BA cabin crew reject latest offer

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Viewing 7 posts - 31 through 37 (of 37 total)

  • MartynSinclair
    Participant

    NTarrant ( i think your name is Nigel) – which obscure places do you go to that no other airline flies. Most destiantions are served by more than one carrier. The cost savings alone would probably more than compensate you for the loss of miles.

    To all other contributors, thank you very much for listening, contributing and discussing. As far as my flights are concenred, BA will soon see a cancelled club world ticket on the 26th May. Even though VK doesnt think that longhaul will be affected, I cant blame him when I dont reach BKK becasue BA werent flying due to the strike.

    There are 2 sides and 2 “discussions” to the BA situation – ait simply cant continue like this for ever – so unless one side backs down, my new friend Jonno09 appears to agree with the simple solution made months ago – lock the children in a hotel room and let then squeal to each other until they learn to play nicely!


    NTarrant
    Participant

    Martyn – None of the places I fly to are obscure and are all served by other airlines. BA has an extensive network which means that there are few places I can’t get to with them.

    If you spread your flights around a number of airlines then your teir status on the FF program will be reduced and therefore your benefits are reduced. If you are going to use loyalty cards, whether they be BA, Boots, Tesco or Nectar you only get the benefit if you stick with those brands. Of course you have to be happy with the brands.

    I like BA and earning points and miles gives me a higher status and more miles to travel to the places I want to go. For example, 200,000 BA miles and an Amex voucher to Australia last year for my wife and I in Club World.

    Now coming to price, I beleive that it is a case of swings and roundabouts. I know you have just booked a trip which is cheaper from Milan. I have done exactly the same for a trip my wife and I are making in January but starting from Brussels, net saving some £2K on two Club World tickets. Even with two returns on Eurostar, but not accomodation, but still a substantial saving.

    I have looked at other airlines and I looked at a trip to DXB a few months ago and the fare with LX via ZRH was £500 less, but I had to ask myself did I want the hassle of changing and arriving back to LHR in the early morning without the option of using the arrivals lounge for a refreshing shower. For a trip later in the year BA was £300 cheaper than Emirates or Eitiad to DXB or AUH and I wanted to go to one and return from another. Not so easy with two different airlines.

    The last and probably most important consideration is that Mrs T does not like flying and she does not like “foreign” airlines, so our trip to Australia and New Zealand would have been a no no if I was looking to use loyal schemes to fund such a trip. I did manage to get her on QF and NZ.

    So I hope that does go someway to answering your question. I do fly other airlines occasionally as I find it a good benchmark against BA,

    All the best

    Nigel


    MartynSinclair
    Participant

    Thanks Nigel – I appreciate your comments. Yes I too can be a rewards junkie and look at the airmiles aas a “gimmee” but my travelling cant be dependant on whether employees decide to strike or not and the number of reserves the employee has ready and waiting. That is not the answer. As Geo said in another blog in his articluate way, training pilots to act as cabin crew is not the answer.

    In my perfect world, i just wish the 2 sides can sort their differences out then we can all get on with what we do best.

    I hate to cancel BA tickets – but tomorrow its GVA and Zurich on Swiss and then the BKK trip will be moved to Thai – i just find it so sad when British business supports foreign airlines.

    I dont agree with a two tiered pricing system for the airlines, dependent on residency, can you imagine the outcry if and I stress IF the airlineshad a price system for RACE and COLOUR! Wow, that would last all of a few minutes. Well i feel the residency issue is similar.


    continentalclub
    Participant

    Martyn: it’s true that if your business takes you to mainland Europe and to the East then there are almost always competitor carriers from which to choose.

    However, a quick (and unaudited) look suggests that if your business regularly takes you from Heathrow to the following destinations and you value direct service then, quite apart from flight times, onward (or inbound) connections or loyalty to an FFP, British Airways service is likely to be of particular value to you:

    Seattle
    Mexico City
    Sao Paulo
    Buenos Aires
    Baltimore
    Las Vegas
    Phoenix
    Providenciales
    Nassau
    Grand Cayman
    Abuja
    Lusaka
    Luanda
    Dar es Salaam
    Malaga
    Gibraltar
    Barcelona
    Toulouse
    Nice
    Lyon
    Budapest
    Newcastle
    Jersey

    Add that to the other c127 destinations served from London and, just like the home carriers of other countries, they are simply supplying a demand and reflecting the market’s appetite for a direct service at a commercially-sustainable price.

    In just the same way, you’ll see the likes of easyJet, Ryanair, easyJet, flybe, and most especially Eastern Airways doing just that on the routes that they’ve identified as being worthy of direct service – though these carriers don’t usually offer the incremental interline, alliance and FFP benefits of network carriers.

    Edited to add: to be clear – differential pricing reflects market realities and competitive pressure. It is a global phenomenon. Any suggestion that it is, in the case of the aviation industry, in any way discriminatory on subjective grounds is totally, utterly, completely and fundamentally misplaced. It is not about residency; it is about your point of departure and the choices that you, the passenger, and whoever funds your travel, jointly have available to you.


    MartynSinclair
    Participant

    In 2008, I recieved an email from my travel agent in Germany advising me that BA had kindly “asked” the agent to stop selling me cross border tickets ex Dusseldorf as i was not a “RESIDENT” of Germany!

    Point to point LHR-BKK = Thai or BA twice daily. Why on earth do BA charge double against Thai. Is it simply a case of they do becasue they can get away with it. There is a big differrence between “overcharging” and “differential pricing”.


    NTarrant
    Participant

    ContinentalClub – BA does not fly to Jersey from LHR and has not for many a year. Jersey is served from LGW, where there is competition from Flybe, but Flybe is more expensive and no free drink. I travel at least monthly LGW-JER in Club Europe. But have compared like for like. In fact I am not far from Southampton but it is still cheaper to take the train to LGW and fly BA Economy than to travel BE from SOU. Dow side is extra time travelling but on a day trip only hour and a half.

    Eastern Airways is very good, I have used their SOU-LBA service a number of times, it is nice to get a drink and a bag of crisps.


    continentalclub
    Participant

    Quite right NTarrant; it was a very quick search and I had a feeling that I’d overlook one or two…

    And, since you mention them, I’m rather a fan of Eastern as well. They can be a little fleet-of-foot and will drop a route as quickly as they pick it up, but they’re extremely adept at idenitfying ‘thin’ routes where pound-rich/time-poor passengers are poorly-served by road and rail alternatives.

    They also display a refreshing embrace of ‘frills’!

Viewing 7 posts - 31 through 37 (of 37 total)
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