Commercialisation of the lounges
 

Hi all, long time stalker here, finally created an account!

I remember using GF before and seeing the 'OPPO' stand. I've also seen posts about Samsung in the CCR.

Just wondering what your opinions are on BA presumably selling spaces in the lounges to these companies to attract our attention.

Personally, I don't think GF or CCR are the most appropriate places for them, I remember the OPPO stand being rather large and taking up space in what was an already crowded GF. HOWEVER, having said that, if it was noticable that BA were reinvesting the revenue from these deals into the lounges (ie charging ports) then I don't think I'd mind so much.

I must also add that I don't mind the promotional drinks so much, adds a bit of variety. I think I remember them having a Heineken stand in gallaries south last year at some point and I enjoyed that.

Your thoughts?

Welcome to Flyertalk FClassOrBust, and I would certainly encourage you to adopt a New Year's resolution to post here, thank you for your points and question.

The Samsung display seems a monumental waste of time, as far as I can tell, it won't be there much longer, I gather. The gin/wine/tea/macaroons marketing efforts do seem to go down well, in both Flounge and CCR, but it seems to me that if you allow them for say food or drink, why not allow them for other products too? A rubicon has been crossed. There are less attractive ways of boosting BA's income after all.

Thank you for the warm welcome, corporate-wage-slave!

That's an interesting way of looking at it. Personally, I'm against it. If it's all or nothing, than I'd rather nothing. Lounges are supposed to be areas of relaxation that differ drastically from the selling culture that occurs down the escalators.

I know there is no pressure as such for a lounge user to interact with these stands but I still feel it cheapens the lounge somewhat. It also highlights BA's priorities and mentality when they are offering power plugs to these stands and displays but not to the fare paying passengers!

I'm not a huge fan of these stands myself. Over the years airports have basically turned into shopping centres that also happen facilities for flights and the lounges are (for the time being) a safe haven where you can actually relax before your flight (or between your flights).

It's not the commercialisation itself that is the problem, in my opinion, it's the placement. After all, we don't seem to hear lots of complaints about the shopping areas in the Lufthansa First Class Terminal in Frankfurt, or the Emirates First Lounge in Dubai.

As I commented in the CCR thread, I don't believe any of the lounges have a space where something like this could fit in and look tasteful. It needs to be designed-in from the start in a separated / discreet alcove.

Airports, especially Frequent flyer/premium lounges, are full of some of the most sought after consumer demographics. I can only see this going in one way in the future...

Interesting to read the other side of the coin:
http://www.bamedia.co.uk/media/Briti..._Pack_2013.pdf

(Also, interesting that the toilet split (proportion of male/female) in the FLounge doesn't match the stated demographic split in the guide :))

Thanks for this - interesting link, particularly as it includes the prices.

And the spelling mistakes...

Indeed, though I expect that from marketing peeps ;)

If flying in F meant paying F as in the fare basis "F" as it once did, that type of spend easily supported the sort of lounges which people remember and compare to today. But, that isn't the case anymore. Something has to make up for it and selling "placement" is an easy way to make up for that without either cutting lounge access, raising the bar or doing something else people won't like much.

Indeed, this is a demographic which the marketing folks drool over and while the people here claim that it doesn't work on them, the marketing people say that the facts show otherwise and that this is money well spent by them.

I personally don't mind that BA monetises it's lounge space etc. but in a manner that doesn't disrupt my comfort like the horrendously garish bright light of the Samsung stand. The lounge is after all supposed to be a place of pre flight quiet relaxation.

What next? Get beverage companies to sponsor individual drinks at the bar? Enjoy your full breakfast presented by company X? Let the ideas roll... :)

It just makes me think how cheap BA are. I was in the T5 complex over Christmas for the first time in a while. Barely any food, school changing room style showers, almost every seat taken, dirty plates and cups everywhere, and never out of sight of some form of garish advertisement. It really is a terrible first impression of the airline for anyone new to flying with them.

Average annual income of £60k. Interesting. I presume there must have been some surveys, although I don't recall any referencing salary.
When I first read it I thought it was for Golds only, but I think it's the entire lounge demographic. I thought 60k would have been low for Gold, but seems a little higher than I would have thought for all exec members overall.
Either way, unless they had a stand where Blake Lively was giving lambada lessons, then I'm just not interested.

Facinating stuff indeed.

I had a bit of time in GF last week and I barely noticed the Samsung stand.
Given that at that moment I was a bit unwell and all I wanted was a quiet spot where to rest a little, no bother came from the stand. I don't even remember bright lights.

If the stand personnel wandered the lounge for surveys or marketing speech, I agree it would be a disruption. But a silent stand, not light up like a concert stadium... I don't find it annoying.
Being useless, pointless or not, it's not my concern as long as it's not intrusive :)

PS
They should slap on the fingers who choose that last picture for the closing slide/page.

In 2013 in the lounges, "Average passenger dwell time is 52 minutes, double that of any other area within the airport"
But in 2016 "Customers spend an average of 90 minutes in the British Airways lounges."
Longer waits for food, showers, or just more enjoyable???

It's the fat that many of us build into our schedules because Heathrow doesn't work sometimes. I can usually stand about 45 mins in GF before going for a walk amongst people that are not so full of themselves haha :p:p:p

Very interesting read. I am staggered that almost half the lounge users are leisure travellers.

