[ConcordeFlyer]

Its been reported over the last week that BA will be closing their lounge in Toronto by the end of the month – October 2017. Not sure if this is fact / fiction since there has been no formal notification.
Cannot understand such actions when YYZ is served 2 X daily from Heathrow and furthermore a Gatwick flight is being added during 2018.
Its a great lounge with a fabulous long term serving team.
A big loss all round, particularly to those who frequent the place on a regular basis.
Does anyone know whether this is a new strategy for BA – network lounge closures ?

[Defcon5]

Cutting costs and reducing the customer experience seems to be their strategy.

[FDOS_UK]

Defcon5 wrote:

Cutting costs and reducing the customer experience seems to be their strategy.

As someone who knows a little about business strategy, cutting costs is not a strategy.

Unfortunately, it seems this news is true.

[peter19]

It is a shame not to have a dedicated lounge. The plan appears to be that part of the Plaza premium lounge will be sectioned off initially for BA passengers (Club and First) and thereafter PP will take on the space BA occupied.

[openfly]

This is BAs way forward. Expect lots of lounge closures…after all, they cost money. YYZ is just the first of many. Norwegian don’t have lounges so why should BA? How long before the Exec Club closes?

[Defcon5]

If the long term goal for BA is to continue to deliver high profits for shareholders, removing things like lounges which cost money would would be one element of an overall drive to reduce costs.

I am sure they weighed up their position on the route and the risk it would potentially bring to them by doing this but have still thought of it as the right thing to do.

[SwissExPat]

I just had an experience with BA in Miami.

The lounge there is a combined One World lounge (Iberia/BA/Finnair etc)

The downside is that there is no separate F lounge (as is the case in PHL/EWR/JFK where F PAX have their own facility)

As a J lounge it is not bad but it is definitely a service reduction for PAX in F.

If I needed to fly BA via MIA then I would buy a J ticket. I wont pay a F premium for a half baked F exerience.

Expect the same to happen in YYZ for F PAX

[MartynSinclair]

@SwissExPat – PHL, F lounge…. staff do not direct pax left or right on entry. Only part that is enforced is the F dining area.

The loss of the BA lounges at outposts is not really a problem as long as decent alternatives are available..

[AlanOrton1]

Couldn’t agree more Martin.

As an example I think the MIA lounge is one of the better offerings and suspect if BA had their own lounge there it would be somewhat smaller.
This is a large lounge that in reality serves predominantly BA, plus an Iberia flight and a v small number of AA flights as they mainly depart from a different concourse. (At least my experience when using it).

It is a good example of when a 3rd party lounge, I think, works well.

As a GCH the fact there is no separate F area is neither here nor there given there is a reasonable range of hot & cold food plus a decent range of spirits, wine and a half decent champagne.

[penultimate]

I am a Canadian expat, living in London and BA EC Gold for 10 years, I fly to Toronto 4-6x per year. I am not happy with this move. For the late evening flights BA does not offer a proper meal on board but rather offers a full meal in the lounge. For F class it also offers a separate dining room and dining option. Does this mean that this will no longer be offered? I am not at all happy to learn of this.
I remember when the first class dining room offered a full caviar service long after they stopped the service on board. I don’t recall it ever being offered in the Concorde lounge.
This will encourage me to fly AC more unless BA’s price is substantially less. It will BA’s loss.

[Author]

Posts