BA First - Ever Decreasing Circles?
 

First off, I am well aware that I am lucky that I have the option to fly First and have done so with various airlines across the globe and I do so without business travel, I fly on my own pocket and because I choose to so why this is a very ‘first’-world issue, BA seem to be devaluing First further and further to the point that before long they may as well not bother offering it.

I am now less than 30 days out from my next flight, previously I would already have booked a spa treatment and my meal choices and had confidence I was going to have a pleasant few hours in the air being thoroughly looked after and if I arrived slightly worse for wear, that would only be because I took slightly too much advantage of the libations on offer. Now, the spas are, to my understanding, permanently closed so no nice back massage to help ensure I am as comfortable as possible boarding the plane and pre-ordering of meal choices has yet to make a return.

BA’s spa offerings were always pretty poor compared to those offered by other airlines but they were still welcome, I can understand the need to suspend them during the height of Covid, but to not restore them just chips away at the value of their premium offering. The one I really don’t understand is not bringing back pre-ordering; this is a complete no-brainer to me. If you allow customers to pre-order their main meal options, you can ensure you load the correct number of each choice, everyone gets their preferred option and you increase customer satisfaction whilst simultaneously reducing food-waste, a genuine win-win. Some extras will need to be loaded to cater for those that either do not pre-select or very short notice flyers (although gone are the days of the genuine walk-ups, I do remember having to do that when I did occasionally fly for professional purposes and needed to give an urgent briefing in NYC so was instructed to go to LHR and buy a walk-on return for Concorde), but it makes both business and economic sense to do what you can to ensure you can predict demand.

I’ve only flown CW once (after an involuntary downgrade but I had to get back on the first available flight rather than wait for the next flight with availability in F) and it was definitely a step down, the service and soft-product is significantly better in F, so I’m not in the camp that says there is no benefit to flying F on BA, but BA have lost my business by withdrawing F on routes where other airlines still offer it.

BA seems to have an identity crisis at the moment and doesn’t know if it is meant to be differentiating on cost or on quality meaning both suffer.

I'm going to be honest: if you're flying LON-NYC and buying revenue tickets, Virgin Atlantic Upper Class probably offers better value than BA First. The Concorde Room has simply been much worse than Clubhouse for a while, and the Upper Class Wing is just as pleasant as the Gold Wing.
BA has never differentiated on quality. They are the United Airlines of London.

You’re very much in YMMV territory with that statement. Many will disagree.

I think the only consensus this forum generates is on Manchester airport and its shabbiness.

Classic!

What will you fly instead? Do you mind connecting to get a better product on Air France or Lufthansa?

I flew BA F once from JFK to LHR. It was the BA178. The chef was running late so no hot food in the CCR at JFK. A mediocre breakfast and lacklustre afternoon tea made me walk of the plane a bit meh.

I was happy with the experience as it made me appreciate CW and AA J across the Atlantic and I’ve never been hankering for an upgrade to F or having to work out if £499 or $799 is worth it for an upgrade. I’ll keep my money and have a Club Europe weekend somewhere.

You have a choice in your air travel. I think BA said it would keep F on 3 routes post pandemic and it will appear on others as and when airframes permit. I guess if BA can fill F at whatever rates in can when it can there’s no incentive for it to get better.

Qatar and some others offer some scope for that strategy. But heading for destinations outside regions they serve, are you willing to go through the indignities of Club Europe, the complexities of continental hubs and the inevitable time penalties imposed ? I mean it will satisfy an F-addiction, but it seems to enter cutting off your nose territory.

A case of 'like it or lump it'. If you can get a better Y/J/F product for a similar price then it makes sense to use it does it not?

While you may be paying more for your ticket in F than people are paying in otehr cabins, my understanding is that the revenue return to BA is higher across the WTP cabin tahn the first cabin. I believe this is why BA is not so focussed on the first cabin. To some extent they would prefer you take that business elsewhere and allow to focus on cabin that are more profitable.

Don't feel bad about flying with others. I doubt any airline is truly loyal to its passengers, more likely to be loyal to its shareholders, so no need for you to be loyal to the airline

.

I have no problem connecting rather than flying direct if the service offered is worth it (and that includes any J/domestic first segments). Flying out to SE Asia, I now fly Emirates rather than BA after they withdrew F to the destinations I travel to. I’ll happily connect in DXB and get a massage in the terminal (with no availability issues any time I have done it). AF La Première is nice but fairly limited on destinations. For me, the flight is very much part of the experience not merely a means to an end so I value service quality over time.

That is my understanding too, F isn’t actually particularly profitable (if at all), it is more about prestige than profit but that is even more reason to do it right or not at all rather than try to cut costs whilst still claiming to offer a genuine first class experience.

I do have a (highly misplaced) sense of loyalty to BA, but that is more down to what they used to be (and what I wish they still were) that what they really are now.

With smaller and smaller F cabins and less and less routes offering F I believe BA has made its decision and you can see where it is heading. I expect continued errosion of the service until they are not doing it.

The airline business has changed since concorde was available. I am not sure BA really wish they were what they once were, they know in the current market thats not possible. We might want them to be, but its not going to happen any time soon. So you may well feel better giving up that (misplaced) loyalty, they don't seem to care about your business, why should you care about them?. As well as BA, this year I have flown (but not in first granted) QR, OS, LH, LO and SK, this weekend I will add AY to the list. I am also using a ferry and a train this weekend rather than flying. There is a world of choice out there,see if you can find someone who offers the product you are looking for.

It's interesting though, AF are now expanding their F offering. LH have cut theirs massively, but bringing back their A346s specifically to provide more F capacity out of MUC. LX have maintained their F offering. There is clearly some demand out there for a quality F product., although having sampled LH and LX's F products (and yet to try AF), their are massively different to BA's offering.

I have been fortunate to fly QF, LH, SQ and BA in F. This was all pre-COVID. Even then, BA wasn’t at the same level as the others. So I think it is a long term decision that BA have made over the last 5 years or so not to give F the attention it deserves. Surely it would not take much to lift it to be competitive with at least the other European carriers?

What is the opposite of diminishing returns? ;)