, but listening to the IFE or communicating with FAs might!

jerry a. laska

It is one of the sticky threads at the top of the BA forum.
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...tive-club-446/
Here is a direct link:
BA Forum Dashboard

BingBongBoy

I would take 1K

dougzz

windowontheAside

I've said this before - on the older planes, the white noise hides the human-generated noise (carts, galleys, crying, snoring, coughing, talking etc) and good noise cancelling earphones kill the white noise completely leading to a very quiet flight. I don't listen to anything through them, just cancel all the ambient noise. Bliss!

Some of the noisiest flights I've been on have been on the 380 and 787 where there's no engine noise to mask the human noise, and noise cancelling technology doesn't really work for that either.

Airprox

You're not wrong there, the back of that mini cabin on the AA B77W, particularly Row 4, is absolutely awful and yet people rave about it because they think it is special.

Howard Long

I agree, although I find that the on ear and over ear headsets aren't always the best options, although I've only used the Bose ones. Typically problems have included feedback squeals, the padding disintegrating into black bits over your face, and just being hard to drift off while wearing them. They're also very bulky compared to in ear options.

In recent years I have trained myself to become comfortable with the in-ear units, in particular the QC20(i) and QC30. It takes a while to become used to them from a comfort perspective, but they work really well from a noise cancelling perspective. I'm on my fourth set of QC20s. The QC20s I've yet to have them run out of juice on a longhaul flight, but unlike the QC30s you are slightly hampered by the cable. A nice feature of the QC20 is that it works as a normal passive headset when it runs out of juice.

One word of warning about both the QC20 and QC30 is that they are both fragile, and glue is so key in their fabrication that attempting to fix them is almost always a destructive enterprise. The QC30 suffers from a problem where the flat flex cable running through (and glued into) the neck is tight on the connectors, so it fails after time. You also look like a vicar when you where the QC30 if that's what floats your boat.

The QC20 is being offered at a significantly reduced price compared to a year or two ago, I assume because everyone's moving to Bluetooth.I wouldn't normally recommend these insurance policies, but because of their fragility, invest in a no quibble instant replacement warranty for a few quid at point of purchase, and take a picture of the policy with your phone saving it in a safe place.

Failure modes of the QC20 justifying an extended warranty include inadvertently yanking and breaking the 3.5mm plug, rolling over a bud with an office chair, and bud falling out of your ear into a choice plumbing receptacle. Hence, I'm on #4.