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Is it just me or are BA really starting to suck all of the joy out of flying lately?

Is it just me or are BA really starting to suck all of the joy out of flying lately?

Old Feb 19, 2015, 2:34 am
  #31  
 
Join Date: Jan 2012
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There is a corporate climate at the moment of revisiting the existing client base with a view to increasing the profit take from them. The BA onslaught began around 18 months ago and has gathered pace.

The collapse of the oil price has been an unexpected lottery win for BA and we can expect truly obscene numbers from them in the next year.

As I've said all along, from a business point of view BA's actions are to be welcomed. From a passenger's, they are horrendous.
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Old Feb 19, 2015, 2:52 am
  #32  
 
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Let's face it, luxury travel is a dying breed, a bit slower than in economy, but still everything is going in Ryanair's direction, and there are no signs of a change in a near future, BA is not an exception.
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Old Feb 19, 2015, 3:03 am
  #33  
 
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Originally Posted by Tsun
Let's face it, luxury travel is a dying breed, a bit slower than in economy, but still everything is going in Ryanair's direction, and there are no signs of a change in a near future, BA is not an exception.
Respectfully disagree. Quite a few other airlines are buying new aircraft and really upping the game with their new J and F products.
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Old Feb 19, 2015, 3:06 am
  #34  
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We usually only fly to the USA, so BA has been [up to now] a reasonably obvious choice. But the recent changes, in combination, have definitely skewed our thinking for the future. We are happy to keep collecting Avios, to use for a Caribbean 241. We don't mind collecting TPs either, and I confess to considering how to renew Gold i a year or so.

But ... I was doing some long-term planning yesterday on Matrix for some 2015/16 holidays, and the decision-making process keep leading me to using US ex-DUB every time, followed by intra-USA flights on either US or AA. The old thinking of just using BA on a point-to-point has faded away, as has any idea of UuA to J.

Now I don't find BA 'joyless' by any reasonable definition, but I/we certainly now see there are other [cheaper] options that, by virtue in part of added interest or 'for a change', have us gently backing away from BA. Not actually backing out of the door, but standing ever closer to it
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Old Feb 19, 2015, 3:18 am
  #35  
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
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Originally Posted by Cradders
I've been flying for business for nearly 11 years now. For the past ~5, I've done a lot more flying with BA, and have credited to EC (having primarily used Aadvantage and Flying Blue).

For most of that time, for the most part, I've quite enjoyed the process - despite business travel being a disruptive and often mundane process. Lately though, I can't help but feel that my experiences with BA have made me feel pretty jaded about the experience.

Things that have contributed to that process are (in no particular order):

1. Constant and miserly penny pinching, removing even the lowest value items they can from the flying experience provided they think no one will notice
2. The obvious (and much discussed) changes to earning and burning rates of avios
3. The massive reduction in UUA availability, combined with it soon to become so expensive it renders it almost entirely pointless
4. The recent suggestions on here that OpUps are being "rationed" to frequent fliers (my experience seems to suggest this might be the case)
5. The continuing and highly irritating spin of all bad news to suggest it is somehow a good thing, which is highly insulting of their customers intelligence.

I know that these have all been much discussed on the forum and it's not my intention to go into more detail necessarily. Moreover, I was interested to hear if any other frequent travellers like me are tempted not just to jump ship but to consider knocking the business travel on the head entirely? Admittedly I'm fortunate that I can choose this without career change but it is becoming a serious consideration.

At the very least, as of next week I will have requalified for gold in a little over 5 months. I'm really wondering if there's any point in putting any more flights through BA. Certainly one way or another it's starting to feel like change time is getting close.
Agree totally with all your points and in particular with your last paragraph I'm thinking exactly the same thing these days. Have already cancelled some April PEK and SIN flights with BA and rebooked onto other carriers. They do say a change is as good as a rest...
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Old Feb 19, 2015, 3:22 am
  #36  
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I don't see it as joyless to be honest. However it is now a case of seeing it for what it is - namely a means of getting from A to B.

