[canucklad]

Wowzimmer,I’m going to make a prediction…….

To start with Gold and Silvers will be recognized and rewarded with their free M&S sandwich and drink.
Card holders will then become the predominant munchers and drinkers on board. Remember BA probably have the highest ratio of status passengers than most European airlines.

Resentment will grow, from the majority of non card holders on board,forced to pay sky high prices for their in-flight fare.

Finally, and only after taking advice from customer focus groups, the entitlement will be withdrawn.

And ultimately,Cruz and co will have replicated almost exactly the same mistakes as LH management made with a once great airline.

[wowzimmer]

The reason I describe this decision as courageous is because it is a u-turn on BA’s market strategy to succeed on short-haul within the prevailing market conditions of the European aviation sector.

Ryanair became the largest airline in Europe in 2013 with a model that exploited passengers for additional revenue at every opportunity. However, BA remained steadfast in offering a complimentary snack and drink on all flights. This never impacted Ryanair’s appeal or growth as it continued to bite into BA’s market share.

The truth, however, is that digital is king. And no more so than with meta search engines. Consumers are interested in the headline price and more and more of us rely on sites such as Kayak and Skyscanner to find the right flight, at the right price. An increase of a few £’s in the price could mean dropping from page 1 of results to page 2. The sale will nearly always go to the airline that appears on page 1 (Just like search results on Google). The only way to appeal to passengers is to reduce your headline fare. The best way to do this, of course, is to reduce costs. Hence, we first saw HBO fares and now BOB.

Consumers are utilising meta search sites to find and book their flights and price is a major factor. Control has been taken away from the airlines and it is hard for those full-service carriers to say, “Wait! We might be a little bit more expensive but we’ll give you a snack that you may or may not want, in a flavour that you may or may not like, at a time that may or may not be appealing to you”.

Is the introduction of BOB not innovative? I would argue that it actually is. BA has recognised that in today’s consumer culture passengers want full control. So, they’ll purchase the best value flight that suits their needs and then add the extras on that they want. BA, however, have managed to team up with a respected household name to supply their BOB offering – It’s a first and arguably innovative.

Okay, so it isn’t innovative in terms of ‘bells and whistles’ innovation as seen by the ME3+ airlines. But let’s be honest, unless an airline is receiving substantial state subsidies (or as Sir Tim Clarke would no doubt call it “capital investment”) giving passengers these extras isn’t a realistic option.

Unfortunately, I doubt we’ll see any of ME3+ queueing up for Fifth Freedom rights to fly intra-European flights anytime soon.

It’s not just Europe of course. Cathay Pacific/Dragon Air, Mayalasia Airlines and Singapore Airways are all taking a bashing from the likes of Air Asia in their home markets.

Whether we like it or not these market disruptors have, in the guise of LCC’s, changed the aviation sector. The horse has already bolted and full-service carriers must adapt in order to survive.

The only area I would say where the reverse could be true is in the domestic North American market where we see relatively small airlines like Jet Blue and Virgin America providing extras to consumers and really forcing the hands of the legacy carriers to improve. Whether this is comparable (in terms of segment lengths and passenger numbers) is open to debate.

[FDOS_UK]

Wowzimmer

What BA is doing is not innovative (not in the accepted sense, anyway).

Innovate comes from a Latin root and means “Make changes in something established, especially by introducing new methods, ideas, or products.”

There are three generally recognised types of innovation:

Incremental – step by step, over a period of time – BA did this with flats beds and creating a premium economy class – it was good strategy

Radical – significant impact on the macro economy, e.g the commercialisation of the internet

Disruptive – usually based on creating a new business model, often involves creating/discovering/awakening a new market segment – you mention this in your post

Cutting cost, per se, is not innovation. It is, err, just cutting cost.

As for your analysis, if BA (and the other full service airlines with a mix of short/medium/long haul routes) competed only on short haul, you would have an argument, but this is not the case, is it? Short haul is the junior partner is such business and exists mainly to feed the more profitable long haul markets.

Full service airlines cannot beat the large locos, on commodity products and they are foolish to even try, they don’t have the economies of scale, efficiency or the (crucial) front line culture to succeed (how come BA cannot manage hand luggage or priority boarding like the locos?)

[JohnHarper]

It still never ceases to amaze me how far the BA apologists will go to accommodate, explain and accept the bizarre and totally unacceptable. BA still markets itself as a full service carrier and has done nothing to correct expectation and reality.

If BA are to introduce this change along with all the other things they are introducing to ‘increase shareholder value and management bonuses’ while fleecing the fare paying passenger they really need to be up front and start advertising themselves as what they have: a cheap and nasty outdated product designed to rip people off with every breath they take in the premium cabins and the same as a low cost at the back.

Let them match the fares of easyJet and Ryanair if they want to match their service standards and if they want to get costs down then the closure of Waterside would be a good place to start and they can move to a warehouse on the outskirts of Coventry. After all there is no need for them to be close to LHR these days and my understanding from crew I know is that the gulf between Waterside and LHR is wider than the Atlantic in any case so a move to Coventry will make no difference at all.

[FDOS_UK]

[quote quote=760189]It still never ceases to amaze me how far the BA apologists will go to accommodate, explain and accept the bizarre and totally unacceptable. BA still markets itself as a full service carrier and has done nothing to correct expectation and reality.

