What is the worst first-class seat you have ever had?
 

was it the stewardess? the design? or just the whole first class section sucks?

AirTran! Those seats simply sucked. Luckily, I wasn't the one paying for the fare. Unfortunately, I was flyin AirTran.

They don't even have a First Class, as they consider the premium business class.

Welcome to Flyertalk, gabgab! Interesting topic you have here :p Am curious to see what some consider the worst F seat :p Probably most of them will say the intra-Europe Business class seats on various European carriers...

Anyway, based on my experience in F on AS/CO/DL - will have the opportunity to try UA soon....

AS has the worst F seat... Recline is almost the same as coach, the seats are rock hard, the headrest are not that great, and their "PTV" - DigiEplayer - is :rolleyes:

If we factor in the service, and then it is going to be tough, because AS FAs are the ones that makes the whole F experience a good one.

Huh? Just because they call it "Business class" doesn't mean it's not a domestic F seat. Except on 3 cabin flights, the industry norm is to refer to the premium seats on a two cabin flight as "First Class"

I don't remember whether the referred to it as First or Business, but the front cabin on Sabena was way below par for transatlantic.

btw, several airlines intentionally call the front of the 2-class plane Business when they know it's not competitive with other F products.

It's not the industry norm, it's simply the norm for a few airlines operating in the US market.

Just talking about the seat:

Spirit and Airtran are bad (I guess Airtran's will be going away)...

For network carriers, US is the worst of them, IME.

All of the intra-Europe ones where they are the same seats as coach with the middle seat blocked off are certainly not worth the expense.

I would be interested in hearing from anyone who has flown Icelandair, as their front of cabin product has gotten a bad rep (but I haven't flown it).

I have also not flown the various carriers who had E190s with F seats. I can't imagine they are great.

I have not had any problems in E175's or E190's in F, I found them quite pleasant (possibly due to low expectations).

US is the worst domestic F overall, but the NW/DL DC-9's are a close second.

As for international, the Thai old business product (I few 747-400 but hear the A330 and A300 have the same) is not useful by any measure.

This is rubbish. In recent times I have flown on the following airlines where the front end of a two class cabin was not called First:

Thai International Airways
Singapore Airlines
British Midland
British Airways
Lufthansa
Qantas
Vietnam Airlines
South African Airlines
Comair
Turkish Airlines
Egyptair
Air New Zealand
Azal Azerbaijan Airlines

These are just the planes I have personally been on. The full list would be way, way longer.

CO 757-300 F seat was terrible. Bad/broken headrest, no padding, and looked like something from 1970.

He's talking about inside America only.

The rest of the world is still (mostly) sane and honest when it comes to naming the class of their product.

I had a FRA-PVG flight (F) on Air China once which was not too great. Both in terms of seats and service but above of all because they managed to print my ticket on a ticket template that was a year old. Appparently that is not allowed so they didn't want to check me in at first. By the way: Air China in economy is not bad at all.

Iberia from DFW-MAD. They had those wretched seats that don't quite recline, and the food was mediocre- comparable to what I'd expect in Coach.

+1

Felt like sitting in a Greyhound seat...but that is probably unfair to Greyhound as it's been a while since I've ridden them and they probably have better product now. :eek:

AA F seats on the ex-TWA 757s.

Perhaps.

But the worst domestic 2 class F product I have flown on in the US (US) is better, comfort wise, than intra-European 2 class Business Class on the likes of BA, LH, etc.

Egyptair 777 has to be hands down the worst long haul first class product. Seat, food, service are all abysmal. And it's a dry airline, so can't even drown your sorrows.

UA/PVG setting in 3A waking up to about 5 FA having a hen party, and laughing loud...so much for sleeping on a long flight...

I've been told by many of my work colleagues to avoid Air India when traveling to India. I've headed their warnings, so I can't say how bad it is.

Interesting topic...Any first class product for me is a good one; I'm tall, so for me it's the extra legroom. But, I recall some of the older NW jets (DC-9's), where the seat in front of me reclined literally in my lap.

Spirit. Hands down. bigger, more comfortable seat, but you still have to pay $3 for an Orange Juice on your 7am flight. But it was a lot cheaper that the other airlines so I guess you cant really complain a whole lot..

Worst First Class Seat ?!
 

I have only flown domestic first class on Northwest, Delta, & US Air. I have flow "business class" many times on AirTran & Spirit. I have found variations from plane to plane, but my worst first class experiences have always been on US Air's A319 first class cabin..but that's just US Air.

I still say any first class / business / premium seat is better than any seat in coach.

I've had to interrupt loud galley conversations more than once in the last 3 months on late night Continental flights.

I try to be diplomatic about it, but the FAs seem to be peeved anyway.

There are a few options but the worst overall experiences I have had in F is on Yemenia. The entire airline was largely clueless, ground services did not exist. On a flight from Athens to Sana'a a mechanical happened at the stop in Jeddah. Due to a number of improbable events the booze I was carrying to Yemen ended out with me in a hotel in Jeddah at 2AM. I called a friend and gave him the supply. he did not even mind being awakened at 2AM to come to my hotel. Good for my friend, horrible airline.

Cannot complain about US or Europe airlines after the Yemenia experiences.

I imagine they are.

