[cybertravller]

I found AF a great airline with excellent wines and an attentive crew. I would be willing to try ITA if the routing and pricing were right.

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FDOS

[BackOfThePlane]

I see that Non-Stop Dan (You Tube blogger) wasn’t entirely impressed with ITA long haul business class – great hard product, poor soft product in his opinion. His 2 pasta dishes didn’t look great which, for an Italian airline is both surprising and slightly amusing.

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CheerUp, FDOS

[Rferguson2]

So reading through the comments the gist of what is the biggest let down of BA is – IT, disruption and how it is dealt with (which can also tie in with IT) and the inconsistency of service on board from one extreme to the other.

IT I agree with 100%. I think BA have literally hundreds of legacy systems and software that they have tried to link up which often just does not work.

Disruption – from my own observations there is a few aspects to this. Firstly – relates to IT. The inability for the app or ba.com to have more robust self service systems during disruption. People should not have to be calling agents and spending hours on the phone, it really should be as simple as having a number of options available online.

In terms of disruption outside BA hubs where I feel BA have gone wrong is that they seem to have none of their own staff anywhere anymore, it is all contracted agents that ‘couldn’t give a damn’.

When disruption happens AT a BA hub (let’s say LHR T5 for example) from my personal experience what I have found is while there are throngs of staff in terms of numbers, there are few staff trained to a level where they can actually DO something (a lack of ticketing staff for example) or few that can make decisions and take accountability. I really feel sorry for some of the BA ground staff as they have obviously only been trained to a level to do basic check in.

Inconsistency of Onboard service
To be honest I think this is something I have seen on many airlines but BA does tend to be pretty good at being inconsistent! In the premium cabins service should be just that – premium – and I believe BA are trying to work with their crews on this one. I know they have been running a ‘First Class specialist’ recruitment campaign and associated training course to replace the ‘free for whoever wants to work in that cabin or whoever gets left with it’ approach it has had until now. I think a lot of people believe that crew aspire to work in First. It is definitely not the case. Some LOVE it. Others HATE it. And it shows.

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sparkyflier, pdwtrip, AndrewinHK, AlanOrton1, DerekVH, Jacob, FDOS, cwoodward

[ViajeroUK]

I would suggest that anyone who describes CDG as a ‘hellhole’ has not travelled very much at all. T2 is perfectly fine for me only criticism I could have is the security check between T2 K and L gates (non Schengen) and T2 E Schengen gates. The only good thing I can think of at FCO is the gelateria inside the terminal!

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anyonebutBAirways, FDOS, AndrewinHK, cwoodward, ASK1945

[ASK1945]

Rf2 – thanks for your insightful comments.

We have stayed three times in the last two years in the same hotels as the flight crew for our journey home, and so have spoken with them whilst we all waited for our (separate) transports to the airport. It certainly helped on-board in the J cabin, as we were instantly recognised and had exemplary service 😉

[FDOS]

RFerguson – excellent and insightful post (as usual).

The inconsistency on BA also scopes in what should be loaded and what is actually loaded – of course, that is not the crew’s fault. I wouldn’t say that there was something wrong every flight, but it did seem to happen fairly frequently.

As I said upthread, there will also be variations between crews/crew members, it’s a matter of how large, e.g. do they follow service standards or freelance?

However, arguably the most inconsistent perfromance is boarding at homebase – I reckon I’ve seen every possible permutation of avoiding the standard!

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cwoodward, AndrewinHK, DerekVH

[AndrewinHK]

I’ll add I like Air France, I actually like CDG, apart from the landslide areas which can be very skid row at times. The food on Air France, the vibe, I’ve always enjoyed. If I fly to Paris it’s generally from HK and CX have in the past always won for me on that route mainly due to loyalty but also because they fly the 777 with First and I often managed to upgrade at check in. I am flying later this year to Paris during the Olympics and FDOS has jesting aside steered me into trying AF who were a smidge cheaper (and as it’s a personal trip price factors in for me) AF now fly the 350 to HK which means the new seat, and I very much look forward to trying.

1 user thanked author for this post.

FDOS

[Rferguson2]

@backoftheplane does NonstopDan still order Vegan meals and then moan how terrible an airlines catering is?

ITA has among the best business class catering I have experienced from the main menu.

I was actually really impressed with the whole ITA offering (GRU-FCO-GRU). The A350 seat is similar to BA. Food was amazing – not a huge amount of options but what they do serve is impressive. The second meal is weak however. Good espresso coffee. Nice crews. Decent lounges. First flight was on time. Second flight delayed just over three hours due to tech issue. EU261 resolved with minimum amount of fuss in a short period of time.

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cybertravller, Ekond222, AndrewinHK

[BackOfThePlane]

Yup!

1 user thanked author for this post.

Rferguson2

[pdwtrip]

Have to say that today I experienced BA IT at it’s best. Booking a trip with from LHR to SXM via MIA. Could not book online or app. So rang You First who answered quickly and were really helpful. They put the trip together and gave me a fare 3x higher than I can book on the AA website (BA metal to/from MIA). They said that they were sorry but they could only give me a ticket in the highest fully flexible fare class. Thanked them. Booked the BA flights on the AA website.
Checking my seats on the BA website ‘manage my booking’ showed a 787-9. Opened the seat map to reserve a seat and the seat map for an A380 appeared!
Oh well.

[anyonebutBAirways]

@persian and it great you stay away from VS, us vs traveller’s do not like people with backward mindsets and bigotry, sorry your offended by a company allowing employees ( and travellers) to be who they want to be with no Edwardian judgement! I salute companies that promote equality in the modern world. I do not support backward countries that throw people of the top of building for who they love, I do not have to say more!

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AndrewinHK, sparkyflier, cwoodward

[Rferguson2]

@anyonebutBA it is actually an interesting topic you raise.

There are many countries that have government owned airlines that are lauded by travellers from the west that still have extremely backwards laws relating to imprisoning (or worse) people for sleeping with those of the same sex.

I often find this an interesting paradox often highlighted with the (openly gay) writer of the OneMileAtATime blog who lavishes praise on the likes of Qatar Airways however will then publish a news story of one of their gay employees being thrown into prison with no access to a lawyer or their HIV medication.

Funny enough I was on a Qantas flight a few months ago and got chatting to one of the LHR based crew on board. She like many of the LHR based Qantas crew is ex Virgin. We were having a chat about the state of play at Virgin with the crew being able to be their authentic selves (which I also applaud) however her take was that it had gone too far. In her words ‘I got sick and tired of being taken off my LA or JFK trip to be put on a Lagos or Islamabad because one of the lads rostered on those trips wanted to wear his make up and heels to work, so they swapped us around’.

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AndrewinHK, Nick Pike, sparkyflier, cwoodward, ASK1945, Greg, esselle, BackOfThePlane

[Greg]

Great story but I’m not sure Virgin fly to Islamabad

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pdwtrip

[Rferguson2]

I think she was referring to past tense when she was at Virgin (they flew to both Lahore and Islamabad).

I guess the point is, as much as from a western mentality we can embrace the ‘be yourself’ concept, most airlines operate in a global arena where this does not always prevail and in some cases is at risk of breaking local laws.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Greg

[sparkyflier]

They did until last year. I think stopped when the Winter timetable came in. 3 x weekly 789.

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Greg

[Author]

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