British Airways boast themselves for "defining 21st Century Air Travel” with a range of new products and services. And whilst BA is indeed a very innovative airline, it still hasn't invented the right medicine against its greatest flaws: wrong focus and bad attitude. And bad taste, I should add.

BA's newest invention in "21st Century Air Travel” is the New Club World. This is the first intercontinental Business Class which offers full flat beds, and as far as I am aware, no other airline has yet announced to follow suit and install the same set-up in its business cabin. A fancy feature is that some of the seats/beds are installed the other way round, i.e. you are facing the back of the plane. Time will show if premium passengers will accept the unusual experience of flying backwards.

So for the time being, Business Class passengers have to endure the Old Club World, with the infamous "Cradle seats”. With 50 inch seat pitch, ergonomic design, far recline and inseat video these once used to be among the best business class seats in the air. But other airlines have long caught up and overtaken BA by fitting better seats with greater comfort, inseat video games, phones and laptop connection. And the last time I sat in a Cradle Seat a year ago, it looked old and worn.

Old and new alike, the World Traveller class resembles a modern form of cattle transport. The seat pitch is a mere 31 inches, like that of the cheapest charter airlines and far behind the 34-35 inches offered by other European airlines such as Lufthansa and Swissair. If you're afraid of dying from "Economy Class Syndrome” (Thrombosis caused by lack of movement), then you would rather avoid British Airways on long haul flights.

The whole product revamp on BA's long haul fleet is taking far too long for my taste. The last time that German carrier Lufthansa – which has an almost equally large intercontinental fleet – undertook a renewal, this took exactly three months. British Airways have been advertising their 21st Century Air Travel initiative since the end of year 2000. Now, seven month on, only a fraction of the fleet has been fitted with the new interior. Indeed customers may be misled by the advertisements, believing that they can already benefit from the inventions, when indeed on most routes they still can't.

Another shame are the tiny rolls or sandwiches served on short European flights in Economy Class. A handful of European airlines, including BA and Lufthansa, have decided that Economy passengers are no longer worth a real meal (which would cost them less than £2 each) and have adopted a service that comes close to the British and American no frills airlines. Fair enough, if I want to travel on no frills flight, I can equally book a low-cost airline, and I am increasingly doing so. If you don't want my business, you won't get it. But don't ask me to come back when I am flying on full fare ticket on my business trips.

British Airways seem to divide their customers into upper and working class. As an Economy Class passenger without Executive Class status, you are often treated as a second class citizen. You will find it hard to receive any special attention and will be moved around like cattle. BA staff seem to have a problem with a friendly smile. It is either non existent, or of the frozen, false kind. And just too often I have found BA flight attendants in the Economy cabin lecturing me instead of serving me.

Nonetheless, BA have proved to be absolute novices at other areas of E-Business. Their website is mediocre to say the least, and I can hardly imagine anyone booking a flight through this portal. Navigation is an absolute mess with information scattered around different parts of the site, and functionality is very scarce. An online check-in function and WAP functionality were only added in the last couple of months. They still have a lot to learn in this field from technology leader Lufthansa.

As much as I appreciate British Airways' service to premium customers and their continuos innovations, I am rather disappointed of their handling of budget travellers. What BA doesn't realise is that business people also travel on private holidays – mostly in Economy Class – and would expect an equally friendly and helpful service. To BA, economy class passengers are obviously not human beings, but freight cargo.