If BA are to introduce this change along with all the other things they are introducing to ‘increase shareholder value and management bonuses’ while fleecing the fare paying passenger they really need to be up front and start advertising themselves as what they have: a cheap and nasty outdated product designed to rip people off with every breath they take in the premium cabins and the same as a low cost at the back.

Let them match the fares of easyJet and Ryanair if they want to match their service standards and if they want to get costs down then the closure of Waterside would be a good place to start and they can move to a warehouse on the outskirts of Coventry. After all there is no need for them to be close to LHR these days and my understanding from crew I know is that the gulf between Waterside and LHR is wider than the Atlantic in any case so a move to Coventry will make no difference at all.

[/quote]

John

The only thing I don’t understand in your post, is what Coventry did to upset you?

[travelworld]

And it still never ceases to amaze me how some people feel so strongly about BA that they take every possible opportunity to criticise it on this forum. I can quite understand that people may have views on any commercial entity, but quite why BA is portrayed as the epitome of evil is beyond me. It can do no right for anyone, at anytime, in their eyes. And anyone who might not share the same view as you is branded a BA apologist. Actually, we’re not- we just disagree.

Surely the answer is that if you hate it so much, take your custom elsewhere? And, if you do, you honestly don’t need to seek to try to justify that decision every time BA is mentioned on a forum topic which is, I think what you are doing…

[JohnHarper]

[quote quote=760203]And it still never ceases to amaze me how some people feel so strongly about BA that they take every possible opportunity to criticise it on this forum. I can quite understand that people may have views on any commercial entity, but quite why BA is portrayed as the epitome of evil is beyond me. It can do no right for anyone, at anytime, in their eyes. And anyone who might not share the same view as you is branded a BA apologist. Actually, we’re not- we just disagree.

Surely the answer is that if you hate it so much, take your custom elsewhere? And, if you do, you honestly don’t need to seek to try to justify that decision every time BA is mentioned on a forum topic which is, I think what you are doing…

[/quote]

I’m British, I like things that are British to deliver high standards and to be ambassadors for the UK worldwide particularly when their market is world wide. When they deliver sub standard products world wide that is bad for the UK as it portrays the UK as substandard and when they trade as one thing and deliver another it portrays the UK as dishonest.

I took my custom elsewhere many years ago for long haul and haven’t been on short haul in almost three years but I speak week by week with people who do use BA and having lived in Windsor for many years I know a number of BA crew and other staff well and I hear a lot about what is going on and none of it is good for the brand or good for customers in fact the only thing it does seem to be good for is short term bonuses for people at the top of the heap in Waterside.

As for BA apologists, if you feel the need to defend the phrase then you probably are one.

[travelworld]

But do you think constantly complaining about them actually achieves anything, especially when you are not a customer?

[FDOS_UK]

Many people complain about the weather, does that change it?

[FDOS_UK]

John Harper

I don’t think ‘apologists’ is an accurate term, as some of these people actually think BA is a good airline (perhaps because they do not use any others).

How about ‘delusionist’ as an alternative descriptor, since the gap can be shown by objective comparison of facts and one would have to be deluded to fail to graps the different?

[travelworld]

er….FDOS… wasn’t aware the weather was a service you could purchase.

[FDOS_UK]

[quote quote=760253]er….FDOS… wasn’t aware the weather was a service you could purchase.

[/quote]

It isn’t, so by definition you cannot be a customer of it.

Think about it, you’ll get it in a while.

[MrMichael]

One can call me an apologist, delusionist or any combination of the two or others. The fact is BA is a highly profitable airline whereby millions of people get from A to B in a safe manner and with the service they bought and expected to get.

The fact some people think that BA should offer 5 star service, at 2 star prices and be perfect in everything it does is an unrealistic expectation.

I actually think the BA bashers are rather fond of BA, like a long worn but perhaps leaky raincoat. Why else would FDOS always when he travels seek out a BA fare and come on here to tell us how expensive they are? As for John Harper who thinks BA are a rip off, if that is the case report it trding standards. If BA has taken someone’s money and not delivered then quite rightly they should be held to account.

Meanwhile BA’s booking engine is churning out tickets at the rate of over 100,000 a day, to rip them all off!!!

[PerthWA]

No doubt someone might have already said it but as an M&S shareholder …. I’m loving it 🙂
Pity it won’t be available next month when I have a no option day trip to Bucharest from Perth – the Australian one – via Heathrow!

[JohnHarper]

[quote quote=760259]The fact some people think that BA should offer 5 star service, at 2 star prices and be perfect in everything it does is an unrealistic expectation.
[/quote]

Not so, I just think they should correct the marketing image and present themselves as a two star carrier, one below Ryanair and stop pretending they are something they are not.

Equally they should drop the name British from their title because they are not, they are London centric mostly on a couple of square miles of ground in Hounslow. Perhaps they should go by the name of their parent company and be called International Airlines and abandon the red, white and blue so people are under no illusions that they are getting anything of British quality. Perhaps if the whole IAG fleet was painted grey with IAG on the tail there would be great cost savings from only buying one colour of paint – one they’ve obviously missed.

[Author]

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