Bhdtuf

Just read payment by debit or credit card. I'm sure this will then have annoyed customers who wish to pay with cash

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Not sure if this has been mentioned as haven't been through all the comments.

The first thing I notice about this is who came up with the pricing strategy.

Surely for the ease of the cabin crew rounding all the prices would make their lives a lot easier. Now they have to carry huge floats and change banks for cash payments. In practice this won't happen and they will probably look unprofessional as they run out of change.

But more importantly BA will no doubt need to pay for the change from the banks as well as extra effort involved for crew in balancing the sales and cash.

RobDBA

Cash not accepted so none of this is a factor...

"If you are an Executive Club Member you will be able to pay using Avios, via the British Airways app. If you are a Bronze,Silver or Gold Member you can also pay with your Executive Club card.

Alternatively, you can pay for your food and drink selection on board with your debit or credit card.

Please note, cash payments will not be accepted, so if you are travelling in a group, please let the rest of your party know about this change."

flashware

Will be interesting to see how they get their 'market data' on what food/drink to load, given a large chunk of the food/drink will likely be Avios redemption for the 1k people have been given (assuming they keep doing this). I'd suggest getting in now with your request, as just like with the JetTime subs, after a short while they'll stop giving you anything back saying 'tough luck'!

1010101

This is the difficult thing to understand. The business is doing well and has been for some time. Why is there such urgency to slash everything and alienate every customer they possibly can?

I can think of two options.

1. Greed.
2. The board know of some huge elephant in the room that is going to destroy profits if they don't address it. Maybe its the impact of screwing up the fleet renewal a few years ago.

dylanks

It's an "interesting strategy". I had always assumed that BA's primary reason for unlimited free drinks in the face of other cutbacks was to hide the poor comfort of the economy cabin.

The US carriers went through the process of stripping everything out from their service offering and have slowly been making real improvements. They've been able to do this because of much lower costs (thanks in part to bankruptcy reorganisation and consolidation, and to lower oil prices). The excitement my colleagues get over UA's stroopwaffel is hilariously effective. IAG apparently has rather large pension liabilities which are the only possible explanation for the recent wave of cutbacks.

BA leaves a lot of money on the table by not following the lead of US carriers in making most fares somewhat flexible with change fees, and also by not offering reasonable CE fares without a Saturday night stay. I say reasonable in that it is the same seat as Y so it's not really worth 4-8X the price.

BA marketing really is completely out of touch with reality. They've again lost the opportunity to be honest with their customers.

I remember the shock with the change in lounge catering a few years ago, especially the removal of hot food in the club lounges at "non-peak" times. The reactions today remind me of those changes.

That said, given the charges for drinks on board, I'll be very surprised if unlimited alcohol remains an option in the lounges without further enhancements to what is offered.

As a teetotal and someone that rarely flies BA SH Y, I'm not really impacted much at all by this change, but it's still a bad change that makes me dread the next enhancement which probably will.

Overall, I'm not surprised at all with the announcement and it seems like BA really are great at presenting bad changes in a completely disingenuous manner.

Petrus

I just realised that Norwegian have more legroom than BA on Shorthaul. Have done a few Nordic trips in September and surprised to find my knees didn't squish the seat in front.
Ticket prices are usually half also...

IAMORGAN

Time to move on from BA really I think. I'm trying to work out which *A programme is best for me. I don't want to fly with a LCC.

irishguy28

Maybe you forgot - or missed - that World Traveller had its "Hungry Traveller" moment recently

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...-meals-na.html

orbitmic

I've used Norwegian for a long time. Prices are often much cheaper than the alternative (although they vary a lot), free wifi is nice on flights of 2-3hrs, and their onboard magazine bizarrely has some of the best articles in the industry.

irishguy28

I thought it was that, in this day of falling on-premises alcohol sales (thanks, Tesco!) and 27 pub closures a week, that food was being embraced solely as a means of tempting additional punters in, often in a last effort to survive.

I can't imagine that the additional overheads and cost of sourcing, buying, preparing, storing, cooking and serving food make it a money spinner - in comparison to alcohol where anyone can just hold a glass and pour.

irishguy28

They could just have turned up the pressure to keep the cabin at the equivalent of sea-level and just kept the old food then!

Oaxaca

In the parallel universe of stock market listed companies, I'll take a guess at their motivation (whether it's a good strategy is another question). Up to the end of Q1, IAG was giving earnings guidance to the market that 2016 profits would increase by around 40% on 2015. By the end of June they were giving notice of a profit warning and the Q2 results guidance had reduced profit growth to "low double digit" growth.

They view that they can't afford to fail to hit the reduced guidance, as the share price would take another hammering. Hence the accelerated cost cutting, and BA is the biggest airline in IAG, it could not be immune. BoB would have come anyway IMO, though maybe a bit later.

flatlander

Even if he has only been in post for 6 months he and his management team (and the IAG team, Willie Walsh & Co) should have a strategy for BA, especially if they are going to implement large scale service changes.

Indeed - so where is Cruz going with this? If it really is short term profit maximisation that is a bad idea in a cyclic, capital-intensive industry. It won't even affect BA's costs for 2 quarterly profit reporting periods so it isn't going to bump the annual results up this year if they need to be flattered.

Quite so - the fare difference is ridiculous, and anything BA does to invite closer comparison with the LCCs makes them look bad.

The free minibar example is an interesting one. At least in the hotels where I have experienced that, the (list) price was high enough that there had to be justifications for the cost being much higher than alternatives. So free minibar, free snacks in the evening, and so on. That didn't make up for the higher cost in simple economic terms, but in perceived value the difference was large. In some cases the cost was several times more than the cheapest reasonable room in that city, and the parallel with BA charging several times more than the cheapest LCC on a route is strong.

One of the well-sealed Starbucks coffee mugs with a lid. Keeps drinks cold or not for quite some time. Or the smallest size of Sigg drink holder.

irishguy28

Are you sure he understands sarcasm?

Next time he's in the media, he'll be telling everyone that he has been flooded with messages of support and approval from BA's most frequent fliers.

xenole

I didn't realise so many people here flew short haul economy! I was under the impression that the majority of this board wouldn't be seen dead in anything less than CE/CW/F

Did mention somewhere that I tried Norwegian (for the second time) from BCN-LGW.
Really missed a lounge and haven't to fend for myself in the overpriced food area and I don't think I've been that far back in a queue for years!
Didn't see that many people buying food on board although many might have eaten already y as it was around tea time.

I'm still not bothered by BoB. I've mentioned before most of my SH flights are a max of 2 hours, I eat in the lounge beforehand usually or in my hotel etc., and most offerings don't appeal to me i.e. not a mayo in sandwiches lover.
The bulk of my SH travel is used for connections either paid with cash or Avios. It's easy for me to do BA to BA.
That said, I have been looking recently at other carriers and when Easyjet or Ryanair are charging £19.99 for a hand baggage return to say DUB Vs. £80 on BA, and sometimes from a more convenient airport, it's tempting for a day trip or weekend away. Even so, being limited to say 7kg isn't that helpful for some trips and when the price jumps to £50.99 for baggage, you're not far from BA's pricing at that point and the benefits start to outweigh the £20 or so difference.

BoB definitely isn't a deal breaker for me. Loss of lounge access in various circumstances probably would be though as I do like the benefits of status and things like this do make BA seem different and more appealing regardless of price.