Speedbirdjclass

Why is EK stealing the UK regional market for LH from BA? when you can connect easily through Heathrow and Gatwick? People have long waits in Dubai and flights at very unsocial hours.

Is it the whole high class brand that EK have created in there 10 abreast 777's lol

where2travel

NCL-DXB-XXX, MAN-DXB-XXX etc is potentially a lot more attractive for people north of London than NCL-LHR-XXX, MAN-LHR-XXX.

Some of these people are anti-BA and want to try something else, some have heard horror stories about connecting at LHR or LGW, some want a stop-over in DXB, some want to break a long journey up into more equal flights, some see EK as a better airline to fly than BA.

I'm sure there are plenty of other reasons too but I would feel less loyal to BA if I lived outside London.

BOH

It may not be as bad as you think. Although not on EK, I went on an 8-abreast 763 in the summer configured 2-4-2 and never noticed the difference until after landing that it was one more across than any other 763 I'd been on.

Slightly narrower aisles and armrests must have done the trick

Euan

Several colleagues have flown EK from GLA-DXB-XXX and many seems to have chosen it for price, convenience of not going via LHR and for those in particular going to DXB or onwards to Oz/NZ it means one less flight.

raikje

where2travel has listed most of the points quite nicely. I'll also add that, if you want to go to eg SYD, I can do:

GLA-DXB-SYD
or
GLA-LHR-SIN-SYD

Why pay more to have an extra stop?

Raffles

And it goes without saying, in premium cabins (as long as you get the latest equipment), EK urinates over BA from a great height.

gtomlinson

Convenience for me at times, and the connection and flight times really aren't that bad.

It takes away the hassle of the commute down to London for me and I still get to use a lounge and have a premium service (free car service, better class of service and a decent gluten free meal!)

Certainly helped last year when I trekked up to Newcastle which despite having more snow than Heathrow, stayed open and allowed me to use it 3 or 4 times to get to business in Australia.

I haven't sat in the back before but I know people who have. Its stupidly cheap at times!

Despite being Gold, I don't have a loyalty to BA. I'll go with convenience, ease and flight times. From the regions, that normally isn't BA. I'd rather fly a 'charter' (shudder) if I'm off to Spain than connect with BA or Iberia

Jenbel

Hmmm - have you tried connecting through LGW and LHR? 'easily' isn't always the word which comes to mind, and certainly not in the perceptions of everyone not based in London. T5 has made things easier, but LGW is a pain now for a domestic connection due to the need to go landside and re-enter, which means you cannot carry any duty free back from your first flight. And changing terminals at LHR is still not fun.

However, your question carries an expectation that BA has the rights to those people and somehow they are being stolen from BA. They don't and they aren't. The aviation industry is competitive, and BA needs to put forward an offering which encourages people to fly them, rather than simply expecting them to do so.

I'm not a huge fan of EK in Y (in fact, I think it's fair to say I hate them and would work very hard to avoid flying them in Y). But as others have pointed out, they offer the ability to fly to Oz with one fewer stop than going via LHR. You also end up on two full service flights, rather than one semi-full service flights (remember all those cuts to Y on-board service long-haul? Reduced food, reduced water, reduced tuck boxes?) and one no service flight (the domestic - biscuit at meal times?!) DXB is seen as a good airport to connect at (good shopping, reasonable prices) - contrast with LHR and the price gouging which goes on there. IF EK offer a competitive price, then they'll get business -and they do.

Outside London, we virtually always have to connect, so we get to compare and contrast various airlines' offerings in a way which Londoners don't really seem able to do. BA is not our default setting - a fact KLM has long been aware of, and can be seen by the way they positively work to attract British pax (they still serve more regional airports than BA does). Where does it say you absolutely have to fly via London? You don't if you aren't actually flying there as your destination. AMS is actually pretty good to connect at (even if the days of the 28 min MCT are long gone ) and even CDG can be not that bad.

srbrenna

Can't speak about EK but a lot of the British expats in DOH use QR as they fly direct to GLA & MAN meaning that they avoid LHR. What would you rather do - DOH-MAN or DOH-BAH-LHR-MAN?

Lux

That's a point of contention (for J at least) that we shan't go over again here, save to say that your point of if you get the latest equipment is a very important one - the variance of J cabin quality on EK is huge.

Dan Dare

For me its a combination of reasonably priced J when heading east from NCL.

No ability with BA to connect at LGW and LHR is sometimes as others say just one more unnecessary sector.

BA (and bmi for Europe/Middle east) moved to very Heathrow centric operating models in the last few years cutting off much of their feeder traffic.

Culture Guru

It is exactly the same reason as LH and BA have been stealing the middle-east/Asia market for years! Its time for a change ^

dunk

And down the back too. Having recently flown 7 mid/long-haul sectors on EK (380/773) mingled with 4 on BA (772/747, WT and WT+), the difference is palpable.

Fleet age, IFE, seat comfort, etc are streets ahead. BA's only advantage is the people, and only because I prefer British down-to-earthness to Asian fawning and eastern European ice-maidens

Imagine the novelty of a BA meal tray, where you actually have room to move stuff around without things like cheese and biscuits, metal cutlery, chocolates or tuck-boxes-for-later getting in the way Or a seat back TV the size of a fag packet ...

origin

They arent stealing anything or anyone. Some people like choice and have the ability to try something new. Thats one of the reasons why the LCC have done so well.

But it all depends on the routes that you want to fly. One of the big attractions has been the development of Dubai over the past five / ten years. Sunshine & reasonable fares, somewhere different to holiday has helped develop this market. People wanted to go on holiday in a country thats not called Spain.

I have never flown them, there are some good reviews. Nor have I ever been to Dubai.

But, I have family who live in Australia. They find EK the most reasonable when flying to the UK.

HIDDY

Indeed.

We used EK from GLA to BKK and the service in Y was excellent as was the price. The connection in DXB was at some odd hour but if you're in Y a break in the journey is welcome and makes the length of both sectors more bearable.
I wouldn't say EK are the dogs bollocks like some folk do though. As pointed out, they still use some horrible J configurations on their aircraft.