Originally Posted by
LCY8737
Price is part of the equation. BA tends to have more seats in F than their competitors (depending on aircraft type and competitor more than double), which allows them to milk the maximum on direct routes (think >£10k) and then sell the rest cheaply to connecting traffic (plus of course the various GUFs & POUGs). For the core target audience (not very price sensitive but focused on convenience and comfort) that works very well - a lot of rich people want to travel between London and the world. A connection in Frankfurt (even if it is a Porsche aircraft to aircraft transfer is probably not what these people consider ideal).
Unfortunately that model means that BA can get away with an inferior product (people value the no-stop element over caviar), and the high number of people on cheap tickets give further incentive not to invest.
Agree with this, and I'd also add that from the US-LHR the BA F product is not terribly uncompetitive. the only other carrier with F from US-LHR is AA, and they have a JV and as I understand it rev share so not really any reason to compete. ex-US all things being equal I'd prefer AA from LAX/NYC/DFW due to FFD and the AA F seat is slightly better than BA (IMO) and I'm mostly sleeping on these flights, in other markets ex-US coin-toss and choose by timing. ex-LHR to the US I'd take BA for the CCR and higher likelihood of having a good crew, which matters more in this direction as you're not sleeping the majority of the flight whereas on AA you're playing FA roulette.
I think a lot of the "hate" comes from those flying to other markets (ME, Asia) where there are indisputably superior F products available, I'd even rather J on QR QSuites planes to BA/AA F.