I mean, there certainly is a class of travellers who are absolutely willing to pay extra for time, as proven by BA's direct London to New York flight, that is very unusual in that
1) it's serviced directly from London City airport, which is tiny, but also closest you can get to the city centre by air
2) because of how short that airport is, BA ordered special shortened Airbus A318 that is only made in a full business class configuration(only 32 seats) and it only ever flies on that one route. And even then it's actually too far for its range, so it makes a quick stop in Ireland to refuel before crossing the Atlantic first.
I'm reasonably certain that paying extra for this special flight saves you more than 90 minutes compared to taking a conventional one from Heathrow, no matter which class you'd travel.
> 2) because of how short that airport is, BA ordered special shortened Airbus A318 that is only made in a full business class configuration(only 32 seats) and it only ever flies on that one route. And even then it's actually too far for its range, so it makes a quick stop in Ireland to refuel before crossing the Atlantic first.
It's only too far for its range when flying from an airfield _with a runway the length of City_. From Heathrow it could do the flight non-stop: it just can't take off with so heavy from City.
Heathrow also doesn't have US preclearance which it relies on to justify the longer flight time due to the stop. (And it would be an utter waste of a slot at Heathrow: why would you use up one of your slots at Heathrow for a refuelling stop when you could instead fly to an airport which isn't slot limited?)
While the stop in Ireland is unfortunate, they at least pre-clear US immigration there. Which is nice to avoid in NYC airports if you don’t have a trusted traveller bypass of some sort.
1) it's serviced directly from London City airport, which is tiny, but also closest you can get to the city centre by air
2) because of how short that airport is, BA ordered special shortened Airbus A318 that is only made in a full business class configuration(only 32 seats) and it only ever flies on that one route. And even then it's actually too far for its range, so it makes a quick stop in Ireland to refuel before crossing the Atlantic first.
I'm reasonably certain that paying extra for this special flight saves you more than 90 minutes compared to taking a conventional one from Heathrow, no matter which class you'd travel.