BA F routes 2021 and beyond
Jan 19, 2021, 2:06 pm
#61
Join Date: Nov 2006
Programs: MUCCI
Posts: 1,924
FD.
Jan 19, 2021, 2:14 pm
#62
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: London, UK
Programs: BA Exec Club, SIA KrisFlyer, Qantas FF, Emirates Skywards
Posts: 1,850
Any forecast on the duration of these restrictions is a wild guess. Covid has shown its ability for unexpected turns. It has always been to the worse, but who knows...
It is true though that some countries have decided that having incoming visitors (and risky returnees) is to be prohibited in order to restore normal domestic production and life.One can think of Australia, New Zealand, China, Taiwan, Vietnam and probably more to come. Then they might slowly open up to essential business travel.
Paid F is mostly used by business travellers, and there is some hope that it will resume.
But I would be astounded if there was any business case for BA to keep its Sydney flight in the coming years.
It is true though that some countries have decided that having incoming visitors (and risky returnees) is to be prohibited in order to restore normal domestic production and life.One can think of Australia, New Zealand, China, Taiwan, Vietnam and probably more to come. Then they might slowly open up to essential business travel.
Paid F is mostly used by business travellers, and there is some hope that it will resume.
But I would be astounded if there was any business case for BA to keep its Sydney flight in the coming years.
I don't think F paid or not is mostly business travellers. My understanding is hardly any business people/ceos/execs etc actually travel F, particularly post GFC.
I just think any way you spin it, as you say, there is no business case for this flight, let alone F. With all my heart I hope I'm wrong because I have flown this route with BA F and I enjoyed it very much and would definitely do it again. I was a big fan of the timing out of Sydney as well, but unfortunately Covid-19 has destroyed this route.
Jan 19, 2021, 6:20 pm
#63
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: LON, ACK, BOS..... (Not necessarily in that order)
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Posts: 15,132
BA have clearly been trying to price F more realistically to attract cash business rather than filling it with Avios redemptions / upgrades in the last few years which makes some sense as a strategy, but the issue BA has is if the customers it is trying to attract just can't book F for other reasons this plan doesn't work. My impression is the combination of the Club Suite roll-out reducing the differential between J and F, reduced premium demand during the COVID recovery period and this dynamic will basically kill BA F on quite a few secondary routes over the next few years, despite BA's attempts to keep it alive with smaller cabins.
*soon in seat installation terms.
Jan 20, 2021, 1:15 am
#64
Ambassador: Emirates Airlines
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Manchester, UK
Posts: 18,618
Jan 20, 2021, 2:43 am
#65
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: London
Programs: BA Silver, ZSL Silver
Posts: 2,552
And of course you’re absolutely right. Even last March on the NY Times The Daily podcast, health reporter Donald McNeil was emphasising that while everyone talks of the 1918 Spanish flu, it was actually its impact in 1919 that was much worse. He was saying it wasn’t going away and even with a vaccine it would take a long time for life to resume fully. But for many of us – myself included – whilst we all knew that a second wave was almost inevitable, maybe we didn’t fully consider how that would play out. I’m a fairly cautious person, but last April booked an ex-EU to the US for October 2020. I did so knowing that BWC was operating, but still, I thought there was a decent chance I’d be able to do the trip, including a b2b in SOF… That seems absolutely ludicrous now! I’ve pretty much written off the idea of any long haul travel this year, but I’ve only recently come to that realisation. Initially I thought my October trip would be fine later this year. Now it may well be that later in 2021 much more travel is possible, but anything close to normal – no masks etc., seems highly unlikely for a long time. I don’t think I had fully absorbed just how long it will be until things feel anything like normal travel.
Jan 20, 2021, 3:42 am
#66
Join Date: Nov 2006
Programs: MUCCI
Posts: 1,924
And of course you’re absolutely right. Even last March on the NY Times The Daily podcast, health reporter Donald McNeil was emphasising that while everyone talks of the 1918 Spanish flu, it was actually its impact in 1919 that was much worse. He was saying it wasn’t going away and even with a vaccine it would take a long time for life to resume fully. But for many of us – myself included – whilst we all knew that a second wave was almost inevitable, maybe we didn’t fully consider how that would play out. I’m a fairly cautious person, but last April booked an ex-EU to the US for October 2020. I did so knowing that BWC was operating, but still, I thought there was a decent chance I’d be able to do the trip, including a b2b in SOF… That seems absolutely ludicrous now! I’ve pretty much written off the idea of any long haul travel this year, but I’ve only recently come to that realisation. Initially I thought my October trip would be fine later this year. Now it may well be that later in 2021 much more travel is possible, but anything close to normal – no masks etc., seems highly unlikely for a long time. I don’t think I had fully absorbed just how long it will be until things feel anything like normal travel.
