Originally Posted by
Backofthequeue
The focus on business travel is a curious one. We know COVID killed a majority of this, but, the tide was already turning. With companies now having to report on their ESG credentials, travel is a significant consideration. I work for a large FI who saw ALL travel curtailed, including domestic travel, rail, donkey, camel, whatever, earlier this year. It will return to some extent, but the direction is clear, travel is headed out of the door. CO2 is reported against every travel booking. There is a focus.
Where are the plethora of business travellers coming from? This is a shrinking pool.
Clear that leisure travel filled a big gap in the inventory, actively encouraged by the BAH DTP offer, which is into its third and will continue into part of a fourth year. BA knew the impact of this, it is therefore even more puzzling that there is a full 180 year, and then some.
As for McKinsey, if they are behind this, best left for the pub.
It has all the hallmarks of a consultancy firm seeing the cost of everything and the value of nothing. But BA have done this sort of thing plenty of times in recent years and the effect on their passenger numbers has been nil. Leisure travellers grumble at having to pay £150 to choose a seat in Club but they still book Club. It could be worse; Qatar don't allow lounge access on their cheapest Business tickets.
Where BA are more likely to take a hit is in European short-haul. If you have status from your long-haul travel its worth paying the small premium to fly BA short haul. If you don't then you may as well choose on price and convenience.
But that said, BA aren't usually much more expensive than EasyJet and, whilst they're more expensive at face value than Ryanair or Wizz, once you start adding any sort of baggage they're actually not.