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#140509 by Desperado
24 Sep 2006, 21:05
Nice find. Still prefer SeatGuru.com, maybe its the layout?
#140510 by preiffer
24 Sep 2006, 21:08
It's also full of crap. Showing seats as "partial recline" when they're not.

Also gotta love this one. APPARENTLY, Rows 10,11 & 12 (in the A section) are often "irritated due to location of the bar". Hmm - that'd be the bar at the back of the B section, would it? [ii][n]
#140512 by MarkJ
24 Sep 2006, 21:14
Yeah that amused me too!!
#140513 by Airbus340
24 Sep 2006, 21:18
According to it on the LGW upper deck the seats are business seats not premium econ.
#140514 by mcmbenjamin
24 Sep 2006, 21:24
Originally posted by Airbus340
According to it on the LGW upper deck the seats are business seats not premium econ.


Lot of people think PE is Business class. Always hear "Wow. I am glad I fly Business class." when leaving the aircraft from the PE cabin. Funny really.
#140515 by preiffer
24 Sep 2006, 22:11
Originally posted by mcmbenjamin
Lot of people think PE is Business class. Always hear "Wow. I am glad I fly Business class." when leaving the aircraft from the PE cabin. Funny really.
To be fair, given what you guys still insist on calling "First Class" on a domestic plane, I can understand their confusion when they see Upper Class on VS... ;)

After all, in some ways, PE is better than HP's "First Class" (among many other Airlines) IMHO... [:w]
#140531 by mcmbenjamin
25 Sep 2006, 01:07
Originally posted by preiffer
Originally posted by mcmbenjamin
Lot of people think PE is Business class. Always hear "Wow. I am glad I fly Business class." when leaving the aircraft from the PE cabin. Funny really.
To be fair, given what you guys still insist on calling "First Class" on a domestic plane, I can understand their confusion when they see Upper Class on VS... ;)

After all, in some ways, PE is better than HP's "First Class" (among many other Airlines) IMHO... [:w]



My 'overhearing' mainly comes from the IAD-LHR route with mainly British defense sorts coming to the US and honeymooners. Why honeymoon in the DC area I will never know. Maybe the mountains?

I agree the PE is better than many US domestic carrier, sure. BUT that us simply not an apples to apple comparison. Now comparing DL and UA's international J/C products against PE still make PE look good but lackng in legroom, food, cabin service and baggage handling.

Still I have yet to see what makes 'European' First better. I paid for my WAW-LHR segment (about 2.5 hours) and was mad that basically I just got an economy seat with the middle blocked and a meal. What a f!@#ing joke! (And I got lounge access, wow!) If anyone has a suggestion to a decent First/Business in the EU let me know.

I must say, SQ does do First right in the SIN-KUL route with a meal (salad or small sandwich) and drinks. Pretty good for a short (40 or so minutes) flight.
#140535 by mike-smashing
25 Sep 2006, 02:10
Originally posted by mcmbenjamin
If anyone has a suggestion to a decent First/Business in the EU let me know.


The Business class on most European airlines is pretty nasty imho, especially when you wind it out to the longest "European" sectors, such as London-Reykjavik, London-Moscow, London-Istanbul, London-Athens, London-Larnaca.

These are all 3h+ sectors with a fairly poor business product.

In and out of London, I'd often suggest choosing the non-UK carrier for these flights, as they will view London as being one of their key high-yielding routes and therefore deploy better equipment on it. For BA, they are more of a European "feeder" route.

So, for example, Olympic send internationally configured A340s, and Cyprus send A330s to London usually. Turkish is a bit variable - it can be fairly new 737NGs, shiny new A330s with seatback IFE and proper business class, slightly less new A340s, or long in the tooth but cosy A310s.

The whole Eastern Mediterranean sector particularly is laughable with BA. Athens, Istanbul, and Larnaca are all part of the "Eurofleet" operation, and have "Club Europe" service. Cairo (blocked at 5h) is flown on the 747-400, Tel Aviv (blocked at 20 minutes more than Larnaca) on the 767-300 or 777, both with NCW, and Beirut and Damascus flown by British Mediterranean (a BA franchise operator) with a Club product featuring the older "cradle" seat.

The challenge that BA have at the moment with the odd longer European sectors is that the 767s which classically fly these routes are almost all converting to Worldwide config (NCW, WTP and WT, with seatback IFE, etc). There is a small subfleet remaining in Eurofleet config for the time being (NWA, NWB, NWX, NWZ, ZHA/B/C I think are the ones remaining). The problem BA have is that they usually fill the 767s on routes such as ATH, IST and LCA, and so converting all the 767s will probably leave them without suitable equipment (unless they increase rotations, or cut back on cheap seats).

The unconfirmed rumour I heard is that ATH, IST, LCA and probably DME are being looked at to move from Eurofleet to Worldwide, allowing the remaining 767s to be converted, thus getting rid of the oddball subfleet, which will finally give a decent business class service on those routes.

Cheers,
Mike
#140537 by mcmbenjamin
25 Sep 2006, 02:21
Will reply further but NAS is Eurofleet crew too. Why? Maybe because it is a 767.

Thanks Mike. [oo]
#140548 by preiffer
25 Sep 2006, 09:25
Originally posted by mcmbenjamin
Still I have yet to see what makes 'European' First better.
Ah - that's the point, it's not CALLED "First" ;) - since it's obviously not a "first class product" within Europe. [:w]


Maybe if the US carriers called it "Premium Economy" (or even "Business"), I wouldn't have an issue - but this pretence of "I'm in First Class" is pathetic on domestic flights.
#140566 by Bazz
25 Sep 2006, 11:15
Originally posted by preiffer
It's also full of crap. Showing seats as "partial recline" when they're not.

Also gotta love this one. APPARENTLY, Rows 10,11 & 12 (in the A section) are often "irritated due to location of the bar". Hmm - that'd be the bar at the back of the B section, would it? [ii][n]


Also the seat numbers are not aligned to the seat rows correctly and 20 A and K are shown as "...above average noise from noise from the bar directly behind" when it is actually adjacent to these seats not behind them [[n]]
#140567 by easygoingeezer
25 Sep 2006, 11:18
Says 6A/K are average, I booked these on the basis of rave reviews from V-Flyer members and I think they will be above average personally.
#140569 by slinky09
25 Sep 2006, 11:24
Originally posted by preiffer
Originally posted by mcmbenjamin
Still I have yet to see what makes 'European' First better.
Ah - that's the point, it's not CALLED "First" ;) - since it's obviously not a "first class product" within Europe. [:w]


Maybe if the US carriers called it "Premium Economy" (or even "Business"), I wouldn't have an issue - but this pretence of "I'm in First Class" is pathetic on domestic flights.


Don't mince your words there! Oh, am in agreement as usual.
#140572 by radar
25 Sep 2006, 12:08
Originally posted by preiffer
It's also full of crap. Showing seats as "partial recline" when they're not.

Also gotta love this one. APPARENTLY, Rows 10,11 & 12 (in the A section) are often "irritated due to location of the bar". Hmm - that'd be the bar at the back of the B section, would it? [ii][n]


Interestingly, they seem to have discovered that elusive 747 that has the cockpit on the main deck too....[:w]
Virgin Atlantic

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