skipness1E

Just going to leave this here
There is NO way to get all of BA into T5 so no matter what, BA will still be a multi terminal operation at LHR. Hence with MAD operated as a JV there's no real reason why their sister company on IAG who are tasked to feed as much BA long haul as possible should not be in the terminal where that hub is based.

orbitmic

Indeed, if anything, the most logical criterion to be used on what to move to T3 would be to move destinations with the highest % of O/D passengers as this limits the impact on the network, and from that point of view, MAD-LHR being the route between the companies' two main hubs will have more connecting passengers than most other! It made perfect sense to move it to T5, not to mention that the same fact (linking the two hubs) implicitly makes it a form of flagship route.

ttama

There was no soap on my last CW flight. Apparently it hadn't been loaded. So there was no way to wash one's hands either.

T8191

It's the details like that which make BA the 'British Rail' of the air.

Johnnieboy

If only BOB included pork pies....

frasier

Having only been flying regularly for the past 2 years and using a variety of carriers my overriding thought is that the words and the music don't match. I loved the new To Fly To Serve films from 2010/11 and think at its' inception this was a creditable attempt to leverage the staff as the key differentiator. However subsequent "enhancements" or " death by a thousand cuts" have at best watered this brand promise down and at worst made it look laughable.

Having flown BA LH in CW and F as well as AA J and QR J in the past 6 months it's clear to me that BA CW is inferior to both AA and QR in J - AA seat on an old US Air plane back from CLT last weekend was not much better other than aisle access but food was surprisingly good including one of the best dishes I've eaten on 100+ sectors this year - a Korean Short Rib which was both an intelligent choice of beef cut for reheating and actually spicy and delicious. QR hard product much better and the wine in QR trumps both BA and AA.

More often than not the BA crew are the differentiator but whilst they are being asked to be a compensating factor we will all continue to jump on any BAsh thread and surely feel sympathy for the frontline staff who are a human shield for the BeAn counters with short memories and 3 year KPI horizons

T8191

frasier ... last paragraph sums it up ... Brilliant!

We don't fly that much, so our impressions get a bit dimmed with time. Yiu Frequent Flyers get more memories, even if they might tend to merge into a blur of sensory overload!

economyplusfan

+ 1. We fly to Europe about once per year in a premium cabin, on BA about half the time. Today we made a conscious choice not to book BA for our next trip, even though it would have involved one less stop, cost less, given me more FF miles, and helped me retain status on AA. The reason? Exactly as OP says. BA has gone downhill in the past 10 years while the competition has improved. For us, though, it is not #1, #2, etc. It is just lost faith that we will have a stress-free, enjoyable trip.

On the last TATL trip in BA CW we had a missed connection and a forced overnight in London due to the need to clear customs, collect bags and change terminals at LHR on top of the arriving flight being late, 90 minutes standing in line to get to an airport agent to rebook us, 30 minutes standing there while the agent rebooked us, one hour flight delay due to computer not working during boarding, a broken IFE screen, and no special meals as ordered. BA was not like this 10 years ago.

o0herbie

I joined BA from bmi after the takeover - before then I rarely flew BA.

For me, I'm just about to renew silver by using economy only. All domestic flights, and 2 WTP returns to the USA. Many of you are gold members, which I assume means you fly the premium cabins and find status easy to come by. Company policy for me is 'cheapest possible fare'.

So far this year I have found my food/drink removed, my ability to sit in row 1 removed, I've been kicked out of seats I selected at booking time without any notification, I've had my TP earning potential dropped on cheap fares...

I'm sure there is more, but my point is simple. I don't feel like BA appreciates my business. At all. This point was made during the BoB announcement. The loyalty in this relationship is distinctly one way only. BA have shown me no gratitude whatsoever, except for lounge access and fast-track. Rumours are that I'm about to lose that too!

ahmetdouas

What's funny is most of the people on this forum are Gold/Silver fly CE or CW so don't seem to care about us 'poor people'

For me, BA is doing everything it can to make the lives of ET and WT travellers miserable!

