o0herbie

I spent £25 (on expenses) in Wagamama on Tuesday night, because I will not pay £10 on board!

HilFly

I have posted positive comments about priority baggage delivery at BOS in the past. In the past, around 50% of the time my bags didn't make the connection at LHR, but on theoccasions that they did arrive at BOS, they were the first out.

But that has changed. This isn't just my experience - the skycaps are commenting that BA is now one of the worst offenders for non priority delivery of priority bags. They are somewhat aware of this stuff - the time that they spend waiting at baggage carousels is time when they are not makng money. There are plenty of bags arriving - just not the priority bags. I don't know with whom the problem lies - whether it is the loading at LHR or the handlers at BOS. But if it is the handlers at BOS, why would BA be any worse than other airlines?

Joely

My problem with the post in the first place (and I said as much on FB) was that it focused too much on SH which gives Cruz an easy out as he can point to a raft of competitors across Europe who do similar (BoB, less leg room etc etc). So Cruz can rightly say we are just following what the market dictates.

LH is being enhanced left right and centre (in Y especially where I spend most of my life) but that particular bullet is dodged. Other than Norwegian, BA isn't really emulating any competitors with its service downgrades, indeed in many areas it is going in the opposite direction. Just look at AA and United who are investing heavily in new cabins for their aircraft. Even in Y AA are ahead which was most definitely not the case a few years back. If I fly to JFK on BA I get one main meal (now with no bottle of water) and a mini chocolate bar before landing, on AA I get a main meal, a mid-flight drinks run with a tub of Ice cream and a reasonably substantial hot snack before landing, oh and I also get wifi for the flight and extra leg room in MCE.

Silver Fox

I remember a grizzled old salesman back in the dark ages telling me "never ever unbundle, we might lower the price with discounts but once you start to unbundle the relationship changes".

Cap'n Benj

I think this just goes to prove how much the ranting on here is an emotional thing, a reaction to losing something free, as opposed to common sense led judgment.

It would obviously have made far more sense to eat at Wagamas when all you could get on board was, at best, a limp sandwich.

Oaxaca

As long as the below remains on the oneworld site (my bold), nobody in BA should be claiming that they offer priority baggage handling in the service proposition.

As to Mr Cruz's response, even if it full of holes, what else is he going to say? I'm not sure that BA's brand can stand up to being pulled so hard in opposite directions as they try to keep up with the market leaders in both Y and J products. If they manage it, it could form the basis of marketing textbooks for generations.

Completely anecdotal, but in the last few weeks without prompting, a number of friends who fly only occasionally have commented to me along the lines of "what's happening to BA?". Some of them have actually flown and experienced BoB, others had just read blogs, press pieces the infamous LinkedIn article etc. Only time will tell whether it impacts BA/IAG financially, but the reputational risk is out there.

Paralytic

You really think one person saying they went to Wagamamas proves that? Even 10 or 100 would not do so.

layz

Priority baggage is supposedly a class of service benefit on BA (the baggage system uses the barcode to decide whether it's a 'priority' bag), they've opted out of applying it based on status (but check-in staff often add the priority labels which are meaningless).

DFB_london

steady on!!!! Trump does nt hide - unlike Cruz's reported no shows at exec club events.

Jimmie76

I obviously wasn't on one of your flights then, which is a shame.

My issue wasn't really that they left a container of F bags at LHR, that's bound to happen occasionally given the number of flights and containers. There had also been issues with FLY and the baggage belt at T5 that day which can only have added to the problems. The fact that it was on 215 (the next flight out) was a relief, great recovery and that flight was on schedule. I checked on WorldTracer and the bag had arrived in BOS and was scheduled to fly out the next day at midday down to ACK on 9K (Cape Air). What happened after that in BOS really took the biscuit though and showed up failings that shouldn't happen. Waited in the next afternoon for the bag to show up but nothing arrived and eventually I got annoyed. I spoke to people at BA in the UK who told me that the bag was [as it said on WorldTracer] going to be on that midday 9K flight. There's just one problem I was calling at 5pm local time and there wasn't a bag waiting for me anywhere I could find it. They suggested that maybe the message meant the next day at midday but why would the bag have therefore been left sitting at BOS for 24+ hrs?

So in desperation I called 9K on ACK and asked if they had my bag which they didn't. However they did ask if I would like them to check with their BOS logistics team to see if they had received the bag. They said it might not have been loaded for operational reasons because they'd had mostly fully loaded flights that day. The BOS team said they'd not had any bags from BA and would I like it if they went to Terminal E and asked BA where my bag was. Now according to 9K the bag was in Terminal E with BA, it was labelled to be shipped to ACK and onwards to my house but had just been left there. The problem was no one from BA took it to 9K in Terminal C to come down to ACK. No-one contacted 9K and said we have a bag that we need to ship with you can you collect it as we can't bring it over.

9K called back and said that they had taken ownership of my bag from BA in 'E' and brought it over to 'C'. They'd try and stick it on an early flight the next day as they had a few with light loadings. They did ask if I would be able to come to the airport and pick it up from them and I said no problem. I wasn't after miles/Avios or compensation, I just wanted an explanation as to why my bag was just left in BOS why I was without it for 48hrs. The cut and paste response from customer service was the icing on the cake.

I hadn't bought any clothing because I do keep a a few clothes at the house and was able to wear these. Also because I was expecting the bag the next day I therefore didn't feel the need to go into town and get "essentials". Nantucket doesn't have shops that are open long into the night all year round and by the time we'd established that my bag was still in BOS it was too late to go out anyway.

godsavethepoints

A valid thought here and definitely one I share is the validity of surveys.

How many of us truly fill out passenger surveys on flights? I make an effort to now, but I imagine the majority of people with the time and willingness to take the effort and spent 15 minutes clicking buttons are one off travelers who don't notice a difference.

For that reason BoB could succeed and I will concede that. We Ft'ers may be outraged but Joe Holiday is probably not too bothered about buying a prawn sandwich and so forth. My argument (if you read the letter) was not much as to BoB, but retaining a few basics with virtually no cost structure, which actually flag BA as a British carrier and keeping the brand perception "friendly".

It's this toxic stew of crews feeling bad, failure to deliver on cabin promises and taking away something like water that have just taken a decent idea down the tubes. Dare I say the U.S. airlines with their basic Coca Cola products look fairly right on at the moment...

BrianWBrazil

I stumbled upon this. Gave me pause for thought.

subject2load

Hi BrianWBrazil, many thanks indeed for the link.

I thought it was an excellent piece - and have promptly stored it so that I can read again at some point.

Wouldn't say I agree with every word ; but that's really not the point. It is - as you rightly say - food for thought.

The quoted letter is about as good as any response to a complaint as I have seen. Safe to say it would not 'work' in every situation and every company. But - given what we are told of the particular context & circumstances - it seems to me to be near-perfect. And many, many CEO's could usefully learn from this.

Silver Fox

They didn't have an ignore button in those days.

Titillator

It doesn't make any difference that Cruz replied to your thread.. he is still destroying BA...