New business class airline to launch

[Nonstop2AUH]

I haven't experienced them all personally, but I know the VS Upper Class is considered quite good, the BA Club Class (with which I have alot of personal experience) is decent although they cram in alot of seats, and CO BusinessFirst has won some awards. Haven't seen AA's 777 business class but it's supposed to be ok, certainly better than what they have on the 767 they operate to other European cities from JFK.

I think the opportunity has less to do with poor onboard service at the majors than with exclusivity, customization of the experience and less airport hassle when flying with a smaller number of people. For example, Eos was allowing a very short check in time and for people to pretty much carry on all of their baggage but not sure how the new security restrictions will affect this.

[hiss srq]

CO is great but BA is the way to go for constant quality service for me since That Wonderful Airline (TWA) fails to exist.

[Nonstop2AUH]

I'm posting too much today lol too much time on my hands but I have to say it's true, BA has been reliable for a very long time and they are quite proud of this heritage. While their FAs aren't the most friendly and they do cram in alot of seats in Club to accomodate all those mileage upgrades, there is a reason why they are the choice of expats in some of the world's most out of the way and/or potentially dangerous places. When I worked in the Gulf, even my local colleagues flew BA to Europe or on to the US, despite the presence of a couple of local airlines, one of which was owned in part by the organization we all worked for!

[Midnight Mike]

I rode American Biz & 1st class before, nothing special.

United 1st & Biz class, nothing special. The Sleeper seat was cool, but, the service was not the best.

Hawaiian 1st class, very Flight Attendants, but, the service was more like that of Business Class

From what I have heard, ANA & JAL have a very good 1st & Biz Class....

[Skymonster]

Silverjet have just contracted for two former Britannia/ThomsonFly 767-204s (G-BRIF and G-BRIG) initially operating on the ThomsonFly AOC I believe, so they'll be running equipment that's been around for a while like Maxjet. With the fares they're advertising and the capacity on a 762, I suspect they're going more after MaxJet market than after EOS. Luton has a good rail link to London, but the station is about two miles from the airport unlike Stansted where the rail services go from the terminal, and the motorway (sorry, freeway to my American friends) from Luton to London is DREADFUL - usually very congested and undergoing widening work for the next year or so with 40mph limits. It will be interesting to see how this shakes out - unless Silverjet offer something significantly better than MaxJet, my money is on MaxJet.

Andy

[Nonstop2AUH]

Has anyone heard anything lately about FlyFirst, which is supposed to be the 4th carrier in this niche (and also from UK)? And if this niche was so attractive, couldn't BA just contract with PrivatAir to operate a 48-seat BBJ or ACJ on the sector and win back customers by giving them exclusivity AND a big mileage plan?