If you compare E-jet F against DC-9 F, then in E-jet, there are 4 seats abreast in the back and 3 seats abreast in front. In a DC-9, there are 5 abreast in the back and 4 abreast in front. Thus a DC-9 F has the elbowroom of 1 1/4 coach seats while E190 F has the elbowroom of 1 1/3 coach seat - a clear advantage.
E190 3 abreast F features single seat side, which bigger planes lack.
Also, E190 F is considerably better than CRJ F. Both planes have the width for 4 abreast in coach, but E190 are 17 cm wider. And more headroom: the central ceiling width of E-jet is, at 200 cm, 11 cm higher than the 189 cm of CRJ and comes within 5 cm of the 205 cm height of DC-9.

+1 the E190 F experience I have had a couple of times and CRJ a few more. E190 ranks with 737NG in my book. CRJ is another less nice story.

USAgony the worst
 

I fly UA, DL, and AA quite a bit. Varying degrees of good and bad.

I rarely fly US, and now I remember why. DFW-LAS, a few hour flight in "first".

Plastic cups, no hot nuts, no hot towel, and no meal service on what would have been meal service on any other airline in this class of travel.

The FA's start handing out snack boxes to buy, in coach. NOTHING for first. I ask, hey, can I get one of those snack boxes to go with my beverage in a plastic cup?

I am told, "well, they're $6-$7.00, and we'll see if have any left when we're done selling them in coach". Unbelievable.

A snack box with a cost of a buck or two to the airline, and they can't put a dozen of those away for the passengers in "first"? In lieu of what would be a real meal on any other airline?

Sorry for you guys who fly US on a regular basis . . .

air china, on one of the few flights out of thailand when suvarnabhumi was occupied by the PAD.

they managed to move their planes to chiang mai, where i was.

the seat was ok-ish, but due to the fact that they were improvising, and had no infrastructure in chaing mai, the food was horrible, they only had water and bad coffee, and the inflight entertainment system was down.

Agreed. The only time I have ever flown BA F class was LHR-CAI-LHR, as Y and C were both sold out. The outbound flight was excellent, and I cannot compliment BA enough. On the return flight, the BA 744 went tech, and I was given an F seat on an Egyptair flight. What a let down. The seat was falling apart, the food was bad, and the service was mediocre. Given the choice between Egyptair F and BA premium economy, it would be hard to choose.

(this of course ignores US airlines' dishonest use of "first class" on domestic flights)

My worst front-of-the-plane (to avoid the J vs F war) experience was in Saga Class on Icelandair. The seats were bigger but not necessarily comfortable, but the service and food was horrible. I returned in coach, and it was much more enjoyable, truthfully. The food was much better, and although there wasn't as much space as in Saga, it was still more comfortable overall.

My crummy experiences up front have been where I was stuck in the last row with limited recline and the seat in front of me had generous recline - so I could hardly move, or even eat. AA Mad Dogs, and 757 and UA 757's are a few.

The year that I was a 2P on UA, I decided to use my e-upgrades for a trip from MSP to Orlando.

Unfortunately, the only one that cleared was MSP-ORD. Even though the flight left at 7:00AM, the only amenity we received was coffee BEFORE take-off. (I didn't really want alcohol at that hour.) It was breakfast hour, but there was no food, not even a bagel. To top it off, the seat was not particularly comfortable.

Convertible Y seats - the worst F out there!
 

Reading these has dredged up all of the memories I try to bury after flights...here's another one (though I think the FI story I posted above is still the worst)...

On QF traveling SYD-PER fare paid up front (I think it's domestic business there, but don't quote me) I was in the second-to-last row of the front. The seats were the convertible econ-to-biz and were obviously inferior to the seats in the same cabin one row earlier: less padding, less room, smaller arm rests, etc. The service was the same, which was nice, but I couldn't help feeling like I was a second-class first class pax.

QF handled my letter quite well, though, giving me four upgrade coupons for future travel. Thankfully I wasn't seated in the convertible seats!

We flew Icelandair in November; purchased the "Economy comfort". That's where they lower the table in the middle seat and you have "extra room." IMHO, it was the worst seat I've ever been in. Narrow, hard, lumpy back, and the food was a cold sandwich and something to drink. I asked a Saga-class pax how the service was (we were seated essentially in the back of Saga class) and he said it was a cold sandwich, a lumpy seat, narrow... etc.

This was from BOS-KEF, RT.

Two years ago on US domestic. Dirty aircraft cabin, lack of anything resembling first class. The only bright spot was the US airport staff which seemed to rally be on the ball.

Horrible. Don't waste your money, especially if flying from the East coast. Maybe they'll introduce a better product now that they're expanding to the West coast with longer flights...

This isn't saying much, but I think US F varies on aircraft and between flight crews. F seats on the larger aircrafts (737-400s) are pretty nice. And whether you get hot towels, pre-departure drink, etc., all depend on whether the FAs "feel like it".

Row 3 on an Alaska 737-400. Tight legroom and pitch, old style leather seats showing signs of age. I'd just taken an AA 737-800 in First the flight before and the difference was astonishing.

Also, the ex-Northwest First Class seats on the DC-9-50 are pretty bad. The seats are old with poor leather padding and have tray tables in the seatbacks which I find to be incredibly tacky. I think they were better when they had cloth covers.

Of course this is not counting Club Europe on BA 319s/757s which isn't First Class and doesn't have separate seats from Euro Traveler on these flights.

The empty one in F/BE while I sit in C because the GA (in a foreign country) was poorly trained or didn't want to make the effort to process the UG. :mad: