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Business class from Chambery to London City - what a fraud

Business class from Chambery to London City - what a fraud

Old Jan 7, 2019, 2:19 am
  #61  
 
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Originally Posted by Adstring
I'm not sure this is quite true. When I last asked a BA agent, bags arriving at LHR are prioritised and possibly LGW. I've certainly received my bags faster than otherwise when tagged.
Not once has my "priority" baggage come out faster than normal economy.
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Old Jan 7, 2019, 2:26 am
  #62  
 
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Originally Posted by warreng
If BA were to start opening lounges at every little airport that CityFlyer services then you could expect to start paying a lot more for CE tickets.
Only it is really down to signing a deal with the many contract lounges. It is a bit annoying if you are in an airport where lots of One World airlines have an agreement with the local priority pass lounge, only BA is not one of them.
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Old Jan 7, 2019, 2:27 am
  #63  
 
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Originally Posted by FrogTastic
Not once has my "priority" baggage come out faster than normal economy.
It comes off the plane at the same time, the colourful tags are really just to make you feel special.
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Old Jan 7, 2019, 2:31 am
  #64  
 
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Originally Posted by warreng
It comes off the plane at the same time, the colourful tags are really just to make you feel special.
Completely. I usually travel with additional oversize baggage, which usually comes out last anyway. So its never been an issue really.
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Old Jan 7, 2019, 2:32 am
  #65  
 
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Originally Posted by LCY8737


Only it is really down to signing a deal with the many contract lounges. It is a bit annoying if you are in an airport where lots of One World airlines have an agreement with the local priority pass lounge, only BA is not one of them.
Which airports are you thinking of where other OW airlines have arrangements with local lounges to the exclusion of BAEC members/BA passengers? I can't think of any of the top of my head but the case of, say Chambery or Rotterdam, there are no lounges of any kind.
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Old Jan 7, 2019, 2:42 am
  #66  
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Originally Posted by warreng
Which airports are you thinking of where other OW airlines have arrangements with local lounges to the exclusion of BAEC members/BA passengers? I can't think of any of the top of my head but the case of, say Chambery or Rotterdam, there are no lounges of any kind.
There are a handful of these (e.g. TLL) but there is a full list in the Europe lounge guide. Lounges aren't going to happen at airports barely bigger than a barn.

Originally Posted by mario
Never understood why a "voucher" is a nice gesture. You're paying for this as part of your ticket price. I would prefer that the fares are adjusted to the fact that there is no lounge instead of locking me in to use some nasty airport cafe.
That happens already - BACF's CE is cheaper than other routes as the TP runners have probably noticed. On this service the CE price over Plus is around 57 supplement, whereas to GVA you're probably looking at 89, both assuming a Saturday night stay. It's more clear cut on EDI and GLA when it comes to POUGs, since these airports have service to LCY, LGW and LHR. A POUG for LCY is 59, for LHR and LGW it's 70.
===
The baggage issue should be a non-issue at LCY - though the OP got their bags last relative to the other passengers onboard, I would be very surprised if they were waiting more than a few minutes, baggage return at London City regularly gets to the carousels before the passengers get there.
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Old Jan 7, 2019, 3:09 am
  #67  
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Originally Posted by corporate-wage-slave
There are quite a few things I could say about this report, but I certainly thank the OP for adding to the information here.

I don't think FT regulars will be surprised since the BACF product is well known here, and HfP actively discourages people from booking CE on BACF services for many of the reasons you mention. BA don't advertise a lounge provision at Chambry or LCY (and there is an FT lounge directory which identifies this too), nor an empty middle seat in the booking system. So in a sense the information about the Embraer seating and airport facilities is all online in multiple locations. BA isn't exactly alone in doing this, KLM and TAP have similar arrangements on their Embraer services too. The one thing BA does offer is a good use of Theoretical Seating for single passengers, which does generally work, in my case I've only had 2 occupied seats in my last 100 BACF services (that said it is a fairly impressive figure in ET too).

There is / was one wet lease aircraft with 1 + 2 fixed seating in CE but it is notable that it gets deployed on lower margin services - there isn't a business case for doing this generally on BACF. Chambry is an extremely small airport. It's not even a quarter of the size of INV or LUX. The 10€ voucher is an improvement on what I got last year! I agree that the pulled pork isn't BACF's catering best option though for me it's OK to eat (see photos in the BACF catering guide elsewhere in FT) but typically Newrest will delete dishes which get negative feedback from the crew, I can think of two other corkers that are no longer offered.

I think there are two key benefits that haven't been mentioned so far. Chambry is a ski resort location, so the extra baggage allowance for CE is important for many travellers and in some cases justifies paying the extra over ET. The typical uplift for CE over ET on that sector is around 55 if there is a Saturday night involved and two bags could be 60 to 85 each way in ET. Secondly for status passengers there is access to the lovely 2C and 2D,which must some of the longest legroom in European shorthaul aviation.

