JD1905

I've been pretty loyal to BA for quite a few years now - recently BA Cancelled our flights to Singapore and we were re-booked onto Qatar... the standard of service, hard product, the lounges available etc are just so far above BA that it makes it hard to justify booking with them over the competition.

Even when BA have the Club Suite on all routes, I feel you you still get better value for money elsewhere. I can't see me making many long haul revenue bookings with BA in future.

I'm also trying to go through a process with BA to get back £140 I paid for a Club Europe upgrade recently because no food was offered due to a passenger having a nut allergy on the flight. I didn't even get so much as an offer of 500 avios as compensation (Which I probably would have accepted). Small things like that are annoying.

Confus

If I’m flying for leisure and get a good fare, sure I’m happy to fly QR to Asia. But if I’m flying for business, it’s a question of a whole night’s sleep plus two passable meals vs a 2am stop in the desert and a very groggy arrival. In that situation there’s only one winner I’m afraid, no matter how nice the seats or lounge, or how obliging the crew.

LegatusF

The alternative view is that you're going on Safari to SA in J, direct. It doesn't get much better than that!

Personally, as variable as the current J service is, flying direct is way better than having to connect (especially on the return as all you want to do is get home).

For me, J on BA is all about the sleeping - SA is two night flights so eat in the lounge beforehand, watch a movie and go to bed.

AlwaysOnTheRoad

I for one and looking forward to a few long haul flights on BA in May. Having just flown Emirates in their new First Class, it is time to experience the vast gulf in service and hard product. I really enjoy my BA flights where it takes 1.5 hours to get your first drink and 2+ hours to get a meal. Flying BA allows me to remember how far this airline, once credible, has fallen.

ermis177

Although I agree in general on the other hand with the recent examples in T5 with both immigration and luggage situation makes a small stop in Frankfurt or Zurich and then a connection flight to LCY much less risky choice!

bisonrav

You can't really argue with this assessment, and hopefully someone from BA monitors the forum and feeds back. Some of the issues - the crew inconsistency, the delays in service, even excessive long haul cabin temperature, etc, ought to be easy to fix. Food shouldn't be that difficult either. BA start with a lot of advantages and goodwill from UK travelers, but have seemed intent on blowing all of that in recent years, and it's not really about Covid either, it's a long term issue.

CKBA

Largely depends on your flying patterns and (airline) status.
For me, BA do (did) the only direct route, from 'home' to 'other home' - so it's either a 6 hour flight or 10+hours connecting flights - it may cost a bit more, but convenience is a big factor. (Of course, they have suspended that route over the two years...). Many of us don't (or at least used to) fly much - and then infrequently in the higher cabins, so scrape along the bottom of the tier levels. I got Gold through travelling almost exclsively in (discounted) economy - no mean feat. Presently, I am questioning my allegance to BA since with no direct flights now, they are on a par with other airlines, the drop in standards is worrying (accompanied by now-lame excuses), and after Brexit, I can no longer use BA for work travel since the (US) government travel clause was dropped from the open skies agreement. But life goes on... .

LCY8737

The gras is not always greener - connections in FRA can be a pain. But overall I get where OP is coming from.

I just tried to call the GGL line. On the 0800 number I get disconnected telling me to call later because they are all busy. On the 0207 they are happy to put me on hold (presumably because I have to pay). Of course there wouldn't be a need for me to call if they had bothered to inform me about a cancelled flight in good time and allowed rebooking on the website. If this is the service standard for a GGL in Club Europe I can see why people fly with other airlines.

subject2load

But is it not a basic truism that for something to be removed it has first to exist ?

What have I been missing all these years …… ??

Where air travel within Europe is concerned, I do not know of any commercial carriers which provide their customers (whether they be shiny card-holders or not) with the sort of ground experience that could remotely be equated to ‘ luxury ‘

Let’s see just how much of the stated commitment in Mr. Doyle’s epiphany-moment email actually bears fruit.

So far, the current CEO has presided over degradations in product, IT efficiency, and service standards which all combine to achieve the near-impossible feat of making his predecessor seem a Champion of Quality. And for as long as that continues, it’s understandable that a significant amount of scepticism will also persist, along with an inevitable re-assessment of past loyalties.

