Hey {{first name | reader}},

Happy Friday! Coffee's ready, and today we're diving into one of aviation's most debated products: British Airways First Class. Is it actually "first class," or just business with better branding?

Here's what's inside today's post:

Dan's latest video is all about British Airways First Class – and let's just say, it's… first class by name more than by experience.

A few highlights from his trip Heathrow - Doha:

Ground experience: The Concorde Room at Heathrow is genuinely lovely – great à la carte dining, terrace with runway views, strong drinks menu. But beyond the lounge, there's no real "first class ground treatment" like you get with Air France La Première, SWISS, or Lufthansa (escorts, private cars, etc.). You basically connect like a business-class passenger with a fancier waiting room.

Onboard hard product: The new BA First seat looks modern and private with a door, decent storage, and a big TV. But when you compare it to what other airlines call "first" (or even top-tier business), it feels more like a solid business suite with a different label.

Service inconsistencies: There were also multiple "we didn't get that loaded today" moments – no olives for one passenger, missing champagne type, an issue with special-meal starter, long waits, all things you shouldn't expect when flying First Class. On a product that can retail for £5,000 - 10,000 roundtrip… that's rough.

The good bits: The crew themselves were charming and very British in the best way. The main courses and the pre-arrival meal ended up being genuinely tasty, Wi-Fi was fast and free, and the cabin feels cozy once the door is closed and the bed's made.

Bottom line: If the price is the same as other first class products (Air France, SWISS, Lufthansa, JAL, ANA, Emirates, etc.), there's almost no reason to choose BA. As a paid product, it's probably one of the weakest-value "true" first classes out there.

But… if you can get it on points for a reasonable out-of-pocket cost, it suddenly becomes a lot more interesting.

Which leads nicely into…

The silver lining: BA First might be underwhelming for £10k cash, but it's one of the more attainable first-class cabins in the world if you're using miles.

A few key angles:

BA releases a decent amount of First award space on many routes, especially between London and North America, the Middle East, and Asia. You can book those via the British Airways Club with Avios.

The catch: surcharges. BA is famous for high carrier-imposed fees on long-haul redemptions out of London. But there are ways to soften the blow:

You can also book BA First using:

Partners often see the same award seats BA releases to its own members, but:

The downside: BA First space booked with partners can be harder to find on premium routes, because BA doesn't always release many "F" seats to partners.

If you're based in the UK/Europe, there are a few extra tricks:

And this is exactly the kind of trade-off we focus on in Points Master: how to turn "no way I'm paying that" cabins into "ok, for that number of points and that cash, it's actually worth it."

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Yesterday I saw a reel on Instagram about the Concorde (my algorithm falls heavily into aviation hahahaha), and it got me thinking. Let's talk speed.

Concorde was the icon of what people call the "golden age" of aviation. It entered service in the 1970s and linked cities like London - New York and Paris - New York in about three hours, cruising at around Mach 2 (roughly twice the speed of sound). On paper it was unbeatable: you'd leave Europe after lunch and be in Manhattan in time for an afternoon meeting, watching the Mach meter tick past 2.0 while the wing heated up outside your tiny window.

But the reality on board was a lot less glamorous than the marketing. Concorde's cabin was very narrow, with a 2 - 2 layout and fairly tight pitch. Think more "premium economy / old-school business" than anything like today's long-haul flat beds. There were no suites, no lie-flat seats, no showers – the magic was purely in going incredibly fast and being part of this exclusive club that could afford it. Tickets were incredibly expensive, and behind the scenes the economics were brutal: fuel burn was massive, maintenance costs were huge, and the aircraft could only carry about 100 passengers. Add on the restrictions of the sonic boom (you could only go supersonic over water) and the usefulness of the plane was limited from day one.

In the end, a combination of factors killed Concorde: high operating costs, noise and environmental concerns, a tragic crash in 2000, and the post-9/11 aviation downturn. Both Air France and British Airways retired their fleets in 2003, and since then supersonic travel has basically lived only in nostalgia and CGI concept videos. There are serious attempts to bring it back – projects like Boom's "Overture" and NASA's X-59 are trying to solve things like the sonic boom and efficiency – but there are still huge questions around regulation, environmental impact, and whether enough people would actually pay the fares needed to make these planes viable.

Concorde gave you insane speed, but the seat itself was closer to a slightly-fancy economy chair. Meanwhile, today you can fly in incredible First and Business class cabins like JAL's A350, ANA "The Room" Business class and "The Suite" First class, Air France La Première, Emirates, or Singapore's top products – fully flat beds, sometimes doors, lounges, amazing food, proper bedding – just at regular subsonic speeds.

Personally, I'd happily spend 12 hours in one of those modern first or business suites rather than 5 hours in a cramped supersonic cabin on the same route for twice the price. Instead of dreaming about shaving a couple hours off the flight in a tight seat, I'd rather stretch out in a suite, sleep properly, eat well, and step off the plane actually feeling human.

Supersonic speed is cool, but flying smart in real comfort,  especially on points, is what actually changes how you experience travel

That's it for today. Enjoy your weekend. More deals and strategies coming your way on Monday!

Catch you in the clouds, 

Tomi