Sep 29, 2016, 2:55 am
Last edit by: Aus_Mal
This thread is for opinions on the concept of Buy on Board, concerned with the rights or wrongs of the decision to introduce it.
An information thread exists for your questions, particularly if they are on factual matters, here:
Buy on board: Information guide for BA shorthaul economy services
There is a separate thread for experiences, anecdotes, reactions and related comments, which is to be found here:
Buy on board: Experiences and reactions from BA's shorthaul economy services
Useful sub-links
chongcao posted a comparison of other oneworld airlines' BOB prices
Not happy about these changes?
If you have an existing booking, you may be able to complain and get 1000 Avios or cancel for free until 28 days before departure. BA's complaint form.
However, in November 2016, phone calls to BA indicated that "no refunds would be given as food & drinks were complimentary and not part of the T&C."
An information thread exists for your questions, particularly if they are on factual matters, here:
Buy on board: Information guide for BA shorthaul economy services
There is a separate thread for experiences, anecdotes, reactions and related comments, which is to be found here:
Buy on board: Experiences and reactions from BA's shorthaul economy services
Useful sub-links
chongcao posted a comparison of other oneworld airlines' BOB prices
Not happy about these changes?
If you have an existing booking, you may be able to complain and get 1000 Avios or cancel for free until 28 days before departure. BA's complaint form.
However, in November 2016, phone calls to BA indicated that "no refunds would be given as food & drinks were complimentary and not part of the T&C."
Buy on board: Implemented on BA short haul - opinions on the concept
Dec 26, 2016, 10:54 am
#2146
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: London
Programs: BAEC GGL/CCR, HH Diamond
Posts: 1,916
Dec 26, 2016, 10:57 am
#2147
Join Date: May 2010
Location: UK
Posts: 5,380
Dec 26, 2016, 11:04 am
#2148
Join Date: Jul 2011
Programs: Mucci de la Cuisine Aérienne du Réseau Courte Durée de British Airways
Posts: 4,704
The new BOB coffee is not instant.
The current coffee in ET is instant though.
To be honest I start to wonder abut many of you and how you currently cope with having to buy drinks in resturants or coffee shops.
The new product is a Buy on Board product and you have to pay for it. If you don't like this then you have a choice to fly with another airline that still offers complimentary drinks or pay for Club Europe where everything is still free.
No one is forcing any of you to fly with BA or drink the coffee or tea. You have a choice.
Don't forget, you can use your Avios to buy your drinks and food too.
The current coffee in ET is instant though.
To be honest I start to wonder abut many of you and how you currently cope with having to buy drinks in resturants or coffee shops.
The new product is a Buy on Board product and you have to pay for it. If you don't like this then you have a choice to fly with another airline that still offers complimentary drinks or pay for Club Europe where everything is still free.
No one is forcing any of you to fly with BA or drink the coffee or tea. You have a choice.
Don't forget, you can use your Avios to buy your drinks and food too.
Dec 26, 2016, 11:22 am
#2149
Join Date: May 2016
Location: GLA
Programs: BAEC Bronze
Posts: 143
The new BOB coffee is not instant.
The current coffee in ET is instant though.
To be honest I start to wonder abut many of you and how you currently cope with having to buy drinks in resturants or coffee shops.
The new product is a Buy on Board product and you have to pay for it. If you don't like this then you have a choice to fly with another airline that still offers complimentary drinks or pay for Club Europe where everything is still free.
No one is forcing any of you to fly with BA or drink the coffee or tea. You have a choice.
Don't forget, you can use your Avios to buy your drinks and food too.
The current coffee in ET is instant though.
To be honest I start to wonder abut many of you and how you currently cope with having to buy drinks in resturants or coffee shops.
The new product is a Buy on Board product and you have to pay for it. If you don't like this then you have a choice to fly with another airline that still offers complimentary drinks or pay for Club Europe where everything is still free.
No one is forcing any of you to fly with BA or drink the coffee or tea. You have a choice.
Don't forget, you can use your Avios to buy your drinks and food too.
Nobody forces me to fly BA, I currently do frequently as it's a better option. I hope price cuts will occur to maintain value and competitiveness against rivals.
Dec 26, 2016, 11:24 am
#2150
Suspended
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 9,916
Don't worry - Java Republic don't sell instant coffee, so no danger of that.
How will it work - if as Littlegirl says the cup contains the coffee grounds, it sounds like 'add hot' water = instant coffee?
