Frankly, I applaud the OP.
If the seats are in a bad condition, if the food is not good, if the interactions with staff aren't great and if all this matters... then it's just about logical to vote with your feet and go elsewhere. Surely smarter than moaning constantly about BA and keeping on renewing that Gold card.
Originally Posted by
VSLover
right but doesnt one know what they are getting in to? i wouldnt quit my job and be a cabin crew knowing the salary (not to mention id be THE WORST). but if you are BA, you are supposedly hiring the best, and meant to deliver the best
The problem is that you don't really know how much you'll be making until you're actually flying, given that so much depends on allowances. As for hiring the best... Right now the education threshold has been reduced to the minimum and the pool has shrunk considerably (Europeans can no longer apply). BA is still trying to go "cheap", or on par with the LCCs, on the jobs, and not only for crews. I was told that the starting offer for the job I used to do when I left is about 10 grand lower than market average (15/20 if you include sectors like tech or finance)... You're not going to attract amazing candidates with that.
Originally Posted by
SteveinA2
Because the most important thing is schedule. Live near London and fly to globally to US, ME, SAm, Asia, Africa you are a captive to BA
Service is worse than say AF, CX, QF, EK etc but not bad enough to force connections
Ignoring Covid restrictions for a moment, if you want to fly to the US you're
spoilt for choices with UA, AA, DL, VS, even Jetblue. Air Canada and WestJet cover north of the border, AeroMexico for MEX... As for South America, there's Avianca to BOG and there's LATAM to GRU. Africa, I will admit, is a little bit less covered (especially West) but you still have Virgin, Kenya Airways and Ethiopian. Oh, and RAM, and Egyptair. Let's skip the ME. India, now Vistara seems to be here in permanence and there's still AI. Every Chinese airline under the sun flies to China, KE and Asiana to Seoul, SQ to Singapore, Thai, Malaysian, the two Japanese biggies, two airlines to Taiwan, Vietnam Airlines, even Qantas has returned. There's even Biman Bangladesh and I think Air Astana has also made a comeback.
IAG as a group has less than 60% of the slots over at LHR. You might not like the quality of some of the alternatives, but there's almost always a direct competitor on a BA route.