Originally Posted by
Swanhunter
I was toying with keeping GGL for another year. But do I really want to keep chasing status with an airline that is becoming ever more customer unfriendly? Not really.
In itself this step isn't a big deal. Viewed in the round and in the absence of any coherent strategy BA really are losing the plot.
+1. I will retain GGL for one more year as it makes sense for me, but after that is secured I won't make any special effort, if it happens, it happens. That's not specifically because of this, as you say it is the cumulative effect of their actions. BA might not care whether I'm a GGL or not, but they should care that the reason will be because they have lost a lot of high-revenue tickets (and I'm not talking ex-EU sale fares, though nothing wrong with booking those).
Originally Posted by
Foxtbh
BA et al are never going to compete well with Ryanair by trying to be Ryanair, surely the sensible thing to do is to be better than Ryanair, charge more and then advertise on that basis. There are many people who would pay more money for a 'proper' airline.
Frankly, not enough of them in Y on SH routes.
Originally Posted by
shefgab
I can't believe that even Gold/Silver card holders have to pay to select their seat. I don't understand the change at all (as few will pay extra, but it will annoy a lot of card holders), but this just seems bizarre. At least let them pick seats for free at OLCI.
This is the only thing that surprised me, even though I was not expecting this change. Overall, this is nothing more than a revenue push, at this stage nobody knows (except possibly someone in Revenue Management) what the correlation is between the HBO fare of today and the "normal" fare before HBO existed on BA. However, not even being able to choose your seat for free at T-24 seems a little extreme.
Originally Posted by
Gaza
Indeed. As an easyJet Plus card holder I get unlimited seat reservations (including exit and row 1) and from mid-March I'm now going to be permitted 1 small laptop bag in addition to my carry-on.
If this is correct, I'd be inclined to move a load of flights to U2 anyway, and the HBO change on BA makes that decision easier, as it makes BA less price competitive.