And, if you want the really bad news, there will be multiple future waves so expect at least a third and forth wave. They get progressively smaller after the second wave but of course no previous infections disease which has caused a pandemic has had a vaccine to counter it so no idea if the second wave, which will get at least a bit suppressed with vaccination, just means a bigger subsequent wave.....
FD.
Jan 20, 2021, 3:49 am
#67
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: London
Programs: BA Silver, ZSL Silver
Posts: 2,552
Yes it was indeed the second wave of Spanish Flu that killed millions but this is a well known phenomenon. If you go back to black death and the plague etc it is very typical for the second not the first wave to be the one that really is disastrous and this second wave is still playing out with multiple mutations which are likely at some point to defeat our current crop of vaccines.
And, if you want the really bad news, there will be multiple future waves so expect at least a third and forth wave. They get progressively smaller after the second wave but of course no previous infections disease which has caused a pandemic has had a vaccine to counter it so no idea if the second wave, which will get at least a bit suppressed with vaccination, just means a bigger subsequent wave.....
FD.
And, if you want the really bad news, there will be multiple future waves so expect at least a third and forth wave. They get progressively smaller after the second wave but of course no previous infections disease which has caused a pandemic has had a vaccine to counter it so no idea if the second wave, which will get at least a bit suppressed with vaccination, just means a bigger subsequent wave.....
FD.
Jan 20, 2021, 4:12 am
#68
Suspended
Join Date: Aug 2020
Posts: 963
I have no idea where these projections of Australia having its border shut for years followed up years of tight restrictions are coming from. Australia has said they wouldn't lift all restrictions this year, that's it. And that makes sense since COVID wouldn't be fully eliminated this year.
Last edited by KSVVZ2015; Jan 20, 2021 at 4:18 am
Jan 20, 2021, 4:16 am
#69
Suspended
Join Date: Aug 2020
Posts: 963
10 years ago, I know a major US pharma company that allowed anyone into F for flights over like 10 hours (J beneath that). Those days are gone.
That said, while I (in a professional services firm) can only purchase F if J is not available (though on the specific flight I pick, I'm not forced to take sub-optimal flights to find J), I've spent at least 50% of my business travel over the last few years on BA in F. The buy J and get one leg for free in F promo has been running nearly constantly for a couple years. And in many cases it was why I picked BA over an airline with better J (usually day flight in F, red eye in J where I didn't care much > better J product both ways). Plus a decent number of J-F op ups as a GGL. Point being, F is still relevant to BA's high value sales even if its not being paid for. That said, faster than expected rollout of the CS (if coupled with return to a proper soft product in J) will help sway people like me to BA regardless of an F upgrade promo.
Jan 20, 2021, 7:30 am
#70
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: London, UK
Programs: BA Exec Club, SIA KrisFlyer, Qantas FF, Emirates Skywards
Posts: 1,850
Then, a few days after that, the South Africa strain, which reportedly was even more transmissible. That was not warned or predicted either.
While we all expected a second wave in the winter, no one expected it to be this bad. Professor Whitty said in late March that if we kept the deaths under 20,000, that would be a good result. We are at over 4 times that and climbing rapidly. So that is another horrible turn for the worse.
Multiple vaccines were made in record time, which was again much better than expected, but this still has not stopped Coronavirus absolutely raging.
So was any of the above expected? Somehow I don't think so.
Jan 20, 2021, 10:27 am
#72
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: London, UK
Programs: BA Exec Club, SIA KrisFlyer, Qantas FF, Emirates Skywards
Posts: 1,850
Jan 20, 2021, 1:41 pm
#73
Join Date: Apr 2018
Location: London
Programs: BA Silver (for now)
Posts: 1,000
Oct 19, 2021, 12:15 pm
#75
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Newcastle UK
Posts: 1,114
Hi. To save me trawling ba.com availability, can anyone list F routes for summer 22? I'm very aware of a few of the obvious ones but there might be a, few out there that might be interesting. Thanks.