[Tim2soza]

Ditto for no bling.

I recently returned to BA and was pleasantly surprised, but price is still a massive driver for me. Small business, every penny counts; my budget, not other people’s money.

SEAT
I want a decent seat. I just want to get from A to B. BA delivers on this.

IFE
IFE is delivered from my iPhone.

SERVICE
I don’t want slavery, just unobtrusive service when appropriate. BA delivers on this. (In flight announcements should be banned, except the safety demo and turbulence announcements.)

COST
I fly Sat night away to half the cost; price matters and £5k CW LHR-USA is madness even as a rack rate.

FOOD
I expect food in WT/WTP for be edible pub grub. CW to be local Bistro and F to be very good but not top notch Celeb Chef restaurant which is hard from a plane galley. BA delivers on this, but the accountants chip away at quality and then an ‘upgrade’ brings it back to where it was.

NETWORK / RELIABILITY
I want reliability with help when things go wrong. BA delivers.

CONSISTENCY
Same seat on any long haul route. Alliance partners should also have the same seat design, and code shares are a con. AA Business is half the product of BA CW and yet so easy to book a BA flight on a AA plane from BA.com.

ON THE GROUND
Lounges nice but a bolt on but I can live without. Wifi and power more important. Fast track very useful. BA delivers.

STRIKES
If long haul ex LHR, the diet will benefit, but apart from that, no perceived risk to schedule. Short haul ex LHR slightly different issue; would probably book elsewhere.

SUMMARY
Book BA unless the price is wrong.

[JohnnyEnglish]

Never had a problem with BA, but the ‘strike’ factor has meant that I never flew with them the past 2 years. This led to me taking all my flights with star alliance, leading to gold membership. Thus I have no incentive to use BA where I am still a humble blue.

But I would not hesitate to use BA if all else were equal.

[VintageKrug]

There really is very remote likelihood of a walkout; even Duncan Holley the Branch Secretary of BASSA, the Unite Branch which is behind this action, has stated on 13th February 2011 that he doesn’t think a walkout will be necessary:

QUOTE: Duncan Holley
—————-
This is a different phase of the dispute that we are now in, it’s no longer about rushing into strike dates; it is all about sending a message.

You no longer need actual strikes to pressure the company – ballots can have the same effect, since they carry the threat of strikes. It would now appear that a simple, well-placed cross on the ballot paper removes some of the need to actually lose money and stand on picket lines.

Why? Because every time a ballot is announced – and they will be, on and on until a fair solution has been found – it has the same effect as going on strike. The continued uncertainty keeps passengers away in their droves, and leaves BA a house divided internally, without the morale needed to deliver the top-class service we all want.

We simply need to have good, strong ballot results every time, the higher the percentage the better, to keep this pressure on. So go ahead BA legal, congratulate yourselves on your “brilliant” strategy.

———–

http://uniteba.com/LATESTNEWSUPDATES.html

[jonathanmiller]

rob – just seen your original post. I’ve been flying for ever with almost every airline one can think of (and some you wish you hadn’t). I’ve always been able to choose my own routes and carrrier/s. In short, I can pick what I want subject to destination and timings. My conclusion is that, in the overall, BA beats the opposition by a decent margin. Having said that, there is only one aspect of all those aspects one could quote, where BA’s offer is a category killer, and that is the lounges – compared with the competition they are miles ahead. BA is pretty reliable, the product is always there or thereabouts, and, by and large, no more expensive than anyone else. So, for me, across the board BA is is the best … while being best at no single aspect other than the (particularly T5) lounges. Jonathan

[Cwyfan]

I travel a lot to the USA, and previously travelled AA, because of the extra leg room in cattle, and the better loyalty scheme, which allowed me to get more miles, even when travelling BA, and much easier to use for upgrades, and without limits on total flights. It is also easier to pick your seat in advance, without cost.

I now am back with BA, and finding it better overall, but still miss the ability to get an upgrade close to the flight date, rather than just at booking, and the ability to choose which flight I take by reviewing the seat availability prior to booking. Two simple changes that would so improve my customer experience

The booking website

[MariaSpence]

I always fly BA and rarely have an issue. They cost a little more, but have great service and try to help if there is an issue- unlike many other airlines.

[robsmith100]

Thank you very much for your all your responses. Sorry for a delayed response only its been a very busy and hectic week. All comments have been very informative and an interesting reading and in some ways very contrasting when you have another thread running concurrently with this one, to imply flying BA is a sin 😉 surely BA is not the worst airline in history?

You have all very much confirmed that BA is not a bad airline and I don’t see a problem in flying BA and depending on the cost, convenience and services available for my needs for the journey at hand I will book a BA flight.

Thanks again,

Rob.

[jonathanmiller]

Pleasure, Rob

[Author]

Posts