British Airways has made some great passenger experience announcements this week. The airline has announced plans to overhaul its lounges at London Heathrow Airport (LHR), and has also revealed the details of the all-new cabins coming to the Airbus A380s.
That’s not the only news, though. In addition to plans to introduce a new first class seat, the airline has also shared the details of its new first class soft product, which is coming to all planes, regardless of whether or not they have the new cabins.
British Airways promises a new era of first class
British Airways is overhauling its first class soft product, with the first comprehensive changes that we’ve seen to the cabin since before the pandemic. Beyond the new seats, let’s take a look at what we can expect — all of these changes should be available effective immediately.
First, British Airways is introducing a new unisex first class cabin amenity kit from British heritage house Swaine. It’s available in two colors — royal blue and cream — and contains a selection of skincare products from Wildsmith, with a Circadian Rhythm collection, aimed at supporting hydration and comfort. Products include a face mist, hand and body lotion, ceramide multi-balm, lip balm, face cream, and an overnight mask.
Next, British Airways is introducing a new woven day blanket in first class, featuring a herringbone design. This is complemented by a navy blue cushion with subtle detailing. There’s also new cool-touch fabric navy sleepwear, along with slippers. Then with turndown service, the crew will prepare the bed with a lightweight cotton duvet and newly designed pillow.
When it comes to dining, British Airways is promising greater choice, with a new “From the Grill” concept, whereby customers can create their preferred meal from a selection of proteins, including British roast rack of lamb, grilled salmon, sides and sauces, as well as a selection of signature mains.
To go along with the new dining experience, the airline is rolling out contemporary stoneware and fine bone china. Cutlery is designed by Studio William, while wine glasses are developed in collaboration with Richard Brendon.
British Airways is also promising a new service standard in first class, with updated First Service Specialist (FSS) training, rolling out for all first class trained crews. This is “designed to enable a more personalised service,” and “the programme helps crew respond to individual preferences while delivering the warm, intuitive and attentive hospitality that defines First.”
My take on British Airways’ first class soft product updates
It’s great to see British Airways overhauling its first class soft product. However, at least based on what we know so far, this strikes me as being ever so mildly evolutionary, rather than revolutionary. Admittedly British Airways isn’t providing many pictures or additional details about what has changed, but I just struggle to get overly excited about any of these changes.
Okay, there’s new cutlery, and new amenity kits, and first class flight attendants will be trained on… first class service. The customization of being able to create your own meal is nice, but also not exactly a game changer.
But look, it’s not like I was expecting British Airways to reinvent the wheel with its first class. When you look at transatlantic first class products, British Airways has three things going for it:
- The airline dominates slot controlled Heathrow, which has a lot of premium demand, and people value the ability to fly nonstop
- British Airways first class tends to be the most reasonably priced first class product across the Atlantic
- British Airways has a massive first class footprint, the second largest in the world (only after Emirates), so the airline has lots of first class seats to lots of destinations
When you look at the competitive dynamics, Air France La Premiere first class is much more of a niche product, and it’s priced at the top end of the market globally. It’s only available in select markets, and the cabin is small.
Meanwhile you have Lufthansa Allegris first class and SWISS Senses first class, which is almost a self-own in terms of the reduction in capacity it represents, as you have just three seats per plane, so they’re also trying to skim the market, though they seem to be struggling with figuring out how to price it correctly.
British Airways first class doesn’t need to be perfect, it just needs to be good enough. And I do think the airline is accomplishing that.
Bottom line
British Airways has just overhauled its first class soft product. While the airline is also introducing a new first class hard product, the new service, amenities, and food, are coming to all planes with British Airways first class.
There’s ultimately nothing here that’s revolutionary, but instead, we’re just talking about incremental improvements. First class flight attendants will be trained in first class service (wow!), there will be new pillows, blankets, amenity kits, cutlery and china, and even updates to dining, including the ability to increasingly customize meals.
This all seems like a logical evolution of the product. Is there anything here that should make anyone at Air France lose any sleep? Nope. But ultimately British Airways has a different strategy, and that’s fair enough.
What do you make of these British Airways updates?
The food pictures look like nicely plated business class food. When your marketing materials look like business class food, you know the actual product is usually a notch or two lower.
That is the problem with BA First. You have to keep reminding yourself that you are in First class.
@ BBT -- Yeah, I've gotta say, when I saw the food pictures, I was wondering if that was actually the new first class food, or what. Because if that's what the food looks like in marketing materials, it's not exactly impressive.
These changes aren’t going to get peoole to switch from another airline to BA, but they could ne nice touches those flying BA will appreciate.
Of course, we’ll still have to see how some of the changes, like the menu, are executed.
With regards to AF not losing any sleep, perhaps this should be cause for concern. BA previously appealed to the price conscious F passenger and AF F to the product conscious passenger. With BA improving the hard product and improving the soft product and positioning it closer to (albeit not up the the standards of) AF F perhaps they may take a section of their market who weigh up the toss between product quality and...
With regards to AF not losing any sleep, perhaps this should be cause for concern. BA previously appealed to the price conscious F passenger and AF F to the product conscious passenger. With BA improving the hard product and improving the soft product and positioning it closer to (albeit not up the the standards of) AF F perhaps they may take a section of their market who weigh up the toss between product quality and price.
A quick look at AMS-LAX (not fare to compare O&D traffic) on random dates in Feb shows BA to be £5400 rtn and AF to be £14,500 rtn. BA also comes with the added benefit of: More seats per plane and significantly more F routes so that in the event of IRROPs or even voluntary date changes, that F passenger is likely to keep an F seat rather than have to accept a downgrade. This is the biggest issue I find with airlines switching to 3-4 seat F cabins... F passengers usually want to retain an element of flexibility.
@ pogonation -- I hear you, but I think the Air France first class customer profile is a little more specific. It's for people where price is no object, and where having as close to a private jet experience as possible is the priority.
A new amenity kit and the option to pair lamb and broccoli is a nice improvement, but you're still connecting at Heathrow, and the ground experience is still more like a...
@ pogonation -- I hear you, but I think the Air France first class customer profile is a little more specific. It's for people where price is no object, and where having as close to a private jet experience as possible is the priority.
A new amenity kit and the option to pair lamb and broccoli is a nice improvement, but you're still connecting at Heathrow, and the ground experience is still more like a good business class than a good first class.
When we're talking about a $7K vs. $21K price tag, I think that's a crowd that just thinks "I want the best regardless of the cost," rather than "well, that amenity kit doesn't look very nice, I'll spend an extra $14K for Air France instead.
But like I said, I think BA has the right strategy. It doesn't need to be the best, it just needs to be a well rounded, mass market first class.
For that matter, the other thing about AF first class is that most passengers are starting in or terminating in Paris. It's another major, lucrative market, and the people willing to pay for Air France first class value the convenience of a nonstop flight. So when they are traveling to London, they may very well fly BA so they can travel nonstop.
When are these changes rolling out?
@ TopBoffinNYC -- They all roll out effective immediately (they were implemented October 1-6), except the service training, which is still happening.
Highly doubt anyone's booking a +$5K/way TATL F ticket based on... the amenity kit. That said, some F/J kits are better than others. (For instance, I like what LATAM has going on currently with their Altitude Collection themed bags.)