First experience of flying Business Class and …

[DuvetDownn]

I just returned from a trip involving flights to LA and I flew there and back business class. It was my first time and it was amazing. My DH has flown Business Class many times with work and said one day we’d try it.
I have a flight next month to Singapore in economy and in a way wished I hadn’t tried it.

@OffToThatPlace

Flew Delta at Christmas and they were great. Food and service was fab and that was in PE . I was impressed

Unlike BA Virgin didnt have a separate lounge for celebrities and so the LHR lounge was quite good for celeb spotting

That said Hugh Grant was in the BA lounge a couple of weeks ago- so he didn't make the celeb cut.

Anything related to technology that you have bought will have an imported part or made in China and shipped over here. Your appliances, your laptop, tablets, phone, TV and so on.

I take it you walk or cycle everywhere or public transport if needs must.

Surely you are familiar with the lithium forests of Basingstoke?

I was thinking maybe witchcraft or mind control of the web.

🤣🤣🤣 @SecretPeston busted for trying to sock puppet

Since I am unable to drive, yes, I do.

Re. imported parts of things - I say again, it is the incentivisation of poor choices I am commenting on, e.g. flight points. You do not get points every time you buy something that has an imported component.

Whoever said that Virgin PE is the same as BA BC is mistaken.

I fly Business and First Class regularly because I have autism - the lounges and the extra space are less stress-inducing so I arrive relaxed.

OP - once you’ve done a business class flight, it will have ruined you every enjoying economy again. I travel a lot for work so have accumulated loads of air points. It means all our holiday travel can be by business and we buy flights for when DT’s visit. We’ve given DT’s bad habits as they have traveled business class from being babies.

Enjoy!

Had a wonderful BA flight back from LAX. Connecting flight to Lisbon cancelled due to "snow" (there isn't any, just cold drizzle) as was the following one and the 7pm is full. Now been rebooked on a TAP flight tomorrow at 6am, in economy. BA say they will pay for my hotel. Wonder if they will compensate for downgraded flight? First world problems I know but I paid for a BC package.

I've flown back and forth to the US a lot this past year, which helps as the more you fly, the higher your tier points, the more upgrades you can get. Thoughts are that the new BA club world cabins are very nice. We used to try to go first, but I think the new cabins essentially negate the need for that. First class security (also accessible if you're a gold card holder) is fab. The food is somewhat better in first, but I think the food at all levels, including the lounges, has taken a noticeable dive in recent years. Possibly some real cost cutting measures happening there. Lounges are fine (Newark is pretty shit, Philadelphia almost never open, Boston was closed last time- it's not a terribly exciting lounge but nice in that you board straight from the lounge), it's true that the bathrooms in the Concorde lounge are underwhelming. I'm not a drinker on planes, but the alcohol seems pretty free-flowing in club world. The updated BA planes are nicer than Virgin. AA planes are nice, food is worse.

I do wonder if, with the new club world, BA is moving towards phasing out first class? They have some all business front cabins on the US routes now, similar to most of the AA planes.

I do wonder if, with the new club world, BA is moving towards phasing out first class? They have some all business front cabins on the US routes now,

That's a rumour that's being going around both inside and outside the company for many years and one day I suspect it will probably happen. The general idea is not something new, BA have had three class Long Haul aircraft for many years (e.g. quite a few of the 777s are/were three class) mainly deployed on holiday routes such as the Caribbean. It is however a sign of change when they start being deployed on more mainline business routes.

One issue behind all this is may well the increasing use of Long range executive jets by rich individuals and/or the top companies.

This is where a lot of first class travel has gone:

www.netjets.com/en-us/

Dry tree

They are planning to reveal their new first class when their 777x comes

Have been lucky enough to fly Emirates 1st class quite a few times. Mainly on the 777 300 er. They only fly between 5 European destinations/Stanstead and Dubai. They are the fully enclosed suites. There is enough room to lay down on the floor of the suite! The service is beyond compare. Caviar, Vintage Dom Perignon. Limo to and from home, 1st class lounge in Dubai. It is in contrast to the next leg of the journey in regular first class, (A380) where the suites are much smaller, but still 3 times the area of an economy seat! And you do get to shower at 40,000 feet. (I’d rather enjoy the hospitality than waste an hour showering and washing my hair, and drying it)

I’ve been lucky enough to be upgraded to business with emirates a few times. And they used to do cheap deals just before you fly to upgrade super cheap which we did once.
Now the flights are sooo expensive, we usually fly them to go to Australia.

has anyone flown economy with both emirates and Singapore? We normally do emirates as comfy seats, decent leg room etc but wonder if we should give Singapore a try.

has anyone flown economy with both emirates and Singapore? We normally do emirates as comfy seats, decent leg room etc but wonder if we should give Singapore a try
I will report back after my trip.

Oh yes please @DuvetDownn when do you fly?

If you can do business class on airmiles with BA, then for a holiday it's fab. For actual work travel it's not so good. When people complain about BA Club World, they should remember that it's often a lot cheaper than Singapore or Qatar for example.

when do you fly? 24th March.

I’ve done both and they were pretty similar in terms of seat comfort, pitch, entertainment.. I think the beverage selection and service were marginally better on Singapore airlines.. the cabin crew really are fab.

singapore changi was also a million miles better than Dubai airport for transit though, I found Dubai airport congested messy and a bit chaotic

I bet you do, unknowingly.
Did you know that imported tomatoes from Spain have a lower CO2 footprint than British brown tomatoes? More CO2 is produced in heating the growing tunnels than the flight.

Just travelled premium economy on Emirates as we went to Dubai for a quick trip. It’s do-able, but would not do it for a flight of more than 7 hours. Missed the business/first class experience too much!