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We have seen the progression of the original 'Club' to be (sometimes) better than First used to be. Also, there has been a drive for biz people NOT to use F as it looks bad on the expenses report. As Concorde also became.
After some time, VS came along with their J giving F service at J prices. After some time we saw the arrival of Premium Economy replace J and provide for those private who want a bit more but cannot afford J and those who can no longer afford J (or the expenses problem again). It seems to me that Y has had the biggest squeeze, although the actual seats ARE certainly better than 30 years ago. And the IFE is several orders of magnitude from the 8mm film on the front wall and using earphgones that were plastic tubes running from two mini-speakers in the arm rest!!! I see that NZ have made big efforts in their Y and PE and I expect others to follow. Thus the whole cycle will continue and if F disappears, it's really only in name - a very similar level of service and space will be there and, by modern standards I suggest, comparable. |
BA wanted to ditch First completely a few years ago. The problem was the First cabin on the 747 which is in the nose.
Taking out the fourteen F seats only allowed for one more J seat due to the design of that particular product. They did remove F from a number of 777 aircraft. Willie was a lot more optimistic on the future of First and has spent a considerable sum on upgrading this. I think the F market is going to keep on shrinking and will be absorbed by an ever improving J class. |
Mmmmm, leftovers. Nice. SUPPER Salad of Maine lobster with celeriac slaw and eringi truffled mushroom Fresh seasonal salad served with vinaigrette Roast breast of duck, Roquefort and sweet potato cake with lingonberry sauce Warm Scotch egg, aubergine and mango chutney with mixed salad leaves Cheese manciotti with shimeji mushroom sauce Chocolate and raspberry cake Goat's cheese, Gouda and 2-year aged Cheddar served with quince jelly A selection of fruit Alternatively may we suggest hot chocolate with warm chocolate chip cookies BREAKFAST Starters Chilled fruit juice An energising fruit smoothie Fresh seasonal fruit Special K cereal with strawberries Bakery Warm bacon roll served with tomato ketchup A selection of warm breads and breakfast pastries City Breakfast If you wish to maximise your sleep during the night, we won't wake you up if we see you are still sleeping soundly. When you do wake up, we have our City Breakfast option available up until 20 minutes before landing, which you can eat on descent or on your journey into the office. Chilled fruit juice Fresh fruit Breakfast pastries |
Just to add that the division between F C and Y demand varies from route to route (and also, with day of week and proximity to holidays etc). Seating configurations of a "one size fits all" type can lead to considerable inefficiencies on certain routes. And if you start op-upgrading your Golds in Y to balance the seating demand, the Golds soon catch on and never pay for a premium seat (leading to the extreme problem that US domestic carriers have got into).
For example, from London to New York, prime Transatlantic destination in the USA, there is extensive demand for both F and C. To Toronto, the prime destination in Canada, there is very little demand for any premium class service, and never has been (even back in the 1960s BOAC had a small subfleet of all-economy 707s used to Toronto). So if the fleet is large enough then you can justify more than one configuration on a type. The Gulf carriers, surprisingly, were early adopters of this multi-configuration approach, as they bought widebodies for Europe (normal spread of demand) and to India etc (hardly any premium demand). |
No premium demand to India!!!!!
Bombay was in BA's top five First Class earners for years. I think it was JFK, Joburg, Bombay, San Francisco and LA in that order. There has been a dip but India is one of the highest earning areas of the world now. |
I think he means from the Gulf to India - very few migrant workers travel business class.
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