My recent flights on BA

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Viewing 14 posts - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)

  • K1ngston
    Participant

    I am always one of the few that will always knock BA from afar or indeed through personal experiences, but I also would like to talk about a genuinely pleasant experience that my husband and I have just had flying from Singapore to London on the the A380 service.

    Because this is our honeymoon, we decided to go PE for the return trip, so that we could have a little more comfort than Y.

    The whole checking in experience was handled quickly and efficiently as is always at Changi, I have recently lost my silver status and have gone to bronze but we were tagged priority and albeit are not allowed now in the lounge everything else was perfect.

    We were able to do some much needed shopping at Changi and made our way to to the gate where check in was easy and we were quickly boarded as priority something else I wasn’t sure about with Bronze

    The PE seats on the 380 are comfortable and we were on the side so there was just he and I, we got the noise cancelling headphones.

    I always book special meals and they were quick to bring mine, and soon after my husband who ordered the beef said the food was very good and filling.

    Obviously for a 13 hour 20 flight the most important thing is the ability to sleep and the quality of the IFE. Both of us slept for more than 6 hours and the IFE was very good.

    The plane was on time even with a 20 minute delay circling LHR and we saw that T5 was heaving as all the Asian flights land at that time, we had the last time we came to the UK a horrible experience going through immigration in T4 and I was hell bent in making sure we stuck together in the immigration hall.

    I approached a gentlemen explained that I had a UK passport and my husband didnt and he allowed us through and we were through in 3 minutes and 10 minutes later our luggage arrived and we were off to Avis to leave LHR.

    I have to say the whole experience was very pleasant, the crew were excellent and chatty and helpful and I wanted to be the first one to congratulate the whole experience. It certainly has helped our honeymoon in the UK and soon Ireland to get off to a great start.

    I know service can be patchy but when it goes well its good really good, well done BA.


    capetonianm
    Participant

    I think most of us try to be fair. I am a long way from being a fan of BA, for many reasons but ……….

    I flew to LHR from CPT last week in business class. The hard product on the old 747s is a disgrace, with a tatty unappealing and badly designed cabin, third rate IFE, and indifferent food. However, the service in board was willing and friendly, and I was most impressed by the kindness and professionalism of the BA employees at LHR T5 who helped me when my onward flight was disrupted due to WX. I have written to BA customer services with my comments, both positive and negative.

    What we have is an airline group run by incompetent and out-of-touch pennypinchers who put the interests of the shareholders above that of customers who would prefer better quality. Even as a shareholder, whilst I understand the philosophy, I think it’s gone too far and as a customer I expect better, even if it means I see my dividend return and share price dropping. In that, I may be out of step with other shareholders.


    canucklad
    Participant

    Great post K1ngston
    I firmly believe that BA would be a consistently great airline if the customer facing people at BA were allowed to let their personality flourish. An airline is only as good as the people who face up the organization. And when given the correct tools and more importantly , they’re empowered to use them with a degree of common sense rather than dogma, that businesses reputation will positively grow.

    When yourself and capetoniam share your stories , I’d like to think it’ll encourage future positive experience’s.


    capetonianm
    Participant

    if the customer facing people at BA were allowed to let their personality flourish. An airline is only as good as the people who face up the organization. And when given the correct tools and more importantly , they’re empowered to use them with a degree of common sense rather than dogma, that businesses reputation will positively grow.

    That’s exactly what it should be about, and in the happy days when I worked in the airline industry, that’s how I trained my staff. I encouraged them to come to me with problems and I would ask them :
    “How would you like this solved if you were the passenger?”
    More often than not, they got a reasonable solution which left everyone happy. Once or twice I had to account to higher management for decisions I’d encouraged my staff to take, but generally there was no comeback.


    openfly
    Participant

    @capetonianm I see that you are singing the praises of the BA staff in T5 on your way to CPT. Fantastic….but the staff in T3 will be well pi..ed off! ?


    capetonianm
    Participant

    I flew from CPT to LHR T3 and transferred to T5 which is where the action took place. I had no dealings with BA staff at T3. In general, BA customer facing staff are pretty good. It’s their senior management that’s a pile of what a dog leaves on the pavement.


    Inthesandpit
    Participant

    Three years ago i changed from using QR between DXB and LHR to BA, due mainly to the fact I work here and self finance my trips home to the UK (normally 6 to 8 per year). Being ex airline in the 1980s at LGW and still in the aviation industry i have been spoilt over the years so Y is not an option as long as i can justify it lol. QR like EK are horrendously expensive originating in the Gulf and coupled with consistent missed baggage connections, and detiorating / clinical service both on the ground and in the air, i was quite surprised by BA when i changed from QR. EK are not on my radar after a spectacularly awefull experience in 2008, which the war office and i vowed never to use again and we have not. Luckily i manage to get the upper deck mostly on the 744 along with the odd invol F upgrade, to me get a good worldwide crew up top and the flight is pleasant and passes the time, the crew are relaxed and chat, that doesn’t happen on QR as there is a reporting culture that forbids or scares crew from really engaging in a relaxed way with the customer. I agree more needs to be done, and i think things are getting better, if only the bean counters would let the staff do what they do best, listen to the customer and have a culture that aspires to the likes of SQ / QF instead of RYR and EZY. Pity we cant bring back Lord King, who whilst a bit gruff really instilled an esprit de corps in the airline.


    MarkivJ
    Participant

    I’ve had hit or miss experiences in terms of the aircraft, but the one consistent thing for me w.r.t BA (I mostly fly them between LHR and SEA, BLR, TLV) is the amazingly friendly cabin crew. They’re a very nice mix of chatty, engaging, professional and several of them seem genuinely interested/concerned about the passenger.


