Prospero

Too soon to quantify, I’d wager. We might get a snippet of this at the next IAG Investor Day session.

BrianDromey

By comparison I flew FR over the weekend. (Cork-Liverpool, 40 minute flight).
AS per BA hot food orders were taken before pushback - they have all sorts of ready-meal type things available as well as ham/cheese croissants and panini. I don't know how they store them - I don't imagine FR would be shelling out for refrigerated galley trollies? I didn't purchase anything myself, but contactless seemed to work well. The passengers next to me bought things and the crew said receipts were available through MMB. That seems smart.

So, overall, the FR crew got through the whole cabin (BoB and 'Duty Free') and cleared in rubbish on a 40 minute flight. Seems it takes BA's crews 2 hours to do the same. FR have a larger selection of hot items and snacks - but BA payment systems seem cumbersome and slow. Clearly a clever clogs in waterside thought iPads would be great, because they're technology. While FRs android devices probably cost £100 each, are quick and easy to use for crew and sent receipts to MMB.

Skipcool3

Saving Must also factor in the credit for no longer providing any catering / bar service / hot drinks

Worcester

Loyalty is best summed up by the prisoner dilemma in Game Theory. There are two prisoners in separate cells. They have two choices. Cooperate with the police or not to cooperate. The outcomes are as follows.

1. If one cooperates and one does not, the one who cooperates get a light sentence while the on who does not gets a very big sentence.
   
2. They both cooperate in which case they both get normal sentences.
   
3. They both don't cooperate in which case they both go free.

Played once there is a very strong incentive for an indervidual to grass up their pal to the police.

Played multiple times tacit collusion will occur and both will remain silent.

The lesson is that loyalty is a two way street and if BA is letting you down your only option is not to keep rewarding them.

FlyerTalker688786

It is really difficult to say.

First, IAG is spending millions of dollars to standardise A319/A320/A321 among IB, BA, VY and EI. This includes smaller galley so that they can put in more seats. About 3-6 seats I think. Then they remove the oven and reduce the seat pitch.

Second, IAG is standardise on board offerings with regional variance. Amend catering offering cost money.

Third, staff training and equipment cost millions.

Forth, the installation of Wi-Fi and make sure plenty of bandwidth for future payment system would cost IAG millions too.

Fifth, as they implement all these equipment and costly catering contract, they will be loosing sales as passengers move away (hopefully).

Sixth, as passenger rebels, it will cost IAG even more millions to lower ticket price to limit damage on financial result (well, there are more seats to sell per plane per trip while less passenger and less revenue per plane, you can do the math as a six years old).

Seventh, the downward spiral continues as now BA has to compete with not only LH/AF/KL/DL/VS... on long haul and BA has lowered themselves even to face competition with DY/FR/EZY directly in short haul. By that time BA would regret that they have too many seats on A320/321...

Of course above ideas are partial fictional and imaging.

elitetraveler

Isn't that how BA and other airlines have constructed their "loyalty programs?"

psollitt

Later this month I have a Jet2 flight for work coming up , the choice of meals on their menu put BA to shame in price and choice ! Who would have thought that BA would have been put to shame by Jet2 ! Added the hot meal link that looks good !


http://www.jet2.com/travel-extras/meals
http://www.jet2.com/docs/pdf/inflight_menu.pdf

elitetraveler

BA of course prints a beautiful menu and rolls out the PR hype and #alternatefacts - i.e. - our food won't be overpriced like LCCs.

And BA Twitter still has BOB complaints - not enough food, not able to serve the entire cabin, and lame excuses for folks who bought their tickets when the BA website touted free food and beverages such as below:

British Airways ‏@British_Airways 4h4 hours ago
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@TerryPearce3 Hi Terry, the catering service on board has always been complimentary and not included within the price of the ticket. ^L
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
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fife

Well, my nearest airport is Edinburgh, so I usually have to connect somewhere.

