Europeanexplorer

I wonder what they are doing for the F pax that are being displaced by closing the F cabin to PVG. Downgrade to J and compensation or put them on LH (and compensation)? I have an F flight in March 2019 on PVG-ZRH and, so far, an A343 is still operating.

alinghi90

I agree that the IFE and the cabin design is nicer in the T7 or A330, but comfort wise I always have and still do appreciate the 340 in F. Even though some more privacy during night flights would be nice, the open cabin also has its charme.

Nick Art

Europeanexplorer

Great, so I assume the PVG flights which are still selling F are likely to be the ones which will be operated by the A343. So the only question is whether it will be an A343 with the new or the old seats.

ced_lx

As I understand it the first retrofitted A340 won't be in service before late 2018/ early 2019.

ced_lx

Agreed 100%. The first flight in F I took was with LH back in 2001 and what struck me the most was the sense of space in the cabin (old F cabin). Since you could see out of many windows, you really got a sense of flying for lack of a better description. The newer cabins are very nice, but you loose some of the charm for sure.

On my last NRT-ZRH, there was 6-7 hours left before landing and they made the bed next to my seat (emtpy seat). I didn't feel very tired, but I said to my self, what the heck they made the bed might as well try and sleep a little. Next thing I know I was woken up by the annoucement "crew, landing in 10 minutes"... theres something about that seat that is just great for sleeping.

San Gottardo

More than upgrading the seats I am hoping that they install Internet-on-board when they do the refurbishment. Sure, I like the new F seats better than the current ones (more privacy), but I'd rather have the old F seats with WiFi than the new ones without WiFi.

Does anybody know whether they'll add the satellite internet connection to the A340s when they refurbish the cabins?

alinghi90

They will add WiFi

On a recent flight the M/C event told me that they install a second lavatory in F. Not sure if that really is true since they would need to reduce galley space, but would be a great addition of course.

Nick Art

airoli

Guess what? I even remember the time when there was no internet anywhere - and we had nice vacations then, too.

Nick Art

I'm not that young!
I (mostly) grew up without internet and phone! (probably one of the last generations that did so)...
Nostalgia!

OT: It's quite interesting actually: I was introduced to THE INTERNET in late elementary to early high school (we used to play games on the school computers during lunch). Hell, I even remember how we used to have to log in via the phone line! So in mid high in about 2 years everybody went from having no phone or an old nokia, to the newest Iphone/Ipad etc. It's kinda cool to having whitnessed that first hand.
I for example spent way to much time on it: But without realizing I always kinda liked the time I was forced to disconnect (like when flying).
What's really funny is that many of my friends who used to hang out on instagram, facebook etc. all the time are now actually in a kind of anti internet trend, me including: Many of us deleted all social media apps and have at best whatsapp. Interesting isn't it?

San Gottardo

There are several schools of thought:

1. "I love to be unavailable" >> poor slaves to their employers or their inability to just disconnect wherever they are at their own will, and who need the excuse of being on a plane to be able to disconnect and make themselves unreachable
2. "I don't need it, I can still have a great time" >> yep, if you fly from time to time and the flight is part of your leisure experience, that makes sense
3. "I need it to be productive" >> if you cross the Atlantic two or three times a week while things are going on at work you don't want to wait until you land 8-12 hours later to then find that you have 120 emails to answers, your team took a wrong decision in your absence, and they stay up till 3am their time only to wait that you land. The flight is not a "time out", but just an office above the clouds, plus all the stress before takeoff to send things out that need to be done
4. "First Class is about luxury and providing all the things you might need" >> by the same logic that they provide all kinds of things that are comfortable on the ground but aren't necessary in the air (movies, live TV, PJs, caviar, etc). If I want to use the time in the air to watch a movie, thank you dear airline for making that possible. If I want to use the time in the air to browse internet sites to plan my next vacation, read about the destination, organize my ground transportation, check up on news or blogs, post on FlyerTalk... thank you dear airline for also making that possible by offering an internet connection and giving me free access to it as part of the First Class product.

I pity those in category 1 (often not their own fault, many people are slaves and are expected to be reachable all the time), I fully respect those in category 2, but I also respect those in category 3 and 4. And I am glad that those in 1 and 2 do not dictate what will be offered to 3 and 4. "I don't want to use it" is OK, but that doesn't mean that it shouldn't be installed. Just don't use it.

Personally,I am sometimes in category 2, often in category 3 (precisely because I often do 2-3 longhauls per week), often in category 4. But for instance I always never watch movies on the plane. I want to have the choice myself whether I use internet or not, not the airline impose it on me; just as I want to have the choice myself whether I want to watch movies or not.

Nick Art

Oh, I fully respect that other passengers might need wifi for various reasons. But as mentioned, I'm not one of those and hence I won't be using it. I still don't mind having it installed of course! I probably didn't make that very clear in my previous post.

ced_lx

Has anyone even used the wifi on the A330/777? Everytime I was in F and they gave me a voucher, it's nerver worked. Once I succeded in sending an SMS. That's it.

I can live without it so I don't care that much. Anyways at the price they are charging on Swiss it seems ridiculously expensive.

MichielR