British Airways is in the process of overhauling its long haul fleet, as the airline installs its impressive new Club Suites business class product on most long haul aircraft.
Continue reading: British Airways’ New 777 First Class Suite With Door
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Little tip I discovered recently on Google Flights. Before when searching for J or F, it would show the kind of seat (standard recliner or lie flat seat), now it also shows if it's an individual suite. Before I had to search on Expert Flyer for the seat map, Google Flights is much faster. I've used this method to weed out the old BA J seats easily.
Doors in the title.
I'm going to prove this stupid bulls**t that people say they care but really don't care.
When I'm bored enough, I might do a social experiment.
Design is simple. If you want to close your door, you pay extra $$$.
Let's see how much people really value the door.
This has been a feature for a few years now. This has been useful for seeing which flights has QR Qsuites, BA Club Suites, DL One Suites, etc.
Airlines in 2008: Let's make the seat 180-degree flat
Airlines in 2022/2023: Let's add a paper/nylon wall as door
Screw the door, I’d give anything for a better quality and size TV in BA first. It’s nuts that phone is better resolution.
Doors!!! I love doors. My office has a door. My house has lots of doors. Even my car has doors. At long last, my seat will have a door when I fly British Airways. I’m super stoked. Great work British Airways!
Still seems like a pretty good product. Not amazing or cutting edge but not bad at all. Kind of reflects how BA make significantly more money from business than first class now. The way they're retrofitting only 777-300er's is a very strange choice
My impression is that most passengers in F are upgrades from Club World, so this is likely good enough for them. Still, very little differentiation from J. Adding a mini-fridge at each seat and more color and design to the cabin would be nice.
I believe that the 777-300er was chosen as the first due to its wider cabin. I am sure that this product will be fitted to other aircraft such as the A350-1000 and others models. More than likely there are several more reasons as well.
Even with doors, BA's 1st class will still be nowhere as good as many other airlines particularly Emirates. Also, placing 1st classon the lower decks of A380s makes one wonder just how stupid the directors of BA must be. The wonderfully spacious lavatories are for Club Class passengers with small lavs for 1st Class. The last time I flew on BA 1st class, there were no longer 2 lavatories. Is BA unaware of competition?
"Historically British Airways’ first and business class seats haven’t exactly been industry-leading."
I mean, apart from inventing lie-flat seats in business class, sure.
Why are you so obsessed with Ben's appreciation of doors?
You sound unhinged.
Try picking up a book.
LOOK AT THE PICTURE OF THE LADY WEARING A MASK! MASKS ARE FAKE NEWS!!!!!1!!1!!11! LOOK AT BA VIRTUE SIGNALLING BY SHOWING A MASK!!!!!!! COVID IS THE SAME AS A COMMON COLD!!!!!!1!1! NO VAX NO VAX VACCINES ARE POISON TO CONTROL YOU!!!!1!!!!!
Just kidding.
I simply wanted to see what it felt like to be a troll here in the comments section. I can report that I feel even dumber than before I wrote the above.
NEWSFLASH:
London Police have arrested an oddball Inuit pax coming off a BA flight after pax reported him creepily stalking about the cabin with a battered tin cup in one hand, and babbling incoherently - "Close door? Pay me!". Police await a full psychiatric evaluation. An unnamed Police source told this reporter (off record) - "Biden type nutcase"
Kind of related, but is this a sign UA will be able to update their Polaris seats by adding a door to the existing product, or can only certain seats be modified this way?
They also started the trend for offering flat beds in first in the 1990s (although weren’t the first airline to try flat beds in first full stop).
“In recent times” would definitely have been a lot more accurate.
These seemed great! BUT on my last flight which featured these new "doors"....the bed would NOT recline.....neither would the one remaining vacant First Class seat. Neither would the doors CLOSE.....oh! and did I mention that the entertainment system needed to be reset a total 1f 14 times? Truly a most disappointing flight that cost over $8000....
I could only imagine how your life will be if your doors are 4ft high.
Your office door would cover your intern under your table but not on the table.
Your house door could block you dog from seeing your intern in your bedroom but not your wife.
Your car door could block your dog from falling out but not your intern.
I did not have relations with that woman, all my doors are closed.
You're not Barry Whitsun, you're Billy Klintun.
You're not super stroked, you're impeached.
I flew on BA and had the first class seat with the doors. I found the seat area got unbearably hot while I tried to sleep with the doors closed - there was a complete lack of airflow. Immediate relief when I opened the doors.
PS - The 300ER has two configurations: G (with 14 first class seats) and H (with 8 first class seats). The G has the older seat type. The H has the newer seat type. So, if you know how many first class seats there are . . .
The door is nice, but in my experience the bigger difference between the older and newer BA F seats is the amount of at-seat storage. The newer seats (either the suites with doors or just slightly older) have a good amount of storage space, whereas there are still some older planes going around with nowhere to store a phone/tablet/personal item at the seat. To me that's a bigger deal.
Hope you don't get stuck with an equipment swap!
No mention of the Airbus 380 interior? BA flies the 380 to cities such as Miami and Chicago.
