BRITISH AIRWAYS FIRST CLASS SEAT REVIEW   :   BOEING 747-400

Cape Town - London, my seat was directly next to the galley and directly under the main staff-controlled cabin light. A fateful combination that can never provide for anything close to the experience BA widely tout. Add to that, that their chillers failed so there was no food save for breakfast, no fast-track service on arrival, no T5 Arrivals Lounge (because nobody thought to tell the First Class passengers - or at least me - about it), and that my clearly-labelled First Class luggage emerged last on the carousel, and you have a truly lamentable service. I thought it might be a one-off - having scanned the reviews below, it is clearly not. The gulf with the Middle East and Asian carriers is getting wider and wider - it is hard to see how the current management / ownership can ever bridge it.

BRITISH AIRWAYS CLUB WORLD BUSINESS CLASS SEAT REVIEW   :   BOEING 777-200

Overall I would say I was underwhelmed. The seat is very narrow from the hips down. I found it quite hard to fall asleep. BA has the sleeper service which basically means you get a salad with 3 shrimp, a bread roll and one service of drinks. Compared to the food and service on AA this fell well short. Breakfast consisted of a croissant and jam, and a bacon roll if you were lucky enough to catch the FA eye - unfortunately I wasn't! FA seemed intent on getting through the service ASAP. Although the seat is marginally better than AA, I would fly AA business before this product again. My IFE didn't work the whole flight, I was told by a FA that there were other peoples IFE that wasn't working either and there was nothing they could do. BA used to be so good in Club World, its disappointing that they have let their standards slip.

BRITISH AIRWAYS CLUB WORLD BUSINESS CLASS SEAT REVIEW   :   BOEING 777-300

Having flown with South African Airways, Qantas and Iberia as part of my round the world ticket, British Airways proved to be an incredible disappointment in every respect and I will avoid flying them again. I rang my bell about 10 times only to be ignored, the face to back seating arrangement was incredibly uncomfortable, food was dry and boring and the service the worst I've come across. I must say the First Class Galleries Lounge at T5 in London is the best I've come across. A shame that the service, food and seat is letting down what use to be a leading airline.

BRITISH AIRWAYS FIRST CLASS SEAT REVIEW   :   BOEING 747-400

Have flown BA First twice now. SYD-BKK amazing service, the older cabin was clean, comfortable and in good working order. The crew were friendly. A direct contrast to BKK-SYD flight where the cabin was filthy, in a state of disrepair, and the crew were surly and rude. Not only did I have to stand for 45 mins whilst my bed was made. I woke an hour and a half before landing, and was told to, "Hurry up if you want breakfast love". The food on this flight was rubbish. Seats 2A/K offer privacy one expects of First without any loss of space (1A/K)

BRITISH AIRWAYS FIRST CLASS SEAT REVIEW   :   BOEING 777

Before boarding you have use of the vastly over-rated Concorde Room. Staff ignore empty cups, magazines are scattered lazily on a table, forgettable food is served in ludicrously designed booths with walls so high that serving staff are unable to see who needs assistance. The shower rooms look like something you'd find in an NHS hospital. Really grim. The whole thing has zero finesse and looks like the reception of a Holiday Inn. Old tired filthy cabin with tape decks blocked up. TVs are so out of date that they give you an iPad. For the money, it's not a serious product. It's sad to see a once great airline slide.

BRITISH AIRWAYS FIRST CLASS SEAT REVIEW   :   BOEING 747-400

LHR-EWR on a 777 in old First Class. Really tired, unclean and past it. Screens are small and they offer an iPad instead. Food good, friendly staff. JFK-LHR in the new First. Very clean, power at seat. Good staff. The large screens are low res, and still run the old in-flight system (which as usual had to be rebooted 30mins into the flight). The lounges both ends are deeply pedestrian. Arrivals lounge in Heathrow is average. I'm only not recommending this seat because the quality of lounges in terms of facilities, quality of food, and design - fall far short of First Class lounges by similar airlines.

BRITISH AIRWAYS CLUB WORLD BUSINESS CLASS SEAT REVIEW   :   BOEING 777

The cabin layout maximizes privacy, and the seat is flat. Not every aspect of the seat is perfect, but those two items - privacy and flatness count for 90% of what matters to me.

