It may have been almost two months since BA brought me out to London, but I still have some good material waiting to see the light of day. Today it’s a tour of the new British Airways First Class which is being rolled out to the fleet as we speak. I visited a mockup in the airline’s seat testing center in an overgrown hangar at Heathrow. Please excuse my horribly corny jokes, which were even worse than my usual corny jokes thanks to my not sleeping very much on the flight over the night before.
As you can see, it’s really well-done. The most impressive thing to me isn’t the seat but rather the ambience that they’ve managed to create in the cabin. The window shades just really change the feel for the better, along with several of the other touches. BA specifically avoided the completely private suite with walls like many competitors. Some will like that while others will hate it. Of course, most of us will only see the inside of this cabin if we’re redeeming miles, but if you’ve got ’em, this looks like a good way to spend ’em. (If it weren’t for that pesky fuel surcharge . . .)
