Aviation Discussion

[Royston Vasey]

Do passengers already have assigned seats before boarding the aircraft? I can understand, even support, British Airway's policy if the answer is "no".

Yes all passengers have an allocated seat which is either chosen at booking, at certain windows before check-in, chosen at check-in or allocated by BA on check-in - dependent on status and ticket booked.

It replaces the rather binary fast-track/non fast-track which ended up with often more priority passengers than not. A big complaint was the lockers being filled even in Club Europe by people who then disappeared off to 26E on their HBO fare but their bronze status got them on the plane among the first.

Good concept and works in the USA, but BA ground staff have a poor record in compliance of boarding procedures!

Personally I stay in the lounge until the last minute and board dead last with no queue. Why people are desperate to spend more time on their personal 29" x 17" patch I have no idea!

 

[Royston Vasey]

Having only flown in economy (and rarely on the likes of BA) I've wondered before: for the people who can access the luxurious lounges, do they prefer to rock up at the airport as early as possible to rinse the spa treatments and champagne; or are they busy people whose 'time is money' so they turn up as late as possible and go straight through the fast track security and onto the aircraft?

It depends. I usually tend towards the former as I enjoy the travel and that side of it, it's nice to have the ability to use fast track and not have to worry about queues on the occasion you're rushing at the last minute. Most silver and gold are there because they travel for work and work schedules don't often allow hours of padding for the free pour champagne!

 

[atillathehunn]

For work I travel in Y only. The nature of the travel means I can't really build up an alliance membership for lounges, so I turn up at pretty much the bare minimum.

However, personal travel I've managed to book some decent price business class trips. I will be turning up as early as possible at the airport and maxing out the lounge time. Not a luxury lounge but nice enough.

This decision by BA is weird. It's more logical in terms of a quick get away to board by position on the plane. Recognise the status, then seating class, then location.

 

[Mag_seven]

Personally I stay in the lounge until the last minute and board dead last with no queue. Why people are desperate to spend more time on their personal 29" x 17" patch I have no idea!

Same here!

 

[gsnedders]

This decision by BA is weird. It's more logical in terms of a quick get away to board by position on the plane. Recognise the status, then seating class, then location.

You need to be very careful with location based boarding for it to actually be fast, though. Back-to-front is actually really bad (because you end up with everyone wanting to get the same few lockers), for example.

 

[Bletchleyite]

You need to be very careful with location based boarding for it to actually be fast, though. Back-to-front is actually really bad (because you end up with everyone wanting to get the same few lockers), for example.

easyJet did a load of experiments on this prior to introducing allocated seating and said that it made just about no practical difference what they did, so they decided to stick with speedy (via premium seats, primarily to ensure exit row passengers have space for bags overhead as they can't go under the seat), special assistance then others.

The only one that *might* make a difference is window then middle then aisle, but nobody would accept that as it would separate travelling groups and families.

 

[jopsuk]

essentially the big issue now for shorthaul, where they actually care about turnaround time (especially budget) is having encouraged everyone to go to cabin bags and defined a standard size, even the latest single aisle jets (737MAX) only manage 4 standard bags per row of six seats.

 

[dcsprior]

Having only flown in economy (and rarely on the likes of BA) I've wondered before: for the people who can access the luxurious lounges, do they prefer to rock up at the airport as early as possible to rinse the spa treatments and champagne; or are they busy people whose 'time is money' so they turn up as late as possible and go straight through the fast track security and onto the aircraft?

I make a return flight every week, so it's worth my while paying for lounge access via Priority Pass, this isn't to the particularly luxurious ones - though away from Gatwick / Heathrow, the lounges that PP gets you in to are the same ones you'd get access to when flying with most airlines in business or first.

What I tend to do is spend my contingency time in the lounge - so I'm typically in the lounge for about 20-30 mins in the morning in Edinburgh and 45+ mins in the evening in Gatwick (when more can go wrong on my way to the airport, and where my flight is more likely to be delayed) but 5% of the time that I've got delayed on my way to the airport and my flight is bang on time, I won't have time to pop in for a bite to eat. Occasionally timing quirks means I'm there longer, but that's the exception.

I think my record was:
* ~25 mins in Edinburgh's Aspire lounge
* On plane, taxi towards runway, then turn back with tech fault
* 3 hours in No 1 lounge, rebooked onto next flight when mine cancelled
* Quickly pop back landside because by the time it clicked that I'd need to check in again, online check-in was closed
* Another 40 mins or so in #1

 

[Tim R-T-C]

Has anyone used any of the cheap booking sites to book flights, I have always booked via Airline's sites, but for a trip in April next year finding a lot of price difference. Air France Manchester to Yerevan is £357 directly booked or just £299 on 'BYOJ'. But then is it still possible to book your own seats on the airline website and are the flights confirmed even if those sites close down in the mean time?

