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Why Airlines Love European Business Class is an article written by the AFF editorial team:
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I’ve flown plenty of AY Euro Biz. Not so bad starting your return trip home to Oz and knowing you’re connecting to widebodies the rest of the way but a bit of a let down changing to one on the inbound.
I’ve not had a chance to do it, but the AY A350 HEL-LHR usually works timing wise for those inbound connections from Asia.
Meanwhile, I just flew HKT-SIN with SQ B737MAX. The Biz cabin (unfortunately I was seated a few rows behind) was the full regional Biz seats 2:2/1:1/2:2 config for 1.5 hrs flying time!
Well… there’s nothing ‘flash’ about US and Aussie business class at 2+2 and 37 inch pitch. It’s not really business but premium economy. Carriers elsewhere have seat pitches up to 50 inches for 2+2 seating… more like a business product in therms of space.
Being pretty tall I find eurobusiness gives me much more leg room and space to spread out than US/AU business.
As others have said, catering is usually pretty good! BA, LH, LX, AF all have really good catering (most of the time!).
Fares in BA’s club cabin for shorthauls can be as little as AUD250… lounge access and a swag of status credits included. What’s not to like!?
Agree, nothing flash. But a QF 737 with 2x2, 37x22 is rather flash compared to BA's 3x3 with blocked middle seat at 30x17. 10 million kms flown and I can't say I've ever explicitly purchased a stand alone short haul business (different in medium and long haul where I need to work or sleep). I can't bring myself to pay AUD 250 for a BA 3x3 with blocked middle at 30x17 when easyJet offer me 3x3 economy with one inch less pitch for less than AUD 100. cough, I'll pay the extra 8 to be guaranteed the aisle. I also can't say that I've ever considered the quality of food when making a choice on a two hour flight.
I think what the European carriers understand is that people don't apply a strong value proposition to short haul business class. Few will pay up for standalone short haul business (and they'll happily flog them off). Somewhat different when it's the connecting flight to a long haul itinerary. And since all the competitions have much the same hard product, there isn't much of a race to the top.
Can you elaborate on this please? I’ve flown TK business on small regional routws( A320 family) more than a few times most recently a few months ago. It was 2-2 seating (with very good catering) and economy was the usual 3-3.if you care more for the soft product, a TK A320 business is still great even if it's not that different to economy in terms of the hard product.
I’ve flown plenty of AY Euro Biz. Not so bad starting your return trip home to Oz and knowing you’re connecting to widebodies the rest of the way but a bit of a let down changing to one on the inbound.
I’ve not had a chance to do it, but the AY A350 HEL-LHR usually works timing wise for those inbound connections from Asia.
Soft product = food, service, ammenities, etcCan you elaborate on this please? I’ve flown TK business on small regional routws( A320 family) more than a few times most recently a few months ago. It was 2-2 seating (with very good catering) and economy was the usual 3-3.
Btw, this is likely a planning concern for them on potential non-stop Australian flights, particularly why they are looking at one-stop flights instead. They have a somewhat dens cabin on the A359 and B789 (more dense than QF on the B789, and even more dense than DL on the A359), but their catering load is just so big that they would find it impossible to load the catering for 17 hours even if they could get the payload right (which they couldn't without blocking a huge number of seats)!They still have the same catering though no matter the hard product since catering is linked to flight time on TK, not aircraft (they have larger than typical galleys for this shorthaul aircraft - this has been a problem for TK with a lot of used aircraft that they have picked up since they have an unusually big catering load).
I was literally looking at AY to get to LHR in January and noticed the A350 scheduled on the HEL-LHR leg. What put be off was the codeshare with JQ on MEL-SIN rather than QF. JQ J hidden behind an AY code :-(I flew Finnair a few weeks ago, HEL-AMS, and specifically chose the one flight that week that was supposed to be operated by an A350. Was really looking forward to it - unfortunately, there was a last-minute aircraft change to an A321. Was a bit of a let-down, but not much that you can do. At least the fare I paid was the same as it would have been if I'd originally booked any of the other HEL-AMS flights scheduled as narrow-bodies.
One thing about Eurobusiness, the premiums sometimes aren't that significant. I had a case last year travelling BRU-LHR/LHR-FRA (two day stopover) where taking business class on LHR-FRA instead of economy was only $20 more (I did have luggage so needed luggage inclusive fare, differential would have been greater with HLO).
I absolutely despise European "business" class. A junk product if ever there was one. Very tight on legroom (just like in Y) and with the exception of the guaranteed empty middle seat the service levels (recent 4.5 hour flight on LH) are pathetic to non existent. Even UA's Economy Plus seat/service offering is superior which is a remarkable indictment on just how rubbish the EU product is. 0 IFE, 0 Wifi. Sure offer people the choice to pay extra for an empty middle seat or to sit closer to the front but other than that I would save my $ for anything else you might want. At least Swiss still offers a proper business class intra Europe on some flights but for me I would avoid any other airline offering this supposed advantageWhy Airlines Love European Business Class is an article written by the AFF editorial team:
You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.