I wonder if the lounge use data carries across to premium cabins too. When I look at short haul CE there is a large proportion of interline from US or Europe - and they are i guess predominately leisure. I guess I am about half and half. Long haul seems to have a lot of people on leisure too and why not, there is an increasingly large population of newly retired who are fortunate to have a reasonable disposable income. This is certainly the case on other long haul carriers such as Finnair, Qatar, Malaysian and Eva that I have flown on in the last couple of months.

I try and factor in extra time for delays on trains, the tube, incoming flights, security etc. and I do like a bit of time in the lounges anyway. Hate going in, rushing through some food and five minutes later trying to get to a remote gate because you've 40 minutes to spare.

If I flew daily or weekly like some here and lived in the London area, then I probably would time things so I don't spend as much time sitting around an airport, but as I have a few hours travel to get to LHR, I want leeway.
Same thing when I'm overnighting in a hotel. My flight might be a few hours away but I would rather spend that time at the airport than sitting in a hotel room by myself watching Jeremy Kyle or something whilst waiting for 11am checkout.
Also, I begrudge paying £15-£20 sometimes for luke warm breakfasts in a hotel when I can eat in the lounge without further reaching in my pocket.

Back to topic, is the keg of Beer in GF I saw before xmas a permanent feature or an advertising feature?

As others have said longer lounge time for us is as a result of a good journey, knowing the M25 we always build in contingency time so we don't have to worry if there are delays and if not we can relax in the lounge.

With regard to the advertising as long as it is quiet and the staff leave us alone, it's not a big issue except to the extent it is taking up space when there are insufficient seats.

it it has been suggested that this is to avoid people taking cans of beer now BoB is upon us, in which case it will be for as long as it takes them to sack Cruz and replace him with someone who gets BA.

It is a marketing feature, and is due to be with us for at least another few weeks. It is place currently as I type :)

Bear in mind dwell time in the toilet; men go faster.

Possibly, longer connection times in the timetable, and/or more efficient connections processing (security, flight connections) leading to more of the timetabled connection time in the lounge rather than a queue?

I suspect this has a lot to do with how your average European business traveller in ET won't accrue status, whereas the discount Club ticket they pay for on holiday will get them into the lounge.

What brand is the beer keg anyway?

Only promotions I've seen recently are the Samsung stands in the CCR and GF.
Also the whisky one on the bar in the CCR.

I like the food/drink ones as they seem more appropriate.
Would have definitely tried the macaroons.

As for Samsung, the opportunity to play with some of their hardware would be useful. A new phone is something someone on business may look at more than a 55"+ tv whilst passing through.

Heineken. No one said it was great quality, but folk seem to enjoy it :D

Thought I saw Heineken mentioned somewhere.
Not sure why they would have a promo stand as the lounges have bottles in the fridges.
Something perhaps British and from craft breweries would be more apt rather than advertising something you've had for years.

Honestly why would BA care provider the advertiser pays up.

No reason at all why a craft brewery couldn't step forward, in practice I would suggest the numbers don't stack up.

Clever of BA not to mention 'x% are Heineken drinkers' as part of their little pamphlet!! :D

Down this neck of the woods Heineken is seen as a premium brand. I bought six cans just the other week and thought it tasted better compared to the local stuff which is still pretty decent. Mind you anything cold tastes great in the heat we've been having.

As for the Samsung stand. I'm surprised they agreed to pay good money to have their display located in what from memory must be one of the quietest areas in the whole T5 lounge complex. :confused:

Thank you all for your replies. Interesting to see opinions for both sides of the arguement.

Just a thought... if we work on the assumption that this type of marketing is here to stay in the lounges, would it be more bearable if we had a say in what we saw? For example, BA send some form of email survey around.

Personally, I'm always partial to experiencing different drinks so I'd be an advocate for the placement of more beverages. However, I'm not as interested in the tech side of things as I've got all I need.

I guess what I'm asking is should we have a say in the type of placed advertising?

'We' as in who? The lounge users? I can guarantee you that's not going to happen! This is merely an advertising choice.

Wishful thinking, I'd say. There may be a set of brands that BA is prepared to be associated with (and some may even be prepared to be associated with BA...) but it'll just be a matter of economics as to which ones get a lounge pitch with these going to the highest bidders.

The stats aren't right... it says that the average annual income of lounge users is lower than the average annual income of all long-haul passengers.

Well if these companies are fool enough to believe their own marketing people and subsidise the BA product and profit then so be it. But to me advertising doesn't change one iota of my purchase choice and even less so when I know it is so targeted in this way.

And the idea that anyone would fill in a questionnaire on the effectiveness of the marketing .... nah.

Apologies, I should have been clearer. 'We' refers to us the lounge users.

When I said survey I didn't mean a document that consisted of multiple pages. Perhaps something very simple.

My thinking is, if you're going to try and advertise products to get my attention, at least make them something I'm interested in. And yes, I'm aware you can't please everyone but if it was a simple "Which would you like to see advertised in the lounges? Food and drink, Technology, Services or Clothing", at least its generic enough for BA to partner with someone.

Like I said originally, I'm not a fan of the in-lounge advertising. If I wanted to shop I'd stroll around T5.

but your thinking is based on a flawed premise: ba sells advertising space, not Samsung products, and their customer for that space is Samsung, not lounge users. BA couldn't care less that Samsung's effort will succeed or flop as long as they pay the advertising fee. As far as they're concerned, if tanqueray wants to pay to advertise in an AA meeting (and i don't mean the airline) that's fine with them as long as they pay the cash. All those months represent significant income.

:pit's all those non-BAEC members traveling in WTP to deposit their money in the Caymans :p