TheHak

So am just finishing 3 weeks of a RTW ticket in first with a return to MCO with BA.

in this trip
2 F BA flights (to Miami, from Tokyo)
2 F CX flights (from LA and then to seoul)
1 F AA (miami LA)
2 F Qantas (to Sydney from HK)
1 C with JAL (seoul tokyo)
2 C with BA (LGW -MCO)

this is how I think they compare:

Hard product:
1 best: qantas A 380 first: best seat, best technology
2: CX: very good but not Qantas
3: BA NF: the best BA hard product but far from the CX standard
4: AA surpising from an internal us flight but very large and comfortable First seat fully lie flat
5: BA OF (from miami): close to AA but not clean
6: BA cw: still one of the best business seat but this plane was filthy. inches of dirt on the floor, popcorn?, toilets were a wreck
7: JAL (unfair but obviously the worst seat but better than a CE seat) and it had video on demand on the seat

Cabin Crew:
1. CX: cant be beat, smiling, funny, plenty of attention, talked about my latest flight on CX, etc...
2. Qantas: excellent but less personable, many attention to details.
3. JAL: very deferent and friendly
4. AA: friendly and funny
5. BA: far far behind. Unfriendly, cold and snobby. Not one greating, never called by name (sir did it instead). And was yelled at on my LGW-MCO flight: I told you to switch out your ipad (I had but the cabin manager thought it was still on because I had forgotten my earphones in my ears).

Food:
1. CX caviar etc...
2. Qantas: excellent
3. BA F: excellent fish
4. JAL: very good Japanese
5. AA: mmmm
6. BA Cw: tofu masala totally disgusting. Even if I tried I couldnt cook something that bad.

Delays:
My 8 last flights with BA all left with at least 1 hour delay (some came in close arrival time because of the room for error they leave). Most of these delays are linked to late arrival so not sure who to blame but certainly all other flights left on time

Lounges:
1. CX although first is in refurbishment (super cool noodle bar, super showers, super service)
2. CCR : food and service were not great but it is generally quiet
3. Qantas first in SYD: great food but v. crowded
4: JAL: not impressed, low quality food
5: Admirals lounge simply suck.
6. BA F in Gatwick: well I didnt make it inside and this stories examplifies how badly run BA is.

As a GGL I can take 2 guests flying BA in a F lounge. The problem is nobody is aware of the rule. so here i come with my 2 guests, there is a sign on the desk that says we reming you gold card holders can bring a single guest only. As I come in I ask if as a GGL I can bring 2 guests. I have a totally exasperated answer of the lounge dragon pointing me at the sign. Totally unfriendly. I then nicely claim that perhaps there is a difference if I am GGL. So the dragon says she will call one of the senior person who confirms it is one guest only. She then scolds me for putting pressure on her and trying to bend the rules. Hmmm ok.

Then the superior comes with a plastified sheet of paper that shows that as a GGL I am allowed to one guest only (only the sheet was wrong as it was for flights operated by oneworld carriers so I ask him to bring the one with BA operated flights, he tells me it s the same thing. I argue for him to go and get it, he gets aggressive and leaves to go and get it)

In the meangime i call the GGL line. The person there has no clue. After 5 mins on the line waiting he says he checked with colleagues and that I can bring 2 guests but only in galleris lounges.

Finally the superior comes back with the correct sheet and on which it clearly states I can bring 2 guests in any lounge (but CCR) regardless of cabin flown. Instead of apolodgizing he just claimed rules change all the time.

by the time all this was over, we had lost 30 mins and it was time to board. Obviously it has something funny about it in how incomepetent and unfriendly staff can be. Seriously I wonder if they dont think they make us the honor of letting us fly the airline.

BA surely compares very poorly.

MANCHESTER

It's funny how people have different experiences! I started this thread last month saying how much I didn't rate CX http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...just-good.html

Having made the return a couple of weeks later, my thoughts remained unchanged. I found the Pier F section pretty dull, and the food buffet very average. Onboard the service was slow, the red wine cold (again) and the IFE faulty. Flight was full so I couldn't move. I complained, they tried to reset it a few times, but it was to no avail. Not the crews fault, but they made no effort to compensate. I actually complained to the CSD near the end of the flight about the long waits for food, tops ups with wine, failed IFE etc. She took it on board and did nothing!! I also followed up with an email and was offered 5000 Asia miles, which I don't collect.

