navylad

I agree, but this is an internet forum, people do like to exaggerate, the clue is the fact that want to tell the world that they're not flying BA again as, understandably, they are currently annoyed with that airline, whether this materialises into a change of their travel plans who knows, if it does then in theory that is an advantage to those who don't get emotive in such decision making as it will increase award availability and drive down prices (whilst driving up prices from the competition.

capin

Risk here for BA is that loyal customers may try J on the likes of ey, ek, qr and cx and realise how fantastic the competition is.

ttama

Lightbulb moment for me. I've been stunned by the number of people who defend BA on this forum, and assumed they were employed by BA to ridicule and belittle anyone who dares to show justified annoyance or criticism. But yes, this makes sense.

The defenders don't convince me, because I'm also extremely disappointed with BA and I totally understand where the OP is coming from.

Like friends who post their political views on social media, you can't convince people who think differently from you. So why bother defending the indefensible?

T8191

We were starting to migrate to AA for much of our l/h travel. But this year sees almost half our mileage on BA again. I blame Sales, BA Holidays and 2-4-1 ... no brand loyalty involved, just cost and bang per quid.

Mileage:
2015 - 69% BA, 20% AA/US
2016 - 48% BA, 51% AA
2017 - 47% BA, 52% AA

GUWonder

.... and getting worse. That is what has made the weekend even worse than it had to be for customers entitled to BA lounge access. BA is a degraded experience now for many of us even compared to what it was at this time last year.

dougzz

As it should be. The concept of brand loyalty is a thing of the past. In an era of multi nationals and zero customer value it should all be about what's best for you, because I guarantee BA or indeed AA or any other airline sees nothing in you other than £££.

ttama

You may. But it's likely that the people who say this will reduce their spend on BA even if they occasionally go against their principles and fly with them again. They won't enjoy the prospect and they will look for alternatives where feasible.

I said the same as the OP last year. I've not flown BA since. I have lots of avios and a 2-4-1 redemption to use up, so I will fly with them again. But they don't get my real travel business any more.

gengar

As I did this weekend with BA, I've had the misfortune of being stuck in these similar meltdowns on other carriers. I can assure you that no carrier has left me feeling as uncared for as BA has in this instance.

LTN Phobia

I've never said that about BA yet, but I've done so about SQ.

About 15 years after I imposed an "SQ ban" in myself due to a bad ground experience and poor handling thereof, I flew with them because QF became a "never" (but in this case conditional - "never international on revenue" - since the volcanic ash handling) and keeping QF and SQ off my "revenue international flights list" became too inconvenient as I have a house in Australia. On this particular occasion SQ fitted the bill. I felt somewhat cheese off with myself for 'bending my principle' - and big time by booking a (literally) full fare F. I liked their Suite very much (did not like their food at all, admittedly). I felt like I missed out on something good because of a decision (probably not exactly the most sensible) I made many years ago. So I reversed that decision entirely.

I am even possibly looking at taking QF off my "never international on revenue" policy because I enjoyed almost all of my recent interactions with their crew members a lot on certain routes (booked using points) and I feel a bit silly, like cutting off my nose to spite my face.

So I really shouldn't have said "never" but could have said "not for some time until my fury calms down"

I hope BA won't annoy me to the extent of needing to impose a 'BA ban' on myself because it would be very, very inconvenient if I felt I wanted to avoid BA.

BarryAZ

Fair enough -- and I am not one of the 'never going to fly BA' folks. There just was a time when it was my *preferred* option coming from the US to Europe. These days it no longer is -- it no longer out matches say American Airlines with service and comfort in Business class from the US as an example.

It seems to me that this trend will continue and if Brexit undermines the reason for routing to and through the UK going to Europe from the US I expect to see business travelers looking at alternatives -- US carriers or alternatives like Iberia or even Air France.

Howard Long

Perhaps that's BA spend only, the rest being made up from flying other OW carriers?

Certainly my BA travel has plummeted in the past two or three years, I am much more likely to take another OW carrier such as QR or EK on a QF codeshare. I even did four RJ segments in the past month. Although I'll make gold again this year, as with last, only four revenue segments will be on BA, and this year they're all short haul. I doubt they'll have made much more than a grand out of me this year on revenue sales.

On the plus side, I was proactively endorsed onto ANA ex-HND yesterday travelling on an Avios award in BA F, arriving about three hours later than scheduled. As I didn't know what to expect I'd already priced up tickets and the ANA option was ~12K GBP in F O/W.

T8191

I seem to spend £9k-£10k for Gold, shared between BA and AA

Grog

Incorrect. I responded to your response to a different poster. My previous post was my first to this thread. I think you've conflated posters.

WorldLux

I make it to Gold with about £7k. There are probably a few FT members that will get Gold for less than $2k thanks to the generous folks at QR (that is if they credit the Sake fares with BA).

T8191

Just realised I had some BA Holidays hotel stuff in those figures, so I'm probably around the £7k mark too.

Basically, i'm cheap