BRITISH AIRWAYS FIRST CLASS SEAT REVIEW   :   BOEING 777

I have flown BA First 5 times in the last 4 months and have been amazed every time at how poor the service, food quality and overall experience is. The food is consistently worse that the Business Class of middle eastern airlines; there was a time when First class meant vintage Krug, caviar and other similar luxuries. In my case, the food was so bad that I did not eat it - far better to fill up on decent fare in the T5 lounge at LHR. BA really need to get their act together - First should be superlative given the prices charged - I was left very unimpressed on each occasion.

BRITISH AIRWAYS CLUB WORLD BUSINESS CLASS SEAT REVIEW   :   BOEING 747-400

I always try to get 62A in the upper deck, although it is facing backwards, which does not worry me, I find this particular seat excellent for ease of moving around etc.

BRITISH AIRWAYS CLUB WORLD BUSINESS CLASS SEAT REVIEW   :   BOEING 777-300ER

LHR-HKG-LHR in new 777-300ER. Seat seems to be the same as on other planes with the difference that they have new AVOD with a slightly bigger screen. Seat comfortable and seating arrangement is the same as on other 777 with BA. The lavatories are behind the Club World cabin so avoid rows 15 and 16 - they are just next to the lavatories and these are the locations for travellers with baby basinets. Row 10 is a bit too close to the galley for my taste. I travelled in row 11 and 13, which was good. If you are flying with a friend or companion, the middle seats are perfect, as they give you full privacy. On both night flights I could get 7-8 hours of sleep and the bed was comfortable. A nice touch would be to receive a blanket or thin mattress to place on the seat, for it to be more comfortable. I like the small drawer, they provide to put your personal belongings.

BRITISH AIRWAYS FIRST CLASS SEAT REVIEW   :   BOEING 747-400

For the last 15-20 years BA First has been my preferred mode of travel, paying money out of my own pocket for the experience - not anymore - there are better First choices out there. If you must travel BA, Business is the better choice. I only now travel BA when I absolutely have to, and on my routes I'm invariably on an unimproved plane. I support the previous detracting correspondents below on the poor quality of the unimproved First Class - I do feel cabin service remains good. Unfortunately the improved First Class is not a whole lot better and is some way behind the better competitors. If the new First Class had been introduced 7-8 years ago, BA may perhaps have stayed ahead of the game for a bit but not anymore.

BRITISH AIRWAYS CLUB WORLD BUSINESS CLASS SEAT REVIEW   :   BOEING 747-400

Seat is too narrow and too short. At 1.83m tall, I could not stretch fully and had to lie on my side to fit my shoulders into the space the seat leaves. Cabin design is miserable and seems to be falling apart.

BRITISH AIRWAYS CLUB WORLD BUSINESS CLASS SEAT REVIEW   :   BOEING 777

Strange with the seats in zig-zag. My husband and I where seated in the middle seats and had to jump over our neighbor each time we wanted to get out. We also had to look at our neigbors face every time we got served or asked something. Somehow it all felt a bit rude. I much prefer Singapore Airlines 4 seats in a row compared to BA's 6. Quite comfortable to sleep in but no space for bags or shoes, we had to put everything in the overhead lockers. Food really terrible, more like a school kitchen. Seemed to be sauces out of a tin and very dry chicken. Bread sweet and breakfast quite awful. Again compared to Singapore Airlines where you get served from a trolley and can look and chose. On our way back to Europe we had seats 4 F and 4 G, the last of the row. Now we didn´t have to jump over our fellow passengers.

BRITISH AIRWAYS FIRST CLASS SEAT REVIEW   :   BOEING 747-400

LHR-SFO with the old First Class. The cabin smelled musty, carpets needed a vacuum, cushion looked about twenty years old, and the blanket - something that would be too threadbare to give to our pugs. The table linens were shoddy too. The food was simply dreadful. No canapes - just some slices of duck breast that was just plonked down and which I didn't want. I ordered a Fillet Steak - tough and dry. The crew were pretty useless, with the CSD hovering around like Fagin. I thanked him for his welcome and then told him the cabin was in a dreadful state "oh yes, this plane should have been redone in September" I have flown First Class on Thai Airways, Lufthansa, ANA and United Airlines in the last couple of months, and all were vastly superior to BA. I'm afraid BA have really lost it, and I try not to use them even on frequent flyer mileage tickets - now they this Avios system. The new ad campaign is a bit of a misfit as other reviewers have noted. "To Fly To Serve" was fine in the hey day of Concorde, but the BA product and the people just aren't up to it anymore, and they have been left behind by many other carriers.

