Should British Airways break up and re-brand?

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Viewing 14 posts - 61 through 74 (of 74 total)

  • MrMichael
    Participant

    Of course FDOS, there is indeed option 4 of going out of business, I did not put it in as I do not think it a realistic option…..albeit would make many people very happy!

    Having looked back over this whole thread…..I am rather taken with its title of “re-branding”. Looking through it most people are not actually talking about re-branding but rather repositioning ones place in the market. That I think is the crux of the disappointment felt by many over BA. I think people want and expect Britain’s flag carrier to be five star airline. It is not a five star airline for the simple reason, it would not be profitable to be one. BA is a solid 4 star airline. BA is comfortable in that coat, its huge number of corporate and private customers are comfortable with that coat, its shareholders are happy with that coat. All the BA piffle of “race to the bottom”, “The Worlds Least favourite Airline”, “Anything But BA” and now the new “Slash trash & plunder” are frankly barking up the wrong tree. BA is what it is…..not perfect by any means…..not the very best either…….., it is in fact the M&S of the skies. Get over it.


    FDOS_UK
    Participant

    MrMichael

    If the IAG did not think BA had a future, they could either try to sell it as a going concern or shut it down and sell the assets.

    Of course, if an airline gets things very wrong, it may not be a voluntary process

    Pan Am
    TWA
    Braniff
    BCAL
    Dan Air
    etc…….


    FDOS_UK
    Participant

    duplicate post


    FDOS_UK
    Participant

    PS, compared to a lot of airlines I use, IMHO BA is a 3 star. Emirates is a 4 star and I’m in the J class cabin tomorrow, looking forwad to a level of service BA can only dream about. Etihad is a 5 star. Qatar is a 5 star on the 787 and 4 star on the other types.

    There is nothing wrongwith being a 3 star, but the middle of a market is traditionally where you have to be very tight on cost and whilst BA tries to be (to the detriment of its products), IMHO, it doesn’t have an underpinning cost base that will ever sit easily in this part of the market.


    AlanOrton1
    Participant

    Service wise I’d prefer to be in a BA J cabin than EK, especially EK’s A380.
    I’ve found their service slow and the cabin crew often stressed at serving such a large cabin from one galley.
    I prefer the EK seat and their AVOD, particularly the single window seat with the console on the aisle side on their A380, but for service, food, I find BA better. (Can’t remember the last time EK served a steak in J).

    All IMHO though.


    FDOS_UK
    Participant

    [quote quote=773437]Service wise I’d prefer to be in a BA J cabin than EK, especially EK’s A380.
    I’ve found their service slow and the cabin crew often stressed at serving such a large cabin from one galley.
    I prefer the EK seat and their AVOD, particularly the single window seat with the console on the aisle side on their A380, but for service, food, I find BA better. (Can’t remember the last time EK served a steak in J).

    All IMHO though.

    [/quote]

    I find the EK service consistently efficient and unstressed, on the 777 and the A380, over a period of >10 years and many flights.

    BA food better than EK? You may prefer it, but no way is it better in quality or even amount (and you can have pud AND cheese). In the middle east, people tend to eat more lamb and chicken than beef and this is reflected in the menus – it is these two and a local prawn dish, tomorrow, per this menu

    http://cdn.ek.aero/downloads/ek/pdfs/food-menu/2016/11/EK0077-DXBNCE-J-27D.pdf?h=88d3fe37134f6a80


    MrMichael
    Participant

    Quite right FDOS. And I have no doubt the brilliant senior management team at IAG are aware of the pitfalls others have fallen foul of in the past. I just cannot help thinking that while yields and margins are on the whole pretty good, little point in changing things too much.

