Travelers who fly British Airways frequently in business class can finally breathe a sigh of relief as the airline has finally launched a new J class product for the first time since 2006.
Even though British Airways helped revolutionize the business class game, over the years passengers grew to strongly dislike their current “ying-yang” configuration in which seats alternated between facing forward and backward. After a lot of false speculation that modified version of this layout would make its way to their new A350-1000 cabins, the airline released a promo video detailing an entirely new cabin with a more familiar reverse herringbone configuration.
Dubbed the “Club Suite”, the airline is ditching the Club World name as part of its marketing strategy to launch the new product to not confuse the two. Their A350-1000 will feature 56 Collins Aerospace Super Diamond business class seats in a 1-2-1 layout, with the added perk of a proper privacy door.
All 56 seats have direct aisle access, feature lie-flat beds, and offer 40% more storage over the current units. They also feature 18.5 inch screens with the usual USB and AC power outlets.
FlyerTalk user TCX69 was able to snap a few photos of the three cabins to give us a better idea of what the seats look like outside of the promotional videos.
Premium Economy (World Traveller Plus) travelers can expect to be seated in one of 56 recliner styled seats split across a 2-4-2 layout with wider arm rests. I am not sure if the perspective may be throwing things off, but the premium economy seats still seem a bit narrower compared to what you get on American Airlines’ 777s for instance. We will still have to wait on an official fact sheet to compare the both.
There are 219 regular economy seats in a 3-3-3 configuration. Space looks very limited, but this is the norm when it comes to economy travel these days. At least passengers can still benefit from having their own PTVs rather than having to walk with their own devices to stream entertainment over Wi-Fi.
Unfortunately the roll out of these new seats will take some time as the airline will only receive four A350-1000s this year, and will only retrofit two Boeing 777s by the end of 2019. More work will be done in 2020 across the rest of its widebody fleet, even though upgrades may not be completed until some time in 2023.
[Featured Photo: TCX69/FlyerTalk]
