Forbes magazine asks “Did British Airways make one cut too many?”

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The website of Forbes magazine published an interesting article yesterday on the current state of British Airways.

It is surprisingly accurate – by the standards of mainstream publications when reporting on airline and frequent flyer issues – and worth a read.

Here are a couple of quotes:

British Airways BA 777X 777 9X

British Airways since its turnaround in the late ’80s has been generally considered a top league airline, innovating seats that turn into beds in both first and business class, and laying on services such as arrivals lounges serving hot breakfast, providing weary travelers showers while having their suits pressed. It offers sit down dining in its lounges before flights, enabling passengers to have more time to sleep.

and

Implementing [buy on board] has not been smooth. A week after launching its version of “buy-on-board” service for its domestic and European flights that require its top-tier frequent fliers to pay for food and drinks and charges for even tea, coffee, soft drinks and bottled water, the airline is having challenges.

BA’s Twitter account and internet forums …. have passengers and crew telling of flight attendants not able to serve the entire cabin, only getting to a few rows, payment machines not working, and only a couple sandwiches loaded for the entire plane.

In yet more cases, no food or drinks were loaded at all. Flight attendants from business class sometimes have to help sell food in the back, impacting service to its premium passengers. Teething pains maybe? Reportedly, cabin crew can’t give out food or drinks during delays for service recovery.

Amusingly, whilst Head for Points is not mentioned, a quote I posted on FlyerTalk is used:

One poster on internet forum FlyerTalk wrote of the cumulative impact of the cuts. “I know that no-one will flounce off purely on the back of BOB (buy-on-board), but everyone has a breaking point somewhere and the loss of free G’n’T may be it for many,” the member who goes by the name Raffles posted.

(A quick search shows that I have never used the word ‘flounce’ in almost 5000 HfP articles, which shows how I change my writing style when the end product is not for this site!)

There are some great extracts from the BA Twitter feed that are well worth a read.

You can read the full Forbes article here.

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British Airways and Avios

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

Liz says:

19 Jan19 January 08:06

That made me laugh this morning!
Harry Holden says:

19 Jan19 January 08:16

You can cut your way to increasing profit in the short term, but you can never cut your way to growth. As soon as the wheel of fortune makes things harder for airlines, BA may find themselves too far behind the rest with nowhere left to go.

You grow by being better not cheaper.
- Genghis says:
  
  19 Jan19 January 08:31
  
  Like Ryanair? There are different ways to grow per Porter’s generic strategies model
  - Simmo says:
    
    19 Jan19 January 09:52
    
    Ryanair have the flight prices to match!
  - Aeronaut says:
    
    19 Jan19 January 11:38
    
    Though Ryanair has re-orientated itself somewhat in recent years – the ‘any publicity is good publicity’, minimal customer service approach is no longer. They saw it was putting people – in particular more lucrative business travellers – off.
    
    Of course Ryanair is coming at the market from the other end of the spectrum – they don’t need to make cuts as their whole business model is based on low-cost. BA meanwhile have the legacy.
    - the_real_a says:
      
      19 Jan19 January 12:16
      
      That was made at the point on saturation of the the “low end” of the market. There was no where else for them to grow other than provide the “service” element to business/more affluent customers which costs money.
      
      BA is coming from the other side, but can never be truly low cost because of its cost base.
Ro says:

19 Jan19 January 08:20

Interesting to read the bit about Delta saying that they felt they cut too much… wonder if the BA management have such a point
the real harry1 says:

19 Jan19 January 08:22

Whilst no BA apologist, there is a big positive to the cost-cutting in Europe.

Just a day or so I again researched flight prices in Xmas Peak out & back to/ from our place in the sun (school hols).

£65 out, £45 back, both HBO. Great prices.

So cheap I’m not remotely bothered about BOB.
- Simmo says:
  
  19 Jan19 January 09:59
  
  Good Prices Harry!
  
  For the first time in 10 years I’m using Easyjet for the LGW-ALC flights which every year previous we have used BA.
  
  Easyjet £140 (incl bags, front row seat)
  BA £220 (incl bags, and seat selection only because i’m silver)
  
  A friend of mine that does not travel too often has always used BA (even if they are more expensive) due to not having to ‘faff around with change’ when it comes to drinks and a bit of food. He has now also turnt to EasyJet for those same flights while being a BA fan boy.
  
  While I guess both instances doesn’t cover the majority of flyers if everybody turnt their back BA will be in trouble!
  
