Big Plane! Heavy Plane! A Bright Future?

Big Plane! Heavy Plane! Short-Haul A380s with British Airways
The work of a photographer…

Index:

• Big Plane! Heavy Plane! (The Introduction)
• Chiltern Railways to London, Heathrow Connect and the Holiday Inn Ariel
• To Heathrow T5 and a Sinking realisation
• Killing time in the F Lounge – an Airplane Art Special!
• A Look at the lower deck of the BA A380
• BA910 London Heathrow T5 to Frankfurt T2
  
• A Frankfurt Stopover
• BA911 Frankfurt Airport T2 to London Heathrow T5
• The work of a photographer
• A bright future? – THIS SECTION

A Bright New Future?

The British Airways A380 is in lots of ways very conventional – and that can be a good thing as the products themselves are good

• – World Traveller and World Traveller Plus are good products – even with the new slimline seating
• – Club World isn’t a bad product as well. I suspect it will be better on the upper deck compared to the lower deck.
• – First as always looks good.

Whilst it looks conventional, I kind of like it. I’m not one for gold and fake wood everywhere; sometimes, the sober colours are what needed. Some may see the A380 as an excuse to go wild, but BA has gone for evolution rather than revolution (On the main deck at least – I sadly didn’t go up the staircase to the upper deck to see what evolution there are up there).

I also like whatever product that’s in the air – be in Club, Premium or Economy to be delivered well. The crew I had there and back to Frankfurt delivered the product with a well-conducted service – a good sign for the future of the A380s when they spread their wings to Los Angeles, Hong Kong and Johannesburg.

As the crews grow into this plane, I have no doubt that the service will improve as they get used to such a big aircraft in the sky.

As for the ground service, things have seemingly improved from the disasters of May – with great and understanding customer service at all levels – from check-in, lounge (where the food has improved considerably), to the rebooking service that salvaged this trip from a possible disaster. .

My only concern is that with these new products, the good quality of service and continue. There will be dips and troughs – there always is – but if the staff of BA really embrace “To Fly, To Serve” then they must build on each improvement and keep slippage to a minimum.

Let’s hope they can do that.

For now, BA gets a two thumbs up for a very enjoyable and well handled trip.

Ooh. There were other things too weren’t there? The Holiday Inn Ariel appears to improve each time I go there… which is only a good thing. Chiltern Railways were as good as usual in getting me home…. and oh yes… Heathrow Hoppa was worse than useless.

And that’s your lot for this trip. Never let it be said that I don’t ever have adventures.

Speaking of adventures, please join me later this month for another trip – again in Europe as I head to “Europe’s most interesting city” as I go to TravelMagic in “Making Brussels Interesting – with TravelMagic and Brussels Airlines”.

Oh yes, the beginnings of another Chicago trip is in the making… and trust me, if I’ve gone made before, this one will really push my boundaries of madness.

Tootle pip!