British Airways New A350 Business Class Seat Not Good Enough For Rest Of Fleet

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Sometimes I sit back and wonder whether, every now and again, I’m a little too hard on British Airways. I do tend criticise its poor international Business Class product, its abysmal short-haul Business Class product, its inability to implement priority boarding, its reluctance to offer priority baggage handling, the lack of legroom in its Economy Class cabins (when compared to premium carriers) or even its continuing erosion of elite benefits. I wonder if I go too far.

But then the airline goes ahead and admits something like this and I realise that it deserves everything anyone throws at them.

In a conversation with Business Traveller, British Airways’ new CEO, Alex Cruz, has confirmed that the new Business Class seat the airline has selected for its soon-to-be-delivered Airbus A350 aircraft isn’t worth retrofitting to its existing fleet because…..and I love this……”it doesn’t appear to be sufficiently revolutionary”

Put simply, that’s the British Airways CEO admitting that the seat they’re having fitted to the Business Class cabin in their shiny, brand new A350 aircraft, isn’t much of an improvement on the seat that has effectively been around since last century.

Who orders a state of the art aircraft and fits it out with decades old technology? Apparently BA!

British Airways Business Class (Club World) – Airbus A380

Cruz fell back on the tried and tested line that the ying-yang configuration is great and is “something we patented because we thought it was a smart innovation — it is a very efficient use of space”

Memo to Mr Cruz: Just because you have a patent on a product from the 1990’s isn’t a reason to keep on using it. I’m sure someone, somewhere, still has a patent on a VCR but you don’t see them trying to persuade people in 2016 that it’s still worth buying.

The reason why you don’t see many versions of BA’s ying-yang Business Class seating on other airlines has less to do with BA’s patents and more to do with the fact that it’s outdated and considerably worse than other products on the market.

Even considerably smaller airlines than BA, like Finnair, are installing vastly superior products on the new aircraft they’re receiving:

The Finnair A350 Business Class Cabin

Carriers that were once regarded as light years behind British Airways (like the legacy US Airlines) have caught up and have now overtaken the British flag carrier. And some of them are miles ahead in terms of hard product.

American Airlines Business Class – Boeing 787 Dreamliner

British Airways has an identity issue and it really needs to hurry up and decide what kind of airline it wants to be. It likes to price itself as a modern, premium carrier but, more and more, it feels more like an older budget carrier.

BA’s easyJet-ization

• In the last couple of years the airline has introduced “hand baggage only” fares (on short-haul routes) which are akin to what the European low cost carriers offer – no frills seating. No seat assignments (even for elites) and no checked baggage. You get a seat and, for now, some food.

Speaking of food:

• News has leaked out this week that BA is considering doing away with free short-haul meals in Economy Class and replacing them with “buy on board” – like you get on easyJet. Amusingly, the free food in short-haul economy is one of the very few things I regularly praise BA for.

• We found out last week that, in a cost cutting measure, British Airways will be removing the flowers from the onboard First Class restrooms. Classy.

• The airline seems fixated with “efficient use of space” even in its premium cabins:

While other airlines have been making a move towards more comfort and space for those willing to pay more (a lot more) to sit up front, BA has been doing the exact opposite. They’ve actually reduced legroom in short-haul Business class to a point where it’s no better than the legroom in a regular Economy Class seat a few rows back. That’s just incredible.

In international Business Class British Airways has stubbornly maintained super-high density seating in its cabins while other airlines have looked to give passengers a greater feeling of space.

Take a look at the seat maps below. Both are from Boeing 777-300 aircraft but one shows a British Airways Business Class cabin while the other shows an American Airlines Business Class cabin…can you guess which is which? 🙂

777-300 Seat Map 1

777-300 Seat Map 2

For those still unsure (and I suspect that’s not many of you), seat map 2 is the British Airways 777-300.

Let’s be clear about this, American Airlines is not a premium Airline…at all. And yet it can offer a vastly better Business Class product (the bread-and-butter product for an airline looking to attract premium travelers) than BA. So what does that say about BA?

Bottom Line

I confess to not being overly surprised by Alex Cruz’ comments but I suspect they’ll be a bit of a blow to the British Airways captives in the UK who have been waiting for some good Business Class news from the airline for years.

Whenever an airline takes delivery of a new aircraft type it’s always an opportunity for it to shake things up and bring its onboard offering up to current-day standards. American did it with its new 777-300ER aircraft and its Dreamliners, Finnair did it with its new A350’s, Qatar Airways has done it with its Dreamliners and A350’s and the list goes on. But not British Airways.

The arrival of the Airbus A380 into the British Airways fleet was a good opportunity to show the world that the airline still had the chops to compete with the big-boys. But, instead, it installed the same old Club World seating as found in the rest of its long-haul fleet.

BA was given another opportunity to up its game when it took delivery of it’s 787-8 and 787-9 Dreamliners but, aside from a few cosmetic touches and a new IFE system, the cabins remained the same. Still the old style seat and still the old style cram-them-in layout.

You would have thought that when it ordered the super-modern Airbus A350 the airline would finally take the opportunity throw out the 20th century seat and show us what it can do….but no.

Again we’re hearing that what’s being installed isn’t anything particularly innovative and that the high-density Business Class cabin (sorry, space-efficient cabin) will stay in place.

Is there any ambition left at Waterside?

I know why I sometimes fly BA – I do it for strategic miles/points/elite status reasons (and only when I can get a good deal) – but why the demographic that BA needs the most (business travellers that pay the high fares) would actively choose to fly on British Airways (if there are other options) is beyond me.

This is an airline so stuck in the past it’s at risk of becoming retro-chic…unfortunately that still won’t make its offering any good.