    FDOS_UK
    Participant

    I find everything on BA is inconsistent.

    The customer experience varies from excrutiating to excellent, with many shades in between and is pretty much unpredictable.

    I honestly do not know what the brand mantra or values are, as there are so many mixed messages.

    Last week I was looked after by a genuinely lovely lady from mixed fleet – next flight could be someone from the Stasi charm school 😉


    CathayLoyalist2
    Participant

    FDOS_UK, you have met my mother-in-law then?


    FDOS_UK
    Participant

    FDOS_UK, you have met my mother-in-law then?

    It seems so 🙂 Probably the woman who leaned across my aisle WTP seat to shut the blinds (which the window seat pax wanted open) and woke me up with a start, then implied it was my fault for scaring her when I sat up very quickly.

    I tried to explain it was not a good idea for someone about 5’5″ to lean across a pair of seats that are about 40″ wide, as it is inevitable she would touch the aisle seat pax’s body and wake them up, but she was having none of it.

    One of these days, she will do it to a soldier with PSTD and get hurt.

    As they say in Yorkshire, I’ve seen more brains in a port pie.


    STORMIN'
    Participant

    I had reached 50k + Tier Points by the time GFL was introduced by BA and by which time I had ceased to fly BA, BACF excepted, as I had become tired of the scruffy filthy interiors of BA’s aircraft, particularly on the 744s and 772s along with the so-so service. Apart from the ME3, quite simply there are better options out there in the form of LH, LX – even AF and IB. However, for various reasons, I’ve recently had cause to fly four long haul and three short haul sectors, all Business, with BA and, for what they’re worth, these are my observations:

    •. Short haul were all excellent in terms of aircraft cleanliness, cabin crew and catering

    •. Long haul was a mixed bag. The one 744 flown was a non-refurb job and it certainly showed. The others were 2 of the GE powered 772s and one a 773. The 772s had all had the refurb job with all the 777s flown being clean

    •. The long haul catering experience is, however, another story. The menu appears generally unchanged over the past 20 years whilst the quality has deteriorated. To not put too fine a point, the food was generally disgusting and in some cases inedible. A steak that I had ordered was tasteless and had the texture of a leather shoe sole. On both the first two long hauls, the main course menu choice had run out by the time the service reached me – that was after just two rows. The second two long hauls, I took my own food on board and in seeing what was being dished out, I’m glad I did so. I acknowledge that a new CW dining product is on its way – let’s see. On one flight, they ran out of champagne on the pre-takeoff drinks round

    •. The Raid the Larder options have diminished somewhat from what I recall previously – basically crisps, chocolates and fruit. I was told that the microwave that was available previously where food such as soup could be heated, has long since gone

    •. I experienced both legacy and mixed fleet crews and with the exception of a middle-aged legacy crew member who made it clear to one and all that she would have preferred to have been anywhere but on the plane, they were all generally good with the mixed fleet crews being particularly so.

    •. For those of you that deem it important, I can tell you that not once was I welcomed aboard as a GCH, referred to by name or had the CSD / CSM come up to introduce themselves. By way of comparison, this week alone, I have flown 3 x Swiss and 1 x Aegean (I’m LH Senator / Star Alliance Gold) and on every sector, all of the aforementioned took place. Also, this week, I have flown RJ twice and as a One World Emerald, again I have been duly recognised

    •. The one thing that will continue to deter me flying BA CW, apart from the above, is the 8 across seating which is the same as PE / WT+. In this day and age where most airlines are going for between 4 and 6 across on long haul Business, BA’s configuration which I understand will remain at 8 across when revamped for the A350 is, frankly, unacceptable.

    •. Somewhat incredibly, I find myself flying BA again in 10 days time to DXB in PE, only because of some excellent fares during the recent BA sale. I note that FDOS speaks highly of this product on the DXB run but it seems that the 744 operating my outbound flight is non-refurb judging by the seat plan – I had thought that all 744s and 772s operating this route were refurbs. Hey ho

    I’m not sure where BA think it’s positioned as an intended Premium Legacy Carrier, in the current scheme of things. Personally, I don’t class BA as such, certainly in the league of the other European majors. Yet despite its various debacles this year – industrial action, IT issues et al, it continues to post massive profits which just demonstrates its apparent ongoing loyalty (presume these are Corporates) but also the massive amount of cost that has been taken out which we have all witnessed. Meanwhile, I shall continue to exercise my option of choice and fly BA only when that choice is not realistically there


    FDOS_UK
    Participant

    Stormin

    I really like the WTP seat that was introduced from 2010 – the original 2001 seat is okay, but not in the same league, IMHO, though the seat pitch and width are the same. The 787 version of WTP is the best of the lot.

    Hope your flights go well, DXB is a shortish hop and WTP is quite adequate, IMO.


    K1ngston
    Participant

    Just wanted to add to my original posting, we have both just arrived back into SG with BA (return leg) the service was just as good coming back as it was going to the UK, the whole trip (honeymoon) was brilliant and we have absolutely no complaints with BA or the journey through T5 both incoming and outgoing where we were looked after an amazing person who tried to upgrade us for the journey but found that she could but we would be on separate floors of the plane and we both decided that we would remain together in WTP..

    Within our trip we experienced BoB for our short hop to Dublin, the selection was good and I guess if all you would get on board beforehand is a coffee then the yoghurt with muesli that I had for a reasonable price was good enough for me.

    Overall then I am impressed with BA this time, my husband had nothing but good things to say so with that in mind we are happy campers and thought I would pass this on.

    Next trip back is with QR in J so won’t be a great comparison or maybe it will I will update then

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