British Airways Has Lost Favor Among Flyers
Joe Cortez December 08, 2017
London Heathrow, United Kingdom - August 28, 2015: A British Airways Boeing 787 with the registration G-ZBJE taking off from London Heathrow Airport (LHR) in the United Kingdom. British Airways is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom based at London Heathrow airport.
Net promoter score survey declines, with flyers arguing the airline isn’t a good value for their money.
British Airways is taking a nosedive, but not in an airplane or a stock market. Instead, the carrier is lagging behind other airlines in public opinion and product quality. In a survey released by YouGov, flyers said that British Airways brand fell significantly behind many other major airlines in the United States and Europe.
When asked about changes in quality, flyers in the past year said it dropped over 11 percent, compared to trans-Atlantic competitors United and Virgin Atlantic. Even low-cost carriers EasyJet and Ryanair both performed better than the British flag carrier in both brand value and quality. When asked about the value flyers were getting for the dollar, opinions also came back negative, dropping 13.4 percent.
What about flyers that are regularly aboard British Airways? They were some of the most disappointed with the flagship airline, with both perception of value and quality sinking by over 20 percent each. Again, low cost carriers EasyJet and Ryanair improved, while competitors Emirates and Virgin Atlantic didn’t change.
Who were the most disappointed about the results? Domestic flyers had the most negative feelings about British Airways, followed closely by long-haul flyers – each group only had less than 40 percent reporting positive feelings about the airline. Short- and medium-haul flyers were disappointed, but not as much as the shortest and longest flyers.
FlyerTalkers have been discussing the report in a thread, with mixed reactions on both sides. HarryHolden68 said: “What should worry BA the most is that people who fly BA are far more critical than those who do not. Perhaps they are banking that these people do not have a choice on their routings or that the benefits of the EC mean they put up with the cutting mentality;” while flatlander took a much more pragmatic view: “A doesn’t have to be liked. It just has to be the least disliked airline that is still flying; people will still want to travel.”
[Photo: Shutterstock]
I flew BA Long haul and was relieved grumpy FA was not serving my aisle. Sadly on our return journey, we got grumpy FA on our aisle, (different crew) ....and this was Business Class!!! Short haul crew friendlier. The seats are bizarre. Aisle seats have no privacy, window seats are served across and over aisle seats which I found annoying. All window seats face backwards. The best meal was the salad I bought from Pret a Manger at the terminal, which I would do again if I flew BA, hopefully never again.
Surely, given this is British Airways, you meant they have fallen out of "favour." I do like their premium product, but agree about the frequent flyer surcharges, cramped seats and surly service.
Mediocre Business Class Seats, Less than mediocre food quality.
I use BA's frequent flyer program because it's easy to get status and Avios are useful to travel in Asia but I just do the bare minimum required flying on BA to get status.. They are just not competitive. In Europe, I'd fly Swiss or Aegean anytime instead.
One of the best things about having left London is not having to endure this airline anymore as I couldn't agree more with these negative sentiments.