Friday, February 13, 2009

Airline Seat Reviews - New BOOT segment

New segment here at the BOOT. Last year I flew more miles than any time in my life. This year does not look as frantic but I still feel there is a lot of ranting and boot putting in to go with airline seats. I also have found myself flying international economy again giving me another perspective to share with readers. I will be rating seats based on five categories

1. The getting on board - covering check in and boarding

2. The Seat - facilities, comfort etc

3. The Food - quality, quantity, timing etc

4. The Service - how they treat me

5. The Entertainment - how they keep me entertained

6. BOOT factor - is there something special or notable about the flight

When someone asks me a question about a seat on a flight they don't want an answer that is a score out of ten. Instead they want to know if the seat on a flight is either "not good", "good enough" or "great". Therefore this will be my (simplified) scoring system. I will give each category either a score of zero (not good enough), half (good enough) or one (great). A total of less than 3 means a final score of not good enough, between 3 and 4.5 means good and 5 or more means great. Critically the scoring will be in reference to price/expectation. Therefore it is possible for an economy seat to get a score of great and a business class seat a score of good. Enough with the preamble - let's get to the reviews.

Reviews so far

1. Qantas international economy seat review

2. Singapore international business class (Raffles Class) seat review (inc A380)

3. British Airways Club World long haul

4. United Airlines Business Class

5. Japan Airlines International Business Class

6. Qantas international premium economy (A380)

7. Virgin Atlantic Upper Class

8. British Airways World Traveller Plus

9. Cathay Pacific Business Class

10. Air New Zealand Economy Class (trans-tasman)

11. Virgin Atlantic Premium Economy



2 comments:

tlukec said...

Tim,
Along with the new "Boot factor" for air travel, I thought you might like to add an instructional video entitled something like:

"The Boot's Airline Upgrades Guide- appropriate etiquette and how to handle denied requests".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbVw7entkxg

Tim Hughes said...

@tlukec - wow. I have been that made at airlines but never had the guts to let it show