Originally Posted by
Staffsknot
The whole market hs been rising atm and FTSE at record so it will climb until there's an announcement that hits traders ears.
As for Lacy this whole saga has me wondering if it is genuine level incompetence by all involved or a bit of internal rivalry shenanigans at play too.
Imagine Colm has made himself deeply unpopular with edicts from on high and has a number of people in the various branches of the org happy if he was moved on - now imagine he has been trying to push through this baby with his name firmly attached to it as the sponsor. Wouldn't that explain how a lot of professional people have let him go out to the media, accidental draft press releases that sound condescending going to papers instead of the fluffier one visible on website, the letting things go out the door at Christmas, lack of staff briefings, etc...
It may be pure incompetence which would be worrying, but I get almost a sense that Colm owns this disaster and a few in IAG are happy to hand him the petrol can.
The lack of AMEX tie-in details screams not being over the details as others say.
So pick your poison - incredible corporate stupidity or a bit of palace intrigue... or both
The poor tweaks hints at terrible advice again too
I can't look at Lacy's linkedin because I joyously dumped mine on retirement (so nice not to get b0ll0ck stupid business homilies from middle managers), but from the few lines available via google, I'd put money on him being the thrusting ambitious type who drives ahead and leaves others to till the earth behind his plough so to speak. So entirely the wrong person to front this change.
At a guess, what BA are seeing is:
1) Business bookings will be holding up, no reason for them not to be. The nominal winners are in this segment, and mostly this segment is policy driven
2) Holiday bookings probably very weak. This is where the anger of a lot of premium leisure status holders will be focused, and it's very easy to switch or hold
3) CE loads way down as there's no real reason for them unless part of a long haul connection. The equation shifts a bit for longer flights, and for OTP probably.
Whether this adds up to a disaster is moot, but you don't need much of a down trend to cause a big problem. The evidence we have externally is that there are some deals on BAH coming after the sale, this sale was probably a damp squib because it's in the middle of the difficult area of premium leisure, and there are attempts to promote BAH in other contexts (someone mentioned this in another thread when setting up a redemption booking).
A good way through this might be to offer cheap POUGs and free seat selection to BAH customers. Assuming CE loads are down, this has low marginal cost and provides status like benefits which may mollify this segment. Personally I'd sell CCR access at a very high price too,