Today's Hilliergram - Utterly rage inducing
Mar 10, 2015, 6:25 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Betwixt SEA and LHR
Programs: BAEC GGL/CCR, AS Gold MVP, IC RA, IHG Spire Elite, HH Diamond, Dennis The Menace Fan Club
Posts: 1,354
Today's Hilliergram - Utterly rage inducing
Everyone else got their Hilliergram today? How can BA be serious? They kick BAEC members in the teeth with all the recent 'enhancements' and then they spout forth about how wonderful their service is....
Do BA not understand how ill-judged missives like this are?
"Dear opalfruit,
If you have a business trip pencilled in, why not take a look at how we're making things easier for you? We've handpicked ways we think we can make your journey as smooth as possible. Not to mention a host of great offers.
See how you can get the most from your journey today."
The offers and 'handpicked ways' are as follows:
Free one-way First upgrade - only if you book semi-flex CW return and travel within the next 30 days. Amazing!
- I'd imagine that the cheapest way to take advantage of this offer (remembering you need to travel within the next 30 days) would be to spend £2.5k on a semi-flex ticket to DME. Which is great, except you can buy a straight F return on the same plane for £2k! Yes, I realise flex-vs-non-flex, but it hardly qualifies as a free upgrade.
A derisory bonus Avios offer, if you fly on selected routes, on semi-flex or above fares.
- Earn 7k Avios if you book an F return (5k in CW, 2.5k in W, 1k in full-fare Y!) to a handful of destinations. Such generosity!
More flights from City Airport!
- This is merely robbing Peter to pay Paul - for every new service, another one gets cut. Yes, there's some new Mediterranean bucket and spade destinations, but not enough services to business and financial centres.
Hand baggage fares from only £39 from Gatwick!
Icing on the cake. Brilliant. Thanks for the hot discount BA, which is not at all offset by the seat selection charges you've just introduced on these fares.
I remain utterly convinced that BA are actively trying to shed BAEC custom - the EC is an expensive add-on to maintain for their target LCC model, so slim it down and keep hold of the long-haul luxury fliers and to hell with the rest.
Rage inducing.
Do BA not understand how ill-judged missives like this are?
"Dear opalfruit,
If you have a business trip pencilled in, why not take a look at how we're making things easier for you? We've handpicked ways we think we can make your journey as smooth as possible. Not to mention a host of great offers.
See how you can get the most from your journey today."
The offers and 'handpicked ways' are as follows:
Free one-way First upgrade - only if you book semi-flex CW return and travel within the next 30 days. Amazing!
- I'd imagine that the cheapest way to take advantage of this offer (remembering you need to travel within the next 30 days) would be to spend £2.5k on a semi-flex ticket to DME. Which is great, except you can buy a straight F return on the same plane for £2k! Yes, I realise flex-vs-non-flex, but it hardly qualifies as a free upgrade.
A derisory bonus Avios offer, if you fly on selected routes, on semi-flex or above fares.
- Earn 7k Avios if you book an F return (5k in CW, 2.5k in W, 1k in full-fare Y!) to a handful of destinations. Such generosity!
More flights from City Airport!
- This is merely robbing Peter to pay Paul - for every new service, another one gets cut. Yes, there's some new Mediterranean bucket and spade destinations, but not enough services to business and financial centres.
Hand baggage fares from only £39 from Gatwick!
Icing on the cake. Brilliant. Thanks for the hot discount BA, which is not at all offset by the seat selection charges you've just introduced on these fares.
I remain utterly convinced that BA are actively trying to shed BAEC custom - the EC is an expensive add-on to maintain for their target LCC model, so slim it down and keep hold of the long-haul luxury fliers and to hell with the rest.
Rage inducing.
Mar 10, 2015, 6:36 am
#4
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: The greatest wee nation on earth.
Programs: Iron Maiden FC, GE, Rapidly falling down the Tiers to oblivion.
