cindyabs

Yup, the only way to get a decent economy seat is to book one of those premium economy seats. Slight improvement over regular economy.

Big D

Was talking to a woman from Boeing and AA do actually have more legroom in economy than BA - bear in mind BA have 4 classes now - god knows why!

Chandler

Airmiles arent great, but as has been eluded to, the BA Credit Card gives 15,000 upon your first purchase and then 1 for every $ spent.

An easy why to keep the miles ticking over.

silvermine

actually can agree with big d - the steerage class legroom on an AA 777 i took last fall from BOS to LHR was far superior to that of BA or Virgin 747's. Virgin was the worst as far as legroom goes, and the best with service.

Englishmum

Unfortunately AA is eliminating the 'more room in coach' on atlantic and pacific routes for the 777s throughout 2005 and re-installing extra seats in economy class.

Enjoy and savour the extra space while you can!

My worst ever flights (with any airline) have been with the Continental Airlines flights between EWR-BHX (Newark, NJ and B'ham, UK). There isn't even any extra space in the emergency exit row - I kid you not. It's unbelievably cramped on this narrow-bodied jet (3x3 configuration and only one aisle) they use the Boeing 757-200 for this segment which is really intended for domestic routes, not transatlantic. There are no individual TVs and the flight attendants are the most miserable cabin crew I've ever encountered. The odd thing is they have 2 flights a day on this route, departing within 2 hours of each other.

Despite B'ham airport being 20 mins from my mum's house and Newark airport being 15-20 mins from my house, I now fly into LHR and drive up the M40 rather than fly with crappy Continental....

cindyabs

Last time I flew to Brum-I flew DL and AF to CDG and Flybee over. Impressed with Flybee-an hour flight and a meal was served !!

silvermine

too bad they are taking away a small comfort for the economy passengers, in favour of greed..
see they have eliminated that advertising off their website.

so, they better have lower prices than the others because their service is for
%%##

Englishmum

I think all of the US airlines now charge passengers for alcoholic drinks on board too in economy class on their intercontinental routes - I think each drink (eg. small beer) costs at least $5-$6 ...

The British scheduled airlines (BA, Virgin, British Midland) don't charge for beers or wine. I have no idea though about the charter airlines like Monarch, Airtours, Thomas Cook which fly to Florida (Orlando-Sanford).

silvermine

yes, on AA they charge economy passengers $5 per drink, free for biz and 1st class. i can see it on domestic routes but on international ??
and they take away more legroom? .. bibi, sayonara, au revoir AA..
(end of rant )

Bob

BA makes 80% of it's money on those 20 first class seats...

Bob

Virgin are excellent....

One thing to consider though...safety records and level of training given, in event of a crash, I know I'd rather it with someone that works for BA or Virgin, the training is pretty extensive, certainly compared to British Midlands, Qatar Air, Gulf Air, Alitalia...

Pimpbot

How many recent plane crashed have you seen where people walk away from the wreck?. And I mean big passenger planes, not a piddly little propeller engined two seater. If the planes going down, put your head between your legs and kiss your ass goodbye.

snowbunny

Yes and no. You have a chance at an Atlantic sea ditch, depending on *why* the plane would be going down.

Bob

That's true...but still, if anything goes wrong with a plane, not just crash senarios, the flight crew still have more training, and more importantly, have regular re-fresher courses...

Maz

What an interesting thread this turned out to be!

When I flew Virgin in early 2000, the flight was 10% full, on purpose. We were carrying some heavy freight and they'd positioned us all very precissely in the cabin to get the best loading adjustment. Can't think of the proper technical term, sorry. Once we'd burnt off a certain amount of fuel and were at altitude, we could sit where we wanted. One woman managed to snag all five middle seats to herself. That's my kind of flight!