Comments on: Take it lying-down: OpenSkies Biz.

By: OSFan

OSFan — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 15:31:20 +0000

The one thing that really concerns me is the waiting time for Immigration if you end up using the BA Terminal at JFK… on my last 2 visits the waiting times were 2 HOURS each time!!!

Difficult to control I know, as it is Immigration and not BA… but there has to be some way round this in the setup plans. It will be a dire experience otherwise, and it will completely wipe out all the rest of your innovative ideas and little touches.

By: AVMahtaney

AVMahtaney — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 18:22:26 +0000

Greetings from India. While I may not get to fly open skies for a while, I wanted to add my opinion, primarly is a long term BA Gold card holder and huge fan/supporter of BA.
Your seat looks a lot like the Old BA Club. If this is so then please look into the following
1) Do something about that flimsy partitions – anything to make it more solid
2) The tray table is tiny, please don’t copy that.
3) Have some form of floor storage.

Having said that, the flat bed is genius and I am so glad that it will be operating on more routes that don’t just involve heathrow.
Also to answer your question on what matters to the business travel experience, from my perspective the most important things are (in order of priority)
1) Ability to sleep (which you seem to have covered)
2) Entertainment – it gets boring spending so many hours on flight (and please, make sure it works from the get-go, not the way the new BA AVOD was introduced)
3) Efficienct ground experience (CDG and JFK aren’t the best airports, but BA termianl 7 at JFK is great – I assume you will be landing there?). Please keep your eyes on baggage efficiency, learn from BA’s horrendous track record. With the number of PAX you have on an aircraft, you should be able to provide a truly top notch experience in all cabins, especially from your 28 biz passengers
4) Frequent Flier Miles and Tier benefits. I hope that not only will Openskies flights earn you miles on the BA EC but most importantly earn you Tier points. That Gold card is precious and I know if flying from CDG to JFK, I would take the trouble of an LHR transit for tier points and Gold Card Retention.

All the best – look forward to the opening of the skies!

By: Robin

Robin — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 13:40:34 +0000

I recently flew on SIA’s Raffles Class on the upper geck of the A380. The seats were wider than needed, with a 1-2-1 arrangement, but the hole for putting feet in when lying down was not large enough. The video screen was enormous, but could not be adjusted in angle, resulting in annoying reflections. As well as a power socket fpr laptop or battery charger, there were USB connections for a flash-drive or camera, so photos could be checked. Something like this, and the necessary software, would be very desirable. SIA had spreadsheet word processing and presentation software installed, but the interface via the handset was deplorable. You might get someone to have a look at this for Openskies!

By: David

David — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 21:53:37 +0000

AVOD is great, when it works!

As the very mixed performance of the new IFE on BA’s 747s and 767s shows, you really cannot afford to get this wrong!

By: Colm

Colm — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 13:53:25 +0000

Louis,

If you’re nice to Cabin Crew, you can have cheese and desert… just take desert first, and ask them to bring cheese if they can spare it

Colm

By: Frederic

Frederic — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 01:22:59 +0000

please allow me to share my concerns about your selection of business seats for your airline. Although, business-wise, I do understand that BA wants to recycle its old “Club World” seats (from 747), but my experience today with the “old CW” (still used on 767) is poor as the seats are worn out and extermely dirty. business class (with most likely the same price or even more expensive due to the limited number of seats).

Finally, you should also present your Premium Economy and Economy class.

Regards,

Frederic

By: Ettore

Ettore — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 16:23:03 +0000

Why not considering Milan-Malpensa as the next OpenSkies destination? Alitalia is moving it’s crappy business to Rome, leaving Milan without proper longhaul flights. The area around the airport(Lombardia and Piemonte) is extremely rich in factories and trading companies (es. there’s a big Agusta-Westland factory a few km from MXP or the new Fiera di Milano, not saying anything about the fashion district or the Langa wine county). BA should strongly think about opening a new and bigger Milan station at Malpensa.

By: Openskies fan

Openskies fan — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 03:30:10 +0000

Well done on the a la carte menus and the flatbeds. Pleeeeeeease, include power outlets for laptops.

By: Louis

Louis — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 22:22:47 +0000

Hey Dale.

Just one comment: please do not make us choose between cheese or desert: we want both! This is the thing I hate when flying Club World! If you could fix that, that’d be awesome! Merci!

By: Rob

Rob — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 04:32:08 +0000

OS needs to be a part of the BA Exec Club and code share with BA otherwise it will not get the business market. One reason why Silverjet and Eos are in trouble is that they cannot capitalise on those regular J travellers.

A J lounge is nothing new and neither is much here.

Good luck to OS but please just be a better part of mainline BA and oneworld.