BA dropping Luanda JUN18
May 23, 2018, 1:25 pm
#46
Join Date: Jun 2014
Programs: Executive Club: Gold - Flying Blue: Gold
Posts: 1,382
One problem is that the UK is the wrong way in the sense of traffic going from Europe to Africa, or Europe to Asia (even though it can be argued that if folks fly through the ME or IST then why wouldn't they do the same with London?) One of my pet opinions has always been that the restrictive UK Visa regime definitely plays a part, if not for Africa certainly for Asia. I remember reading, and I cannot for the life of me find it again, that VIE had more Chinese arrivals than London. Rome definitely has more cities connecting directly to China than London. One Schengen visa gives access to 20-some countries, the UK Visa (which, I am told, is sometimes harder to get than the Schengen one) gives you only the UK! It all adds up I guess.
Plus, on a side note... if you look at the English-speaking countries in Africa, they're either all connected (Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya) or don't have the critical mass for a direct flight and are reachable through Doha (and even that, I'd say, ain't that much of a traffic - Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia) or through SA (Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia) or are frankly too small...
Plus, on a side note... if you look at the English-speaking countries in Africa, they're either all connected (Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya) or don't have the critical mass for a direct flight and are reachable through Doha (and even that, I'd say, ain't that much of a traffic - Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia) or through SA (Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia) or are frankly too small...
May 23, 2018, 1:59 pm
#47
Join Date: Nov 2017
Programs: BAEC (Gold), IHG Rewards (Gold Elite), Marriot (Gold Elite), HHonors (Gold Elite), SPG (Gold)
Posts: 165
Well this decision is annoying. Am due to visit twice this year as Oilfield trash!
seems a strange decision as it’s always a busy flight as I understand. For those unfamiliar with Angolan visas from the UK don’t pay attention to apparent availability until T-72. On a visitor Visa from UK you have to enter Angola within 72 hours of receiving it so these flights are a last minute (airline profit making) scramble with high ticket rates. The Visa system for this country leaves a lot to be desired if you are a UK Citizen. The only people who can really properly plan flights on discounted fares that aren’t Angolan Nationals are those with official work Visas.
personally I would have thought BA were making a mint on this route despite the downturn in O&G. And oils back up at $80 and there are some decent projects progressing there....
seems a strange decision as it’s always a busy flight as I understand. For those unfamiliar with Angolan visas from the UK don’t pay attention to apparent availability until T-72. On a visitor Visa from UK you have to enter Angola within 72 hours of receiving it so these flights are a last minute (airline profit making) scramble with high ticket rates. The Visa system for this country leaves a lot to be desired if you are a UK Citizen. The only people who can really properly plan flights on discounted fares that aren’t Angolan Nationals are those with official work Visas.
personally I would have thought BA were making a mint on this route despite the downturn in O&G. And oils back up at $80 and there are some decent projects progressing there....
May 23, 2018, 4:09 pm
#48
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Arizona
Programs: BA (GGL G4L), AA (Gold), HH (Diamond); Marriott (Gold)
Posts: 3,011
May 23, 2018, 7:35 pm
#49
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Austin
Posts: 4,629
May 23, 2018, 7:39 pm
#50
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Austin
Posts: 4,629
May 23, 2018, 11:35 pm
#51
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 7,212
Besides, I seem to recall that 40% of AMS' passengers are transfers; LHR's is lower at 30%. Finallt, and I hope no one gets it badly, I have a feeling that, from a touristic point of view, the overwhelming majority of people in this country would rather go to Dubai than to Colombia, to name but one.
May 24, 2018, 1:06 am
#52
Join Date: May 2014
Programs: BAEC, A3 M&B
Posts: 268
I love the route, and a lot of crew feel the same! Empty flights, nice hotel, good pool, good weather, decent money and BA pay $60 towards your room bill which made it a cheap trip and a decent money earner. Food was a bit rubbish but no worse than the USA
. The last one I did had 17 total on the entire aircraft so not hugely surprising, although the cargo documents were always never ending which I think was the real money spinner.