  BA only useful for a loyalty scheme (Lounge access, RFS, and First!)
  - Leo says:
    
    19 Jan19 January 12:25
    
    I have to agree. I had a similar experience when pricing up flights to Greece in September – the outcome was equally in EZ’s favour and similarly I am BA Silver. Only difference was LGW or LHR. One will suit some and the other the others….
    - meta says:
      
      19 Jan19 January 14:10
      
      I fly to ZAG about six times a year, mainly economy and maybe once a year business as a treat. I usually book all my flights for next year Nov-Dec. For the past six years, I have been flying exclusively BA as they offered better service compared to Easyjet/Croatia Airlines. Easyjet stopped flying from Gatwick, but Croatia still flies from LHR which is probably better for me as I can use public transport, not much difference time wise. BoB announced, I checked prices and CA was £50 cheaper than BA from BA. CA has free bag, free snack&drink (incl. alcholic) with an option to purchase a better meal! They were even cheaper by £30 in business on every date I looked. Needless to say I booked mostly with CA. Also booked one flight for £75 return with Monarch’s seasonal route to ZAG,m (incl. front row seat – 1A, priority boarding, 26kg bag) in their Black Friday sale, so will give them a try. BA was close to £400 for same dates Basic fare, CA was £250. Am thinking of switching to Virgin for long-haul after one final 241 trip.
      - Leo says:
        
        19 Jan19 January 16:46
        
        I moved over from Virgin FC to Avios when VS closed their most interesting routes i.e. not going West to US. I like Virgin – they just don’t go to many places I want to go to. I’m not interested in Dubai. Having said that I always find they have better availability. Their new web site is proper crap however.
      - meta says:
        
        19 Jan19 January 21:50
        
        VA fly to HGK (good hub for SE Asia) Tokyo, Cuba… I’m just worried about opportunities to collect and the fact there is nothing comparable in price/miles to 241 vouchers.
- Aeronaut says:
  
  19 Jan19 January 11:53
  
  The low-cost carriers have inevitably forced BAs prices down over the years. There are only so many people prepared to pay a significant premium for full-service BA over easyJet or even Ryanair for a European short-haul point to point.
  
  Think of the ‘savvy’ Range Rover owners parked up in the Lidl car park, having discovered various cheap delights. It’s perhaps a bit like ‘discovering’ easyJet.
- Waribai says:
  
  19 Jan19 January 13:41
  
  Not sure where you are off to Harry but I can’t see much below £600 to any real sunshine destinations over Xmas. Granted Faro/Malaga might be possible. Not exactly balmy temperatures though.
  - ankomonkey says:
    
    19 Jan19 January 16:41
    
    Only Rob and Harry know where Harry’s “place in the sun” is. Even Anika hasn’t been told yet. When Rob retires he plans to pass the site onto to the winner of a competition to guess the location…
    - Rob says:
      
      19 Jan19 January 19:20
      
      As you may have seen on Instagram, Anika is touring Spain this week in an attempt to track it down 🙂
      - Zoe says:
        
        19 Jan19 January 21:32
        
        Is it in Javea?
Leo says:

19 Jan19 January 08:26

I’m just going to say it. I don’t care about BOB. I realise it’s an “enhancement” too far for some. I realise that it’s a cut back which is by definition a negative. But how devastating is it really? I’m more concerned that it gives people the opportunity to over use yet again that meaningless phrase “race to the bottom”. On shorthaul flights most do not need to eat. If you want/need to, buy something in the airport. If I have medication to take I make sure I have water with me. It’s called being responsible. Generally I think BA is overpriced. I use them for 4 flights a year to keep status coupled with other OW long haul flights. People have absolutely no problem with the concept of BOB on the likes of easyjet. If you want to feel as if you are superior to easyjet travellers you can still pay for CE. If you feel BA is overpriced NOW because you don’t get your iced bun and/or your GnT then don’t fly them.
- mark2 says:
  
  19 Jan19 January 08:41
  
  +1
- Rob says:
  
  19 Jan19 January 08:58
  
  BA fails to get the nuances though. Few companies (except HFP) would allow you to expense a £6 GnT. Even if fares had dropped by £6 and you paid £6 for a GnT, the average business traveller is worse off.
  
