RGS5526

Getting back to the starting point of this thread, would it not make sense for BA to reduce its dependence on London airports, and LHR in particular?

Its never good engineering practice to build a single point of failure into a system. So why not introduce a secondary hub outside London that can be expanded rapidly if LHR has problems.

Both BHX and MAN can offer two-hour or shorter surface links to central London and have fairly wide, well-populated catchment areas themselves.

PGberkshire

I agree, I am at 4500 TP in the last 11 months, its not hard people

abligh

But isn't that precisely the point of the initiative? IE rightly or wrongly, it is designed to allow people to qualify/requalify at lower levels, as they got less opportunity to fly, so if it did not allow some gold & silvers to gain / hold on to that status who would not otherwise have done so, it would have failed in its job. I can understand the view that "we've had enough extensions" but I don't think "some people were able to qualify only using the lower targets" is a great argument to support that view.

Note I have no skin in this game as I will requalify as GGL either way (March year end, may hit the reduced Dec target, but if not will hit the March higher one).

scottishpoet

Been tried before

Ba scaled back their operation in manchester in favour of the london hub

The low cost carriers offering direct flights from across the UK make a multi hub idea for BA unprofitable

PGberkshire

and how long would scaling up a new hub take? with what people to do it?

oxtailsoup

As someone who has had their last four BA flights cancelled, including one at less than two hours notice, I would say the party doing the abusing is BA!

We’ve booked flights in good faith and had them cancelled with no suitable alternative (and at considerable inconvenience). For clarity, if my wife in particular were to receive the TPs she has missed out on, she would easily of retained Gold. Why should she and others like her lose their status in that scenario?

I think there is a huge difference between giving away extensions where no attempt has been made to retain but where it is clear that the customer has really tried…..

PGberkshire

Surely you get re-routed (EC261) then claim ORC?

Geordie405

Most of my TPs over the last 3 years have comes from flights with AA and AS and I am probably flying more now than ever before. I haven't had to rely on free handouts from BA to keep my status. I have earned it the traditional way every year. I don't disagree with BA's strategy over the last couple of years to offer status extensions but there has to be an end to it. Ultimately, if you're not flying then you don't need the perks that accompany status.

scottishpoet

If people have had a number of flights canceled that have causes thwm to miss status then I feel that is worth a converaation with BA about an extension of their atatus.

If peoplw just want an extension because BA are not selling tickets for flights in thw next few days or even weeks then I do not see that go anywhere.

I have amassed 600TP in the last few weeks without flying BA.

oxtailsoup

No alternative viable options or re-routings offered for any of the flights even after talking to the GGL team and in one case YouFirst. Unless you were happy to accept a flight +/- 3 days or so from the original which was a bit pointless for a work conference!

13901

I hope you don't read this as me being your average snobbish SE Englander - for I'm not - but BA would make more money (well, lose less money) by having its planes sitting idly on the TE stands at the edge of Heathrow than to open up a base in the regions and ferry people there.

Legacy airlines don't usually open bases off-hub because... well, they end up very badly for them. LCCs do it because they're very lean from the get-go. They simply open up a base, get crews living there, and operate back and forwards, with crews and pilots sleeping in their beds most nights if not all. For BA to decamp to BHX it'd be a case of having to ferry people, lodge them and then rotate them. It's not something legacies do... with two exceptions.

Back in the late 2000s Lufthansa execs smoked something bad and came to conclusion that Milan was going to shut LIN. So they decided to instal an offshoot, Lufthansa Italia, over in MXP. On paper it made sense, the Lombardy/Piedmont/Ticino-CH triangle generates a lot of wealth and average fares are high. I think this was Lufthansa's second European market back in the day, and definitely a higher yielding one than BHX/MAN. It was a disaster. LH took its sweet time in setting up a base there, so they were shuttling crews to/from MUC and FRA. By the time they got to their senses, they had to shut down the airline and they sent an Air Dolomiti exec to wrap things up. He was quoted by the papers as saying they were losing millions a week, can't remember how much though.

Then came Virgin, with its Little Red. 4 planes, wet-leased from the very low costing Lingus... and still they were losing a couple of million a week.

For BA to be shuttling crews and pilots, plus engineers and support staff, over at BHX/MAN, competing against an even more combative LCCs, in a market that hasn't got the appeal and yields of LHR... It'd be a bloodbath.

DYKWIA

There are far better choices than BA from the regions thank you very much.

PUCCI GALORE

Oh Darling you are a card. You sounded almost sincere but Auntie Pucci is cannier than that.

If the flight is cancelled by BA and you cannot travel or have to be downgraded - you should get your money back and be given the Tier Points. Not the avios as they cost money. Did we ever believe that we would be here with money in our purses and the airlines would decline selling to us or sell to us at horrendous prices. Never mind, we will hock the house in Surbiton and swan off around the world. Where shall we start? Buenos Aires?

bisonrav

I would start from wherever you happen to be at the time, Pucci darling.

PUCCI GALORE

They've existed as long as FT in the days when American carriers used to pay $$$ to get people off aircraft - and I believe that Delta gave some woman $10,000 the other day to get off some puddle hop, but that might be absolutely Apocryphal (I'll let you look that word up if you possess such a thing as a Dictionary on your Pampas wilderness )