1. I have to pay to choose my seat before check in.
2. I am not well fed.
3. Even when check in opens, I am allocated absolutely awful seats at the back of the plane, if you want to be up front? Well then you pay!


Other airlines will feed yo and allow you to choose a better seat for the same money. It seems BA only cares about status passengers, lets see how that works out.

NickB

All of that except from ability to book row 1 would also be true for GCHs. I have certainly been booted out from my assigned seat without notification as a GCH.

Don't believe every rumour that flies around. I do not think that there is the beginning of a shred of evidence that BA is going to remove lounge access for SCHs.

GaxxyFlyer

Many other things that have been talked about have actually come to pass. I think there is enough of a chance of this happening that it's already being factored into my future bookings. I don't trust a single thing BA advertise as being a service on their website. It can all change tomorrow as we've seen so often this year.

My trust in BA is at zero. SH, I will fly the cheapest A to B where I can't get a full service route out of LCY. BA may win some of those, many it won't. LH I am sticking to OW for now so BA is likely to get some of my money anyway through Qatar and AA. The (in my opinion) inevitable decimation of lounge privileges will change that. Aside from BA, with BAEC I'm right on a knife edge, the loss of any lounge access be it guesting or Sapphire SH access will push me over as would the loss of the companion voucher.

lsi

I guess that hard thing is defining the word "wrong".

From the perspective of a ET/WT customer, the slow and steady erosion of the the product is infuriating - but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's wrong for the airline. The extraordinary success of the LCCs on short haul (which looks likely to be replicated on long haul over the coming decade) would suggest to me that there a huge, huge market of passengers for whom price is almost the only thing driving their consumer choices (I mean, if there were hoards of people out there prepared to pay more for a slightly better economy class product - why have the LCCs been so successful in the first place?).

So from that perspective, it would make perfect sense to cut costs/services in ET/WT down to the bare bones and try to compete with the LCCs on price - while at the same time trying to retain the more lucrative premium passengers. Business at the front, party at the back, if you will.

Or at least this approach, I am sure, would sound great in a board meeting. And I don't really know enough about the aviation industry to say if it's a good idea or not.

What I can say, from the perspective of someone who travels quite a bit (though not nearly as much as some on here), is that the changes that have happened over the last couple of years to ET/WT has made me stop looking at BA first when I book. I now use the dreaded internet search engines to find whichever option is cheapest and the best fit for my schedule. This has almost never been BA, and so I've been exposed to a number of other carriers recently. Some have been nicer than expected (TK, Air France/KLM within Europe), some have been a bit "meh" (I'm looking at you SK), while there have been a number of unpleasant but eminently survivable flights on LCCs.

So my conclusion, at the moment, is that if you're a semi-frequent economy class flier there is really no incentive at all to stay loyal to BA. Though if that's a net loss for the company as a whole I really couldn't tell you. It might not be significant at all, in the grand scheme of things. I doesn't seem like a good thing to me, but then there are many things about this business I don't understand.

vscxfan

There already is a premium product alternative from LHR/LGW to the USA - it's called Virgin Atlantic and its network (including DL routes), hard product and soft product match or exceed what BA (and in most respects AA) have to offer.

South London Bon Viveur

I think they have gone wrong by alienating a lot of their loyal customers whilst damaging their brand by offering a very limited service in Y soon to be indistinguishable from LCC. The amount of times in the last couple of years that I have heard people say how disappointed they were with BA (in Y) is very telling. People expect something premium and don't get it. It will take time, but word will get around. BA will then compete on price alone plus benefit from their dominant market position at LHR.

Frequent travellers may no longer go out of their way to fly BA. For example, whilst I like the BAEC programme and the privileges it brings, I am less inclined to fly BA now and will actively seek AA, IB, CX etc unless BA gives me a good deal. I suspect I am not alone. Time will tell how this plays itself out. BA's product is NOT awful at all, but just less good than it used to be and less good than many of its legacy airline competitors.