BA and Cathay Business Seats BNE to LHR

[sanne]

Have been trying to book a couple of J seats from BNE to LHR next June/July. There is never any J seats on QF SIN to LHR leg. The only availability is on BA or Cathay. I've tried looking at leaving from Sydney and Singapore but the same thing. Two questions please....

1..Is this because of the time of the year that no availability of A380 seats in J from Singapore to London?

2..If I book BA or Cathay, what are their J seats like?

We fly to London at least once every year and always via Singapore with Qantas, sometimes paying and sometimes with points but have never had this problem with no availability on Qantas on the Singapore to London leg.

WE always book our FF tickets as soon as they are loaded nearly a year ahead of travel.

Thank you for your help with this.

 

[trippin_the_rift]

I had a similar availability issue last week, plugged in MEL-LHR and bingo more options appeared like magic.

In terms of if BA or CX is better.... personally I would choose CX for the service. BA isn't anything special.

 

[josh84]

I am having the same issue at the moment for October/Novemeber this year PER-LHR

 

[JohnPhelan]

The BA seats are superb - best J seats around, fully flat, very private. If there's two of you travelling, you can organise the seats so you're sort of facing each other as well.

 

[Paddy55]

Love Cathay - great hard product and service hard to beat.

 

[elbarto]

The BA seats are superb - best J seats around, fully flat, very private. If there's two of you travelling, you can organise the seats so you're sort of facing each other as well.

The BA seats are good except for the awkward eye contact win the person facing the other way when the divider is down during take off and landing.

 

[trippin_the_rift]

The BA seats are good except for the awkward eye contact win the person facing the other way when the divider is down during take off and landing.

Maybe I'm missing something, but I think BA seats are not that great.

- Not fully flat
- No good if you're over 6'3/6'4
- No Wings
- Old & Clunky feeling
- Tray tables extremely flimsy
- Weird moments if your privacy screen does not work.
- No Pyjamas
- Pathetic amenity kit

BA service is also total garbage. I've only ever flown BA J and F and never yet had an mostly positive experience. It's all very very average with barely passing grades.

 

[freepyjamas]

Maybe I'm missing something, but I think BA seats are not that great.

- Not fully flat
- No good if you're over 6'3/6'4
- No Wings
- Old & Clunky feeling
- Tray tables extremely flimsy
- Weird moments if your privacy screen does not work.
- No Pyjamas
- Pathetic amenity kit

BA service is also total garbage. I've only ever flown BA J and F and never yet had an mostly positive experience. It's all very very average with barely passing grades.

Not fully flat??

 

[Princess Fiona]

Maybe I'm missing something, but I think BA seats are not that great.

- Not fully flat
- No good if you're over 6'3/6'4
- No Wings
- Old & Clunky feeling
- Tray tables extremely flimsy
- Weird moments if your privacy screen does not work.
- No Pyjamas
- Pathetic amenity kit

BA service is also total garbage. I've only ever flown BA J and F and never yet had an mostly positive experience. It's all very very average with barely passing grades.

I agree that the service is at best inconsistent.
Comparing QF J on A380 and BA J on 777 there is no contest. QF is IMO far superior hard and soft product.
I was used to having to choose between them on 747's and in this case I would pick BA CW every time. The seat is far better than the sloping Mark 1 Skybed. I can put up with indifferent food and service if I can actually sleep.

 

[sanne]

Thanks everyone for your replies re J on BA or Cathay. Only issue booking BA J with points is the inability to choose your seats, so I am told. Can I choose seats if I book Cathay using points. We are both silver.

Still am not happy that 1 year out I cannot find 2 J seats on QF 380 on the SIN/LHR leg, so have to use BA or Cathay.

 

[mannej]

If you are still gun Ho about finding seats on QF for the SIN-LHR leg, that's why an alert on expert flyer can help.

You can set it to alert you when the award class you are after becomes available.

 

[simcat]

Thanks everyone for your replies re J on BA or Cathay. Only issue booking BA J with points is the inability to choose your seats, so I am told. Can I choose seats if I book Cathay using points. We are both silver.

Still am not happy that 1 year out I cannot find 2 J seats on QF 380 on the SIN/LHR leg, so have to use BA or Cathay.

Not too sure about BA J but I have BA F seats (used points to book) from SYD-SIN-LHR in October and I have been able to choose my seats so I would imagine you can do the same with J seats.

It was a bugger to actually get these seats on points (as you have already pointed out), all I can suggest is persistence by keep checking availability and be as flexible as possible on dates.

 

[ozmille]

Thanks everyone for your replies re J on BA or Cathay. Only issue booking BA J with points is the inability to choose your seats, so I am told. Can I choose seats if I book Cathay using points. We are both silver.

Not sure about CX but for BA you need to be at least Sapphire to be able to select seats (even in paying J)

 

[Noob]

I haven't tried the new CX J but from reports it is gaining a reputation of being as good as the new BA F seat, which shares an almost identical design and amount of personal space.

 

[amaroo]

CX is a great airline & have really enjoyed our flights with them. Will be trying their new J during the Sept school holidays

BA NF is nice, not great - compared with QF747 F its way better.

BA J is very good & would happily recommend it.

 

[grussellt]

Not sure about CX but for BA you need to be at least Sapphire to be able to select seats (even in paying J)

No problem about selecting seats on BA, as long as you are prepared to pay for the privilege.

 

[simongr]

The BA seats are superb - best J seats around, fully flat, very private. If there's two of you travelling, you can organise the seats so you're sort of facing each other as well.

Maybe I'm missing something, but I think BA seats are not that great.

- Not fully flat
- No Wings
- No Pyjamas

BA service is also total garbage. I've only ever flown BA J and F and never yet had an mostly positive experience. It's all very very average with barely passing grades.

I agree that I would choose CX over BA in a heartbeat but I dn't agree with a couple of comments. The seats are flat - at least as flat as any others. I am fairly sure also that there are wings on most of BA's aircraft. I agree there are no pyjamas but that is the same between CX and BA.

Thanks everyone for your replies re J on BA or Cathay. Only issue booking BA J with points is the inability to choose your seats, so I am told. Can I choose seats if I book Cathay using points. We are both silver.

Still am not happy that 1 year out I cannot find 2 J seats on QF 380 on the SIN/LHR leg, so have to use BA or Cathay.

Not sure about CX but for BA you need to be at least Sapphire to be able to select seats (even in paying J)

I thought D/C/J could all choose seats but that must have changed to just J now. J pax can choose seats:

Customers with fully flexible tickets

When you choose a flexible ticket, you can change your flights at short notice, if your plans change, with no penalty fees.

You can also choose your seat for free as soon as you've booked.