We’ve been dedicated BA economy (aka World Traveller) flyers for more than 25 years, but last year got bumped up to World Traveller Plus for our return flight to Denver. It was going to be interesting to see what we’d been missing.
Well, the meal service is definitely superior to what you get in the back of the plane. That alone wouldn’t make me pay that much more for the Premium Economy experience.
The “upgraded” seats were of questionable benefit. They were wider, which was better. But they also had a “bolster” at the bottom of the front of the seats, which was supposed to be a lower leg support, or a footrest at the back, if you will. I’m short and my husband is tall. For me, I couldn’t reach whatever the bolster was supposed to be supporting. It got in his way, and he also didn’t like how it made it harder for him to scoot from the aisle to his seat, or back to the aisle. Fabric on Economy BA seats doesn’t reach all the way to the floor, and his heels can extend slightly underneath the front of the seat when he’s trying to squeeze himself in or out of a row. But the bolsters effectively lessened the foot room in the seating area, making access more difficult for those with longer feet. A reclined seat in front of you doesn’t intrude quite as much into your space as farther back in the plane, although it’s still a fairly confining seat space, overall.
We were in the last row of that Premium section. A curtain was drawn across the aisle right behind us, to separate our section from the “cheap” seats. Well, our bathrooms were now behind the curtain, so it took some fumbling with that to get to them. Our section didn’t have its own dedicated toilets, and it took additional effort to get to the shared Economy toilets on the other side of the closed curtain. Talk about going Out Back!
Worst, though, were the crying babies. You may know that BA puts parents with infants up at the bulkhead in the front of the Economy section. Infants cry, sometimes for very extended periods, on international flights. I can understand they are probably very uncomfortable, but it doesn’t make things any easier for the rest of us passengers. Well, at the back of the World Traveller Plus section, we were just one row in front of two crying infants. The curtain that got in the way of getting to the toilets did nothing to block out the crying kids. In fact, they were louder than if we’d been farther back in the plane.
If you really want off the plane quicker by being closer to the front, it’s clearly a benefit. Wider seats? No queston. If you cherish better airline food and actual metal forks, knives, and spoons, it’s better. Whether it’s worth the extra airfare, I suggest it’s not. Being one row in front of the crying infants in the first row of Economy? That’s like the old days when smoking was only allowed in certain rows, but the same air was shared by the whole plane. Your Mileage May Vary - have a good flight, in any event!