After years of refusing to fly a Skyteam airline, I decided to try KLM - wow. Connecting through Amsterdam was a dream compared to Heathrow. A real pleasure!

I was pleased to see free drinks and snacks on the EDI-AMS leg, hot towels in economy on the transatlantic leg, and much to my surprise, being addressed by name (consistently, on the return, only once on the outbound). Plenty of juice runs, attentive crew.

Very impressed - if only their frequent flier programme was as good as BA's!

Ber2dca

AMS is indeed a much better transfer airport than LHR and IMO another major benefit of Skyteam - if you fly to/from and within the U.S. - is that the U.S. partner is DL not AA.

I think the problem with the argument that the LCCs are doing it is that LCCs are approaching the entire airline game in a very different way. Point-to-point shorthaul is the entire business of Ryanair and they have optimized every bit of their operation to suit that model. BA can't do that because that's only a small part of their game. BA is basically trying to retrofit a LCC structure on top of a structure that was built to do something else.

It's a very difficult process and I don't know if it will work at all. Why? Because BA is approaching the optimal balance of cost and customer satisfaction from the other direction than LCCs. It's a loser's game.

LCCs started out saying "Expect nothing but a seat! We get you from A to B for 30 quid!" and did just that. Of course it was worse than what BA offered but probably not 150 quid per person worse for people for whom that's a very significant sum. The people for whom the difference in attitude and so forth was enough to justify paying more stuck with BA and cherished the difference. But Ryanair could do something BA could never do - surprise people positively by being better than bottom of the barrel awful.

This creates positive word of mouth referrals: "You know, I took Ryanair last month, and it wasn't actually that terrible. I think I would fly them again." That's how Ryanair took off. Yet if BA had provided the same service all in all, it would be reviewed so poorly it would probably be a story in the national press. That's perhaps not 'fair' but that's a battle BA can't win. As BA reduces its amenities, it takes a lot of heat for things that are 'normal' for LCCs. And the fact the LCCs, being perfectly structured for that model, do all of that stuff better than BA can doesn't help. What's the outcome? People who stuck with BA for a decade after LCCs first hit the market second guess their choice. Why go with BA when LCCs can do the same and execute it better?

BA is basically trying to fight the battle on their terms on ground they've chosen.

elitetraveler

I think on FT had BA provided GLDs and SLVRs with free coffee, tea or soft drinks and even chips/a snack that would be a lot less pushback.

After all, BA generated a pre-tax profit of GBP 2.6 billion in 2015.

It's really hard to imagine that savings from getting rid of the flower in the F lav, nixing the amuse bouche and bistro and the stinginess with second meals in WT and WT+ could really be over $50 million in savings. I mean, how much would it have cost to change out the worst of CCR furniture - tens of thousands of dollars?

In other words, management has put the brand, particularly with premium travelers at risk, for really very little in return.

ukgooner

They look gross. I'd rather have an M&S sandwich than a small airline Y ready meal.

twinter82

Personally I am still very disappointed with the concept of BOB for BA. I fly twice a week for work, almost always shorthaul domestic. Company policy is to book the cheapest flights, and the online booking system makes it quite a challenge to ensure BA is that option - basically by selecting flight times that EZY don't match. Doing this often puts me out but to retain silver and hit the magic 600 whilst doing 5 TP routes, needs must.

I really question why I bother, given lounge access at LGW is No.1 and no comp in flight service. I can't even use avios to upgrade due to the way the company agent makes the bookings.

Perhaps time to reconsider EZY and their pass plus.

ukgooner

It's is free in Y in a way - using Avios. It's relatively token amounts to spend compared to the earnings. My current Sydney flight I note will net over 50,000 avios. Enough for 100 cans of Specked Hen, for example.

I've more than enough Avios, so now I've a much bigger range of food and drink in Y - and it's still free.

South London Bon Viveur

They look alright. A bit like your average CE meal.