[nevereconomy]

May I suggest trying AA. No dividers to cope with, 1-2-1 seating, imaginative eats, most acceptable wines, good lounge facilities and friendly, hardworking, approachable FAs. I personally don’t have too much of a problem with the BA Club set-up, but AA is trying harder to make the experience enjoyable.

[rferguson]

[quote quote=823688]May I suggest trying AA. No dividers to cope with, 1-2-1 seating, imaginative eats, most acceptable wines, good lounge facilities and friendly, hardworking, approachable FAs. I personally don’t have too much of a problem with the BA Club set-up, but AA is trying harder to make the experience enjoyable.

[/quote]

I can remember the days when we used to laugh at the American carriers. Now we have our Gold Card holders travelling with us that tell us they almost do back flips to get themselves on an AA operated flight. AA offer what people want – fully flat, direct aisle access, good food, WIFI.

[MartynSinclair]

Are there any updates on the “direct aisle access, good food, WIFI” – it has been 4 months since the grand announcement…..

Looking forward when a thread title “BA finds its way” can be started….. :))

[rferguson]

In terms of the ‘good food’ the new Club Catering will start on JFK on 1SEP. The new bedding 14 OCT.

Two 747’s are fitted with wifi so far. None of the shorthaul aircraft are but the shorthaul fit will be rapid as it is not as labour intensive as for the longhaul aircraft.

And the seat….(roll eyes emoji). Coming on the 350 and not yet any FIRM commitment regarding a retrofit.

[stevescoots]

I really do not see how that is discriminatory. 95% of the time food is passed through the divider to me once service has started, I always have window seat. 50% of the time first course with the tray is passed round the seat. BA seat set up is awful for FA’s trying to get food to the window or middle seats. As for the attitude, well that’s BA crew for you. One side of the plane can be excellent, the other awful, such was my experience last time I flew with them. Whilst I understand the OP’s frustration at such service levels, Old BA hands such as many of us here now tend to shrug our shoulders, collectively sigh at such a national embarrassment and wherever possible not fly with them

[FrDougal]

I was always under the impression that all meals and trays are meant to be passed through the screen divider for good health and safety practice by the crew. I can only imagine how twisted their backs would become if they where reaching around the back of the seats, especially if the neighbours foot rest was extended. And unless I was being served by a 7ft giant with double jointed elbows I certainly wouldn’t be expecting a crew member to gingerly place my hot meal on my tray without some assistance from myself. It’s only good manners!

But then I rarely encounter issues when I travel because I rarely create issues!

[rferguson]

You are spot on FrDougal. It does stem for H&S requirements.

But like with all things, it’s the crews approach that determines how much passing through the divider impacts the customer. Before I lower the divider I always let the passenger know i’m about to do so. I hold onto the divider as it lowers so it doesn’t ‘crash’ at the bottom. I excuse myself as I lean across the passenger in the aisle seat. And I can honestly say with that approach i’ve never ever had an issue.

[sparkyflier]

One aspect BA seems oblivious to is that Oneworld carriers treat BA Gold members better than BA does. For example on shorter haul, on Finnair and AA give Oneworld Emerald status customers FREE snacks and alcohol (their onboard product in Y is buy on board), whereas on BA of course you have to pay for everything whatever your status. I flew AA a few months ago domestically in Y, and both crews were superb.

On DFW-ORD they even gave me a beer and wine. I would be very happy to choose them again, especially on long haul (I also flew United on the same trip and frankly their crew were maybe the worst I have come across on a long time).

I wonder if BA giving free food and drinks to Silver and/or Golds could be a way to winning back some good will to the airline.

And re Gold welcomes, a British friend of mine based in Thailand who is BA Gold chooses CX and MH whenever possible, and ALWAYS gets a warm welcome and visit from the CSD, but never when he goes BA back to UK. Indeed I think he chooses AY to go back to UK now..

[stevescoots]

Same for me Sparky, I am BA gold, earmed on other OW airlines and always get a welcome on other OW airlines + extra little things like first asked what meal etc so that i dont get the “ran out of that one” issue. latest one was MH who i have not flown in years. never get it on BA

[seasonedtraveller]

Going back to the initial post and the issues raised about a specific cabin crew member.

Still genuinely interested to hear;

Why the op felt the crew member was discriminating against him/her?

Why the op felt her behaviour was shameful?

Why the op felt that her behaviour was biased towards him/her?

[canucklad]

It does seem that most people just don’t like the divider, it personally made me feel as if I was in Slade prison, on the wrong side of the door.

I presume the person/committee or focus group who came up with the concept of the divider, where challenged with coming up with to overcome H&S concerns in a cabin configuration that other carriers would just baulk at.

Clearly the 2 people that, they did not take into account, are the passengers on either side of the cell door divider. An experience that is just plain uncomfortable.

[JonathanCohen09]

Hi Martyn – I hope you are well.

A reliable source of mine at BA who I have known for many years told me that there will be a change to the CW seat on the A350 and that it should mean direct aisle access for all but that it is not yet a final decision but he is 99.9% sure that they will not retrofit the rest of the fleet. That is not necessarily a surprise as they could have gone for a step change with CW and F when they introduced the A380’s and 787’s but they did not, what a pity.

I never thought I would see the day that I would think that US carriers would have a better hard product than BA. AA and Delta both now offer direct aisle access to all in J class and United’s new Polaris product, from the reviews that I have seen is also much better than BA.

Have tried AA and Delta product and was very happy with both. I am looking forward to trying the United product at the beginning of October.

Going off topic for a moment, I am off to Aberdeen this evening for a quick trip returning tomorrow afternoon. BA wanted £492 ex LHR, Easyjet wanted £109 ex LGW on the way there and LTN on the way back. The BA flights are within 60 minutes of the Easyjet flights to give as fair a comparison as possible.

LGW is 45 minutes from my office on the Thameslink line with no change needed and costs around £10. LHR is about 30-40 minutes depending on how quickly the tube gets me to Paddington and would cost me £21 plus the tube fare. LTN is close to my home in Watford so perfect for the return and a cab home will cost me £30 and from LHR a cab would be £38. I leave it up to you to decide which option I went for?

[FaroFlyer]

I like the divider. If seating is front / rear then I do not want to sit and look at a passenger facing the other way. I would, probably, favour the herringbone format, but agree that VS is a little claustrophobic. The divider serves a purpose.

I do agree with SparkFlyer that drinks to Gold and, possibly, Silver would be a low cost way for BA to win a few Brownie points. Of course, it would be open to some abuse if a Gold & Bronze were travelling together, with Gold having 2 and Bronze none.

[rferguson]

– jonathancohen…I actually heard from the CEO’s mouth himself at an employee forum that BA had ‘….moved away from a newly designed seat to a catalogue seat with direct aisle access from all customers’. But at the rate things change within BA who knows.

[Author]

Posts