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Emirates new B777 business class seats
Emirates has unveiled a new Business Class cabin and configuration on its B777-200LR aircraft, with new wider seats laid out in a 2-2-2 configuration for the first time. Don’t get too excited as there are only 10 of these B777-200LR aircraft in the fleet. However, for me it is a good step in the right direction to providing a more uniform product across Emirates fleet. The 2-3-2 configuration as these aircraft had previously is very outdated now compared with their Middle Eastern competitors at 1-2-1 in business class. Hopefully, they will do the same for all their current B777-300s which still feature the 2-3-2 seating. The A380 is definitely the pick of the seating styles for me in 1-2-1. You can read about the new B777’s entering Emirates fleet and their 2-2-2 seats in this article.
The B777-200 aircraft has a two-class configuration with 38 Business Class seats and 264 seats in Economy. While the Business Class seats are in the same design and shape of Emirates’ latest lie-flat seats, they are now two inches wider which is good news. The seats still have the same colour and pattern leather cover but now have the same ergonomically designed headrest as the new Boeing 777s. Emirates proudly announced in the press release that they have removed the overhead bins to”give an airier and more spacious feel on board”. Personally, I would rather not have people leaning over me to get their stuff out if I was sitting in the aisle seat!
A couple of more interesting features are the electronic windows a new Business Class cabin”a social area”. Emirates call this a “mini lounge” which will have snacks such as crisps, sandwiches and fruit and drinks for customers to help themselves to during the flight. I really don’t think you can call this a lounge, mini or otherwise or indeed a social area but it is a useful space to help yourself to something and stretch your legs.
Ritz Carlton Abu Dhabi offer from £141
I have featured the Ritz Carlton in Abu Dhabi a few times as they are often on offer with Secret Escapes. The latest offer is very similar to the previous ones and includes bed, breakfast and dinner. The Venetian-inspired Ritz-Carlton hotel offers a private beachfront setting by the famous Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. It is opposite the Shangri La where I stayed in November. If you haven’t been to Abu Dhabi and think it is the same as Dubai you may be surprised. I found Abu Dhabi much quieter and more relaxed than Dubai, the perfect spot for a relaxing beach break. The hotel has 8 restaurants and an ESPA spa if you just want to stay in the hotel. If you want to get out and about the Louvre Museum recently opened in Abu Dhabi.
It gets great reviews on TripAdvisor which you can read here.
Secret Escapes is a members-only website with hand-picked hotels, holidays and exclusive offers. They guarantee to offer the best rates online during a sale. Every week they run up to 140 short ‘flash sales’ lasting around ten days each. It is free to join and if you use this link to sign up you will receive £15 credit off your first booking.
The Ritz Carlton deal even includes dinner (probably a buffet though) which makes it great value for money:
- Accommodation in a Deluxe Guest room based on 2 sharing
- Breakfast included
- Dinner for 2
The Deluxe rooms have Nespresso machines, large soaking tubs and a separate rain shower. They are one category up from the entry level Venetian room.
The price of £141 per room per night is available for stays May until September whereas in March, April and October to December the price rises to £203. I had a look at a couple of websites to compare the dates. The majority of the time Secret Escapes was much cheaper when you factor in that the included breakfast is worth a staggering £34 per person, let alone dinner. There was the odd date where there wasn’t much in it, so as always I advise checking against other booking sites prices on TripAdvisor before deciding. There is also a local tax of 15AED per room per night collected at the hotel and a £10 booking fee.
You can find Secret Escapes here.
Titan BA charters
BA are using a number of companies to operate services for them this year due to a shortage of aircraft. The biggest operator of these is Titan who are operating a large number of flights from Gatwick. You can find the full list in this article. Be advised that the routes listed will only have Titan aircraft on certain days. The easiest way to tell whether it affects your flights is to go into Manage my booking and click on the flight where it will state who it is operated by. You can also usually see this information on google flights too.
