Originally Posted by
sts603
I attended my first GGL event at Fortnum and Mason last night. Probably about 30-35 GGLs and a handful of BA senior staff (though Alex remained in hiding). I wasn't able to stay for long so wasn't able to get involved in much direct discussions with management as I had to leave early but Troy Wakefield gave a PPT and then opened it up for a Q&A that got rather combative rather quickly. A few key takeaways:
(1) They wish they could make the investment in product faster
What's stopping them?
2) They realize that the fleet seems old vs. the US and ME carriers but it will take time
They have a slew of brand new aircraft that they chose to fit a previous generation J seat in. Fitting the same seat to the A350 as they are considering will not change perception that the fleet "seems old."
(3) There is no decision if/when to update the CW seat and it is clear they were trying to spin the focus to soft product improvements (and lounge improvements)
These will be cuts.
4) They are proud of the LGW and BOS openings are pumped up renovations coming to JFK and SFO. Not sure if it was previously announced but the JFK Gold lounge will get pre-flight dining. A rather angry man piped up about lounges in JNB, DEL and the rest of the world. Troy said they did have a five year plan to go through every lounge but was relatively clear that high-revenue, high-frequency destinations were a higher priority.
They have no plans to roll out any further lounge refurbs.
5) There was much said by the audience about the mess of the current boarding process. It appears to be something they are looking at - especially whether procedures are followed. That said there are "pros/cons" to U.S.-style zone boarding so that remained under consideration.
They could fix priority boarding overnight if they wanted to. They have no financial incentive to do so, so it will remain broken.
6) The audience (which are generally not frequent Y flyers) didn't attack the fundamental principle of M&S but they did attack the fact nothing was free for GGL and how awful it was to send CSDs to do greetings and offer to help and then deny a request for water. Comparison to AA were pointed out.
They don't care.
7) The soft product investment in CW is coming which will include new food presentation, duvet/pillow, and an attempt at 5 uninterrupted hours of sleep (Vs 2.5 hours now on JFK-LHR flights).
The new food presentation will be a simplified service (i.e. no choice) and the portion sizes will be smaller. In short, the service will be cut further under the guise of allowing (forcing?) more sleep.
Overall I thought its a good thing for management to do and I think they were genuinely interested in feedback even if someone of it received a "we know best" type of response in between the lines. I don't think, however, they recognize the true extent of the gap with the competition, especially in hard product in J. And there was way too much emphasis on "premium experience" through "wine pouring" in CE and the like.
They don't care about competing. They've conceded most of the eastbound market to the ME3 and they have an almost unassailable monopoly on TATL.