  Unlike easyJet, there are probably 5 people on every BA short haul flight whose combined fully flex ticket prices cost the same as the cheapest 30 seats sold for that flight. If you annoy those 5 people, you have a problem. And this annoys them.
  - Leo (not the one who asked a q on other thread) says:
    
    19 Jan19 January 09:15
    
    Fair point. However I, as in myself, personally, non-business travelling have no issue with BOB. How it plays out regarding revenue we shall see. Is this really any different to HBO? Personally I don’t usually bother with that because I like to book my seat etc. But plenty of people like the price – see Harry’s comment above. I seem to remember lots of comments about business travellers being upset if forced by company policy to book lowest fare and losing status perks etc. at the time HBO came in. Has that had any effect on revenue? I don’t know.
    - Alan says:
      
      19 Jan19 January 10:02
      
      Although on the price front they remain uncompetitive from the regions – Easyjet far more cost effective, with guaranteed extra legroom seat, note reasonable extra baggage charges and no need to connect in LHR. They need to either provide a better service or cheaper price if they want to compete with a more convenient direct service and they’re no longer doing that.
      - Leo says:
        
        19 Jan19 January 10:59
        
        BA gave up on the regions long ago as everyone it seems – apart those of us in our London bubble – constantly comments on. I see little backtracking on this however by BA.
      - Rob says:
        
        19 Jan19 January 11:13
        
        There are rumours of BA taking over AA’s long haul routes from Manchester. The traffic is mainly UK-originating and it is felt that BA would drive more traffic than AA.
  - Simon says:
    
    19 Jan19 January 09:38
    
    But many business travellers are catered for by global booking policies at large firms. Are they really going to move away from BA just because Bob from accounts cant get a GnT on his flight to Geneva???
    - Cate says:
      
      19 Jan19 January 10:14
      
      You’re not taking into account that Bob from accounts’s boss also flies in first or biz and if you are constantly irritating Bob’s boss then Bob’s boss can move the preferred service supplier to another company. Also – and not flagged up much – BA don’t include chauffeured transport to/from airport. It’s a niggle that doesn’t get flagged up much.
      - Aeronaut says:
        
        19 Jan19 January 11:47
        
        I’m not sure BA offering chauffeured transport to or from Heathrow would necessarily go down that well… there’s already too much vehicular traffic at the airport, and too high a level of local air pollution as a result.
        
        An inclusive or discounted HEx (First class?) ticket would be better, for those coming from central London at least.
    - the_real_a says:
      
      19 Jan19 January 12:34
      
      I can give you a first hand example at my large tech company. We just changed our travel policy from “Preferred BA” to “any airline” due to consistent whinging from travelers.
      
      1) Travel policy is zero alcohol can be expensed except with evening meal
      2) Expense policy is strict that you cannot add snacks to meals. So a 4pm BOB “snack” cannot be added to “lunch” or “dinner” (!)
      3) Strikes really screwed up peoples travel CONFIDENCE
      4) BA always used to do the right thing when things went wrong (our on site Travel Agent never had to get involved) – now there is consistent escalations and complaints to our BA account manager which takes up a material amount of travel teams time.
      5) Easy and Ryanair are now on the GDS systems so the price difference to budget holders is immediately obvious.
      - Dan says:
        
        19 Jan19 January 20:04
        
        Similar experiences to the poster above.
        
        I work for a large accountancy firm – Policy switched from ba preferred to any airline in January this year. Not sure if that is due to complaints but I can’t imagine the reduced service helped.
        
        We also can’t expense any alcohol, and would struggle to expense a snack on board – BA has little to offer as a result (other than I’m BA silver!)
- Chris says:
  
  19 Jan19 January 13:05
  
  The wife and I used to enjoy settling down to a couple of G&Ts and some wine with our food/snack.
  
  BoB has now made BA flights £30+ more expensive each way for us.
  - Leo says:
    
    19 Jan19 January 14:48
    
    I daresay. Point is are you going to switch to easy jet?
    - the real harry1 says:
      
      19 Jan19 January 16:18
      
      I’m crunching similar numbers to Chris – my preferred solution is airside WHSmith/ Boots meal deals for the kids & I can now easily justify a boozy hour in the (paid for) lounge – I won’t ever BOB on principle
      - Leo says:
        
        19 Jan19 January 16:37
        
        You may well be Harry but you were indicating earlier that you are really happy with the current pricing and situation – “So cheap I’m not remotely bothered about BOB.”
      - the real harry1 says:
        
        19 Jan19 January 17:13
        
        not quite sure of your point?
      - Leo says:
        
        19 Jan19 January 17:29
        
        Well I thought you didn’t care at all about BOB. So why not on principle? If you are now paying less than your prior to your “loss”?
      - the real harry1 says:
        
        19 Jan19 January 17:45
        
        I wouldn’t pay inflated BOB prices and never have, not when I travel EJ or RA either in the past. Just because I’m happy to see very cheap HBO fares, it doesn’t mean I’d pass the saving up the wall by loading up on (say) 3 G&Ts for £18 & I’m surprised you thought there was any logical connection between those 2 ideas.
        
