Good review. The 777 PE is better than on the 787. BA often get a bad rap, but I've flown their PE and the newer version of business a couple of times from the UK to Australia and I've always found the food and service to be good. I think they are trying hard to deliver a better product but they will always find it an uphill struggle as they compete with the money no option middle Eastern carriers.
Yeah if you can book exit row in economy it definitely feels like enough space to get through a decent length flight. We did set a bit of a personal rule a couple of years ago though to always try and do at least premium for 7+ hour flights where possible (price dependent), and it’s made quite a big difference to how much we enjoy the start of a trip and definitely made it a lot easier to retain silver status to make those economy flight experiences better too
I chose not to pay for seat choice as it was very expensive and boy did i pay the price for that decision as i was seated in the middle of the row of 4. Lesson learned. No toilets in our cabin. And the seats i did reserve for the return flight no longer existed as they changed the plane so it was back to the middle for me and this time i paid for the priviledge of being stuck in the middle. Personally i wouldn't touch BA with a 10ft bargepole.
Yeah that’s a good point about the seat selection, it can make a big difference and can be expensive. For me personally that works out great, because when you have silver status or above with BA seat selection is free. And because it’s otherwise so expensive, not many people who don’t have the status are willing to pay so there’s always a great choice of seats for us. But a very good point how rubbish that is if you don’t have silver status.
I am pleased that BA is now passing out pre-flight beverages (pre-flight fizz) in PE. We flew PE on BA in June 2023 and it was horrid (LHR to SEATAC). There were no pre-flight beverages at all and we waited quite some time for any beverages. The crew was rude and lay. They rarely picked up dishes and garbage. This was quite a negative change from our Economy seats in October 2018. THAT crew was so friendly and efficient! Unfortunately, we only had the choice of BA this year and did book PE and I hope things have improved. Basically, we were NOT impressed last June, especially when we had flown PE on Virgin Atlantic and had sparking wine served before we even sat down in our seats (SEATAC to LHR).
Certainly look as though BA are trying to improve their service standards in PE, but a long way to go before they complete with likes of Emirates etc, but certainly as far as most European trans Atlantic carriers they seem to be doing well.
I guess as well there are very few routes where they would directly compete with emirates in premium economy currently and BA would generally at least have a price advantage to make up for any lesser quality in comparison. I’ve not tried Emirates PE yet, but seems like it can run very expensive for what it is
Its a shame BA doesn't offer lounge access with the ticket, if you pay for it as an addon. I would be happy to pay £30-£50 each way for a long haul flight. The lounges just make the experience a bit more special.
Agree it would be nice, but in reality the Heathrow lounges are overcrowded enough as it is a lot of the time, so I wouldn’t see them introducing anything that’d make them busier even if it would bring in a bit more revenue. At least double tier points on BA hols make it relatively easier to get silver status from flying premium at the moment!
BA uses dynamic pricing so it can vary so much per route and date that it’s worth doing a separate comparison when you’re doing a booking. For example sometimes premium economy is only £100-200 more than economy. Other times it’s even more expensive than business class due to the demand. For this specific flight it was part of a complex BA holidays booking involving one economy flight, one premium economy, and three business class flights, plus 3 different hotels, so hard to determine a specific price for this individual flight.
I hope so. Booked on BA PE for September. I felt uncomfortably hot on my last trip aboard an Austrian 777-2. No individual vents was a horrible decision 😭😂