The new BOB coffee is not instant.
If you don't like this then you have a choice to fly with another airline that still offers complimentary drinks or pay for Club Europe where everything is still free.
No one is forcing any of you to fly with BA or drink the coffee or tea. You have a choice.
If you don't like this then you have a choice to fly with another airline that still offers complimentary drinks or pay for Club Europe where everything is still free.
No one is forcing any of you to fly with BA or drink the coffee or tea. You have a choice.
It's not the way I feel - I think BA customers and employees deserve better than the approach of current management. But, your comments cut both ways.
Dec 26, 2016, 12:12 pm
#2151
Join Date: Oct 2014
Location: Krakow
Programs: BAEC Silver, Miles and More(FTL), IHG(Platinum), Accor, HHonors(Diamond), SPG, Hertz Five Star
Posts: 5,925
This according to sk is an enhancement. Sound familiar?
Dec 26, 2016, 12:18 pm
#2152
Join Date: May 2009
Programs: BAEC
Posts: 769
Can we all move on now?
Clearly it is! Accepting BOB or taking your business to other airlines is in no way comparable to leaving a job and career. Littlegirl is right. Just like BCal - "We never forget you have a choice"...
Well spotted! To be fair, I think this is a perfectly acceptable policy.
Dec 26, 2016, 12:22 pm
#2153
Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club, easyJet and Ryanair
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: UK/Las Vegas
Programs: BA Gold (GGL/CCR)
Posts: 15,928
... I can assure you that everything we think and most of what we do is psychological 
Edited to add: Out of interest, why has this decision to move to BoB provoked such anger among customers including yourself? The provision of food and drink from an authority figure (in this case the crew) is hard-wired right back to our infancy when we were helpless in our cots and totally reliant on Mum to feed us. We can't see our unconscious, but there is something perhaps very personally uncomfortable for us when what was provided to us for free as we sit 'helpless' in our seat, now is no longer freely given and we must pay for it. Stuff around food and drink can be highly emotive Also, the introduction of money into this two way exchange can represent an Oedipal element but that is another whole ballpark...
Edited to add: Out of interest, why has this decision to move to BoB provoked such anger among customers including yourself? The provision of food and drink from an authority figure (in this case the crew) is hard-wired right back to our infancy when we were helpless in our cots and totally reliant on Mum to feed us. We can't see our unconscious, but there is something perhaps very personally uncomfortable for us when what was provided to us for free as we sit 'helpless' in our seat, now is no longer freely given and we must pay for it. Stuff around food and drink can be highly emotive Also, the introduction of money into this two way exchange can represent an Oedipal element but that is another whole ballpark...BA is working hard at forcing me away, and its constant penny pinching has already had an affect on my future travel choices.
Last edited by Tobias-UK; Dec 26, 2016 at 12:27 pm
Dec 26, 2016, 12:33 pm
#2154
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Switzerland
Programs: AY+ Platinum, SK Gold, BAEC Silver, airbaltic VIP, Radisson VIP
Posts: 6,531
Dec 26, 2016, 12:37 pm
#2155
Suspended
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 9,916
And the BCal phrase meaning was we want to please you - whereas the comment by Littlegirl was essentially "If you don't like it, don't let the door hit you as you leave."
Marshall/King made employees proud to work for BA, and empowered them to make the experience the best possible for customers. Current BA management sings a song of gloom and doom ahead as the reason they nickel and dime the product and employees. The flip attitude of "if you don't like it, go someplace else" is not what you typically see from employees in a well-run service business. However, BA management doesn't see what they do as a service business. They view it as a commodity transportation enhanced by marketing.
I think it's fine for BA employees to tell customers who don't like it to hit the road. My comment was and is, don't be surprised that management see you in the same way they view flowers in the F toilets and stocking Club Kitchen.
Dec 26, 2016, 12:46 pm
#2156
Join Date: Sep 2013
Programs: BAEC Gold, EK Skywards (enhanced Blue !), Oman Air Sindbad Gold
Posts: 6,399
It isn't -- I have empathy for the front line employees at BA.
And the BCal phrase meaning was we want to please you - whereas the comment by Littlegirl was essentially "If you don't like it, don't let the door hit you as you leave."
Marshall/King made employees proud to work for BA, and empowered them to make the experience the best possible for customers. Current BA management sings a song of gloom and doom ahead as the reason they nickel and dime the product and employees. The flip attitude of "if you don't like it, go someplace else" is not what you typically see from employees in a well-run service business. However, BA management doesn't see what they do as a service business. They view it as a commodity transportation enhanced by marketing.
