GM1985

Out of curiosity, how would you know what those people paid? You may have seen an exorbitant CE fare when you made your booking, however those you pass in CE may well have:

• Booked a sale fare
• Made an Avois/RFS redemption
• Booked a lower fare with an advanced purchase requirement further out than you
• Booked a corporate rate
• Booked as a short-haul connection with a different fare from point-to-point
• Been automatically booked in to CE as part of a long-haul itinerary
• POUG'd
• AUP'd
• App-up'd
• Op-up'd

Or, indeed, paid for the exorbitant fare you saw when booking. Who knows?

FWIW I agree with some of your sentiment here as I've not (to date) paid a full CE fare, although I have flown CE on RFS flights or if offered an attractive upgrade price after booking ET. As I'm only Bronze, depending on connection times at LHR, a POUG may be attractive in order to secure lounge access.

But I'm not sure it's as simple as walking by a CE cabin and thinking "fools" for spending so much on a CE fare, as there are a myriad of ways in to that cabin,

For the wider point on short-haul J in Europe...well, it may be a tautology, but it is what it is. None of the major European carriers seem to be in any rush to roll out a truly differentiated regional J product, and for the time being I don't see BA being a leader in this area. Maybe if KL, LH and AF all rolled out a US/Asia-style regional J product, BA would need to respond with something. But that doesn't seem to be an imminent risk.

For me, CE offers some additional value with free F&B, empty middle, lounge access and Avios/TP, for which I'm willing to pay a small premium (if available) or part with some miles. If not, I'm perfectly happy in the back of the bus.