The first reports of the Titan flights have been emerging on Flyertalk. At the moment it looks like my flights to Catania will be BA operated which is a shame as I was hoping to be able to report back!
As I suspected from reading previous reports, it doesn’t sound like we have much to worry about flying on Titan. Obviously, they have different aircraft but the majority will be on their A320s which have 2 different seating configurations but still 3-3 layout. On the most recent report, there was a divider between Club and Euro Traveller and plastic tables across the blocked middle seats in Club Europe. They are using the usual Club Europe branded food and drinks. So if you are in Club Europe you should have a good experience although the crew may be slower than BA as they are obviously not used to the Club Europe service.
Titan also have streaming entertainment to your own device via an inflight Wi-Fi connection for free. The system enables you to stream digital content (ranging from films and TV series to newspapers, magazines and music) to your iPad, iPhone, Kindle tablet or Google Android device. To access the digital content onboard, you will need to download the Titan App prior to departure with one of these links:
- Apple iOS http://itunes.com/apps/titanife
- Google Android https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=aero.mim.titan&hl=en
- Amazon Kindle http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00WWOXFMM
or by searching for “Titan Inflight” in the appropriate App store.
In Euro Traveller they are offering a free snack such as cheese croissant and drinks which is a step up from Buy on board with BA!
17 comments
The Titan android link appears to be broken…..
I will double check but should be able to find it from searching for Titan in the store.
Hi Nigel. I have corrected it in the article. It was wrong on the Titan website! The correct link is https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=aero.mim.titan&hl=en
The Titan media service is great, if you fancy a bit of comedy i could certainly recommend watching ‘I’m Sorry’. I’m trying to find it in the UK but this is proving to be difficult
Thanks for the tip Nick. I haven’t heard of that show. Is it from the US?
Would have been useful to include a bit about flight costs/deals to Abu Dhabi in the Ritz Carlton piece.
I’m almost hoping to get Titan when we book CE soon as the food looks better than BA, probably the service will be better also.
Me too Adam! The food is the same as BA, it depends on the length of the route but there are definitely some advantages to Titan like the entertainment.
Is the legroom any better on Titan?
It depends which A320 they use. They have definitely been using the lower configuration on the BA flights from Gatwick with 168 seats recently but there is nothing to say they won’t also use the higher density aircraft. They have a minimum of 31″ on their low-density A320 with 168 seats versus BA at 30″ on their European A320/A321. It doesn’t state anywhere what their high-density A320 has but given most A320s with the same config usually have 29-30″, that’s what I would expect.
Thanks Michelle
I checked ba.com MMB and on my upcoming BA flight LGW > FARO A320 has 30 rows…..the return on Titan A320 has 28 rows so based purely on the number of seats there should certainly be more legroom and space on Titan.
Good news!
The Emirates “social area” looks a lot like what Qatar do on their 787/A350 flights in Business. I’ve never used it, because I’ve always been intercepted by a helpful member of cabin crew who gets what I want from the galley! You’d probably feel a bit odd standing there for a while, and it’s not a patch on their A380 bar areas
That’s what I thought Nick. Very like the QR ones. I’ve never used them either.!
MMB finally shows my Catania flight as operated by Titan, with that leg in red on the BA app. And a note saying that ours seats have changed – from A/C to C/D. I have switched them back, but with almost all seats still selectable, why would they have changed them to aisle seats in the first place? Maybe worth checking your seat allocation if you booked as BA and are now flying with Titan.
Hi Geoff. Hopefully, you have a good experience. I suspect the seat change is when they moved the seats over to the new aircraft type it is probably just some computer algorithm. Do you both have aisle seats set as your preference in your profile?
I’ve flown Titan a few times, they are highly experienced crew and you often have ex-BA cabin service directors or similar on board. They used to have 757s but now it’s all airbus and they still have BAs A318. Sometimes the service can slip, but then when has BA service ever been consistently 100%…
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