        We enjoyed the free F&B in the past but given the choice between the old prices (F&B included) and the new (cheaper by far in HBO), I’d rather take no frills pricing for Europe – where you are merely plonking your backside down for a couple of hours which is no hardship. An apple from home, meal deals from the airside shops (kids) & a cheap lounge pass for me is the way to go for a bit of refreshment IMV.
      - Leo says:
        
        19 Jan19 January 17:46
        
        Sorry I’ll make that clearer hopefully – if the cost of the flight itself has actually decreased – as I thought was the case from your earlier post, then financially and even perhaps “morally” your loss (a GnT and bag of crisps) has been wiped out. Why then is BOB a bad thing?
      - Leo says:
        
        19 Jan19 January 17:48
        
        Okay you’ve answered my question above. I take it you are not saying BOB shouldn’t be offered.
      - the real harry1 says:
        
        19 Jan19 January 17:59
        
        Never did bother me if people want to pay too much for their tickets & F&B – it helps subsidise my own ticket. Indeed, I can barely suppress a sneer as I walk past CE on my RFS Europe redemptions, though I suppose I would happily retract if somebody else were paying (your employer) or you got there on a redemption 🙂
- Fenny says:
  
  19 Jan19 January 23:29
  
  Isn’t the issue with BOB not that you now have to pay, but they can’t actually manage to serve the entire planeful of customers, even when most of them don’t want anything. If I travel on a plane, I want to at least have the option of buying food & drink, not just to be told that there’s none left because I’m in row 12.
  
  The fact that I don’t particularly like the choice of food is a whole other matter. I at least want to see a bacon butty or a bag of Percy Pigs that I could buy if I wanted to using a payment method I have been advised of beforehand that actually works. Or I could just drown my sorrows in G&Ts (presumably buying them all in one go, as there’s bugger all chance of a return trip by the trolley dollies).
mark2 says:

19 Jan19 January 08:45

Re the innovation of Arrivals lounges, We have enjoyed the one at Heathrow in the morning but in June we arrive back to Heathrow at 1415 and the lounge closes at 1500!
No doubt other flights arrive later in the afternoon.
But at least there is one, whereas in Seattle there is not for OW or even US airlines.
- Mikeact says:
  
  19 Jan19 January 09:10
  
  The lounge is by gate S10, or has it gone ? I use the Delta lounge myself,with SkyTeam.
  - mark2 says:
    
    19 Jan19 January 09:48
    
    Thank you for your reply. The BA lounge is still near S10; from your experience can you go in there when you arrive or just before departure please?
    - Mikeact says:
      
      19 Jan19 January 13:16
      
      I’ve only used it on departure, certainly wouldn’t be bothered on arrival….I just want to get out and about.
    - HAM76 says:
      
      20 Jan20 January 06:49
      
      Only on departure… The lounge also only opens a few hours before the BA flight leaves.
- Alex says:
  
  19 Jan19 January 10:03
  
  The whole point of the arrivals lounge is for overnight flights that land too early to check into a hotel. By 1500 you can go to your hotel, and the vast majority of flights arriving are not overnight.
  - Save East Coast Rewards says:
    
    19 Jan19 January 11:04
    
    If you have a priority pass you can also use the Plaza Premium arrivals lounge on the arrivals level of Terminal 2 – there’s two arrivals lounges, one an airline (United?) and the other the Plaza Premium. The Plaza Premium opens until quite late.
    
    Transfer from T5 to T2 is free on the HEX for everyone and free on the tube as long as you have an Oyster or contactless card to operate the barriers.
    - the_real_a says:
      
      19 Jan19 January 12:37
      
      On the off chance you are are hand luggage – take the airside transfer bus to T2 ans clear the border there rather than HEX. Much quicker
      - the_real_a says:
        
        19 Jan19 January 12:45
        
        Probably not hand luggage considering your destination 🙂
      - mark2 says:
        
        19 Jan19 January 13:26
        
        thanks for the tip, but as you say we are going for three weeks so will have two large cases!
  - mark2 says:
    
    19 Jan19 January 11:12
    
    Yes, I never thought of it that way, although we do not travel much. From LHR we shall just drive home.
    We arrive at Seattle at 1115 so by the time we have been through immigration etc. and get into the city we can probably sit in the executive lounge until our room is ready.
Graham says:

19 Jan19 January 08:54

Had no problem getting free ‘tap water’ on a flight from Iceland last week with the new sold food.

Although the sandwiches were often dire, going down the buy on board, makes BA feel a whole lot more like a budget airline.
Leo says:

19 Jan19 January 09:16

sorry about name thing – switched computer
- Leo says:
  
  19 Jan19 January 09:17
  
  and now posted this in wrong place – ignore!

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