Posts: 2,604
The email actually made me chuckle as i knew it would come straight on here for more enertaining discussion. I definitely like how everything on it is pretty much completely irrelevant to my flying habits (which are going to zero anyway). I like more lcy flights as i will take scotland to europe connections through lcy any day, but more flights to current destinations wont help as the existing were fine for me. Oh well, i await the next email with glee!
Mar 10, 2015, 6:38 am
#5
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Provincie Antwerpen, Vlaanderen, België
Programs: MUCCI Gold
Posts: 2,512
Somewhere at Waterside there's a Tupperware lunchbox containing a small number of low-cost/zero-cost marketing promos written on folded up bits of paper.
A few days ago a few were pulled out of the box, and hey presto - handpicked.
A few days ago a few were pulled out of the box, and hey presto - handpicked.
Mar 10, 2015, 6:39 am
#6
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Kent, UK
Programs: BA Gold, SPG Platinum, Marriott Platinum, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 3,809
opalfruit, I'm not sure that I'd advise getting enraged by such an email. It seems like a lot of energy to expend on something that isn't particularly important
Mar 10, 2015, 6:52 am
#8
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Argentina
Posts: 40,242
Yes raising the blood pressure over something like this seems a bit OTT. Especially as it's easily fixed by changing the mailing preferences in your BAEC account.
Mar 10, 2015, 7:12 am
#9
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Moscow / Aylesbury / Leeds
Programs: BA-GGL, SU-G Agean, G,, Hhonours D, Starwood G, IHG G,
Posts: 1,531
Well b*gger me, a Hillergram that actually is beneficial.. I'm going to ORD... I had deleted it without reading until I saw this thread.
Note to self: occasionally Hillergrams have something worthwhile in them
Note to self: occasionally Hillergrams have something worthwhile in them
Mar 10, 2015, 7:28 am
#10
Join Date: May 2011
Posts: 2,379
I'm always perplexed by the seemingly never ending rants on here about this... It's like they live in a bubble and this is their only experience with seeing advertising.
A generic BA email sent to millions didn't give the same level of insight as a personal travel agent would!? Who would have thought!?
A generic BA email sent to millions didn't give the same level of insight as a personal travel agent would!? Who would have thought!?
Mar 10, 2015, 7:46 am
#11
Join Date: May 2007
Location: London, UK
Programs: BA Gold, AA EXP
Posts: 1,140
Wow, people really find this stuff "rage-inducing"? If that's the case then it's definitely time to just simply delete these emails or move on (probably both), for your own sake.
If an email from Lidl brought about such fury in me then I'd probably think it's time I had a change and tried Aldi. (We're clearly not talking Waitrose and M&S here.)
Nearly all emails that come from companies advertising special offers or whatever are hardly all they're cracked up to be so I don't expect BA to be any different in that regard.
If an email from Lidl brought about such fury in me then I'd probably think it's time I had a change and tried Aldi. (We're clearly not talking Waitrose and M&S here.)
Nearly all emails that come from companies advertising special offers or whatever are hardly all they're cracked up to be so I don't expect BA to be any different in that regard.
Mar 10, 2015, 7:54 am
#14
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Sheffield
Programs: BA Gold
Posts: 421
Wow, people really find this stuff "rage-inducing"? If that's the case then it's definitely time to just simply delete these emails or move on (probably both), for your own sake.
If an email from Lidl brought about such fury in me then I'd probably think it's time I had a change and tried Aldi. (We're clearly not talking Waitrose and M&S here.)
Nearly all emails that come from companies advertising special offers or whatever are hardly all they're cracked up to be so I don't expect BA to be any different in that regard.
If an email from Lidl brought about such fury in me then I'd probably think it's time I had a change and tried Aldi. (We're clearly not talking Waitrose and M&S here.)
Nearly all emails that come from companies advertising special offers or whatever are hardly all they're cracked up to be so I don't expect BA to be any different in that regard.