May 24, 2018, 1:12 am
#53
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Brighton, UK
Programs: BA Gold, IC Ambassador, HH Gold, SPG Gold, Fairmont Platinum
Posts: 3,166
I would have thought that Comair network reflects primarily what makes economic sense from a South African perspective. Having the network be determined primarily by a couple of BA long-haul connections would be the tail wagging the dog, would it not? Comair does not have a huge fleet either. That said, I believe that they are expecting some 737 Max next year so perhaps there might be some route expansion.
Comair have offered a variety of regional destinations in the last 10 years and then pulled out as uneconomic. These include Mozambique, Botswana and Tanzania. I would think LUN would be even less attractive, given that LUN-JNB is a fairly long back track if your final destination is north.
May 24, 2018, 1:22 am
#54
Join Date: Aug 2017
Posts: 86
You are more likely to get them to agree to LHR-JNB-WDH as there’s a connection on their franchise partner. However, you’ll have to be patient for a few days for the interline team to get in touch with other carriers and see if they’ll accept reroutings. It normally only takes a couple of days but unfortunately this can’t be done ahead of time as word has a habit of escaping early if they do...
One thing in the meantime though... DON’T cancel your onward flight just yet. There *will* be an option of rebooking to LAD somehow or other (likely via Portugal), and just in case this happens to be better overall, you’ll want to keep your options open.
One thing in the meantime though... DON’T cancel your onward flight just yet. There *will* be an option of rebooking to LAD somehow or other (likely via Portugal), and just in case this happens to be better overall, you’ll want to keep your options open.
Anyone have any suggestions for strategy when talking to BA about this? Such a hassle!
Also agree with other posters on here: seems like a strange time to cancel this route, given the rising oil price. Whenever I used to fly this Club World was packed with oil executives and First was full of rich Angolans...
May 24, 2018, 1:33 am
#55
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: London
Programs: Mucci. Nothing else matters.
Posts: 38,644
Thanks, that answers my question why apparently the inbound arrives in the early morning only to sit there for almost 19 hours before departing again after midnight the next day. If cargo is the key driver, spending those hours loading lucrative freight is probably worth it.
May 24, 2018, 1:49 am
#56
Join Date: Dec 2016
Posts: 587
I don't think that it takes 19 hours to load an aircraft-ful of cargo! IIRC from previous threads on this, the reason the aircraft is on the ground there for 19 hours from early morning to late evening is so that the same crew can immediately operate the aircraft back to London after taking minimum rest during the day, so that BA does not have to overnight either aircraft or crew there. But as we have crew on this thread who actually do this route, it would be good to know whether that reason is accurate.
May 24, 2018, 3:07 am
#58
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Feb 2010
Programs: BA Lifetime Gold; Flying Blue Life Platinum; LH Sen.; Hilton Diamond; Kemal Kebabs Prized Customer
Posts: 63,723
Just to reiterate the advice above - leave it a week until the alternative routes are made available. Ringing beforehand will be non productive. I will post something in this thread if I hear something (and I have an enquiry out on this). The likely cmoplication is the redemption component, where BA may indicate they aren't included in the arrangements, but legally you are protected and I know of cases similar to this which were resolved OK.
May 24, 2018, 3:49 am
#59
Join Date: Nov 2005
Programs: BA Exec
Posts: 647
Luanda isn’t San Diego so most crew weren’t hugely concerned about minimum rest (some welcomed it). It’s an easy 3 days worth of work, so from that point of view alone it is a loss.
Bigger picture - always a shame when we have to drop a destination, but I wonder what the cost of operating the route actually was, given doing business in Angola isn’t simple...apparently we code shared with TAAG, but it was never obvious from the paperwork we were given !
May 24, 2018, 3:53 am
#60
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: OSL
Posts: 2,638
