londonba2014

I know, but I guess welcome to BA....

ajbrowc

With the demise of EZY on this route I have been using BA again, until last week when at the prospect of only getting 40 Tier Points and <1000 avios I thought I would give Aeroflot a try.

BA are flying half full A321's on this route at the moment, and still providing only a sandwich for the "meal".

Aeroflot fly A330's, and to my surprise it was about 75% full. We were provided a hot lunch and wine free of charge (a recent genuine enhancement from when I've been told), and the seat and IFE were both perfectly fine. To top it off the ticket was about £50 cheaper as well.

I really don't understand why BA are giving away so much business on this route for the sake of a £5 microwave meal. On every flight I hear passangers grumble about it, and I know a couple of Russians who avoided BA when flying to the US as "BA are too stingy".

ENTP

BA could end up having to match Aeroflot's offer then.

The only reason band 4 Y to ATH,IST,LCA etc gets a hot meal is presumably due to competition from
TK and A3

Andriyko

I don't think it is necessarily the reason. KBP is also a Band 4 route and BA offers hot meals and a full bar, while PS has a Buy-on-Board product and only serves water for free. However, PS manages to fill 2 flights per day, while BA's 1 daily service is sometimes half empty even though the product is superior. However, BA carriers a lot more premium passengers (and transfer) passengers.

It is often hard to say why passengers prefer a particular airline. I recently flew from ITS to MAD on IB on a midhaul configured A319 in business class, which I enjoyed very much. IB has since canceled the route due to poor demand, while TK still manages to fill 2 flights a day.

Foltan

Haven't Aeroflot killed more passengers than any other airline?! >8,000, whilst BA have had no fatalities?

Considering I can eat in the lounge, I know which one I'd side with

allturnleft

Its a shame they stopped their 747 service; the 321 sounds one extreme to the other

Door1Left

The reason for lack of hot meals on a DME is the fact all catering is loaded ex LHR, I.e nothing is uplifted in DME and as such there is insufficient space in the A321 galleys to carry hot meals. The situation has been flagged by crew on almost every single flight as being unsatisfactory, with numerous complaints. Until such a time when (and if) catering is loaded in DME for the return sector, the sandwiches will remain.

Regards
D1L

WingsAroundtheWorld

Why simply not upload catering at DME? It's a big enough airport!!

oktane

£600-£1200 for a flight and cheese sandwich! Brilliant.

Airprox

That is not the case, it's just the excuse BA uses. bmi used to run these same planes to DME and manage to fit in all the catering, the bmi staff even explained to BA how to do it. Even if they didn't want to load it all in the galleys because they want to keep more space for duty free, they could load the return catering in the cargo hold and have it moved up during the DME turn.

Of course BA don't care though, the space reason was a handy excuse get-out clause to allow them to cut costs.

gav0106

Never understood it myself either. I fly LED, St Petersburg and you get hot breakfast on way out and hot dinner on way back, catered from LED

ajbrowc

If the comparison of passenger numbers is anything to go by, BA penny pinching has definitely cost them a considerable amount of business on this route (and potentially others from lost feeder traffic).

BA used to be able to fill 747's daily, and while the economic crises in Russia has definitely dampened demand, Aeroflot are still able to 3/4 fill an A330, so yields could be improved if the product offering is improved.

ThatT1Feeling

BA certainly used to be seen as the leaders on this route - even in the CE days on the battered old shorthaul 767s which were outrageously expensive in CE for a mid-week return. When they went longhaul service, the 747s were often full, especially in Club and often in First, especially on Mondays and Fridays. The 767s were always full in CW from my recollection. Cameron was lauding the new route and it was very well patronised by the better-off Russians who wanted their friends to know they were travelling BA Club or First in a flat bed to the UK. Most Brits were still so scared of SU in those days that they tended to stick with BA. It was made even easier for BA to succeed when BMI were taken out of the equation.

Quite how BA managed to make such a pig's ear of a profitable route is a mystery to me.

Andriyko

It may simply not be as profitable anymore. We don't know the fares that companies (that still allow business class travel) negotiated with SU. Maybe BA is not after that business? Russia is really suffering now. I don't think that those bankers who used to fill the first/business class cabins are there anymore. Also, SU also offers super cheap fares from the East to LHR, which fills the planes but does not mean profitability. Many factors are at play here.

Dan72

BA's meals are fairly decent. A3's have deteriorated to a bit of pasta and a chocolate biscuit for dessert. LON is the only route that A3 offer entertainment on, presumably because BA do.