Originally Posted by
scubadu
Sorry, almost nobody is captive, that is a manufactured problem. People might have to connect rather than fly non-stop, but newsflash most fliers, all over the world, all day everyday, have to connect to get where they are going. Living in Austin, TX, until Covid (when AA added some non-stop routes) I've had to connect on almost every single flight for my entire adult life (whether via DFW or IAH or ATL) and somehow my life has gone on.
Captivity is choice, not a state of being...
Regards
P.S. Admittedly, HKG is more challenging than many other places, for sure, given it's geographic situation, but HKG isn't really where we are talking about in this thread
That might be the norm in the US but it's absolutely not in Europe, or in particular the UK. London is one of the world's biggest cities and thus has direct flights to almost every European city of any size. People don't like connecting when there are direct alternatives, which there usually are.
That being the case, BA does have a lot of routes tied up with them having the only direct services, or at least the only ones served from an airport that is vaguely convenient (e.g. if you live in Guildford, you are much less likely to consider a flight from Stansted than Heathrow or Gatwick). It's not much use saying "but there are connecting flights via CDG/AMS" etc. - that is only an option realistically considered by people who are too far from London but who are within reach of a secondary airports such as Newcastle, Norwich, Edinburgh etc.
Personally speaking, as someone who lives more than 100 miles from London, I still find the convenience of direct flights enough to outweigh the additional travel time vs using one of the ~5 other secondary airports that are nearer.