Brashly Bronze

No drink offered tonight from GLA to LHR, which is odd since I was offered one on the outbound flight on Friday. You win some...

Windy1875

Offered and accepted on the 08:55 GLA - LHR

teledude

I hope they roll it out onto INV services soon for a few upcoming b2bs

layz

Is this true? Has it been abandoned or just indefinitely postponed? I've always believed there's a case to keep LCY special. Even when the LCY flights were operated by BA Connect (the BoB airline sold to Flybe) they kept the LCY routes complimentary.

The reason it's hard is because each transaction whether paid or complimentary will have to be logged in the system. It's much easier to do when you just have to hand stuff out to everyone and not log it.

TheFlyingCyclist

Nothing on EDI-LHR yesterday evening.

dodgeflyer

In my view, the stealth marketing approach doesn't work, and in my view causes more confusion and annoyance than loyalty. Firstly, as a marketing approach, it is usually used by other companies that haven't employed a model where the 'freebie' was 'free' in the past. Secondly, as a traveler, I don't want to guess whether I am going to get something or not. I prefer these things to be predictable.

I am not going to pay a premium for BA to guess whether I will get a drink. As a result I've moved my travel to DY for short haul. Whereas in the past I was willing to pay a premium over DY (or SK) due the lounge and drinks on board, I will now only fly BA if the premium is equal to the value I put on the lounge (hint: in my last 6 flights it hasn't worked in BA's advantage).

For me this half-way house is even worse. Reeks of failed corporate strategy where no one refuses to accept culpability. Either admit you got it wrong, or stick the course. If it was truly working, BA wouldn't be giving out free drinks.

nivsy

Came back Y class from Bologna last night. Quite a delay due to 2nd world war bomb found in the town and the airport of Bologna itself is a bit of a disaster zone at the best of times never mind with cancelled and severe delays on most flights. We managed an hour and half which included an hour on aircraft waiting a few pax who were eventually boarded. Still it was a BOB and while we never normally partake in buying it was kinda hungry time (just ignored the BLQ lounge (so to speak) as it is land side and security etc was just a nightmare. Was quite shocked though at the high fat and calorie intake on the BA food. They never seem to clear up when finished either until the 20 minutes to landing signal.

FlyerTalker688786

And that is why they are doing the European return bonus points campaign as well. Someone in waterside heard the coin dropping but majority is still listening to the music under headphones.

deboyzoned

Just about to depart LHR to FRA and CC in ET confirmed they are running trial on this flight. So have pre-ordered 😊 on their print out.

Dave_C

Why are BA doing this?

Clearly if BoB had been such an amazing success that they have trumpeted it to be, then this is wholly unnecessary and a huge cost overhead.

However they are, which means that they must have identified a problem somewhere. I would guess that they're seeing one or a number of the following:
* Reduced Yield
* Reduced RASK
* Reduced Elite qualifications
* Corporate route deals going elsewhere
* Reduced NPS

Otherwise, why would they spend the money given the overwhelming customer demand and satisfaction with BoB?

rockflyertalk

Yes, it is a bit odd in how its being executed however in the grand scheme of things (being BoB), this is not the first time we have seen a "complimentary trial offer" or customer suprise and delight initiative (whatever we want to call it).

See... Free Champagne/ Seat 25D

This was a Christmas/Holiday delight/surprise initiative, which was discussed with just as much enthusiasm as most things BA do out of the blue! Albeit the Xmas offer was more focused and widely executed across Short Haul. Something that isn't really being done here. Its a much smaller target audience on particular routes. Maybe its a small captive of customers due to the cost involved? Maybe they realised how expensive the Xmas offer was and decided to cut it down to this smaller group... I do not know, as like most on here, I am speculating due to lack of fact and information from the comms team at BA.

OR maybe its just following on from what US carriers, or carriers that FT'ers have mentioned elsewhere on the global, that offer a free such and such to their most loyal customers...I imagine the latest drop in Superbrand Survey results are probably part of the reason this is being done. If its simply just an Easter offer on select flights as some have already said, then great, enjoy whoever gets it. Better than paying for the drink!

ThatT1Feeling

Well, kind of. But it actually has the risk of creating dissatisfaction. If you're on one route one week and get a free drink and then don't get a free drink on another route the following week, you might feel like the service is a bit, well, inconsistent. I seem to have a knack of missing all of these freebies, so I am just generally unimpressed from a personal perspective

MPH1980

But that's easy to deal with. Either it's "oh really - I get a free drink?" "Yes sir - it's part of a trial and we hope it'll roll out" ... OR ... "Why aren't I getting a free drink - I did on flight X?" "Ah well sir - that's part of a trial we're running - we hope it'll roll out across the board, but it isn't available on this flight yet".

deboyzoned

Alternatively .... Sir could be a Madam :-)

When I asked the CC pre takeoff at back of the plane on my LHR-FRA tonight, they believe the trial will continue beyond easter and this would be rolled out eventually beyond the trial.
They had a 1 page print out of all the Silver and Golds (and GGL's) ... when I asked to pre-order my drink ... they just wrote it down next to my name on the list and drink was delivered after takeoff to 6D.

I was not asked to show my BAEC card at anytime.

Passenger 6F (Silver) was unaware of what was about to happen, she didn't hear the CC at first and proceeded to order some bubbly anyways and got her credit card out. To her pleasant surprise it was not needed :-) Happy 6F. We were also asked if we would like to purchase any snacks from BoB, 6F ordered and paid. Happy...

MPH1980

Of course ...