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Another high-end Atlantic airliner
We've already written about two high-profile and high-end airlines, Silverjet and EOS, that promise spacious seats (that morph into beds) and an end to those coach class ghettos.It seems the big boys want a piece of the pie. Starting in June, British Airways will start running flights from New York to various European cities under the subsidiary "OpenSkies," their new premium-level airline. Here's the run-down on the cabin configuration, using a Boeing 757. There will be 24 flat-bed seats, 28 "premium-economy" seats with 52 inches of legroom, and curiously, 30 coach seats.
It seems the coach seats, which were controversial, were added to entice stingier customers to upgrade (the theory goes they won't be able to say no once they see the reclining beds).
The verdict is still out on premium flights like these. Virgin Atlantic has been running them for quite a while, and it's catching on, though not like wildfire. Either way, I'd love to land a seat on one of these flights. Anyone have a spare ticket :-)?
Filed under: Airlines
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jeff Jan 20th 2008 8:56AM
British Airways originally said Open Skies was going to be all premium, then they changed their minds and added coach but the whole point of a premium airline like Silverjet is there are no coach seats, so the whole experience is VIP. Luxury lounge in the airport, nice cabin, everyone with their own flat bed, gourmet meals served on fine china, the whole nine yards and no seething masses at the back of he plane to spoil it! I don't see how Open Skies is going to be any different from a normal BA flight. Another thing is BA fly from Heathrow, nobody's favorite airport so you don't get the benefit on the ground either as you do with Eos who fly from Stansted and Silverjet who fly from Luton which are much more civilised places to travel through when you're going to London.