HIDDY

Add lower fares and you have your answer.

skipness1E

The operation is understaffed on a daily rolling basis, hence to keep taxiways clear, HAL have been assisting ATC with the yellow Ops Vehicles marshalling aircraft onto stand at T5 just to get them out of everyone else's way as there's been no one to meet them. There's no tone of surprise in the tone from the flightdeck's constant report of "holding short of stand, no guidance."

subject2load

Not sure that the absence or creation of Flyertalk makes any difference at all to anyone who hands money to a travel supplier with the basic expectation of acceptable service standards in return.

I personally do not share your view that “most of the problems / complaints you read about on FT also happened back then ‘in the good old days’.” Not in my experience. I am of the view that BA has seen many better days during its history.

But - for now - let’s accept your premise at face value : would you not think that the “problems / complaints” which you mention could / should have been addressed (and largely resolved) in the intervening decades ……. ? After all, in a world where competitive pressures are greater than ever, most customer-centric corporates aim to raise their standards and product quality over time, rather than repeat the same mistakes over and over, in the way that your reaction (to the OP’s sense of irritation) implies is happening.

In short …. would you not wish BA to be amongst those constantly improving, rather than evoking memories of problems which you say date back 35 years …. ?

T8191

From what I’ve read so far, it’s largely “What’s the matter with HAL?” rather than BA, who pay a lot of money for an airport (and others) that aren’t delivering for a variety of non-BA reasons.

HIDDY

In short todays air travellers demand low fares.

subject2load

Sounds like you’re not flying at all or at least not needing to book tickets for forward travel.
Travellers may ‘demand’ all sorts of things ; but nonetheless, premium cabin seats on many routes, and many dates, currently come with what (to me) seem like eye-watering price tags. But perhaps cheap for you …. ?

Any business - whether it be HAL, BA, or your local takeaway - can either focus purely on profitability OR on customer service and high standards. The best-respected brands put maximum effort into achieving both.

Your line of thought implies that ongoing problems / complaints are a consequence of (incompatible) demands for low fares by “today’s air travellers”. And so what exactly was the issue or cause 35 years ago, when you say the very same problems existed ….. ?

carrotjuice

(and, tongue in cheek of course) Hordes of status-extended and lower TP upgraded passengers who drink BA dry by guzzling LPGS at the lounges.

BOH

Why on earth does that need a human to switch it on and select the aircraft type? Why not just a device in the cockpit that can remotely select this FFS? Or why can't it be done by someone by Ops in a control room in the terminal - there is enough networked systems in a Terminal that cover every gate.

This is ridiculous, it could even be an App on the pilot's phones - I can control my central heating precisely from an App wherever I am in the world. Bizarre!

13901

The stand guidance thing is BA's and so is the bus drivers' situation.

With regards to stand guidance, of course the pilots will talk about that as it's the first thing they see, however that's the first 'contact point' between them and the arrival process. The issue there, I think, is that there aren't enough of what BA calls "IRS", Integrated Ramp Supervisor. Basically take the dispatcher, merge that role with the one of the Baggage Crew Leader, and voilà here's the IRS. They do a lot during an arrival (from memory: turn the guidance on - meaning that everything's safe to go - guie the jetty, organise the offload, bring/ensure that the RTAD are brought up) and also quite a lot during departure, including driving the Mototok pushback tractor. Many, in the days when the IRS were introduced, thought that there was a bit too much dumped on their shoulders and indeed it'd appear so especially if they're thin on the ground. I guess, but have no insight, that perhaps some have left/been let go in the 'everything must go' days of the pandemic.

Some activities should be automated at some point (like the FOD inspection or the guidance system, and when humans will be colonising Venus' upper atmosphere perhaps we'll also have automatic jetties) but right now there's no fix besides hiring more.

For the bus drivers, perhaps it's also a case of drivers having been 'poached' by other companies.

13901

I was actually trying to explain that in my previous post but it's a good excuse to nerd out a bit.

The guidance system being turned on is just a step on the process flow to handle an arrival. It's a way to say to the pilot "we're all here, we've checked and no equipment has been parked in the way, we've done our FOD check and there's nothing lying around, you can safely pull in". In places where there's no stand guidance, I believe the procedure is to send someone to "block" the plane from entering the stand until the work upstream has been done. I remember doing a project in Chicago where we were observing the turnround of a 747 and, lo and behold, some bright mind had left a baggage dolly in the way and the thing wouldn't start. While some of the crew hitched it to another tug and put it away a very young fellow was sent to the head of stand to, basically, stop the 747 coming in. It felt really David vs Goliath.

As I was writing upthread, the stand guidance system is mentioned by the pilot because that's what he/she sees, and it's a symptom of a different root cause problem, i.e. the lack of staff (most probably the IRS). So in the event where the IRS isn't there yet, by automating the guidance system you simply move the problem down the process (and increase the risk to safety). So next you will have nobody to drive the jetty, for instance.

LCY8737

And this morning 30 min wait on the GGL line because I wanted to do something ba.com can't.
At least none of my bookings time travelled to 1970 and were auto-cancelled by AA.

davidcamp6

Living in Devon,I have options to fly from Bristol and connect in mainland Europe, however at my age I prefer to fly direct from LHR. Though not a frequent traveller I do fly to TLV with BA perhaps 5-6 times a year. Inconveniences do happen, as with everything. Luckily as a solo traveller I tend not to over worry.
It will be different this summer, as I shall be travelling with my wife and friends to Larnaca for a break once my wife has finished her chemo. If BA manage to create problems that are entirely avoidable had resilience been embedded into their structure it is likely that I shall rethink which carrier to use going forward. I appreciate that it is not personal when things go wrong, but it will be such a personal let down I doubt I will forget.

Duck1981

I was so annoyed with BA to book myself an OS flight to VIE for April, but now will likely still wear a mask then when drinking my Austrian Veltliner whilst all CE pax will be mask free.

The other side isn't always greener it seems!

South London Bon Viveur

Totally agree that it's tiresome and pathetic and un-does a lot of the mostly good work of the crew, but this is not actually new. It's been a regular feature of flying BA for years now.

Farwest

Does anyone have an answer to this? If it's when the doors open, that could be rather misleading when passengers have to wait onboard.

FW