Ordinary Gweilo

Some people always fly business class, others never do.  Personally, I sometimes manage to fly business class, but I can never quite convince myself that it’s really worth the extra money.  I have yet to be blessed with an employer who felt that I was (consistently) entitled to this benefit, so I mainly have to rely on upgrades – usually with frequent flyer miles, but Virgin did once give us (myself, my wife and our son) a free upgrade on a trip back from London.

Having said that, my very first trip to Hong Kong was in Virgin’s Upper Class (and paid for by the company who sent me out here).  Having previously only travelled within Europe, and normally in economy, I was pleasantly surprised by the legroom, the reclining seat, the limousine service, the lounge, the TV and the better quality food.  Definitely living in the style to which I wished to become accustomed.

Unfortunately, they then decided that Virgin’s Premium Economy was good enough, though they briefly switched to Cathay, and I discovered that business class didn’t always mean the same thing!  At the time I don’t think there was a great deal of difference between Premium Economy and Cathay’s business class.

Since then, Cathay has significantly improved both the legroom and the seat in business class, whilst Virgin has introduced a curious arrangement whereby you sleep on a ‘bed’ that is almost on the floor and almost flat, and offers a food menu that is available whenever you want it.   Both offer video-on-demand (Virgin in all classes).  I haven’t flown with BA, but they claim to offer a flat bed in business class.  In response to this, Virgin is introducing a new cabin which will provide a totally flat bed in Upper Class, and goodness knows what they will offer on the new Airbus A380.  The new Upper Class Suite is supposed to be introduced to the Hong Kong-London route before too long.

By contrast, on short-haul flights within Asia business class is sometimes very ordinary indeed (Malaysia Airlines and Dragonair, for example).  However, to be fair, the premium for business class is also much lower – often you pay less than 50% extra, whereas on long-haul business class costs 5-10 times as much as a discounted economy ticket.  I suppose that this reflects the fact that a cramped seat is bearable for 3-4 hours, but very uncomfortable for 12-14 hours, and that on a longer flight you probably want to sleep. Plus the limousines and the free massages and so forth, I suppose, that aren’t on offer for short-haul.

I haven’t travelled enough to have a definitive answer on this, but it seems that business class can be something of a lottery on shorter flights, depending upon which aircraft the airline uses.  I once flew to Colombo (Sri Lanka) on Thai Airways via Bangkok.  Four legs, and at least three different planes – the best was a 777 that had vast amounts of legroom, and the worst was an A330 (airlines always have their oldest and least comfortable planes flying in and out of Colombo).  In the middle was a 747 that seemed very adequate.  I don’t think the fares are different depending on the plane they use, so you just have to take your chance.          

So is business class really worth the extra money?  The answer is that it very much depends – for example, in some airports the public facilities are good, but in others it is a real bonus to be able to use the lounge.  However, frequent flyer programs offer lounge access at higher levels, some credit cards give you free access, and many airports have pay lounges.  How much is it worth to have extra legroom or a seat that reclines?  How much benefit do you get from a quicker check-in, or having your bags off first?  Better food?  More TV channels or films?

I notice that the Skytrax Airline Quality Awards have been announced. The top five are all from this part of the world (well, maybe apart from Emirates):

1 Singapore Airlines
2 Emirates
3 Cathay Pacific
4 Qantas Airways
5 Thai Airways

I’ve never flown with Emirates or Qantas but I’ve always heard good things about the former. I am slightly surprised to see Thai Airways so high – I have no specific complaints, but their cabin staff often seem a bit casual to me. Incidentally, as far as business class is concerned, the top three are:

1 British Airways
2 Virgin Atlantic Airways
3 Qantas Airways

This also surprises me because I thought that Virgin had fallen behind some of their competitors, but what do I know?

I wonder whether any airlines have considered offering the option of customising the services?  So you want to fly Upper Class but you don’t want the limousine or the lounge or the massage – how much would that cost?  Actually, there is one way of getting something like this – if you use your Virgin frequent flyer miles to upgrade you don’t get the limousine service. though you do now get access to the lounges (including the arrivals lounge at Heathrow).  I suppose the risk of ‘un-bundling’ is that the passengers always want more but the people who pay the bills want to pay less.  In recent years, business class fares have gone up more than economy fares, and the last thing they want is to reverse that trend. 

Thinking more radically, I was intrigued by a radical idea to provide much greater legroom throughout the plane by creating personal cabins stacked on top of each other (with ladders to climb up to the “top bunk”).  I can’t find the website about this, but it did had a drawing showing how it would work – and as long as you aren’t claustrophobic it would be fine.  However, no airlines have shown any interest in this idea – possibly because business class is the most profitable part of the plane and it’s hard to see why anyone would pay a premium when everyone had lots of legroom! 

Meanwhile, in economy it can be extremely uncomfortable if the passenger in front chooses to recline their seat, and apparently you can buy a device to physically stop this happening.  Some airlines have banned it, but Easyjet have announced plans to fit their planes with seats that don’t recline, on the grounds that they are always breaking.  Although they are doing this to save money, I think most passengers would support it, at least on short-haul flights.