[Tom Otley]

We reported the main points here

British Airways boss: “We have no divine right to flourish”

But you can watch the full video including the speech and then questions by Business Traveller columnist John Strickland here

[openfly]

So Snr Cruz, why are your customer facing staff so unhappy? The BA you are talking about is definitely not the BA that premium passengers experience. Our real BA world is nothing like the one that you describe.

[capetonianm]

He is, unusually for Spaniard (in fact he’s Catalan), utterly lacking in charm, charisma, or warmth. He should be sitting a back office somewhere creating spreadsheets.

Although he speaks well and is coherent, the reality differs from the vision he tries to project.

I met him in person at a trade fair whilst he was still ruining (intentional) Vueling and he certainly left his imprint on that airline and is now dragging BA down to the same depths.

[FDOS_UK]

I’m not going to invest an hour of my life watching this non-entity, but would be interested to know if he addressed the reasons for the BA brand slump, as shown by YouGov?

Here’s the picture

https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/inlineimage/2017-11-07/graph%201-01.png

and here is the article

https://yougov.co.uk/news/2017/11/07/british-airways-losing-altitude-public/

[CathayLoyalist2]

He glossed over the deficiencies as though were one offs!. He confidently described BA as a Premium Airline. He said he has listened to both customers and staff in respect of BOB. I wonder who wrote the script which was delivered in a very pedestrian manner with very little empathy. Out of Touch springs to mind

[FDOS_UK]

[quote quote=836325]He glossed over the deficiencies as though were one offs!. He confidently described BA as a Premium Airline. He said he has listened to both customers and staff in respect of BOB. I wonder who wrote the script which was delivered in a very pedestrian manner with very little empathy. Out of Touch springs to mind
[/quote]

Thanks Cathay.

[LuganoPirate]

And yet, like O’Leary, he delivers the profits and over 42 million pax flew BA last year. IAG shareholders (and I’m one though I don’t fly BA) are happy and if 42 million pax aren’t then perhaps they should choose another airline to fly with!

[FDOS_UK]

[quote quote=836337]And yet, like O’Leary, he delivers the profits and over 42 million pax flew BA last year. IAG shareholders (and I’m one though I don’t fly BA) are happy and if 42 million pax aren’t then perhaps they should choose another airline to fly with!
[/quote]

That’s all well and good, but look at the picture I posted earlier and Ryanair is perceived as improving quality and value (albeit marginally), whereas BA has suffered significant reverses in both areas.

Profits are a lagging indicator, customer perception is a leading indicator.

[esselle]

Couple of thoughts.

Has he flown in his premium cabins recently?

Does this monotone and bland enthusiasm create excitement in his staff?

I humbly suggest the answer to both questions in likely to be “no”.

[capetonianm]

he delivers the profits and over 42 million pax flew BA last year

One wonders how many people would have flown BA if they delivered something closer to what they promise.

Like LP, I am an IAG shareholder and I only fly BA if it really suits me and if there is no reasonable alternative, and then only if I can secure a low fare, whereas on better airlines I am not price sensitive. BA are not on my ‘nofly’ list but they are on my ‘avoid if possible’ list.

[stevescoots]

Do BA , or other airlines to think of it, use profesional “secret shoppers”?

it is utterly pointless senior execs flying to get a feel for themselves as the crew etc will know who they are.

[openfly]

@stevescoots Yes they have lots of “secret shoppers”….us!! As BA Gold Customer Relations keep telling me “your feedback is so important to us”. Sadly nobody listens or tells Mr Cruz!

[capetonianm]

I wonder if BA want business at all.

I’ve been asked to arrange a school trip to South Africa for 30 people (26 youngsters, over 12, + 4 accompanying adults including myself). Their choice is BA via LHR. Unfortunately the point of departure is France, which clearly complicates things although it shouldn’t. I rang BA agent services in Ireland last week when I was there and they gave me the UK number for groups, who very reluctantly gave me a quote which they said wasn’t guaranteed as it was in Euros due to the country of departure, and they were in UK. Yep, I’ve been around for long enough to understand about exchange rates. The lady also gave me the conditions and restrictions for group bookings, which was not necessary but at least she was trying to be helpful but made it clear that if travel is originating outside the UK, they cannot help any further. That would be fine if they could offer an alternative.

Now the organiser wants to firm up on this. I’ve tried to get a number for BA groups in France and the website is atrocious and takes me round in a loop after I click on a link that says ‘the page you are looking for does not exist’ and returns me to ba.com.

I found several other numbers in France. One is unreachable, one doesn’t answer, and third time luckier but the person who answers doesn’t speak English much better than old Manuel from Fawlty Towers. Actually I can speak a bit of French but why should I, in this case?

It looks as though this business will go to VS but I may have to put them on a BA feeder into LHR.

?Alex, estas escuchando, donde estas, me puedes ayudar?

[CathayLoyalist2]

….and in 10 years BA has gone from No 1 in the world rankings to No 40. If Cruz went undercover I am confident he would be shocked by what he would find, as most CEO’s on that series are. As ‘Capetonianm’ said how many more people would willingly fly BA if they offered more than just a below average product. When I fly CX they are generally more expensive but the value for me is there.

[LuganoPirate]

Capetonian, Swiss have an easy to use website for group travel. you can make changes for free and we’ve used it several times for bookings to South Africa ex Milan.

https://www.swiss.com/ch/EN/book/corporate-customers/group-travel-and-charter/group-travel

Hope it helps.

[Author]

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