BA Business Class

[Trixiebell06]

Hi , I have been reading that BA has gone down the pan , has business class taken a nose dive as well? We done a long haul with them a few years ago & couldn't fault them Business Class . I appreciate that things have changed a lot since covid but theres nothing but bad reviews on Trip Advisor

I think it’s got better? They’ve mostly ditched the crappy seats where you have to climb over a random’s legs to access the aisle from the window in favour of business suites now.

Business is much better than it used to be. (I flew recently.)

The issue with BA at the moment is staff shortages, poor customer service mainly online and from the call centres (ie the in-air staff are brilliant, by and large), and some rather tricksy refund policies.

Depends on the plane you get (recently flew out on a newish plane with the new formation, all good but returned on the old format climbing over legs)

The crew - outbound were perfunctory at best, inbound were lovely
Amenities kit is very skimpy compared to the old days
Cleanliness was not good - they make a huge deal of this with videos etc but neither leg was particularly clean (eg crumbs in edges of storage bin) which makes you wonder what else had been missed
Food was one of the worst things compared to pre covid - no choice of starter, much smaller selection of mains which meant they ran out of the popular choice, no choice of dessert/cheese, everything delivered together on one tray rather than course by course, small selection of wine. The food was a bit weird too, one choice was a chicken pie which came with no accompaniment- no potato, veg or salad, just a big slab of pie!

All first world problems but I've flown a lot and BA have gone from being my first choice to pretty much last. Club is not a treat any more, used to be.

I flew BC with BA in April and I felt it had improved significantly. I think it was a newish plane (Dreamliner). Service was excellent and food was good. I felt pretty well looked after. The window seats were very private which made for an enjoyable flight.(I was a bit wary about backward facing but it was fine)

Some trivial things - the nuts in packets rather than a dish, the bread rolls were chilled. As PP says, the amenities kit is pretty basic - wonder why they bother. Very attentive service though.

I've also flown Air Canada more recently in Signature (their BC). Not quite same standard of service although seats were wonderful. Well worth it for the Signature Lounge at Toronto -especially with a 5 hour delay.

Hi,as an aside we are booked BC with BA August has anyone had their flights cancelled or anything? Thanks

Anything is better than sitting in cramped economy.

I flew out to Orlando with them yesterday. As PP have said, it’s poor service compared to how it used to be, particularly the food and drink selection and attentiveness of crew. They just seem too stretched. I had to clear my kids trays as it was getting close to landing. They don’t routinely offer drinks etc.

@Defiantlynot41 I had that huge slab of pie yesterday! No veg, no sides, just pastry!

That's a good point actually about the food. It's felt to me, the last few times I've flown BA, that they're cobbling together whatever they can from rather random ingredients.

And I hate to get all 'we've forgotten what healthy portion sizes look like' but the puddings are always massive! You get a smear of some paste masquerading as a sauce and a single lipless sandwich, and then a slice of cake the size of Saturn.

They're being walloped by rising costs like everyone I suppose. Lots of creative plating going on.

I’ve flown BA Club World about 3 times in the last twelve months and was impressed with the food offering onboard every time. The crew are friendly but clearly overstretched. I flew BA First last month and it was great!

Landed last night on a short haul BA flight and the seats were exactly same as economy but with middle seat blanked off.
The food was very good, and the staff were excellent. The whole experience was pretty good for short haul, so much so, my other half has asked me to upgrade our next trip.
Not the same as long haul though.

Thankyou for all your replies & advice . As mentioned we’ve never had problems with BA in the past so fingers crossed for our long haul
We’re booked for a night flight if things don’t change so hopefully will sleep through most of it .

BA First is one of the best business class cabins out there ;) Though on serious note, it’s often not that much more than Club World, especially if booked as part of a BA holiday.

But, most airlines have significantly improved their business class product over the last 5/10 years, and the latest BA Club Suite just gets them back in the running. It’s not revolutionary, unlike the previous hard product, and the softer side of amenities/food/drink/service has also fallen behind. But all airlines are struggling to deliver consistent service at the moment, so sometimes better the devil you know!