Things BA should learn from other airlines

Sure some of this has been covered before although it didn't come up in a quick search. I am pretty loyal to BA but when I do stray, it becomes very apparent there are a few areas BA could really improve by just looking at what their competitors / alliance partners are doing:

- boarding - having a procedure that is stuck to and that doesn't end up in the whole plane descending on one agent at the same time
- baggage transfer - unreliable at Heathrow in a way that it isn't at US airports
- starters - in Y, starters tend to be carb mess with mayonnaise. in C the salads come with some dressing that surely most people don't like: chilli lemon? If something decent can't be afforded, don't do one.
- collecting rubbish in the cabin as they go along - a BA plane looks much messier than their competitors by the end of the flight because the crew very rarely collect rubbish
- cleanliness of the flight on boarding - BA has to be one of the worst of its main competitors at this.
- assistance in transfer at Heathrow - why do other airlines announce gates and BA never does? Sometimes competitors meet people with tight connections too....

I like BA and will stick to them. I like the tea, the chat from the captain, the fact that they seem to try to fly around turbulence rather than straight through it, the London Pride... I could go on. But put some effort into sorting these things out BA please....

Well this is going to be a long thread...

Priority-tagged luggage that appears first, like on Star carriers?

Deep clean toilets more frequently. After switching from BA to Star Alliance (Company policy, after T5 opening fiasco), I was shocked how clean toilets are on Lufthansa aircraft (that sometimes are even older than BA's aircraft).

I like chilli lemon!

Using some Middle East carriers mainly as an example...

- limousine transfers
- I've always liked Qantas' domestic economy snack on a 'placemat' that doubles as a small garbage bag that can be handed to the crew easily and cleanly.
- sundaes (!)
- on-board bar
- decent 'buses' (eg. QR in Doha having Premium-only vans for transfers to the Premium terminal - they're actually nice, and not overcrowded either)
- improved amenity kits - sooooo downhill these days. Remember the Molton Brown ones?
- CW get to dine on demand (eg. EY)
- no Smirnoff please. It's not hard to get a decent vodka on board.
- speak French (like AC does)*

*joking!

Be called by name, as in Mr imt24, like on Cathay....

(as well as those little cards that are individually hand written in CX First)

The system has been failing me just as much on Star carriers as it has on BA.

There are some airports at which priority baggage works, but at most others, they are completely hit and miss.

I think BA should improve the premium class food presentation.

Bring back chocolates to CE!

Hot towels please.



I like this too. There are many things that QF do that I do not like, but this is my favourite. It provides a form of barrier against dirty table too.

BA could learn how to save some cash by copying the LH long haul J class product. Old fashioned seats, poor food and awful lounges where you even have to pay for wifi.

I wonder what the one and only Smirnoff thinks of that.....

It's pretty much always worked for me on *A

Wifi is now offered for free in LH lounges. Poor food? Obviously my last CW flight was in 2007, so maybe food on BA now improved (but I doubt, judging by the number of negative comments on this forum) but I have never experienced really poor food on LH in long-haul C.

Me too. It's like clockwork. Literally, all the time, the first bags that come out always have that shiny orange "priority" thing on them.


More plastic? Come on. Doesn't air travel already generate enough waste without having another 150 plastic bags per day coming from Y on each BA flight?

Why? I hate my name. The less I hear it the better. Why should I be forced to hear it?