 

[atillathehunn]

Hi Tim,

I've never used the super cheap ones, but I have used online agents for booking.

The ticket is handed over to the airport/airline at 24 hours out. This means that to make a change before this point, you go to the OTA. Shortly before the flight everything goes over to the airline.

I'm not sure about Air France, but I recently flew a KLM short and long haul itinerary booked through an OTA. I could select my seats on the KLM app as normal at T-24 hours, as if I'd booked on KLM's website.

As to the second part of the question... Don't know. A ticket is plated, and then you're given the number on the relevant stock. However, the period of time between booking and the ticket being plated might be a while. If the ticket is plated, you're fine. If not.. maybe not...

Be careful with the online agencies, you might find their fee and credit card fee more than make up for the difference in price

 

[atillathehunn]

easyJet did a load of experiments on this prior to introducing allocated seating and said that it made just about no practical difference what they did, so they decided to stick with speedy (via premium seats, primarily to ensure exit row passengers have space for bags overhead as they can't go under the seat), special assistance then others.

The only one that *might* make a difference is window then middle then aisle, but nobody would accept that as it would separate travelling groups and families.

The ideal would be boarding every 3 rows at a time, window, middle, aisle, back to front. But the level of detail and organisation required would make it untenable.

 

[gsnedders]

Has anyone used any of the cheap booking sites to book flights, I have always booked via Airline's sites, but for a trip in April next year finding a lot of price difference. Air France Manchester to Yerevan is £357 directly booked or just £299 on 'BYOJ'. But then is it still possible to book your own seats on the airline website and are the flights confirmed even if those sites close down in the mean time?

I have occasionally, when the price difference is larger, though I tend to stick to some of the better known sites. I have had occasional bad experiences (most notably when my card got declined because it was with a US site and an international transaction and got flagged up as fraudulent, and then I ended up spending something like £80 on hold having to phone up US support number to get them to recharge the card… thankfully, it was something like a £800 saving over booking with Lufthansa directly, so still a net saving!), but nothing that bad.

 

[Bletchleyite]

The ideal would be boarding every 3 rows at a time, window, middle, aisle, back to front. But the level of detail and organisation required would make it untenable.

TBH just as much would be gained (and money saved) by abolishing airbridges and reverting to stairs as the low-costs have. A lot of people prefer it provided proper alternatives for disabled people are provided (e.g. scissor lifts), I certainly do, I like walking up the steps and seeing the aircraft from the ground rather than it being hidden as if they were embarrassed about it.

 

[dcsprior]

TBH just as much would be gained (and money saved) by abolishing airbridges and reverting to stairs as the low-costs have. A lot of people prefer it provided proper alternatives for disabled people are provided (e.g. scissor lifts), I certainly do, I like walking up the steps and seeing the aircraft from the ground rather than it being hidden as if they were embarrassed about it.

Recently (at Edinburgh I think) we had a large covered zigzag ramp from tarmac to plane for all passengers. I guess this saves the cost of special equipment for most wheelchair users, and means other passengers can wheel their case and stay sheltered from the elements while queuing.

Also at Gatwick it's common for the front door to be connected to an airbridge, but the rear door to have steps.

 

[atillathehunn]

We disembarked our Jumbo at Nairobi a few weeks ago via stairs. It's a long way down from up there - you get a proper idea of the size of the thing on the ground.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Looking for a bit of advice.

Me and Dr Troll are thinking of Cancun in February, likely flying from Gatwick. Choice of Virgin or BA. BA are £200 cheaper but my heart says Virgin. Any experience either way?

 

[Butts]

Looking for a bit of advice.

Me and Dr Troll are thinking of Cancun in February, likely flying from Gatwick. Choice of Virgin or BA. BA are £200 cheaper but my heart says Virgin. Any experience either way?

If that's £200 each I'd take the BA Option....£400 extra spending money !!!

I've not flown to Cancun, but have flown to Florida on BA and Virgin- much the same as each other.

 

[AlterEgo]

Looking for a bit of advice.

Me and Dr Troll are thinking of Cancun in February, likely flying from Gatwick. Choice of Virgin or BA. BA are £200 cheaper but my heart says Virgin. Any experience either way?