Duck1981

You are doing the right thing. My only reason to stay with BA was the excellent crew and ground staff I've met so many times, but unfortunately many left willingly or not and have been replaced by people who often simply don't care. Operational reliability is a joke. They wanted to have people back flying and can't deal with them now. Planes are just filthy too many times.

I know it's stormy but I am simply not overly willing to gamble when booking with them that either a) weather god has a good day b) my crew is at least somewhat motivated to provide a certain level of service equal to the £3k I pay for a return to JFK.

aristoph

No indeed, and I am not naively expecting sunlit uplands with LX or (especially) LH. But I hope my bed will work (getting concerned with the recent reports on A380 failures); the entertainment will work (total failure on my flights to SEA and ANU last year); I will get my choice of food (left till last as in last row on return from ANU, even as GCH when cabin was stuffed with staff travel); and it will be edible (maybe not too confident on that last point!)

The thing is, BA makes total sense for us given my status in BAEC, the direct flight and the fact that I bagged a currently very elusive J redemption to JNB. But the thought of that flight depresses me when I want to enjoy the journey as part of my holiday. I know it's a luxury most don't have but I'd rather pay a few thousand pounds more to give us at least a shot of a great journey as the odds are just so stacked against that right now in BA OCW. I will keep my Avios and vouchers for a later time when hopefully they have got some semblance of quality back in the product.

Dave_C

As a GGL of seven years and a LTG, I made the switch to the LH Group a few years back. Overall I'm broadly happy.

• First class is leagues better across both LH/LX
• The LHR T2 lounge in mediocre but the ones in T2B are fine
• FRA (unless in first) sucks; MUC is great, ZRH is good
• LH business class seat is flawed in different ways to old club
• LX/OS business class seat is generally ok
• On board food and drink is pretty good and the service didn't really change during COVID
• Cabin crew are generally fine and pretty consistent, perhaps slightly less warm if you're not a native German speaker
• European business and economy is the same as BA, rubbish food and the seats are Recaro punishment benches

Overall the biggest issue LH have is the current business seat. The dog-end 789s and 350s will have 1-2-1 with different flavours of seat. The LH-order 789s, 779s, and 350s will have the proper new seat, but there's no real plans to refit the 748s and 333/343s that I'm aware of. The 744s will go when the 779s come in.

Six months ago, I would have said that M&M was crap compared to the Exec Club. With the recent increases to YQ devaluing the Amex PP card, the Exec Club is still ahead, but less than it was. M&M is still generally crap but there are some nice SEN/HON benefits.

Is the grass greener, possibly a bit. Different frustrations I guess.

eefor jfp

LX and LH in F are wonderful in the air and pretty good on the ground (LX is having problems at ZRH with its lounges); J isn't bad but probably on par with NCW (as noted, LX and OS are better than LH which has 7 across on some planes in biz so 2-3-2). All that to say you'll enjoy the change but there are issues with Star Alliance, too.

aristoph

Yes we were hoping for LX in both directions but it wasn't available at the price and at least we are on the upper deck 747 so 2-2. And as we are a couple no issues with stepping over each other, whereas I hate having strangers step over me in OCW (or v.v.).

JD1905

I'm pricing up a trip to Thailand for January. From London, BA are around £2,500pp in CW (Old seat) - The benefit of this route, of course, is that it is direct. But it has the old CW Seat.
An example of an alternative - for £2,800pp from CDG you can fly LX in F. Yes, it adds some complexities to the journey (2 stops), but for a leisure trip i'd certainly think about this option ahead of BA. In more recent times however I have put a far higher price on the convenience of direct routing etc during Covid, but if things keep going the way they are, then an additional stop or two to fly on a better airline is worth it imo.

I've had a few really bad moments with BA, but I never got to a point where I thought "I won't fly them again".. but definitely over time and the more I travel & the more i'm willing to spend, the more i'm jus very "Meh" when it comes to BA. Being based in NI it serves me well for domestic flights, but Dublin of course has a huge number of options.