It’s been a long time coming but Pointy End passengers will finally see their demand for enhanced privacy and fresh-faced aircraft matched by British Airways as of next year.
Although British Airways are yet to respond to our request to confirm, sources indicate it could be as early as January.
Executive Traveller reported last week that the first 787-10 would “take wing” from January 2020, while Simple Flying reported that the 787-10 is due to be welcomed “sometime during 2020.”
Either way: it’s time for cashed-up introverts to break out the bubbly, because – whenever it happens – BA’s Pointy End offering is set to get better and more private.
The introduction of the new jets comes as British Airways rolls out its Club Suite business class, which will be a major drawcard on the spanking new Airbus A350s and Boeing 787s currently on order, and also on the airline’s 777s, 787s and Airbus A380s, most of which, Executive Traveller reports, are to be retrofitted with the Club Suites and a new first-class offering.
This is part of the international Race To The Top we reported on in March, wherein airlines compete to provide premium-ticket passengers with more of a retreat experience.
In this case, British Airways is competing primarily with Virgin Atlantic Airways to secure the London to New York route, one of the world’s most lucrative beats for corporate travel.
Besides being another inevitable part of competition, there are also suggestions that the Privacy Race has come about to cater for, what The Australian Financial Review calls, “the wonderfully illicit aspect of mid-week pointy-end travel for work: the sense that no one’s watching and you’re not on real time anyway.”
“Where else in today’s time-pressed world can you justify watching a two-hour Warren Buffett documentary, followed by the second season of The Handmaid’s Tale in your PJs while feasting on Peking duck and osso bucco with a side of edamame eggplant relish, accompanied by a bloody mary?”
Well, in British Airways new Club Suites, you won’t even need to justify it.
Keen? Each Club Suite boasts a lie-flat bed (a feature now standard after BA introduced it in the 1990s), a vanity unit and mirror, direct aisle access, a personal door, an 18 1/2-inch screen and 40 per cent more storage space than the previous model.
Also of note: the Boeing 787-10 Dreamliners are also tipped to include first class (something their Airbus A350-1000 jets don’t have) which – in a climate where the super-rich are increasingly opting for private jets and the wealth are increasingly opting for business class – is somewhat of a surprise.