What Airlines are Doing for You?
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OPEN SPACE Virgin Atlantic's first class
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irline quality ratings are looking up. Flyers have fewer seats on offer, but are looked after better. Here’s what some of the most competitive airlines are doing with the things that matter: Seats, food, in-flight entertainment (IFE), overall comfort and new improvements.
Jet Airways
Seats: Passengers rate Jet Premiere among the best in its class. Long-haul flights offer a 180° flat bed with lumbar support and massage systems, an oversized table, power points, telephony, SMS, email and live text news.
Food: Maintains a fairly high standard of in-flight dining and service.
IFE: Panasonic, with audio/video-on-demand (AVOD) on most flights
What’s New: Jet Konnect Select — a new class priced between business and economy — will feature wider, more comfortable seats with more leg-room on its Boeing 737s, complementary hot meals, reading material and a welcome drink, lounge access and priority check-in at dedicated counters.
Kingfisher
COMFORT ZONE Kingfisher's business class
Seats: Kingfisher First has in-seat massagers, laptop and mobile charger and USB ports on every seat. You can get your spectacles cleaned and jackets ironed on international flights.
Food: Silver thali cuisine for Indian food lovers. All-day dining service and an Air-lounge on the long-haul planes that invites passengers to break the ice.
IFE: A tub of popcorn with movies, multiplayer gaming, Live TV.
Travel Comfort: They call you a ‘guest’ and they treat you like one.
Whats New: Flights to the Gulf, Far East and Europe.
British Airways
Seats: Club World only survives on longer routes. The arrangement where the seats face each other (with a partition that can be pulled up for privacy) is still unique. In at least some of the seats, you are spared from leaping
over your sleeping co-passenger, a feat only Singapore Airlines, with its all-aisle-seats have managed. Food: While the food has mixed reviews, the wine cellar is imaginatively sourced and stocked with both old and new world wines. Hot dishes from the Club kitchen for Club World passengers, like soups and chicken tikka, are great for those in-between times when you feel pekish on a long flight.
IFE: High Life Entertainment (AVOD) offers about 100 movies, TV shows and 20 games.
Travel Comfort: Relax in the lounge. Enjoy a pre-flight supper. After a nightcap or a snack, sleep undisturbed until breakfast in bed, just before landing at Heathrow.
What’s New: Very classy new first class inspired by private jets and luxury cars like Jaguar and Aston Martin to be rolled out. A £100m makeover to woo the upper crust.
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