On the short haul travel front at least, low cost is the only game in town.
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Old Feb 19, 2015, 3:24 am
  #37  
 
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Originally Posted by Lioneye

As I've said all along, from a business point of view BA's actions are to be welcomed. From a passenger's, they are horrendous.
Perhaps short term, but when the people paying the big bucks are leaving for better products, leaving just I class HNLers and corporate discounters paying less for a J bucket tHan those in WTP, is it really good? Is de-stocking the club kitchen, or enhancing breakfast, really worth the straws piling on the back?
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Old Feb 19, 2015, 3:30 am
  #38  
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Originally Posted by paulwuk
Perhaps short term, but when the people paying the big bucks are leaving for better products, leaving just I class HNLers and corporate discounters paying less for a J bucket tHan those in WTP, is it really good?
But are they? BA knows; we don't.
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Old Feb 19, 2015, 3:42 am
  #39  
 
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Originally Posted by Cradders
I've been flying for business for nearly 11 years now. For the past ~5, I've done a lot more flying with BA, and have credited to EC (having primarily used Aadvantage and Flying Blue).

For most of that time, for the most part, I've quite enjoyed the process - despite business travel being a disruptive and often mundane process. Lately though, I can't help but feel that my experiences with BA have made me feel pretty jaded about the experience.

Things that have contributed to that process are (in no particular order):

1. Constant and miserly penny pinching, removing even the lowest value items they can from the flying experience provided they think no one will notice
2. The obvious (and much discussed) changes to earning and burning rates of avios
3. The massive reduction in UUA availability, combined with it soon to become so expensive it renders it almost entirely pointless
4. The recent suggestions on here that OpUps are being "rationed" to frequent fliers (my experience seems to suggest this might be the case)
5. The continuing and highly irritating spin of all bad news to suggest it is somehow a good thing, which is highly insulting of their customers intelligence.

I know that these have all been much discussed on the forum and it's not my intention to go into more detail necessarily. Moreover, I was interested to hear if any other frequent travellers like me are tempted not just to jump ship but to consider knocking the business travel on the head entirely? Admittedly I'm fortunate that I can choose this without career change but it is becoming a serious consideration.

At the very least, as of next week I will have requalified for gold in a little over 5 months. I'm really wondering if there's any point in putting any more flights through BA. Certainly one way or another it's starting to feel like change time is getting close.

Isn't this just a rehash of the 'changes to exec club' thread? And "will your loyalty change"? It's like kittens with a ball of wool on here.
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Old Feb 19, 2015, 3:43 am
  #40  
 
Join Date: Jul 2013
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Agree with the OP, though it's not so much that the joy has been removed, rather you can find more joy elsewhere.

I have moved all my flights West to AA [where I can get the 77W], and all my flights East to CX or QR.

Certainly a drop in the ocean from BA's point of view, but then I didn't do it to try and 'hurt' BA, I did it because AA and CX offer a better hard product and service and that makes me enjoy my flights more.
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Old Feb 19, 2015, 3:48 am
  #41  
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
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I still see it as enjoyable, albeit less so than I did. One reason is that my flying habits are random. I did 3000 TP last year, requalified for Gold in 6 weeks but then haven't been on a TP earning flight in 6 months.

My biggest indication is the general mood of cabin crew. It used to be what completely set BA apart and to some degree still does but there is a lot more variety in mood and therefore quality now.

In December I was the first person on a 777 from the B gates to ATL, flying Club. It was a very long air bridge at a gate in the high 40s i think as as I walk quickly i got there a good couple of minutes beofre anyone else. I approached the plane and there were no cabin crew at the door so I walked in (was in 10A, first row of club) so i put my bag down and went to look for a member of the CC to inform them boarding had commenced. A shocked cabin crew member said 'Absolutely typical, that was good wasn't it! Sorry sir' when I told her i'd boarded.

