British Airways Business Class finally catches up

There is only one airline’s business class that my now husband has asked me never to book us into again – and that’s British Airways. He was provoked to describe the seats as ‘coffins’, and coffins that you have to walk over at that. Don’t get him started on the service!

New Business Class – The Club Suite

The new suites will debut on British Airways’ first A350-1000, timed to join the fleet next week. They are reverse herringbone, rather than ‘coffin class’ of old, and feature a sliding door for privacy.

After some familiarisation, and iron-out-the-bumps-in-service flights between London and Madrid, the flight schedule includes Bangalore, Dubai, Tel Aviv and Toronto.

Those routes will take up the first four planes scheduled for delivery over the next few months.

First British Airways’ Club Suites on a 777 – which route?

Club Suites will then be retrofitted to the airlines 777 and 787 – slowly but we hope surely. First cab off the rank is a 777.

London to New York starting October 27, 2019, is the answer. No formal announcement yet – but eagle eyes have looked at the subtle changes to the featured seat map and realised it is the new configuration.

The schedule is:

• BA177 London to New York departing 1:00 pm arriving 5:10 pm
• BA174 New York to London departing 7:50 pm arriving 6:50 am (+1 day)

There are different aircraft scheduled on this route, so you need to check the specifics. Telltale signs of the reconfigured 777 are:

• Look for only eight first-class seats (due to a refreshed first class)
• Business-class seats are in a 1-2-1 configuration, rather than the old 2-4-2 configuration.

So Why London – New York? Because, Virgin Atlantic!

Virgin Atlantic is launching its new business class: Upper-Class seating on September 10, 2019, on the same route – so the war of the new business classes is on!