British Airways falls from #1 in consumers favourite brands
 

Not even in the top 20 - Karma

not surprising...

Rightly deserved I have to say. And does the BA brand stand for now? Luxury, no. Low cost, no. Great service, no.

They do have very cheap J fares

As I sit here on the Bronze line, making yet another inquiry as to where my refund is, and yet again I am on a call to an Indian call centre where there is definitely an issue with being understood and a lack of any ability on their part to divert from the script, I fully understand why this fall from grace has happened.

I think that's the danger, if your customers don't know what the brand stands for that can be problematic. There are quite a few examples of this.

The Cruz must be thanking his lucky stars that there was computer glitch, as it's masking the obvious drop in quality of the product. I guess once it's obvious that the customer relations problem was not caused by the meltdown it'll be too late, he'll be fired unceremoniously (with a massive pension and golden handshake), and his successor will be able to scapegoat every single BA issue to Cruz. Boards love a fall guy...

If you want to start in Europe.. and stay a Saturday night... and book non refundable. Otherwise, their J fares are eye wateringly high on the majority of flights

Well QR, EK, SV, RJ, AY and many others can have very J cheap fares. The problem is that BA wants to be everything at the same time: low cost in Y and quality airline in premium cabins. But some of its passengers move between cabins and the experience is appalling in Y. In premium classes it is average when compared to other airlines. Cruz claiming BA is a premium airline doesn't cut it.

Traveled last week to Lisbon with Joon (Air France new budget airline). We had to stay on the ground at CDG for 45 for teh fog to clear up at LIS. During the 45 minutes wait, cabin crew came with mineral water and served all passengers. After take off, CC came around the cabin offering free coffee, tea, water and juice to all pax. They also had BoB items in their trolleys. At no point, were they waiving the BoB menu and asking passengers if they wanted something from the menu. They just proactively offered the free drinks. If you asked for a coffee, they would also ask you if you wanted water. I found that so nice that I asked for muesli bar and a smoothy from the menu. The flight attendant charged me only for the smoothy (not sure if it was because I am Platinum or just a goodwill gesture). But it was a nice experience. And I realized that event though it was BoB, there was a lot of interactions with the crews and you felt, ok they give free drinks so I might as well buy something to go with it.

A colleague of mine traveled from LHR to LIS on the same morning. He stayed 50 minutes on the tarmac. He wasn't even offered water from the tank. Asked if bought from the BoB. He said, no, BA is so mean!

Consistently disappoint customers!? I don't see any benefit for the average passenger to pick BA over the competition. A meltdown of operations every six months doesn't help...

I actually think a hybrid version: very luxury in front, and very budget in the back with a middle point in between, will work in the long term.

The problem is the executive actions that required to implement such vision is not there in BA.

The investment for future and infrastructure is not right.

The leadership is focusing too much on budget and cost cutting before the front of the cabin is wrong.

I recently travelled on AA between ORD and LHR in Y, great wifi, free live TV with live sport (premier league and others), BBC news and CNBC. Ignoring the food part, BA looks like a budget airline stuck in the 1980's.

I think what BA had done wrong is they got the order of investment wrong. They should have started with infrastructure (new seats, new wifi and live TV) first, then cost cutting with introduction of Y- and BOB.

Speaking of something I was in T5 yesterday and saw BA staff saying hi to everyone walking in the terminal. I found this a nice touch! Never saw this before, is it new?

I think it appeared a short while after the server meltdown?

It appeared after the introduction of the self service checked luggage machines. Some of the staff were then redeployed as greeters, Asda style, but they typically don't do many greetings, unless there is eye contact. On the other hand I can see they are very useful for those visiting T5 for the first time and don't know where to go, plus those who need mobility assistance.