Those were my exact same thoughts! It would be good to look at a timeline of when airlines introduced flat beds! It really wasn’t that long ago when US carriers joined the trend very late!
The last time I remember BA as "industry leading" was in the 1990s with the cradle seat" I would prefer a non confining footwell over a semi door 100% of the time.
BA’s old club world was industry leading in its day and actually they had the first fully fair F as well. Of course they got left behind (for whatever reason) but they were cutting edge at the time. The Club Suites have gone down very well with customers but First is still much better - even if you get the older seats. You get much more space, smaller cabin, more crew, better food and much more interesting wines (though obviously not in the league of many other carriers), CCR from LHR, youfirst line etc. etc. I have no real opinions on doors - they are fine but other carriers find other ways to create privacy. To say that it’s odd that J has them and F doesn’t is a bit of a red herring I think. Even with the reduction in F cabins it looks unlikely that BA will compete with the top carriers in First. But then again it’s a very comfortable way to fly and from London to the US it’s very convenient, not to mention that Avios availability has been good.
BA's A350-1000s don't have First Class. I think the 777-300ER was chosen first because it operates BA's more premium routes, and since it has a smaller fleet of -300s than the -200s, it's faster to update the fleet and to manage expectations. Otherwise, the 777-200ER has the same cabin width as the 77W.
Where do you get your info in article that there are 9 300ers w/doors in first?
I was really hoping that all of those 777 upgraded to club suite would also get the new first suite at same time.
I fear that only the 3 new 777-300er delivered in 2021 got the new first seats. I’ve been madly trying to get info on this for a booked 777 flight sea-lhr (8 seat first cabin) and there is almost no reliable info online. What I have been able to find are some recent YouTube reviews of 777-300 new clubsuite, that also briefly show first - an 8 seat cabin with the ancient foldout ife screen first seats. Which clearly shows BA is just removing 6 seats and leaving 8 old first seats when redoing the biz clubsuite cabin. Hugely disappointing. But typical.
The a 380 will never be upgraded. Sad. But they do have large bathrooms and a quiet ride!
There are online videos of 777-300 with 8 seat first cabins (and new clubsuite in biz) with old 2010 first hard product.
They are just removing 6 seats and leaving 8 of the old. Bummer.
@ Firsttotheleft -- Interesting, do you have a link to one of those videos, as I haven't seen that?
Argh I just cleared my YouTube history last night! I’ll find it again and post. Think it was for a “ba 777 first” google
Still love BA's old club world seats, especially 4k on the 777 -200. It's as good for privacy as modern 1st on other airlines with total lieflat spacious privacy once the screen goes up.
Ok on this it’s a quick shot but you can see bulkhead in front of 1k and behind 2k. Old seats. Still looking for the other video. But it’s not good news. Hope I’m wrong.
https://youtu.be/XfqlbJqnyfs
@ Firsttotheleft -- That review is of a 777-200ER, not a 777-300ER (British Airways exclusively flies 777-200ERs to Newark). As I said in the post, none of the 777-200ERs have the new first class. So if you do find a review of a 777-300ER that has Club Suites and the old first class, please do let me know...
Ok well maybe that’s good news then. I’ve found no info whether the 200 or 300 were getting new first seats while club suites upgraded.
Only confirmed was the the 3 new 2021 777-300 delivered factory first with doors.
My interest is purely selfish as I think SEA 777 is a 300. I hope. With doors in first. We’ll see.
You’re totally correct!
After I took the vaccine, it was introduced in my arm a Chinese chip and, since then, I getting success to make phone calls using my arms, without using my iPhone!
And, of course, after I became a zombie, starting to identify others that became stupid as me.
Forget the doors. What does everyone feel about no real windows. That's coming real soon if no one protest. You won't know if your really over land or sea. You could be anywhere anytime any speed. Never enjoying the reality of what's actually out there again.
It will be spun as needed as usual. Get ready. Maybe nobody cares because we all might be handed Virtual reality head wear anyway.
Let's hope they don't do the same to hot air balloons.
“Some people think doors are stupid (and oddly think people who like doors are stupid…)”.
I don’t think doors as such are stupid though I do find this obsession some people have with doors on a J seat to be pretty stupid.
Couldn’t have been an authentic trolling experience. You made no spelling or grammatical mistakes…
In theory, I agree. The problem is that all airlines with various sub-fleets (e.g. QR, BA) swap aircraft on a daily basis. So you really don’t know which seat is fitted until you board.
So tired of all of this excitement over doors. What difference does that make? Just one more thing to break. And the picture of the lady wearing paper over her face? How stupid.
It’s been a week… doors or no doors in 8 seat first class? And was it a newer or refurb 300?
they never invented lie flat seats either airlines like singapore have done long before as well as having fully enclosed first suites with armchair and bed and i’m now paying to fly home first rather than business as i have medical conditions and now looking like i’ve been conned for extra price no difference
Usually they do seem to consistently use one of the new (2021) 777-300ER on the LAST BA departure on LHR - LAX. However, during Winter months they were always swapping out 777 for A350 on the FIRST departure on LHR - LAX.