13901

Been flying in and out of BUD lately and I consistently find BA had resorted to parking the plane at one of the old “Wizzair stands” where stairs will be used and then you’ll have to schlep it on foot up the stairs, through the corridor and through passport control. A delight in inclement weather.

I’m not one for BA-bashing, never been, but between BoB, seat config, spaceflex galley, non-working WiFi and now this lovely thought it’s hard to find a difference with Wizzair next door.

It’s worth noting that everyone else of the “big players”, even sister Iberia I think, uses the jetties. Photo included.

orbitmic

May I suggest that "degraded" might be somewhat over the top?

scottishpoet

From experience of KRK where BA stopped using the jetty and always bus to the gate now then I suspect BA will claim its because of better turnaround times when the use the stairs, making their on time performance better.

Meanwhile LH, AY, LO, LX.... all use the jetties without apparent problem.

(Sound familiar)

My suspicion is the real reason is that it is cheaper.

sxc

Does BA get a choice where they dock the planes?

scottishpoet

not sure about BUD but for sure at KRK if they want to use the jetty the cost is higher. I suspect its similar at BUD

ermis177

I disagree. They will say that according to their feedback people prefer to use the stairs as it’s a form of exercise...Or even better as some people have said here the experience is not worse. Is what people pay for. Go from A to B! 🙄

scottishpoet

From personal experience I can assure you that with respect to KRK the BA response, from the person responsible for CEE at the time, was the poor turnaround time and its impact that had regarding on time performance.

13901

Without going into a debate on lexicon, it’s a step down from what was previously offered, hence it’s a degrade. I’ve travelled on the route for 10+ years and, up to this autumn, it has always been a on-pier gate on the far end of the extra-Schengen terminal.

Hungary is a little country with not much in terms of big news, so when BUD airport launched those gates there was quite a brouhaha, at least in Budapest, about people queueing up in the snow (winter’s been mild so far but it does get nasty), with a quite a lot of scorn thrown at Wizzair and Easyjet for using those facilities.

Quite telling to see BA now doing the same.

irishguy28

I think you meant "downgrade".

Degrade carries with it implications of contempt and disrespect. Maybe that's what you meant - but it's certainly a far stronger word.

Mike P

Degrade is a very strange choice of word in the context of what has changed.

subject2load

Setting aside any issues surrounding choice of language, I guess the basic point is that our OP friend felt he could expect (or maybe not .... ?!) something better from BA for his flight from BUD.

Prospero

From the photo in post 1, we can see the BA aircraft parked at a jetty so I guess poses the question, why was the BA aircraft not allocated a jetty in the Non-Schengen area? Is there a shortage of such gates at BUD?

13901

The jetty is in the non Schengen area, in facts we were parked next to an El Al 737 (duly attached to its jetty) and indeed we walked into the building and then upstairs into the corridor where we would’ve eventually gotten to had we disembarked from the jetty.

There were another 3 empty stands in the non Schengen area... and it’s not as if this was one occasion, it’s now the norm based on my experience. I’d be ready to bet it’s to do with handling costs, usually the jetway is priced differently from simple steps. For instance Ryanair doesn’t use it for their operation out of Malpensa’s T1.

My bad, English is my third language and “degrade” sounds a lot like the word for downgrade in my native tongue. A case of “false friends” I guess. Apologies.

TPJ

Success measure: cost-cutting is now in BA DNA as they save a few HUF on jetty boarding... But wait... Vueling is sometimes using jetty in LIS. So.... cost-cutting is clearly not in their DNA... Time for Alex to go back to Vueling to correct their DNA?

dubistokay

Back to the topic - I agree with you, with the exception of BoB. I think jetties make a real impact to the journey, particularly relative to the low-cost carriers. I’ve observed the same situation at LIS, though I’m there not as often as at BUD.