    BA seems to have taken onboard customer feedback and is going to improve catering on long haul J, or maybe for another reason. I also understand that not only will they be buying better ingredients (from M&S suppliers perhaps 😉 ) but re-introducing a desert and cheese. No doubt the accountants at BA have recognised that such an investment will bring in £XXX in extra revenue. It seems to me that BA are making further significant distinctions between the back of the plane and the premium cabins. That’s bad news for those down the back……good news for those at the front, and should be good news for those with an interest in BA/IAG profitability. The other reason they are doing this perhaps is to make the back of the plane so unattractive that people will be more inclined to spend money on Premium Econ or J.


    canucklad
    Participant

    My advice to IAG and it’s long term BA branding problem…

    Very simple……
    Long Haul : Paint their blue with a gold Speedbird logo on the tail.
    Domestic & European : A stylised union flag.

    After all, and for those of us who are of an age to remember the nostalgic past….
    We didn’t get all that excited about BEA, on the other hand, when you boarded a BOAC aircraft, you expected quality !!


    FDOS_UK
    Participant

    Are you refering to the the

    brilliant senior management team at IAG

    Who thought it was funny to talk about ‘show me the F*cking Money’ in the preamble to their campital markets day?

    Doesn’t this remind you of the sort of pre 2008 hubris at some banks?


    JohnHarper
    Participant

    I spoke earlier with someone who was at the capital markets event last week. His feeling was that he left unimpressed by what he saw and he thought Willie in particular had lost the plot. He described the BA brand as confused and not competitive but what no one could understand was the appointment of Cruz who was a disaster at Vueling and no better in his previous post. At the end of it BA was definitely not on the ‘buy’ list and not likely to get there any time soon.


    Panda01
    Participant

    I think Cruz was appointed as he comes from Vueling, a low cost carrier. He is probably at BA to make it more like a LCC (cost wise) as much as possible. But he was asked, he said he had no plans “Ryanair-ise” BA.


    Greystoke
    Participant

    I met Mr Cruz – at the time still at the helm at Vueling – a couple of years ago, alongside the heads of several other European and US airlines and a handful of travellers and buyers. All were friendly and good-humoured with the notable exception of Mr Cruz, who I found to be arrogant, aloof and generally unpleasant.

    “If you’re not a CEO, I don’t want to know.”

    I exaggerate of course, but in a room including high-spending clients he could have swallowed his pride and engaged with the plebs. He may have simply been having a off day but I remember chuckling when I heard he was moving to BA as it was obvious how things would develop.

    I wouldn’t expect much investment in BA’s top-end products in the near future. As long as the balance sheet improves, low-cost is the future whilst relying on the legacy brand. BA staff I know are only too pessimistically aware of this.


    alainboy56
    Participant

    @luganopirate — Couldn’t agree with you more – well written and to the point.
    The crews, the service and the friendliness – this is what you remember.
    I am an avid QR enthusiast and have never had a ‘bad’ flight with them (well perhaps 1 flight into Sana’a 15 years ago, which went u/s ‘twice’ but that’s another story)
    So to summarise the way BA is going is the WRONG way, reduced cabin service, sorry, zero cabin service unless you pay, cramped seating etc etc etc
    As other people have said in these forums ‘Its a race to the bottom’ and I for one am very very embarrassed at this mis-management. I might also add that I am a BA shareholder but I want to be proud of BA. My late father was a pilot on BOAC and I have always been proud of the BOAC/BA standards around the world. So soon, and I am very sad about this, it will be time to say ‘bye bye BA’ As it will become similar to the UK aviation manufacturing industry, just a past memory of ‘brilliance and innovation’ in history.


    CathayLoyalist2
    Participant

    BA’s problem ,deliberately or otherwise, is it is slipping down the star rating totem pole. When it was a pioneer , product leader, other airlines looked at what BA was doing and staff were proud to work for BA as indeed two members of my family did. Today that is not the case. As I have said on an earlier post if you short change employees and customers albeit the shareholders are deliriously happy that in my book is a 3 star brand. The LC’s have sucked and continue to suck BA into their back yard. As a comparison Asian countries by and large have always been very good at central planning whereas Europe i.e. the EU isn’t. In this regard they are awful. Mt Michael is right on the question of is it a positioning or brand issues. It might be positioning but ultimately the brand has to reflect all the things people believe the brand to be and what it projects. At the moment BA is hopelessly confused IMHO

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