LTN Phobia

Well BA, I am a bit upset with you for that awful worm cover on this month's HighLife mag!

ratechaser

I wonder what a few full page ads cost in the national papers... a bit of crowdfunding should sort that out if someone could come up with an appropriate open letter (from the wealth of material on here perhaps!). At the very least you have to think a well reasoned argument with a liberal dose of emotive language around 'reducing our proud flag carrier to a second rate LCC' would create a degree of embarrassment for BA.

Of course, someone actually has to stand up and organise it all... frankly I'd rather just take my business elsewhere...

HIDDY

Best not mention it's from a bunch of Flyertalkers then.

DFB_london

rather than making trump-twitter like comments moaning about seeing opinions some may not like, just perhaps the frequency of these type of posts reflects the deterioration in product and the growing dissatisfaction with it compared to the competition and the vast deterioration in customer service when it goes wrong (which it increasingly seems to and to which the response is increasingly a thanks blah blah we don't care).

Most big brands which have delivered well leave customers very attached so when the brand and its values dies no wonder there is a lot of grief.

As others have said though it's far easier just to vote with the wallet elsewhere and 'show BA the &&&&ing money' has gone elsewhere.

navylad

People don't like change and love to moan. For example the people on here who complain about BOB and then in other posts say AY is better (ignoring the BOB on their flights). We must also remember that BA is also the most active forum on here, which considering isn't the biggest (or indeed the smallest) airline, there is bound to be more negative views than other airlines irrespective of whether or not this translates into actually whether there is wider customer dissatisfaction in comparison to other airlines, particularly competitors, has IMHO yet to be established, and more rigourious market research would be required to convince me.

It is also worth noting that the frequency of posts is skewed by some people who are posting negative comments a lot, but such is forum life.

Good luck to all those who say they'll vote with their feet, better if more actually did it, would mean more reward availability for everyone else. Obviously, the voting with feet doesn't work too well if in insignificant numbers and transitional business model is attracting new customers; time will tell.

I won't be signing said letter and doubt it will tell anything to BA that it doesn't know; some customers are dissatisfied with some elements of the product and service. We already know from on here that they are aware of these and let's hope they address them. Taking out newspaper advertisement space is a tad OTT and a waste of money really.

DFB_london

reward availability will not follow. More discount fares will - redemption seats especially in first and cost of lounge access are the next targets

TurtleEyes

elitetraveler

In terms of "BA let me down/BA service complaints" threads a good deal seemingly most come from new or infrequent contributors to this forum so there is really no skewing. #AlternateFacts

Mingo89

I agree. I'm also overhearing a lot of conversations - in my large open-plan office, on the tube, etc. - about how much BA has deteriorated. People couldn't believe it when BoB came in and a lot of people (both frequent corporate travellers and not) are saying that they will stop flying BA.

Often1

No. You know exactly what BA received. It is no different than what other vendors to large business are hearing.

Corporate customers want low fares. Those customers are purchasing a seat from A-B. That is especially true on short-haul where none of the "arrive well-rested" arguments hold water.

True. The customer could care less whether BA holds the line, from profit, food, watered-down spirits or what have you. But, customers don't care about BOB and that is a clear message worldwide as ULCC's come to the fore.

lloydah

But isn't the truth nearer the fact that, if you've flown with BA over the years, you've come to expect and have received a certain quality of product which is no longer available or at least no longer given. If a decent BA crew is the only thing that now makes the flight at all memorable at best, and value for money at least, and other factors align to make the trip a pain in the rear in relation to the cost or perhaps the perceived value for money, one automatically realises how the standard has dropped.

Taken as of now, BA might well stand it's ground against some other operators but compared to what it was until quite recently it's less than it was. There's a national pride involved here. It may well be a private company but it has that flag on its tail and I for one hate to see it looked at like it was a joke.

tom139

I wrote to Alex Cruz and said how disappointed I was at recent experiences onboard. I asked him or his team to get back to me if they still cared. No reply...4 weeks later

elitetraveler

I've written 4 CEO letters in 30 years of business travel -

AA - Bob Crandall - via fax - call the next day to resolve problem - had actually researched it and had fix ready when they called
DL - Leo Mullin - via fax and mail - no response
RC - Simon Cooper - via email - response the next morning - (it was only 2 nights)
*W - Roland Vos (Europe CEO) - via email - response within 2 hours - problem fixed

tom139

There's no excuse not to reply IMHO.

Ber2dca

I knew what you were saying but at the end of the day, it's spin. Of course, the customer - whether big or small - wants to ideally have savings. But they also want to have the quality of the product maintained. BA has been making massive profits and would seem to be able to offer customers savings without sacrificing profitability.

I would think there's a good chance that maybe the pressure is less from the customer side and more from the shareholder side in this particular instance.