Originally Posted by
headingwest
There are some posters on Flyertalk (particularly in the BAEC forum) who spend thousands of pounds on flights every year, but they are quite honest about the fact that they know the airline wouldn't miss them if they moved their business. We are minnows in an ocean.
As a primarily BA/oneworld customer these days, there's no questioning the validity of this. Between MrsNWI and I we probably put approaching a five figure sum into BA or their JV with American. We'll probably fly 25-30 BA sectors this year. Neither of us is under any illusion that in terms of importance we simply don't figure.
If BA happened to lose the NHS contract there might be a few furrowed brows. For A3, in terms of size, the equivalent is probably a government department. None of us, as individuals, matters.
In other words, unless you put a million £/$/Euros or more into any airline of significant size, don't expect them to value you one iota.
What we are seeing here is likely good revenue management - A3 will have sold out of the lower fare buckets and so all that's left are the more flexible ones. They won't care about selling them at the moment, and will only seek to offload the inventory if seats remain empty a few days before. You could take your chances that lower fare buckets will open again to allow a price drop (they're not necessarily directly connected, but that's the natural result).
So right now other airlines look more attractive. Once they clear their lower priced inventory it'll be a different picture and anyone wanting to travel last minute will have no choice but to pay the going rate.