Airliners.net

I was recently in London; I flew there on BA's 747 DEN-LHR return. I flew in World Traveller Plus (WT+). I was quite happy with the seat and product.

I noticed, both on the SeatGuru for this version of the BA 747 and when I was on board, that WT+ is located in zone B, just behind First (in zone A) and just ahead of Club World (zone C), and standard WT is located as normal in the remaining zones further aft. Other versions of BA 747 have their WT+ located behind Club World and ahead of WT.

What is the reason for this configuration?

SmithAir747

Knowing absolutely nothing about this, but looking at Seat Guru...it seems like its a perfect fit right there for that size.

A bit of "Tetris" I guess...

I think it was reconfigured from the 70 J version and maybe they didn't want to split the lower deck J cabin into 2 separate section. Also by putting the W on that section, they only need to re-position 1 bulkhead instead of 2; so it might save some man hour.

This config is about 14 years old now. When the initial update of the current club world cabin BA had the option of placing 18 NCW seats into B-Zone or 32 into C-Zone by moving WTP into B-Zone!

Was all a matter of economics. They will be gone from service soon enough however.

Those reasons all sound logical to me.

Anyway, this was my first time ever sitting ahead of the wing on a 747; I've always been in Y, usually near the last set of doors (where the taper reduces the side blocks of seats from 3 to 2 creating room to creep out between the window seat and the window in the last row to go to the aft lavs). Having WT+ situated in zone B made it possible to fly near the front of the 747, and was quite comfortable.

SmithAir747

Are these hi-J 747s then?

Is DEN served mainly by these frames, or are a mix of 747 configurations used on this route?

SmithAir747

The slightly odd configuration came about when the 747 fleet was streamlined about 10 years ago.

I believe the old versions of the B747-400 were;
Low-J 38 Club World seats
High-J 70 Club a World seats

At the time the role of the 747 fleet was changing as B777 deliveries continued, with some of the later deliveries having no First seating. And also the 747 was no longer being used at LGW. These later 777s assumed some of the roles of the Low-J 747s.

So a new configuration was introduced, to take advantage of the size of the aircraft, increasing J capacity and reducing the size of the economy cabin. The Mid-J with 52 seats. This inserted the WTP cabin in zone B, keeping zone C in the same configuration of all 747s being used. The Low-J configuration was phased out... all aircraft became Mid-J or High-J.

More recently all the High-J aircraft were converted to Super High-J with 86 Club World seats, and IFE and other upgrades throughout the aircraft. Now around 50% of the remaining Mid-J aircraft are being given similar upgrades, obviously the ones staying the longest. The first aircraft has just received the new Panasonic IFE and refeshed seat covers, carpets and curtains.

Best Regards
CROSSWIND

By the way, I was on G-CIVK (Oneworld livery) outbound DEN-LHR and on another Oneworld livery 747 back from LHR-DEN.

SmithAir747