This is exciting, and long overdue. British Airways has just released some renderings of its new first class suite, though details remain fairly limited as of now (of course I’ll provide more updates when we have the details).
In this post:
A look at British Airways’ new first class suite
British Airways has plans to introduce a new first class product, and the airline has today released the first renderings of the product. Not surprisingly, I’d say the product is evolutionary rather than revolutionary, but it still looks like a material improvement over the current product.
British Airways intends to introduce first class suites in a 1-2-1 configuration, with privacy doors. Based on the renderings, it looks like the seats have significantly more storage than before, as well as greatly improved tech, from a seat control tablet to bluetooth audio. You can find the renderings below, and I’ll of course provide an update when we have more information.
This isn’t going to be the world’s best first class, but I’m impressed, as it’s an elegant-looking product, and has some thoughtful improvements. Just about all the major European airlines are currently rolling out new first class products.
Lufthansa has just launched its new Allegris first class, which will also be installed on SWISS, and will be known as SWISS Senses. Air France is also expected to shortly announce its new La Premiere first class.
When will British Airways’ new first class debut?
British Airways will debut its new first class in 2026. Beyond that, all we can do is make assumptions here (until more details are announced), but I believe that this product will debut on British Airways’ Airbus A380s. British Airways plans to reconfigure its A380s starting in 2026, with new cabins across the plane, and that includes the new first class.
My assumption is that when British Airways reconfigures its A380s, we’ll see a bit more logical of a layout. Currently the airline has business class, premium economy, and economy, on the upper deck, and first class, business class, and economy, on the lower deck. That will likely be streamlined a bit, with first class and business class both fully moving upstairs.
British Airways will also presumably introduce its new first class on Boeing 777-9s, once those are delivered in 2026 and beyond (though given the delays with that aircraft, who really knows).
It remains to be seen if British Airways plans to retrofit any other existing planes with these cabins. British Airways has sort of introduced an interim new first class product on some Boeing 777s, which is decent, but not amazing. Let’s see if some existing 777s and 787s will get this new first class… I wouldn’t count on it.
Bottom line
British Airways has just unveiled its new first class product, which looks like a very nice improvement over the existing experience. This is expected to be installed on A380s when they’re retrofitted, plus on newly delivered 777-9s. We’ll see if any other planes end up getting this product.
What do you make of British Airways’ new first class?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, the problem is that BA isn't releasing first class award inventory the way that it used to. The industry trend is dynamic award pricing -- BA would stand to make money with dynamic award pricing. The industry creates incentives for spending in all revenue channels (and not just flying) via their respective flavors of tier points.
Here in London, friends uniformly say that BA's service level has continuously declined for the past 10 years or so. I've seen it. The traditional high-touch service level is gone. It's sad. So, as someone else has commented, even if the cabin interiors are upgraded, BA's service level is still broken.
Service, food, cleanliness and toilets are below any standards. And I do believe it will not change any time soon. BA is beyond any repair.
Now that BA has moved to the AA terminal at JFK which I believe can handle A380s (unlike the old BA terminal), do you think we’ll see the reconfigured A380 on the LHR-JFK route?
I don't think Terminal 8 can handle the A380. Only One and Four. Even if it did, unlikely as they prefer frequency with multiple flights a day. And passengers are willing to pay a pretty penny for that.
Looks great! Well done, BA! I look forward to trying it.
First class award inventory has become difficult. But, they still accept credit cards.
The problem with doors on BA is there's no overhead air vents and the cabin gets too stuffy. I was on Club Suites JFK-LHR and it was too hot. Flying back in F LHR-ATL and the open cabin made it much more comfortable.
Why didn’t you open a window?
Easy solution. Just get a handheld electric fan (plenty of options on Amazon) that uses a C-plug charger. Most of them have a kickstand that holds them erect on your seat's counter or table, and they're surprisingly powerful.
Best travel aid I've ever bought. Works beautifully on the B.A.s, Air Frances, etc who don't have overhead vents.
It looks quite nice, has Q suite vibes with more room, Collins aerospace RTX are the company behind this seat, look forward to the roll out.
Just noticed what looks like a mini bar in the rendering of the middle seats but not mentioned as a feature in the press release.
4 seats a row on the upper deck of 380s sounds not so spacious...
If this was introduced as a business class a half decade ago, we could really be impressed.
It's not bad, but it continues to scream "We dominate the world's largest aviation market, and thus don't feel compelled to offer anything more than the bare minimum."
BA A380 configuration is actually kind of nice, at least for business class passengers. You see, when airlines put many business class seats on the upper deck of A380, those...
BA A380 configuration is actually kind of nice, at least for business class passengers. You see, when airlines put many business class seats on the upper deck of A380, those seating at the back (behind or close to the second door), there're very high chance that you'll end up de-planing even later than some economy class passengers. This wouldn't be ideal, especially while landing in the US where immigration might be... we know how it goes.
BA tried to prevent that from happening, by (somewhat) evenly placing business class seats on both decks, so that they'll be ensured to de-plane before economy class passengers.
But still, it's on the inefficient side, I assume.
Also, the new suites look nice, especially the centre suites where you can actually move between two. We've seen a lot of double bed suites, but essentially none of them had that feature.
@Ben, do you think BA will shrink its F cabin to 8 seats across its whole F-equipped fleet?
Another travel writer is at the launch event and is live blogging updates ;
“It will be either a 12 or 14 seat cabin. The full layout, we believe, is 12 or 14 x First, 110 x Club Suite, 84 x World Traveller Plus and 215 x World Traveller.”
110 business class seats on any airplane is an insanely huge premium cabin. I know it’s BA which might be the most premium heavy airline out there but jeez
This is nice.... is it worth dealing with BA's operational issues though? Not so sure.
You say its evolutionary rather than revolutionary. What constitutes revolutionary? Theres only so much an airline can do in first class. I say this as a medium key BA hater too
The 'Speedmark' logo everywhere seems over the top.
I assume with that the service on the ground and the cleanliness of their lounges will improve dramatically...NOT.
The seats are not the issue. The restrooms are in bad shape on the 350s and the on time performance is horrific.
The Etihad 787 called.
They want their suite back.