Yes the seat is good, but that's it in my experience.

Conversely, I've just done a BA F return to JFK, much more to my liking! Food was better (apart from the caviar), wines good, proper temp and constantly topped up. Lounges great, queues to board no worse than CX etc.

My next trip is EY F, am hoping that's better than CX!

Would love to try QF F, that I have a feeling may be the best out there....

GavT_london

Personally i thought QF F was outstanding on the A380, service good and swift but not overbearing or 'fakely deferential' (Which it can be on BA). Seat was comfortable and spacious and IFE excellent (never flickered once), the only thing i could fault them on was the whole seat facing forward during take off and then tilt to the side to recline which I wasnt overly keen on as there is a bit of a lack of legroom to stretch out when upright (obviously this doenst last long after take off)
QF Lounge in syd is good and beats CCR for service and selection but was quite busy and full of QF FF's - oh and they messed up on the spa bookings but squeezed me in.

BingBongBoy

So, what is your strategy now?

Avoid BA at all costs? Fly other OW airlines where possible?

correctioncx

Fly on BA with flights u r scheduled on

TheHak

Based around lhr it wouldbe unreasonable toavoid Ba but for instance wheno booked the rtw ticketi had chosena jal F return. I actually got a call from ba to suggest to change to ba which i did. Wont do that again

happeemonkee

Unbelievable that this lounge entrance issue is still happening. Very poor form on BA's part. Not just the issue with not letting you in, it seems like some of the lounge staff need retraining in good customer service and manners. There's no need for an attitude like that.

BingBongBoy

Is this not where your LH SEN status could come into play?

Surely Star Alliance via a German hub offers you a viable alternative to BA if you really feel that strongly about BA's poor performance.

LCY8737

Maybe lounge access rules are just a bit too complicated? The number of stories on here seem to tell an endless tale of BA staff not knowing the rules and BA frequent fliers not knowing the rules either...

As for the comparison: I find that hard product and crew is usually the deciding factor. Let's face it: No B747/A380 will ever compete with a top restaurant/hotel/cinema/...

There are things to improve: Club World needs upgrading. Old First needs to go. Planes need cleaning. But all of these are in the category of first world problems. If I do LHR-HKG I might prefer CX. Would I do LHR-HKG-BKK on CX if the other option was LHR-BKK on BA? Very unlikely!

mfgr

corporate-wage-slave

While I personally have not had a problem with 2 guests at Flounge, there are so many credible reports of staff getting confused that it's difficult to say anything positive about it. The fact that the GGL team did not know is amazing. I would raise a webform on it, these are now processed by GGL, and be speicific as to the time you called. They at least really should know, since this is the department which sent out the letter telling members of this "new" privilege (2 years old now?). You shouldn't have to do it, but maybe take the Hillier letter with you next time?

There is one known problem, that staff do not know how to check GGL status. It can be done, but again the training is lacking for this.

Land-of-Miles

I was initially told my CCR Card did not allow me to take a guest into the CCR prior to a flight last week. No less than 3 lounge dragons confirmed this before I suggested they checked their documentation and refresh their memory.

This really just is not good enough.

corporate-wage-slave

I agree there. I've very occasionally been queried about CCR guests, but I just say "CCR is one guest, Qantas Chairman is 2" and that irrelevant side issue seems to end the disccusion. In the white folder it's towards the top of the page, just above BA Directors' guests bit (one for them too!).

TheHak

same type of argument than when a foreigner criticises the uk and gets a ' if you don't like it leave it'.

First I will never delay or reroute for an airline. Direct routes will always have my priority.

Second I still think BA has one of the best business hard products. Some people feel a little claustrophobic about cw but i love the privacy and it can hardly be beaten.

BA F on the other hand is one of the poorest around imho, so yes if i can pay first I will certainly look for other options (so long the route is direct)

Finally, whilst cabin crew is hit or miss, the lounge people are absolutely terrible. The worst of any worldwide by a huge margin. Its almost as they have a saddistic pleasure of turning you down. They need a huge huge training and understand they are part of a service industry not prison wardens.

mfgr

i think the 'service industry' part, whilst relevant, isn't the most important thing. It's the fact that they are dealing with the airlines most frequent customers that should be ringing alarm bells.