I agree with orbit. There is a ton of peer reviewed research on this. Branding can be very powerful to many people, but not everyone. So person A might be addicted to brands, but person B might not be. Then, some are only addicted to certain brands.
When push comes to shove, does the brand give the managers Pricing power? What BA is doing as they cruzify the service is admitting that it is losing pricing power.
For UK folk, think of the silly prices some folk will pay for paint. Farrow and Ball paint is twice the price of Dulux, and half as good.