BRITISH AIRWAYS FIRST CLASS SEAT REVIEW   :   BOEING 747-400

Reference to M Cooper comments about the time taken to roll-out the "new" BA First class product. I would not worry yourself too much, as the new product is a total disappointment, and falls well short of middle east and most asian carrier products out there. Seat in bed format offers virtually no space for your feet, cushions are still lumpy in joints. On my recent trip from HKG, no amenity kit, no pj's, filthy toilet for duration of flight - and a lot more negativity that makes me furious when I see BA pretending it is something else with its new slogan. Clear and blatant misrepresentation.

BRITISH AIRWAYS FIRST CLASS SEAT REVIEW   :   BOEING 777-200

BA failed in every way. From no seats in the First or Business class sides of the Terraces Lounge in ATL being available (full-fare First ticket holders will resent being told by BA lounge staff "we are busy tonight" as an excuse). Boarded the aircraft to find a delapidated, old First worn out configuration with food stains on the non-working equipment contraptions. First cabin service was nonexistent and appalling. BA's rating needs to be seriously put under review as they are no longer a 4-star airline. The airline has been advertising "New First" for a couple of years yet it is not fully rolled out. Food quality, cabin service, menu selection (even the cheap cardboard menus they hand you now in First should be an embarrassment to BA) have all deteriorated in the past couple of years. It is a shame because BA was a holdout for a while as one of the last major non-Asian/Middle Eastern carriers to have some resemblance of quality and a First class product/service that full-fare premium passengers would pay for. Avoid BA and hopefully they will get their act together, but I fear the money issue and cost-cutting measures have ruined the airline for good. A paltry response from customer service was a reply that awarded me with 5,000 BA miles - in addition to the over 300,000 I already have! Hardly an adequate gesture given the experience.

BRITISH AIRWAYS BUSINESS CLASS SEAT REVIEW   :   BOEING 777

LHR to Shanghai and found the layout of seats in Club World to be very squashed. You are in a kind of pod where although the top end of the seat is wide enough it tapers from the waist down making it damn uncomfortable. The worst and most ludicrous thing was having to clamber over the feet of a sleeping passenger to get out of your pod if you needed to use the wash room! Who designed this? I am most surprised that I have not read a lot more negative comments about this kind of layout all for the sake to cram an extra 2 or 3 seats into Club class. We found the seats to be lumpy and uncomfortable. Overall not impressed at all and in future it will be another airline for us.

BRITISH AIRWAYS FIRST CLASS SEAT REVIEW   :   BOEING 747-400

China to LHR on a 13.5 year old B744 - experience was appalling. Cabin crew spent most of the trip apologising to the few people in first class cabin for various deficiencies. The interior of the cabin was damaged, tatty and dirty, with layers of dirt in any crevice and plenty of poor fitting parts to the seat I was in. The power for the laptop ceased to function. Each plane carries one connection kit to allow first class passengers to connect their laptop to the obscure power connector used, other passengers had to rely on battery power. The TV screen cannot be seen without the blind being down and is not a widescreen but something like an 8" screen. Conversely the 777 I flew out on (business class) uses a normal international plug arrangement and was just a much better flight. British Airways First class was an embarrassment that no amount of fancy menus or new paint jobs can hide. Avoid at any cost.

BRITISH AIRWAYS FIRST CLASS SEAT REVIEW   :   BOEING 747-400

A lot of agreement with the previous First Class cabin review (13 September). The "new" First Class was a true disappointment, and having flown 35 other airlines First class in the last 2 years, cannot understand how BA can have got this so wrong. Okay, the "bean-counters" at BA must take some blame for trying to squeeze in more seats than other airlines. The seat in flatbed position is very narrow from your waist down, to the end where your feet are squeezed into a space less than 12 inches wide. Cushion comfort is not good for relatively new product, and I have travelled many Business class seats on other carriers that are better than this. Food and wine is on a par with Business class of some airlines, but below even higher end Business class of certain Asian and Middle East airlines. Service - let's not go there, but very poor! If you have the chance of choosing an alternative airline's First Class, it is probably going to be better than British Airways.

BRITISH AIRWAYS BUSINESS CLASS SEAT REVIEW   :   BOEING 747-400

JNB-LHR in Club World. Being in the upper deck is a must - very quiet environment. The seat is really pretty disappointing - it's the new seat. Everything just look second rate in terms of quality of materials. Divider between seats is useless - mine was actually broken. The footrest was also awkward and the seats very narrow. Not quite what I expected.