[ASK1945]

Tom

Like (I guess) thousands of other BA Executive Club members, I received the following email this morning:

“With summer round the corner, the golden sands and warm waters of Europe are waiting for you to go and explore.

Whether it’s laughing over a delicious meal cooked with fresh, local ingredients or snorkeling together surrounded by shoals of fish in azure blue seas. We all enjoy having some time out to spend with those closest to us.

And with travel now even easier, whatever beach break you look forward to we can’t wait to take you there.”

It gave me a fantastic laugh to start my day! 😍

4 users thanked author for this post.

MartynSinclair, Montysaurus, Tom Otley, DerekVH

[TominScotland]

Maybe I was lucky but…..

I flew GLA-LHR-OSL return this week in Economy with BA. Had pre-booked emergency exist seats on all flights and middle seat free on 3 out of 4 legs.

Outbound:

Glasgow, no queue at check in or at fast track security, the main queue was, I would estimate, no more than 10 minutes long. But luggage issues, the system was down so all had to be handled manually but by 2 cases made it to the plane – great to be able to track where they are.

Heathrow, bussed to terminal and then quick transfer to T3. No queues at T3 tr4ansfer security. Bussed to plane from T3. Long taxi so a bit late departing.

Oslo very quiet on arrival. Longish queue at passport control for UK passport holders but the advantage of having both a UK and EU passport kicked in here – straight though the e-gates (which UK passports cannot use). Baggage took 10 minutes, no more.

Return:

Oslo, no queue for check-in, one person ahead of me at security. Passport control, as arrival. Plane departed and arrived into T3 early.

Heathrow – transfer to T5 very quick, one person ahead of me at passport control (to UK flights), about 5 ahead of me at security where they were trailing a new system – no need to remove laptops or liquids. Flight departed from B Gates (a first for me for Glasgow) and was a little late leaving as this seems to have confused a few folk.

Glasgow – luggage on belt before we got downstairs. New police security desk at the end of the domestic arrivals pier. 2 officers left when they saw me coming!!

So, as pain-free travel as you could ask for. Great to see lounges returning to normal – Glasgow is still attendant service for breakfast, BA T£ was very busy and I was in a hurry so had to go to the servery to collect my order after ordering online. Oslo (third party) was dull in its selection. T5 First was back to self-service.

Kuala Lumpur next week via IST in Business so will see how that goes. TK were the only airline to offer a half decent connection that was under our arbitrary price ceiling, less than half with QR or BA!!

[SimonS1]

In other news BA is in such a mess that it has apparently given up loading bags on short haul flights.

British Airways Has Given Up Loading Luggage On Flights And Planes Aren’t Being Cleaned

[Tom Otley]

The cancellations are continuing (Telegraph piece – paywall)

Summer holidays under threat as British Airways cancels popular routes

Airline says fewer flights are ‘inevitable’ due to ongoing staff shortages, with some of the most popular holiday routes cut by half

“The flagship carrier has cancelled flights to Miami, Hong Kong and Tokyo throughout the summer and plans to reinstate them in September, raising fears that services to other popular holiday destinations could be cut amid ongoing staff shortages.

It came as BA was forced to cancel 112 flights to European and Mediterranean destinations on Wednesday, disrupting or wrecking the travel plans of 10,000 passengers, on top of 96 flights that were axed on Tuesday.”

[openfly]

It must be time for the government to take action to either close BA down temporarily, or restrict their operation. They are disappointing so many passengers and costing so much in incidental expenses. They are also taking months to pay EU261 claims.
Sorry BA, it’s time to shut down and regroup. You are an embarrassment to the U.K…..worldwide.

2 users thanked author for this post.

ASK1945, MartynSinclair

[MartynSinclair]

The sheer number of cancellations is incredible and as someone earlier said you need to double the daily numbers as there will generally be a return service that needs to be cancelled as well.

I am back to a near normal travel schedule (Asia and Malta) and looking at my past flight history, ca. 75% of my bookings each year were with BA. Currently 90% are now with other airlines – It appears to be a lottery whether a BA flight will now depart. I can not schedule meetings on this basis.

Whether the current board inherited these issues or not, is pretty irrelevant to the fact there has been virtually no PR from the senior BA management team except these stupid emails being sent about BA helping passengers to enjoy summer in Europe.

I cant see Sean Doyle lasting into the summer…

[AMcWhirter]

I do not have a DT subscription so was unable to read the piece in question.

But is it true to report that BA “plans to restore them in September” ?

Yes I realise things can change in these uncertain times but when I tried to book LHR-HKG just now there were no flights displayed until at least early January.

I was greeted with the message “We’re sorry but we can’t find any flights matching your search.”

And in the case of NE Asia and China, BA unlike some of its rivals, shows no interest in adopting longer routings (to avoid Russian airspace).

I suppose much will depend on the Ukraine/political situation in the months ahead.

[greyhawkgeoff]

Yes for sure BA are ‘cancelling’ flights like my BA206 Miami to Heathrow T3 early in June. And proactively booking me on the replacement BA1500/AA56 that departs 15 minutes earlier and arrives at T5 at the same time of +0640. The 777-200 with club suites becomes an AA 777-200 with the earlier iteration of the same seat but minus a door.
The overall schedule seemingly moves from 2x BA 777-200 and 1x AA 777-300 to 1x BA 380, 1x AA777-200 and 1x AA777-300. Overall more capacity and dare I say it more F seats for those that have avios to burn.
In return I understand that AA have given up for the summer any intention of flying Seattle to LHR, leaving it to BA as before.
So in terms of BA giving up on Miami, not the full picture, and a sensible rationalization of the North Atlantic joint venture. My understanding from my AA contact is that during the summer, the Miami to London loadings are weighted towards Americans, and vice versa in the winter when Brits predominate. At the end of the day people tend to book in a tribal way!

[SimonS1]

According to the Daily Mail (ok, ok) the IAG board are already considering ditching Doyle.

[CathayLoyalist2]

..and the Daily Mail thinks that “the” in the headline is spelt “hte”. With spelling errors like that it doesn´t do the confidence in the story much good.

1 user thanked author for this post.

ImissConcorde

[CathayLoyalist2]

How long has Doyle been CEO?

[SimonS1]

[postquote quote=1210606]

Since Oct 2020.

[CathayLoyalist2]

BA seem to have as many problems finding a consistently successful CEO as are Man Utd at finding a successful manager. At some point whoever oversees the CEO appointment , or maybe whichever committee needs to be called out

[FrequentlyFlying]

I had the outbound sector LHR- OPO – LHR cancelled 8 weeks out, no alternate flight offered just a canx and refund.

[Tom Otley]

Another report on this – from The Times

EasyJet and British Airways hit by cancellations at Heathrow and Gatwick[/url]

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/easyjet-and-british-airways-hit-by-cancellations-at-heathrow-and-gatwick-7h2rl2fd0

1 user thanked author for this post.

Polly

[Author]

Posts