British Air-Business vs. 1st class

[MamaQuack]

Have flown many airlines but never BA. Business class is free with our cruise. Understand there is also a 1st class. We could pay the difference. DH is a horrible flyer - needs to eat at least 5 times a day and wants as much room as possible on a flight. We have loved Air France for those reasons but BA is much better connection back home for this trip. Would appreciate any input. Is there much difference between Biz class and 1st? Thanks, MamaQuack

[6rugrats]

Originally Posted by MamaQuack

Have flown many airlines but never BA. Business class is free with our cruise. Understand there is also a 1st class. We could pay the difference. DH is a horrible flyer - needs to eat at least 5 times a day and wants as much room as possible on a flight. We have loved Air France for those reasons but BA is much better connection back home for this trip. Would appreciate any input. Is there much difference between Biz class and 1st? Thanks, MamaQuack

Nothing is really free. But, no way would I pay for F if I got C for "free". I don't know on what which type of aircraft you are flying. If you know the aircraft, you can check out the seat differences at seatguru.com. It will tell you seat pitch, width, etc. which may be helpful to you in making your decision. By business class, do you mean "Club World"?

As always, the airlines own webpage is an invaluable sourch of information:

Different class information:

http://www.britishairways.com/travel...s/public/en_us
Meals:
http://www.britishairways.com/travel/meals/public/en_us

[fbgd]

I fly both on a fairly regular basis. Which route are you looking to fly? From Atlanta to London?

IMO First is a more polished experience but it does vary between aircraft whether or not I'll bother going Club World or First. On the 777 the Club World cabin feels more congested than on the 747 (where I always pick seats upstairs which is much more private with lots of personal space) so I'd be more inclined to go for First on the 777 than on the 747.

In First you'll get a faster, more private check-in and better lounge to use. At Heathrow that is The Concorde Room which has sit down dining, cabanas which you can book ahead of time if you want somewhere more private to wait and use of a concierge. The business class lounges at Heathrow are very good (though in fairness I've not used the ones in T5 as my status with the airline allows me use of the First lounge on any ticket ) but a little busier and more emphasis on self service than the Concorde Room.

Onboard the seating is a lot more spacious in F, especially comparing it and Club World on the 777. The seating is 1-2-1 instead of 2-4-2. Lots of space around the F seat which converts to a 6'6" flat bed instead of 6' in Club World. You'll also be able to pre-assign seats when flying First, something that is unlikely to be the case flying Club World.

In terms of inflight experience you'll find a more extended menu with soup and a catch of the day course in F, plus a box of chocolates will be handed round. You'll also find a snack menu which you can order items from whenever during the flight. In Club World there is a self service Club Kitchen set up after the first meal service, similar deal to the snack menu in F but again self service. First will have better wine and champagne but this all depends on when you fly, some months have much better and more interesting selection than others.

A lot of the other more obvious benefits apply to First too. Higher ratio of crew to passengers, more overhead bin space per passenger, more toilets per passenger, first off the aircraft etc.

As something of a hobby I pen flight reports. I have linked the last report I wrote when flying First, back in December '08. Since then a few small, mostly cosmetic changes have been made. But it'll be a decent reference if you haven't flown BA F before.
http://www.airliners.net/aviation-fo...d.main/140131/
I have one from Club World too, but it was the first time I tried the newly introduced seat back in 2007. A lot of the comments are still valid though, with the exception of the lounges since BA moved to a new terminal at LHR last year
http://www.airliners.net/aviation-fo...ad.main/92176/

To me it depends on the cost, the flight, the aircraft operating the route etc.

[MamaQuack]

fbgd,

thx so much for the info and effort put in to answering my inquiry; most helpful; really appreciate the flight reports also;

MamaQuack

[MamaQuack]

Ooops, forgot - we are looking at London to Atlanta - 777 service

[Gardyloo]

Originally Posted by MamaQuack

Ooops, forgot - we are looking at London to Atlanta - 777 service

If you're just flying westbound, the length of the bed may be less important as it will be a daytime flight. Might be worth considering from a benefit-cost angle. Usually the price bump from business to first is pretty dramatic - quite a lot for a plate of fish and some canapes.

[tnr]

BA will let you fly one class going, and another class coming home. You need to call them to book this way as you can't do it on the website.

[fbgd]

Originally Posted by tnr

BA will let you fly one class going, and another class coming home. You need to call them to book this way as you can't do it on the website.

Not correct. If you go through the booking process initially select the lower of the two classes. At the fare quote page it'll read 'Upgrade to XXX for £750 outbound' and have another for the inbound flight too. Choose whichever you want to upgrade and you've got a mixed class booking.

The option isn't presented to you initially.

[Globaliser]

Originally Posted by fbgd

Not correct. If you go through the booking process initially select the lower of the two classes. At the fare quote page it'll read 'Upgrade to XXX for £750 outbound' and have another for the inbound flight too. Choose whichever you want to upgrade and you've got a mixed class booking.

There's an even easier way if you're booking a journey which is a straight round-trip with a single sector in each direction (which means most BA journeys with one end in London). When you get to the page that displays all the specific flights for the day you're travelling out and the day you're travelling back (even if there is only one flight a day in each direction), the header immediately above the flights has a drop-down menu that allows you to change the cabin for that direction of travel only. So even if you have initially asked for World Traveller Plus (for example) in both directions, you can easily change one direction to Club World (business class) or First. Then you select the flights and proceed to the pricing page which displays a firm quote. This way, you can actually travel in economy one way and First in the other, which the "upgrade to xxx" link doesn't allow as you can only go up one cabin that way.

As for the difference between Club World and First, you obviously get much more space in First. Also, there is a much higher crew-to-passenger ratio: the First cabin has 3 cabin crew to serve a maximum of 14 passengers. On a good day, with an enthusiastic crew, there is probably no better way to fly on an airline. However, if the First cabin is full, the crew can end up being quite stretched. Also, there are only two conventional pairs of seats in First on a 747 and three conventional pairs on a 777, so depending on load you may be in seats that are not conventionally adjacent to each other.

I've so far only done one trip in First, which rather exemplified the good and the bad. On the way out, the aircraft was delayed and everyone was pretty ratty. The cabin was full, and the service was so unexceptional that my companion thought that Club was usually better. However, on the way back, we had the same cabin crew so we were "old friends" from the moment we stepped on board. There were only six in the cabin, and we felt like royalty.

Don't be put off by the raw 2-4-2 numbers for Club World. The seats are arranged in pairs facing forward and back, so each passenger has much more width than those numbers would, on their face, suggest. In many ways, the forward/back pairing makes Club World more sociable for a couple, because you can see each others' faces without having to turn to face each other.

[tnr]

Originally Posted by fbgd

Not correct. If you go through the booking process initially select the lower of the two classes. At the fare quote page it'll read 'Upgrade to XXX for £750 outbound' and have another for the inbound flight too. Choose whichever you want to upgrade and you've got a mixed class booking.

The option isn't presented to you initially.

It wouldn't let me do it, but I was flying multi-city, not round-trip.