lsquare

I flew a lot of tpac flights for my international travel pre-COVID. I know for people that are living in the Western US, they benefit from the cheap fares that the Chinese carriers offer to China. Of course for someone that have BA/OW status, they'll want to fly on BA or a OW carrier. I just want to focus on BA specifically for this thread. For those of you that are living in North America and have BA status, which routes are you mainly flying with BA? Which routes does BA offer competitive pricing across all of its cabins? Pre-COVID and even now, it's tough to find competitive pricing for tpac flights on BA since they all have to connect in London and I guess this just adds to the distance. So my guess would be mainly tatl routes going to Europe and Africa?

KSVVZ2015

I think BA tries to compete on NA to Europe, Africa, Russia, the Middle East and India. It does not for places further east. With increasing services direct from NA to places like ACC, LOS, and JNB - it will have to pick up traffic on cost not convenience to Africa.

lsquare

Is BA really competitive from North America to India? IIRC, AA and UA announced new routes to India that kept on getting delayed due to the pandemic. UA is convenient for me since they'll fly from SFO.

I think UA and DL are or will fly to South Africa with their newest planes. IIRC, DL will use an A350.

JAXBA

Quote:

Originally Posted by lsquare

Is BA really competitive from North America to India?

Yes. The market is very price sensitive, so a connection through London isn't a big deal if the price is right.

BA normally serves DEL, BOM, HYD, MAA, BLR, and with all the possible BA/AA US gateways, there are multiple origin/destination combinations available that may be more convenient than the few new nonstops.

lsquare

Do you think there will be pricing pressure on BA once UA and AA bring online their new India flights?

I'm somewhat surprised BA is making no effort to compete on Asian destinations from the US. Even the Eastern US is quite far from the Far East.

VSLover

i think a more appropriate analogy would be someone saying "i live in SF and wish cathay were more prominent on services to europe"

it doesnt make sense but the entire point of alliances are to provide the global coverage that no single airline could provide today. when i lived in SF, as a BAEC member, yes i would rely on CX for my TPAC travels which were generally less than my TATL travels which is why i would eventually switch from advantage to BAEC.

lsquare

Haha, you got me there.

JAXBA

Quote:

Originally Posted by lsquare

Do you think there will be pricing pressure on BA once UA and AA bring online their new India flights?

Not really, as the non-stops will allow a higher price than connections. The greater competition is from other European airlines, and the ME3, who also have plenty of frequency and capacity.

Quote:

I'm somewhat surprised BA is making no effort to compete on Asian destinations from the US. Even the Eastern US is quite far from the Far East.

This is different from India though, as there are plenty of non-stops US-Far East, and the routes aren't quite as price sensitive. Going via Europe isn't a very natural routing, although Finnair does fairly well connecting over HEL. BA probably feels it can make more selling US-Europe and Europe-Far East to 2 different people than trying to compete for US-Far East to 1 person.

VSLover

ha, well i think the likes of emirates, qatar, qantas or singaport upend the model a bit given their geography.

BrianDromey

I was under the impression that a lot of the ME3 business from North America was onward to the Sub Continent and even to Africa? I think BA would mostly be competing with those airlines. The non-stop options are very limited on the US3 to India and likely to require a domestic connection at one, or both ends, unless you happen to live in a US3 hub city.

Confus

One big flow I’ve never understood is NE US to South America via London. NYC-LON-Brazil is one of the bigger longhaul connecting flows. Are fares via MIA very high? I suppose it could also be driven by schedule and timings, but is interesting nonetheless.

rather_be_on_a_griffin

Pre-pandemic I used BA to India a lot (2-3 times per year). So much so they once sent me marketing material that implied my mother lived there and I need to visit her. The pricing was very competitive in I class. I’m pretty sure in 2012 I even got a $2012 fare.

I have gone further west although it’s not competitive on pricing. The simple advantage is time if you have a major reason to go to London anyway you can combine in 1 trip.

ajeleonard

This would seem like quite a strange phenomenon. Where are you getting this information?

iadisgreat

I think they sent that to everyone, I've never been to India and have no family there, yet I received that message.

Bear96

I'd be interested in knowing that too. I have never heard of anyone doing that.

*Maybe* I can see TAP from the US via LIS to connect to one of the places in BR that TAP goes nonstop to from LIS that you can't go nonstop from the US. But US through LHR to get to GIG/GRU (which I think are the only places in BR served by BA?), which have plenty of nonstops from the US, doesn't make sense.