South London Bon Viveur

Am pretty certain this is (or is similar to) the survey I received a couple of weeks ago (I'm Gold but not GGL). I gave what I considered to be fair scores, although there were quite a few low ones. However I also concluded that I was "very likely" to fly BA again, which, given that I had several live bookings with them at the time I completed the survey, was the only possible answer really.

T8191

Yes, the "very likely to fly BA again" is always difficult when you have forward bookings. I'm often tempted to lie on that one, mentally substituting "book with BA again". So far I've been honest, but perhaps I might just dissemble on that question in future.

ahmetdouas

Yes, I get the feeling that BA will take the answers to be as 'I am very disappointed with BA recently, but I will still be flying them'', so maybe BA can still continue ruining their product.

Irish lad

Filled it in and did not hold back (but also did not go OTT). There were quite a few questions that included convenience/timetable/routings so presumably probing to see how much they can trade this off against shoddy service and cost cutting.

As an aside,

They also mentioned Mandarin Oriental upgrades. Has anyone ever received one of these as Gold/GGL and, if so, how? Or is it the service equivalent of vapourware?

Oaxaca

Completed it. Any actual change will come down to whether they read (and heed) the free-format comments. Without these, there is no context and I've wasted a few minutes of my life. If they pay attention to what is said, and the same themes come up from enough customers, maybe they will do something.

I was also struck by the number of opportunities I was given to say that the problem was messaging and brand perception rather than the actual product and service delivered. At least there was a genuine opportunity to provide feedback in context. Of course, "how likely are you to fly BA again" was there, but also "why are you flying these other airlines". We can but hope it leads to positive change.

Markie

I was interested to see how much was free form text rather than just box ticking. I did make my displeasure known and my disappointment with all the cuts, plus my constantly delayed flights with BA.

SkyTeem

It was a fun venting exercise, but yes, I believe nothing at all will come of it. I also believe, at least for GGLs, that it was a "don't you see how good you have it/what more could you want" exercise, especially since it goes over all of the GGL benefits (and as mentioned here, some GGLs learned more about their benefits through the survey).

Sad that Cruz/Walsh/BA have lost so much of my trust, that now I don't even believe a survey is what they say it is.

Bluebrummie2000

Just completed the survey. Soem hard hitting questions in there. I would like to be in the meeting when the results are presented to the brand leaderhsip team and then in the room when they present the results to Mr Walsh and his PA Senor Cruz. How long before we see BOB reversed in some way because 'it is what our customers are telling us'...

V10

BoB will not be reversed - too many of BA's peer airlines are also doing it.

There's more chance of finding rocking horse poo.

orbitmic

The survey company will be paid most handsomely to code those. Roughly speaking, when commissioning a survey, you'd pay the equivalent of about 10 single choice items for one of those open ended questions especially as I was surprised to see that there was no field limit (very unsual), so I do not believe that they would invest that sort of money for nothing.

Alternatively, they might have done it on the cheap, not requesting the coding but only wanted the raw open ended data communicated, in which case it will go straight to their customer experience team. That would be a decent option too as they would actually read it (though they'd lack the technical skills to code and aggregate it into something meaningful so we'd rely on a more impressionistic vision that they'd develop, but if enough of us paint the same picture that should not be very difficult).

And yes, you are exactly right, it is those numerous open ended fields that actually make this particular study more promising than all the other ones. Now of course, they can 'see for themselves' and still decide to do nothing about it. But equally, it's likely that whether they win the fight or not, 'someone' will feel like pushing for some basic efforts - be it offering free (actually drinkable) waters, tea and coffee to top tier customers in short haul Y, adding an F connection route that would actually be smooth and fast, reintroducing the bistro selection or pushing for some bold effort on some part of the hard product, offering some 'rule waiver jokers' to GGL pax, or something else depending on the sort of thing that seems to stand out.

catandmouse

I agree, but the real problem is implementation. That they still haven't managed to iron out the stocking issues is incredible. Other LCCs have been doing BoB for years and I've never had Easyjet run out of sandwiches.

Tobias-UK

I have, many times ... and Ryanair.

BA6948

You never know. Some airlines have reversed it like LX and OS. Some others like AA, DL are now reintroducing meals on some routes. LH is not considering BoB. Some others are giving some free stuff to high Y fare passengers or elite customers. Some others give free drinks. BoB has damaged the BA brand for multiple reasons and it can't stay the way it is implemented.

Bluebrummie2000

This survey is substantially different in tone and content compared to others. Seemed to me that the 'self congratulatory' questions were pretty much all gone and the sequence/layout almost begged comments in the free flow text areas. Perhaps this is influenced by the appointemnt of Carolina Martinoli and part of her getting to know the brand process. The results should give her the right ammunition to drive change across the brand experience and if it improves then she can claim the credit....

rossmacd

To be fair, I flew BSL-AMS on U2 last Thursday and they announced during the climb that they had run out of all sandwiches. This was the aircraft/crews last rotation of the day.