I think it's fine for BA employees to tell customers who don't like it to hit the road. My comment was and is, don't be surprised that management see you in the same way they view flowers in the F toilets and stocking Club Kitchen.
And the BCal phrase meaning was we want to please you - whereas the comment by Littlegirl was essentially "If you don't like it, don't let the door hit you as you leave."
Marshall/King made employees proud to work for BA, and empowered them to make the experience the best possible for customers. Current BA management sings a song of gloom and doom ahead as the reason they nickel and dime the product and employees. The flip attitude of "if you don't like it, go someplace else" is not what you typically see from employees in a well-run service business. However, BA management doesn't see what they do as a service business. They view it as a commodity transportation enhanced by marketing.
I think it's fine for BA employees to tell customers who don't like it to hit the road. My comment was and is, don't be surprised that management see you in the same way they view flowers in the F toilets and stocking Club Kitchen.
Dec 26, 2016, 1:03 pm
#2157
FlyerTalk Evangelist, Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Somewhere between 0 and 13,000 metres high
Programs: AF/KL Life Plat, BA GGL+GfL, ALL Plat, Hilton Diam, Marriott Gold, blablablah, etc
Posts: 30,540
It isn't -- I have empathy for the front line employees at BA.
And the BCal phrase meaning was we want to please you - whereas the comment by Littlegirl was essentially "If you don't like it, don't let the door hit you as you leave."
Marshall/King made employees proud to work for BA, and empowered them to make the experience the best possible for customers. Current BA management sings a song of gloom and doom ahead as the reason they nickel and dime the product and employees. The flip attitude of "if you don't like it, go someplace else" is not what you typically see from employees in a well-run service business. However, BA management doesn't see what they do as a service business. They view it as a commodity transportation enhanced by marketing.
I think it's fine for BA employees to tell customers who don't like it to hit the road. My comment was and is, don't be surprised that management see you in the same way they view flowers in the F toilets and stocking Club Kitchen.
And the BCal phrase meaning was we want to please you - whereas the comment by Littlegirl was essentially "If you don't like it, don't let the door hit you as you leave."
Marshall/King made employees proud to work for BA, and empowered them to make the experience the best possible for customers. Current BA management sings a song of gloom and doom ahead as the reason they nickel and dime the product and employees. The flip attitude of "if you don't like it, go someplace else" is not what you typically see from employees in a well-run service business. However, BA management doesn't see what they do as a service business. They view it as a commodity transportation enhanced by marketing.
I think it's fine for BA employees to tell customers who don't like it to hit the road. My comment was and is, don't be surprised that management see you in the same way they view flowers in the F toilets and stocking Club Kitchen.
I would only add that in fairness, I think that BA management already sees employees as disposable, just like passengers. I would like to hope that no one - employee or passenger - would be naïve enough to think that if BA manages to cut more costs on one, they will spare the other. There is no win/lose game here.
Dec 26, 2016, 1:07 pm
#2158
Join Date: May 2015
Location: ATL/MCO
Programs: Costco Executive, RaceTrac Sultan of Soda, Chick-fil-A Red
Posts: 5,663
Since crews do not like this system then I hope they protest to the point that BA decides to revert back to complimentary items.
Dec 26, 2016, 1:11 pm
#2159
FlyerTalk Evangelist, Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Somewhere between 0 and 13,000 metres high
Programs: AF/KL Life Plat, BA GGL+GfL, ALL Plat, Hilton Diam, Marriott Gold, blablablah, etc
Posts: 30,540
In other words, if any unhappy passengers want their dissatisfaction to be clear to management, they will have to do this themselves.
Dec 26, 2016, 1:23 pm
#2160
Join Date: May 2010
Location: UK
Posts: 5,380
Why overanalyse everything? It's absolutely nothing to do with my mother but everything to do with BA and its never ending penny pinching. This is nothing other than a new way for BA to cut costs and increase revenue. I am personally displeased that after shelling out several thousand pounds to fly in First with BA that I am being charged for a drink on my domestic feeder flight.
BA is working hard at forcing me away, and its constant penny pinching has already had an affect on my future travel choices.
BA is working hard at forcing me away, and its constant penny pinching has already had an affect on my future travel choices.
Fair enough re your future travel choices - that is entirely your right
