kered

Unfortunately regaining / keeping status is somewhat more difficult in my case.

Despite being in Europe & not part of the UK, Irish members of the BAEC fall under the UK EC rules & have to earn the full 600 TP’s in order to reach or retain Silver. Unlike the rest of Europe where you need only earn 400 TP’s for the same privilege.

This is further compounded by the fact that on EI codeshare flights to/from LHR while I might earn miles, I don’t get TP’s. Even though the EI flights are under a BA flight number, are booked thorugh BA & are on the same PNR.

So I can only earn TP’s on the long haul sectors of any trip. So therefore I have no additional opportunity to bulk up my TP count while connecting to or from LHR. Which everyone else in Europe can do, as they fly from their home country to LHR to continue onwards with BA. Never really an issue in the past, as I initially joined BAEC for the miles, not status. But now that status is such a critical player in seat pre-selection, it has become quite a problem.

As BA no longer fly the DUB-LHR route that leaves me pretty much stumped


Anyway..............

I’m going to leave it at that, it is what it is & no amount of ranting on this board is going to change it.

I’ve abstained from getting involved in any of the seating policy discussions for a while now, but just kinda got sucked into this one. It has been “done to death before” as has been pointed out, but as Roger put it on page one of this thread…….

So I don't think this is going to be the last debate on this subject we’ll see here on the BA board & it pops up again I'll do my utmost to resist wading back in

Echo J

Don't forget that if you have WiFi on your phone you don't need to bother with any roaming data charges if you have/can find access to a network.

Gaz

I do know that unfortunately wi-fi is not plentiful in remote Portuguese villas and I wasn't about to drive an hour into town to hunt about for a net cafe or signal, when (I assumed) I could do it cheaply on my phone.

Mountain Trader

I just ran into BAs policy (and this thread) while booking a trip for early next year. I think it is safe to say that based on our travel and other habits, we are what BA or any other airline would consider desirable customers to obtain and keep.

BA's seat policy means we won't be booking BA for this trip, even though it has the most attractive flights at a competitive price. I'm not going to arrange my time to be near a computer at T-24, and then take my chances that there are seats I want. On Southwest, that's fine-short flights, no big deal. But for long international flights, I'm not going risk lousy seats-I view locking in a seat I like as important as getting the flight time that works for my schedule. BA doesn't offer that so I'll go elsewhere.

Some of the prior posts note that the BA system allows the better seats to go to those spending more money or those with status. Other airlines do the same thing by holding back seats for those categories of people. BA could do this but chooses to hold back all seats. As I see it, this policy reduces the value of a BA coach ticket, and makes other airlines more competitive.

Teece

BA generates the lion's share of revenue through its premium cabins. Inflexible economy tickets don't generate any profit, so if that's the kind of repeat business you're offering, I don't think BA will see you as 'desirable'. I don't mean this to be an insult, but just to emphasise tht BA are focussed on retaining pax at the pointier end. Of course, you can argue that not allowing seat selection in those cabins is even worse - but that's been done to death already.

ajinlondon

why not use a BA PSA (Preferred TA) and thus let them book your seat prob solved.

Smirnoff

To a non-status, non full-fare passenger yes.

Perhaps increasing the value of that ticket to status passengers, or those wishing to pay full fare?

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the once-a-year, discounted economy passenger is not what BA considers a customer to obtain and keep. Perhaps with other AAirlines it is different.

Teece

Is there an echo in here?

k3v

have I missed something? how can you deduce that he/she is a once a year passenger?

bernardd

Telepathy?

Leaving aside the number of times a year the poster travels, ian't a good rule of thumb that if it's frequent enough to earn status on BA or another OW carrier you become visible to BA, but then of course you're able to pre-assign seats, so it becomes a virtuous cicle?

Skipcool3

Whilst I appreciate that BA generally offer a good premium product, and it is natural for them to focus on those passengers that generate a great deal of revenue, if BA really didn't make any profit from discounted economy pax, why does it cater for them?
Why not scrap all the fuel thirsty 747's, and fit out the A319's with premium only, as they plan to do on the LCY-NYC run?
Imagine how much space there would be at T5... how short the boarding ques would be... how few bags could get lost....
In reality, BA convey discounted Y pax because it is profitable to do so... I can't believe that my recent fare quote for a six hour flight to Bermuda in discounted economy @£800.00 would see no profit for BA. And I still couldn't get a seat assignment, even at that fare!

Globaliser

The information you give suggests that (a) you don't fly enough even to reach OW Sapphire status; and (b) you are buying discounted tickets.

So I think it's safe to say that you are anything but customers which either BA or any other airline would bend over backwards to keep.

BA's big money is based on people who easily fly enough to get Gold cards or equivalents - just see how many post on here - or who just phone up and say "I need a pair of fully flexible First tickets to XXX for tonight, please". Or both.

It sounds like you are well, well, well behind in these stakes.

Globaliser

On a direct basis, perhaps, perhaps not - depending on how you look at the accounting. Discounted Y pax usually manage to pay their marginal costs, so if that's all your looking at then they are profitable. But if the aircraft carried nothing but discounted Y pax, then the profitability of the flight would be pretty questionable.

One reason for continuing to carry discounted Y pax is that if you can keep up the frequency of service on a route because you pay the majority of each flight's operating costs from the discounted Y pax that you're carrying, then you can offer more frequency than you otherwise could. More frequency makes the route more attractive to the premium customers, thereby attracting them and their profit.

We shouldn't forget that FT participants are generally more attuned to questions like "Can I get a seat allocation in advance?" and "Which are the good seats?" There are plenty of discounted Y pax who never even think to ask those questions, and just take what they're given at the airport - on any airline, irrespective of the seat pre-allocation policies of the airlines concerned. That feature of the market may change with time, of course, but while it's still present, there may be less damage to BA from its policy than we experienced and knowledgable customers might think.

In fact, recently I even had to tell a OW Sapphire, regular business and business class traveller and FTer, that yes, it was not only possible for her to get a seat pre-allocated by BA, but she could sit on the upper deck. She had no idea.

Mountain Trader

Far be it for me to argue with someone so certain in a conclusion reached without any facts.

HIDDY

Yes the poor economy passenger is once again seen as a lower life form on the BAEC board.....no surprise there then.
In actual fact the big D WT+ who MFU's is probably more of a loser to BA than Y man.

I don't have a problem with BA's seating policy at all if one is travelling in the CW cabin to be honest. I can't for the life of me see why people moan about not getting the seat they want in a cabin where every seat is the same apart from an odd minor inconvenience.

What I would like to see is the Y cabin opened up for everyone at the time of booking with maybe just the usual few seats blocked off for Gold card holders just to keep them sweet for those times when they are paying their own fares and have to travel down the back.