Originally Posted by hillrider
I searched and searched about this topic and came up empty, but it appears quite weird that a leisure SFO-MIL roundtrip to Italy in March is pricing around $2700 on LH, UA, KL, NW, DL, AF, CO, AZ, IB, SN, AA, US, etc. but $5300 on BA (the competitors have non-refundable, 50-day advance purchase, $300 penalty published fares). Similar discrepancies exist on the SFO-LON market.
I know and love BA's service, but I personally don't think is worth $2600 per head more over AF's or LH's flat seats...anyone disagrees?
My searches here about J-class consolidators ex-US came up empty (there seems that there are none). Does BA prefer flying empty than matching the competition? It's weird, as in Y they're usually the ones introducing and extensively marketing rock-bottom fares.
That's just it - the "competitors" that you mention at totally inferior to BA, that's why BA can charge much more than NW, KL, CO, IB etc. It's not comparing like for like, they have a far superior product so can justify the extra cost. There are enough people willing to pay for it to make it work!
If you don't agree, then you will not pay that and be happy to fly on United which is perfectly good and you may feel better value for money. That is your choice and nobody is going to criticise you. But don't complain that BA is more expensive than the others. It's like asking why a Chateau Latour is more expensive than a Jacob's Creek. It's still red wine, but a hell of a lot better.