While that's a tiny example, it's one of many small things I have seen that gives me the feleing the staff have lost the love.

JOM
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Old Feb 19, 2015, 3:48 am
  #42  
 
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Originally Posted by Cradders
At the very least, as of next week I will have requalified for gold in a little over 5 months. I'm really wondering if there's any point in putting any more flights through BA. Certainly one way or another it's starting to feel like change time is getting close.
If you are unlikely to make 5000 TP for GGL and CCR status then I totally agree. Find another scheme to build on.
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Old Feb 19, 2015, 3:51 am
  #43  
 
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Originally Posted by Tsun
Let's face it, luxury travel is a dying breed
Trying telling that to EY and co...
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Old Feb 19, 2015, 4:00 am
  #44  
 
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Originally Posted by ukgooner


Isn't this just a rehash of the 'changes to exec club' thread? And "will your loyalty change"? It's like kittens with a ball of wool on here.
Yes, there have been a lot of Groundhog Day moments lately on here.

The idea of lower cost products appeals to a lot of travellers. Bear in mind that FT is largely populated by middle-aged corporate types who belong to a certain financial demographic. Nothing wrong with that - even I'll turn into one in 15 years and I am sure my priorities and perspectives will change dramatically from where I am now - in my late 20s peeing into the wind no doubt.

I do have genuine sympathy for those who undertake regular travel for business and who feel short changed. There is no doubt that BA is sucking a lot of whatever scraps of joy were left out of the hard product.

BA has clearly laid out its stall of late. Personally I travel mainly short haul, mostly at the front of the bus but also down the back too. There are a surprising number of monied leisure travellers who don't feel the pinch as much as the road warriors. Oddly however, BAEC's latest changes hit that trance of leisure customers hardest - Silver bonus halved for example. Clearly on SH with retained bonus earning on I class fares and conspicuously low CE fares the focus is on the front of the bus for now. Whether BA can really crank up the soft product (or whether they want/need to) remains to be seen.

I still largely enjoy BA, but if I was passing through LHR four times a week I might feel differently.
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Old Feb 19, 2015, 4:14 am
  #45  
 
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Originally Posted by paulwuk
Perhaps short term, but when the people paying the big bucks are leaving for better products, leaving just I class HNLers and corporate discounters paying less for a J bucket tHan those in WTP, is it really good? Is de-stocking the club kitchen, or enhancing breakfast, really worth the straws piling on the back?
That's wishful thinking. If people were really leaving BA would have reacted and we'd see it in passenger numbers.
I think the first to complain are people who travel on employers/clients' dime. They can't vote with their wallets so they think that complaining on a public forum will change something. No, it won't. Leisure travellers like me are fine with BA as it is. Let's just look how much cheaper it is to fly WTP/CW, even WT, now than a few years ago. All I see in CW is a comfortable way to travel (the seat, and I can confirm that one does not need to be an Olympic gymnast to get out of a window seat) - I do not expect pampering and gourmet meals. People's expectations are high...very high...like from another era. I want cheaper prices so if that means no hot towel which I always refuse (what's it for anyway?) or less choice in club kitchen (I have not used it once in 8 years) I am fine with it.
People get spoiled really quickly. For most, travelling anything but Y is an unachievable dream, and when you travel in WTP you can see how much better CW is, but when you travel CW all the time suddenly you want it to be F.
If I see a WTP seat in CW the next time I fly I'd be outraged, but in 8 years of flying CW I have not noticed the colour or shape of the tray or linen or the vintage of wines or whether or not hot towel was offered to me - because I don't care. They don't define comfortable travel for me. I only read about these things on this forum, and even then I have hard time picturing what is it that people are complaining about so passionately.
Most people judge airlines by overall comfort rather than individual components, and BA remains a comfortable airline to fly.
In a way, any business class seat nowadays is a luxurious way to travel. What can be more luxurious than a bed on the plane? And many refuse to pay for it when they are travelling with their families on vacation rather than for work...
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