MaxFlyer

I just came off the BA294 from ORD and we were bussed to the terminal.

When the buses pulled up to the plane they just had the flight number on them. When I got off the plane at the terminal and was going up the escalators I turned around and noticed that the bus sign now said First & Club World Passengers.
I don�t know if the sign changed at the plane or at the terminal for picking up new passengers to take them from the terminal to a remote stand.

This is a new one for me and maybe BA are listening to us?

The bus was packed but not like usual or London Underground tube during rush hour.

Edited: My intention isn�t to start a rant about bussing but to ask if others have seen this feature and to bring it to the attention of the group.

Pilot37

That has been in operation for quite a while on short-haul flights I�ve taken where we arrived at a bus gate. The crew would signal to the driver when the Club had deplaned and the bus would head to the terminal (it isn�t a 100% guarantee, but I�ve had it enough times to note it was more than a one off occurrence). On long-haul flights I�ve only ever seen the flight number on the bus, suggesting they don�t bother display it as much given how premium heavy BA planes are anyway.

Would be nice if they adopted the Qatar First class bus type though - that would really demonstrate that feedback was being listened too!

Pilot37

Door5L

What a premium experience - a communal bus! Many airlines pick their premium or most valuable passengers up airside in a chauffeur driven car.

orbitmic

Agree, and as with qr would be nice if they differentiated on bus to the plane as well as from. Would make A10a bit less punishing. Qr also uses different busses (as in smaller, more comfortable and where all pax can sit!)

oceanscape

Wow! I have never had that in my many short-haul flights. Club Europe and Euro Traveller has always been mixed on the buses. So you're saying they've kept an entire bus exclusively for the few rows of Club Europe?

KARFA

I already routinely get a chauffeur driven Mercedes. Are you not getting the same?

PETER01

That did actually make me laugh KARFA

scottishpoet

what airlines pick up their entire business class cabins in a chauffer driven car?

I believe BA can/does pick up their premier card holders in a chauffer driven car

ratechaser

The chances of kitting out a bus with armchairs and chandeliers a la QR is somewhere south of zero, as it would stop it being fungible with all the other buses in the pool.

Yes, I did say fungible. Eyes down for the next game of buzzword bingo...

JD1905

Don't understand why QR has buses for First Class passengers when they only operate true First Class mostly on their A380's, of which you would not be boarding by staircase (in most cases)

Speedbird676

I was in First Class using staff travel on a different ME airline and wrongly assumed I wouldn't avail of the chauffeur service to the terminal so went down the stairs and hopped on the bus, albeit the J-class bus. Then one of the ground staff came and retrieved me from the bus and ushered me to the 7-series BMW that had been waiting for me.

DYKWIA

QR has "First" on their short haul. It's actually business, but branded as F, so you get the F bus even if you're on an A320.

PUCCI GALORE

My Dear! The Premium Experience is that one has to Board and Disembark (I refuse to say Deplane when there is a perfectly good word in English, sorry!�). via a bus rather than a jetway. It is so third world but then that�s Heathrow for you. If we are going to add T3 to a repertoire we are admitting that T5 is not capable of coping with the flights. T3 first had to be used as the 757 did not have bin loading for the bagage. So off to T3 we go to scrounge off Cathay as theirs is the best Lounge. I just think that dedicated busses for J and F passengers will have to do. The good part about bussing is the walking reduction. The bad is clambering up stairs and hanging around in all weathers. I avail myself of a rain hood. I may look like Mother Theresa but better that than Old Mother Reilly. It really irritates me

Indeed if we go from a C or even a B gate the poor F passengers have to huff and puff onto a train with us who are vowed to poverty.

Your post gives me thought of fleets of cars racing all over the airport. I gather that Lufthansa do this. So you send a car for every passenger and then dump them at passport control? I think that there comes a moment when even F passengers have to come back to earth as they leave for a hotel or hire car in a common shuttle bus.

Me? I�m chauffeured. What�s even more scandalous is that I sleep with my chauffeur. I have done for the last 37 years. My real name is Lolita and I was a child bride

adrianlondon

No wonder BA1382 is often late. The wings have fallen off.

Mutu

Totally. Imagine a 77W with 84 premium F and J pax plus maybe some GGL or Prems in Y. It would take all day to arrange private meet/greet with cars or fancy mercedes min-vans! And an A380......

Then the moaning would really begin!!

LH may well have a model that works but there is far more use of remote stands at FRA compared to LHR IIRC