Dan72

I think that's the problem. Fares are already very low, often less than they were fifteen/twenty years ago. Something has to give and despite what is said on here, most people don't choose on the basis of onboard service. You only need to look at the success of Easyjet, particularly at Gatwick where BA's own effort at establishing a European network failed. The belief that people will pay more for improved onboard catering is not borne out by the development of the industry in recent years.

In terms of profit making, BA does well compared to its peers. But in terms of a business. its profits are far from impressive when considered against other industries which offer much higher returns on capital.

orbitmic

This argument is often made here, but at the risk of missing something obvious, would anyone explain to me what is the logic of always comparing fares today to what they were 20-30 years ago (the usual point of comparison) rather than to what they were 5-10 years ago? In fact even to 1 year ago when BA were still serving snacks on band 3 etc? Arguably, the aviation and competitive scene was entirely different 20-30 years ago so it becomes hard to compare the effects of the hundreds of things that changed in the meantime. But within the past 1 or 5 years? Sure, fast changing industry and blablabla, but ultimately not so much has changed in the competitive picture in that more recent time frame, yet service downgrades have been significant.

I can't speak for everyone but in the case of my main BA European route, fares are actually more expensive now than they were 1, 5, and 10 years ago (about +£25/return for cheapest Y return, and about +£50 on cheapest luggage inclusive return). Yet service has gone down significantly compared to a year ago and even more compared to 10. I would add that oil is cheaper now than it was in recent years too.

Well, exactly, but precisely that precedes enhancements, which to many here comes down to questioning whether the petty league are killing the goose that laid the golden eggs.

Dan72

I suspect we see what we want to see, but I don't see that fares have risen by any margin in recent years. I do, however, see an aviation market that only gets more competitive. It's not just easyjet and Ryanair now, but Norwegian and less so Wizzair, Transavia, etc. Perhaps the legacies are lying but they all say they lose or struggle to make a profit on shorthaul. Where airlines have reintroduced catering, I think it has failed to prompt the increasing margins they had hoped it might deliver, which is perhaps why BA feel they can now afford to cut it.

InternationalLiving

You do realise that the definition of "enhancement" is

1.
to raise to a higher degree; intensify; magnify:
The candelight enhanced her beauty.
2.
to raise the value or price of:
Rarity enhances the worth of old coins.

right? What BA is doing is not enhancing products and services. What they are doing is systematically turning the airline into an overpriced LCC with lounge access.

Ldnn1

You do realise that 'enhancement' has its own meaning on the BA forum, right?

Par exemple...

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...ancements.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...ts-august.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...ancements.html

headingwest

Indeed it does, and that was one of the first things I learnt here!

InternationalLiving

I do now

I did wonder, as I saw another poster also use it, but the lack of quotation marks threw me off the sarcasm trail.

It's a sordid state of affairs when sarcasm must be used so frequently that it no longer requires quotation marks, but I then again, depreciation of service quality is certainly not unique to BA. To be honest, I hadn't noticed much until this recent reduction of catering service, but then I only fly BA shorthaul these days, and mostly in ET.

ba bob

Hardly surprising exactly this played out.