Hacker News Reader

Comment by gadders | Hacker News Reader

My old boss discovered that there is a class higher than first with British Airways when he found himself on a flight with the research analyst from Goldman Sachs that covered the airline sector.

View on HN

There actually is a formal version of "extreme status" on BA, in the form of a Black Card [1] [2]. Basically, you need to be something like "the guy responsible for the travel spend at big corp" and each membership is approved by the board.

Benefits supposedly include delaying an entire airliner by up to half an hour if you are running late, and it's so rare many lounge staff will deny you entry, not understanding what the card is.

[1] http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-clu...

[2] http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/general_aviation/re...

Regardless of the hearsay posted on FlyerTalk, I find it very difficult to believe any Big Corp would allow a purchasing manager to accept any kind of personal kickback from a supplier, period. Maybe a small corp like the principal of a small consulting firm that does a lot of travel, but no publicly traded company would allow this.

>I find it very difficult to believe any Big Corp would allow a purchasing manager to accept any kind of personal kickback from a supplier, period.

Why not? Lots of big corps allow their staff to keep stuff like loyalty points so its not too big of a jump. Plus big corps run on policies...and there is rarely a policy in place to cover 1 head honcho.

Because most of the Big Corps have complete internal policies about exactly what's acceptable and what isn't, to the level of actual values of any gifts. This means for example giving someone a spare gift card would be violation of the policy if the receiving party was the user or a potential buyer of some product. It's not that there would be a policy to cover 1 head honcho - there's usually a policy for everyone, with maybe only potentially exceptions for the head honcho.

Yes I know - I'm in one of those Big Corps, so I know the whole spiel about gift registers etc. In practice "indirect" benefits like these fly under the radar. Its just too much hassle & admin to catch everything.

Obviously if there is a direct link between say a contract given and an airline upgrade that would just be fraud. Thats not the scenario I meant.

Whenever I try to imagine nilth class travelers, all I come up with is Hedonism-Bot from Futurama, giggling and eating grapes. Surrounded by giggling gynoid party-bots. In a solid gold hot tub filled with champagne. Entertained by a live string quartet. Plus Bootsy Collins on electric bass. As flakes of 99.995% pure cocaine gently fall from the ceiling, like snow.

As I don't ever get de luxe accommodation, I simply have no basis for imagining plus luxe.

Prior to deregulation, American Airlines used to lug around a grand piano in their first class lounges on 747s.

Not a grand piano AFAIK (which might be difficult to get into the first class lounge on a 747--not sure what sort of access there is besides the staircase), but they did have a piano bar: http://unroadwarrior.boardingarea.com/2010/07/21/the-747-pia...

Obviously, nilth class passengers would have a five hundred grand piano (4.5m long). In addition to the regular 88 keys, it has another 14 (C0-Ab0, C#8-F8), to play the notes that only rich people can hear.

Who wouldn't want their own armrest?

Sounds good, where do I sign up?

I imagine you're referring to high-roller passengers, who spend so much on a given airline they get extra perks like complimentary chauffered limo service and high-end hotel stays around all trips. For actual travel though, they still have the same seating arrangements on the plane as other first class passengers.

Sorry - it was not a formal extra class, but clearly his name had been flagged on the BA systems so he got extra special service compared to everyone else in first class.

Pfft, limo service (more like an S-Class, not an actual limo) is available to anyone on Virgin Atlantic flying Upper Class.

Technically speaking, it needn't be a longer-than-usual-wheelbase to be considered a limousine. (Though if strictly defining a limo, it should have a partition between you and the chauffer.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limousine

FWIW, stretch limos are really only appropriate for larger parties of more than 2, for conducting business.

Not that anybody today should care, and I can't remember where I learned this, but effectively, a limo used to just mean "car". Business people and big execs would use limos so that they could continue working while in transit, and not have to deal with the distraction of having to talk to cabbies and whatnot.

Stretch limos were employed to conduct business on the go with larger parties, again, so that business would not be interrupted despite the need for travel.

It wasn't until hollywood and prom-goers decided that limousine effectively equated to stretch limousine and started using them 'inappropriately' that the connotation became what it is today.

He was treated like a high roller, as his comments in research notes would directly affect the BA share price.

Are we talking service level or seats? Off the top of my head nobody but Etihad has real 4-class seat configurations (Not counting economy+).

Edit: I'm curious as to what was downvote-worthy about this comment?

Concorde Class

Reply on news.ycombinator.com