Assume this is in Economy?

BA are crap and if it were me I’d be choosing Virgin just for the change of scenery and to put one in the eye of BA’s money men.

 

[atillathehunn]

What proportion of your budget does £400 represent? If significant, spend it on a slap up meal with bubbles in the Caribbean.

However I would say that while BA weren't great, I've flown a lot of long haul airlines in Y and none were £200 better than any other.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I’d go for the cheaper one. Would only pay extra for Thai/Malaysia due to extra legroom.

 

[atillathehunn]

Generally more room on Malaysia - flying 3/4 empty A380s round the world

 

[cactustwirly]

Looking for a bit of advice.

Me and Dr Troll are thinking of Cancun in February, likely flying from Gatwick. Choice of Virgin or BA. BA are £200 cheaper but my heart says Virgin. Any experience either way?

They are pretty similar, although I think BA has better quality food. So I would go for the cheapest.

 

[gsnedders]

They are pretty similar, although I think BA has better quality food. So I would go for the cheapest.

BA's food is all over the place, IMO.

 

[atillathehunn]

BA's food is all over the place, IMO.

When you actually get fed it's not bad. Recent long haul flight the chicken was not at all dry and tough and the rice wasn't bad. The chocolate pudding from some external company was fantastic. Then the second meal 7 hours in was a dry piece of bread with a bit of cheese bungee on it.

 

[gsnedders]

When you actually get fed it's not bad. Recent long haul flight the chicken was not at all dry and tough and the rice wasn't bad. The chocolate pudding from some external company was fantastic. Then the second meal 7 hours in was a dry piece of bread with a bit of cheese bungee on it.

I disagree. What I've had in the past two months on BA has varied from inedible (and this was theoretically Club World food served in WTP!) to lovely. My flight last weekend from SFO had some lovely food; my flight out to NRT a couple of months ago had pretty much a solid block of beef and rice that were totally impossible to eat even with the metal cutlery you get in WTP, and I'm not sure even with normal "landslide" cutlery you could've cut that apart!

 

[Bletchleyite]

I have a special meal for allergy reasons, but even if you don't need it I'd actually recommend going for one. You get served first and while it's basic I've always found it quite good.

 

[gsnedders]

I have a special meal for allergy reasons, but even if you don't need it I'd actually recommend going for one. You get served first and while it's basic I've always found it quite good.

I've heard very mixed things about special meals; sometimes they're apparently quite good, but then especially if you're flying from an outstation that rarely deals with that category of special meals things can get very meagre indeed.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I've heard very mixed things about special meals; sometimes they're apparently quite good, but then especially if you're flying from an outstation that rarely deals with that category of special meals things can get very meagre indeed.

Gluten free (GFML) is the one I get, and I've never had issues with it other than the obvious one about cabin crew not realising that it requires special bread to go with it and offering you a normal bread roll and having to be asked to go and find the gluten free one. If you just got it because it was nicer[1] that of course is no issue

[1] Gluten free bread is rank, but the meal itself is typically chicken and vegetables. Add pepper and it's more than palatable and pretty healthy.

 

[atillathehunn]

I disagree. What I've had in the past two months on BA has varied from inedible (and this was theoretically Club World food served in WTP!) to lovely. My flight last weekend from SFO had some lovely food; my flight out to NRT a couple of months ago had pretty much a solid block of beef and rice that were totally impossible to eat even with the metal cutlery you get in WTP, and I'm not sure even with normal "landslide" cutlery you could've cut that apart!

You ordered the beef on a plane! Expectations had to be low.

I'll revise my estimation to suit your disagreement, to put a confidence interval around it. Maybe then we can be in accord.

What KLM have been serving recently is a mystery. Bowl of grey and it lived up to its billing.

I used Rwandair a few months ago, short haul. 1 hour flight. Full hot meal that was delicious.

 

[atillathehunn]

Gluten free (GFML) is the one I get, and I've never had issues with it other than the obvious one about cabin crew not realising that it requires special bread to go with it and offering you a normal bread roll and having to be asked to go and find the gluten free one. If you just got it because it was nicer[1] that of course is no issue

[1] Gluten free bread is rank, but the meal itself is typically chicken and vegetables. Add pepper and it's more than palatable and pretty healthy.

Best meal I had was the... possibly gluten free, possibly lactose free... meal out of Amman on Lufthansa. Spectacular. Mezze, spiced properly and with condiments and quite a lot of it. While Rwandair was good, this beat it.