GBBoi

Right I never told you this but GB are going to trial on certain routes some dirty-cheap CE upgrades (£60 which includes lounge use) at check-in (max 5 per flight) and for £20 you can "buy" the right to sit at the doors 2 and 3 exit seats on the A321 (a la Monarch). I think it's a tad too cheap as some people pay £20 just to use a lounge but there you go.

This means you can get a £39 one way to AGP and pay another £60 to go CE all the way.... how much is a CE ticket again??

I hope this doesn't mean to appearance of the shell suit and tatooed woman in CE?

Jimmie76

Nice, except for the Shell suited tatooed women,

GBBoi

Indeed.... except the men wear the shell suits and the women usually have cut off jeans and a bra top especially if their flight arrives after 1am so they can complain they're cold.

Jimmie76

They must be from the South then as in the North women wear just that, in the middle of winter, to go out of an evening, and I never heard any of them complaining.

GBBoi

They just like a good moan. Only this evening they were all whinging about blankets so I asked the f/d to up the temp to around 24 degrees. When I told them the temp one old slapper told me, "I don't care, I just want one". Alas for her, my "bothered pocket" after 4 sectors was rather empty.

G-BOAC

Can't believe nobody has asked yet...do you get the Club points/miles?!

DYKWIA

Use the bloody search button......

Cheers,
Rick

GBBoi

Just a bit more info:

Starts July 7th

ALC-AGP-MPL-GIB-FAO: £60 CE upgrade

TFS-RAK-PFO: £75 CE upgrade

Get lounge and guaranteed meal but no points beyond what you would have got. No more than 5 extra meals will be uploaded for any flight and only if actioned by airport staff at the overseas station.

On board upgrades same price, all other flights £100

One important thing I missed out on the orginal post - only available on flights to London.

If you fly ALC-FAO-AGP or PFO-RAK on a A321 it isn't available, you can "buy" the row 8 or 21 seats only for £15/£20 extra (i.e. they aren't available on a first come, first served basis anymore). If no one wants to buy them, they go to the last suitable pax to check in.

Dave_C

Thanks for the info GBBoi.

The other changes seem alright, although the upgrade word on here can be a bit sensitive.

However charging for exit row seats seems pretty poor for BA (as that's who GB are effectively trading as). It will be interesting to see if they are made available at OLCI?

Also, why should a gold/silver card customer have to pay extra for this? Shouldn't they hold these back for those passengers first? Then allow the masses to pay.

After all this is only going to bring in 12 x £20 = £240 extra per flight - hardly an amount worth the hassle or pissing off good customers?

GBBoi

Its not even that - there are only 11 seat at the middle doors with extra leg room (the no. 2 sits at a fwd-facing seat where 8D would be).

As you are probably aware, lo-cos make a lot of their profits from ancillary sales - the BOB purchases, car hires, hotel bookings, checked baggage, reserved seats, etc, etc. Since the new MD comes from Thomsonfly, he's full of these kind of ideas. And as GB isn't exactly doing well financially, he's determined to turn the airline around. So £240 might not sound like a lot, but some pax are paying less than £100 return with tax included to fly to the Canaries with us. You can buy a GB ticket through a charter company return to AGP for a mere £50.... how much did GB sell that seat for in the first place? So if you get an extra £20 from a passenger for doing what you did before for free, it probably makes sense. GB is essentially becoming a lo-co after all, starting with terms and conditions of staff to now (regretably) ET pax.

As for cheesing off pax, I've seen so many of them (whilst sitting at the crew seats at D2 & 3) who miscalculated the row, or who asked to sit there and the check-in agent mixed up the rows, etc, etc and think if they shout at me loud enough I'll move the pax already there and let them sit in their seats instead

As for cardholders, you probably also already know this but they always get first pick for involuntary upgrades.

I personally think the price is far too cheap and if they really want to increase revenue they should make it more expensive than a mere £60. If I had paid full whack for a CE ticket only to find I could have got a £25 one way charter ticket and paid an extra £60 to fly CE I wouldn't be exactly over the moon. But then I'm a mere sky waiter with a PhD not an ex-secondary modern "manager" with an O level in pottery who has worked his/her way up the """ranks""" to manage a small airline

Swanhunter

Why does GB increasingly feel like a laboratory for things mainline would like to try, but isn't quite brave enough?