BA and AA – tale of two extreme experiences

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  • Anonymous
    Guest

    ExecPlatAA
    Participant

    A – Emerald/ SFO-JFK-LHR – American Airlines and LHR-BOM – British Airways

    SFO-JFK – First AA . Menu distributed – but none of the choices available. AWFUL egg omlette – crew most embarrassed and apologetic. Fantastic crew member put together a cereal breakfast tray for me – awful catering made up for by the crew. 6hr flight with one breakfast meal and to think the fares on this sector top $4000
    JFK-LHR – New Business AA – excellent seat in the new 777ER. Dinner service – rushed and crew could not be bothered. Overcooked steak and warm champagne served in water glass. When asked for a wine glad instead, the crew said – its too small so we don’t use it. OK – lets have larger glasses then, but a water glass??. No breakfast offered – 1 hr prior to arrival, no option for tea or juice as the galley is closed. Excellent hard product let down by catering and poor crew.

    LHR-BOM – British Airways. Excellent LHR First Lounge, as always. Superb catering (restaurant quality Indian themed lunch) and nothing was to much trouble for the crew, even in Economy. Snacks offered mid flight and while I declined both that and the dinner (Yes 2 meals for a 8 hr flight) – the quality and crew responsiveness was excellent. CSD came by to offer wine and water as I am Emerald and also asked if I needed anything. They blocked 3 seats for me so I could lie down. Just overall excellent service and this was much to my surprise as I did not expect this in coach. Bravo BA – while I am a AA fan as I fly with them more than 150K miles a year, this time around, I have to say that BA economy trumped AA business and first and that is tragic.


    FormerlyDoS
    Participant

    To be honest, I can’t see an ‘extreme’ experience in this post, at either end of the spectrum.


    nmh1204
    Participant

    fdos wasn’t the rude one

    as for your comparison, I can’t say I’m surprised to be honest. I’ve read a fair amount of reviews saying that AA service is bad


    rferguson
    Participant

    BA’s London to India flights are somewhat an abnormality in terms of inflight service.

    Due to the (ba’s words) ‘passenger profile’ you get a hell of a lot more on an 8 hour LHR-BOM flight than you would on a near 11 hour say LHR-LAX flight. In economy the daylight London – India flights start with a hot meal. This is followed by the distribution of a mid flight snack box with sandwich half way through the flight. Then another hot light meal before landing. Plus the ‘tuck boxes’ available in the galley.

    Compare that to economy on LHR-LAX – one hot meal and a sandwich/cake before landing for ‘afternoon tea’.


    ExecPlatAA
    Participant

    Excellent feedback , as always – rferguson! Beyond the meals – I felt the service was superb, and not just from the Asian crew. For a BA skeptic, I was impressed – may stick to them on just this route!


    rferguson
    Participant

    Lol and here is one for ‘service consistency’. You know the little bar snacks that one used to get with their pre dinner drink in economy (still given out in World Traveller Plus)? Well you still get them on the Inida flights in Y.

    I recently worked a 13.5hr flight LHR-Buenos Aires. I was serving a bar drink to a passenger who had flown in from BOM earlier in the day. He asked for his bar snacks. I replied we don’t offer them in economy anymore. He was perplexed as he had been given them in economy on his 8hr BOM-LHR flight. Yet on a 13.5hr flight to EZE – not served. Crazy.


    HBHLondon
    Participant

    You were lucky the CSD on BA went out of her way to make your flight confortable in economy as you are Emerald. I am also Emerald and when travelling Economy with BA I have never had such service. So consistency is not an issue with BA either. Yet, I totally agree with you on the service on AA. I recently flew in their so called First Class from San Francisco to Miami and cabin was very dirty and extremely old, attendants indiferrent and chatting among themselves and just a plate of cheese for food. Seat was similar to Club Europe on BA. On a flight in Business from Panama City to Miami I was completely ignored by the flight attendant and when I asked him, well after he had served all other passengers in the cabin, if I could have my breakfast, he just said he though I did not want any. No idea where he got that idea from as I had ordered my breakfast option online beforehand as AA allows this. AA has a long way to go to match BA.


    Xuluman
    Participant

    Perhaps it isn’t fair to review the BA Y experience when you have access to the First lounge and have seats blocked off next to you allowing you to lie out/sleep.


    CXDiamond
    Participant

    I have generally found AA premium services to be very good, to suggest that BA economy service is better is rather bizarre. There are certainly better and worse firsts and business classes and some business class offerings exceed some first class offerings but economy doesn’t come near to either offering on any carrier.

    rferguson you’re always such a fount of useful knowledge, may I ask what it is about the passenger profile on services to India that warrants a better offering to other routes?


    canucklad
    Participant

    Can I be a bit cynical here?

    On the Indian routes, higher quality of service due to an audience that demands value for money, so…….one word is determiner in BA’s service . …. “JET” , Oh and not forgetting the gulf carriers of course.
    On the trans Atlantic flights, another word…….” Monopolistic” due to shared practices with ehmmmmm ……AA !!

    As rferguson indirectly pointed out, the inconsistency of BA just makes it a truly under whelming airline!

    It seems to me that they would rather aspire to be AA than CX !

    My advice “Never fly BA “Y”, you’ll find yourself asking WHY ? “


    SergeantMajor
    Participant

    EmeraldAA, welcome to the BT forum.

    Good to read your first hand impression of BA’s World Traveller cabin, copied below:

    “Bravo BA – while I am a AA fan as I fly with them more than 150K miles a year, this time around, I have to say that BA economy trumped AA business and first and that is tragic.”

    Another impressive performance by British Airways!


    BigDog.
    Participant

    When BA has cramped in the loads, VK/SM views it positively,
    When BA has so many free seats it can afford to block off 2 extra ones for single passengers it is equally impressive….mmmm

    Surely with BA’s revenue management it could have offloaded the spare seats to Avios and made something??

    More spin than Alastair Campbell or Lance Armstrong methinks


    SergeantMajor
    Participant

    The published IAG traffic stats would suggest you are once again spouting doublespeak, BigDog.

    http://www.iagshares.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=240949&p=irol-traffic

    Despite BA increasing capacity with the delivery of its new longhaul A380s and 787s, load factors are in fact up, and Willie Walsh’s policies continue to drive profits at British Airways, much to your annoyance.

    IAG shares currently trading at 436p, up more than 100% in the past year despite challenging trading conditions, particularly in Spain:

    http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=IAG.L#symbol=iag.l;range=1y;compare=;indicator=volume;charttype=area;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=off;source=undefined;


    BigDog.
    Participant

    … and shorty after taking the helm, when Walsh’s initiatives should start bearing fruit, the BA share price stood at 574p. Now 8 years on, a single derisory share dividend paid, with competition highly restricted at LHR, and with a fairly captive large customer base it is 436p… mmmm

    At least he apologised about IB.

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