I guess the core point I'm trying to make is that CE on BACF or elsewhere on BA isn't for everyone, and those who are likely to be concerned about this can and should research the product before paying for it. Personally I like CE on BACF, and will continue to pay for it, it is popular on some routes, but I'm pleased that not everyone agrees, otherwise TS won't work!
The difference between the Economy (with baggage) and the Club Europe price on the website at the time I booked was just over 200 Euros. Not 55. If it had been 55 I would have not complained as much. It was nearly double the price. Oh - and this was for a ONE WAY. (And while you are right that some may value the luggage, I didn't need it. I'm One World Emerald so I get the extra allowance, provided I don't book the "light" fare, which was plenty for both of us as we only had about 30kg between the two of us!).
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Old Jan 7, 2019, 3:11 am
  #68  
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Originally Posted by fairhsa
The difference between the Economy (with baggage) and the Club Europe price on the website at the time I booked was just over 200 Euros. Not 55. If it had been 55 I would have not complained as much. It was nearly double the price.
Was it a single ticket?
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Old Jan 7, 2019, 3:27 am
  #69  
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Originally Posted by corporate-wage-slave
Was it a single ticket?
Single as in one-way or single as it I only purchased one of them? I was a one-way ticket (we flew out on Flybe from Exeter) and I purchased two of them.

My previous experience with the BA website was that all flights are now "one way" - since they add the two legs together to make the final fare. If that's not correct it would be interesting to know, as it did affect my decision to chose to fly back on BA (rather than back to Exeter on Flybe).
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Old Jan 7, 2019, 3:29 am
  #70  
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Originally Posted by mario

So the website clearly describes the dedicated check-in area as a benefit for this flight. I'd ask for a 50 refund per person as you had to queue for some time. If BA fails to pay, MCOL it.
Seriously? There is no way it is worth 50 quid.

You would go to court over this? You are aware that Judges can and do award costs against claimants if they feel the case is vexatious?
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Old Jan 7, 2019, 3:48 am
  #71  
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Originally Posted by fairhsa
Single as in one-way or single as it I only purchased one of them? I was a one-way ticket (we flew out on Flybe from Exeter) and I purchased two of them.

My previous experience with the BA website was that all flights are now "one way" - since they add the two legs together to make the final fare. If that's not correct it would be interesting to know, as it did affect my decision to chose to fly back on BA (rather than back to Exeter on Flybe).
No, it's not correct. Single - one-way is a clearer way of putting it - CE tickets are priced at a high level for a market you appear not to be in, namely business travellers, where BA will be aware of what particular companies will pay for travel and set fares accordingly. There is something called the Saturday Night Rule which is designed not to cannibalise this business market, and provides lower fares on almost all CE tickets so long as a Saturday night is included and it is a return/there-and-back ticket. The biggest exception is domestic Club Europe where this rule doesn't apply. It can also apply to many EuroTraveller fares too, though generally less starkly.

Unfortunately this is where BA.com's layout can be hugely confusing to those not familiar with it - the fares you see on each leg of return tickets are not actually per leg, you have compute all the way through to the total fare screen to work out the true costs. It's just a simplistic portrayal which is detached from whatever the underlying fare basis would be. So it is nowhere near correct to say that all flights are now one way, even Basic fares sometimes are cheaper bought as return tickets.
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Old Jan 7, 2019, 4:57 am
  #72  
 
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Originally Posted by UKtravelbear


Seriously? There is no way it is worth 50 quid.

You would go to court over this? You are aware that Judges can and do award costs against claimants if they feel the case is vexatious?
50 seems on the upper end of things, but if you consider what is "included" in Euro Traveler on Cityflyer, the actual difference to CE boils down to very little. So attributing most of the fare difference to priority check in is not far of.

I would not use the word vexatious in this context.
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Old Jan 7, 2019, 5:07 am
  #73  
 
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It isn't a reasonable expectation to have lounges at every outpost used on an occasional/seasonal basis. And if there is no lounge then BA can't sign up for it.

On the other hand handing out a voucher which according to OP is not useable in the only food outlet is a bit sneaky.

In this era of technology surely better use could be made of splash screens when booking to warn customers of known exceptions - we don't offer a lounge at Chambery, your flight to Dubai is operated by Air Belgium etc?
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Old Jan 7, 2019, 5:36 am
  #74  
 
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Originally Posted by nancypants


the orange priority tags on BA are well documented as only being there to make pax feel special

(as an aside, my experience with QF priority tags has been similarly useless. Are there people who actually rely on the bags being delivered first??)

Certainly with Qatar orange "priority" labels attached to bags at check in without me really paying much attention so was not "for show"., Bags at destination on 3 separate sectors off within first minutes of belt starting. I suspect it is with BA where the tags mean nothing to baggage handlers regarding bag loading and dispatching. Similar really to treatment of Business Class pax by QR - so nice when bussed to and from aircraft being on a bus for premier pax only and also all crew ensure that F/BC pax are off aircraft before any other. Different class - full stop. Its the small nice things that mean a lot.
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Old Jan 7, 2019, 6:26 am
  #75  
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The OP seems to have had several BA flights this trip that haven't lived up to their expectations.

A wise decision to not fly with them in the future.
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