Bits: Airportr ski equipment offer, BA refusing to budge on ‘two tickets’ baggage transfer

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• Gavin says:

  6 Feb6 February 08:39

  I think the last senstence sums BA’s mentality from last few years “saves a few quid though” – and p*sses your customers off… but they simply don’t care

• Talay says:

  6 Feb6 February 08:46

  As someone who runs a successful business which demands retention of customers, I can only offer two explanations as to why this is happening.

  Either the boss and his advisors with enough support of the board are just out of touch and the board don’t have the balls to stand up to the CEO or the bean counters have shown where $1 can be saved and some fool has extrapolated that out across the whole dominion and come up with a potentially hefty multi million saving which has blinded everyone in the room.

  If BA cut their service back to the style of the LCCs then they only have their equipment and network to support their fee structure and their equipment is poor in many respects. Surviving only on the basis of their reach via a network is not going to sustain them long term as that advantage will be eroded over time making the end game for BA a certainty.

  • James A says:

    6 Feb6 February 08:59

    Yup. You’ve nailed it. No balls.
    I’m leaving BA as long term Gold due to this constant chipping away at customer service.
    To Fly To Fleece is the new motto.
    Am off. I’ll take my business elsewhere thanks.

• Rashad says:

  6 Feb6 February 09:05

  OT
  what is the best lounge to use in BKK for one One World alliance?
  to what I’ve heard BA ‘s lounge is not exciting nor Qatar has it’s own there. Any directions would be much appreciated

  • Rod says:

    6 Feb6 February 09:29

    I would recommend the Cathay Pacific lounge in concourse G. They have a noodle bar, good selection of drinks and food but no showers. Qatar will have a lounge there but no one knows when it will open. I believe the Qantas and BA lounges are now closed permanently.

    Note depending on your airline (e.g. QR/RJ) and your status/class of travel you may get access to the TG lounges – I got a pass to the Thai business lounge as OW sapphire flying QR Y from BKK – HAN.

    • Rashad says:

      6 Feb6 February 09:49

      Hi Rod, many thanks for your response, very useful facts indeed.

      I do hold BA Silver currently – would that get me in Cathay’s lounge?
      I do also have Priority Pass but reading on Flyer Talk lounges offered aren’t great plus always busy.
      I will be doing same flight BKK-HAN with Qatar but in economy, now looking at options to “brighten up” the experience as this is going to be my first economy in the last few years LOL

      • daftboy says:

        6 Feb6 February 12:26

        Your BA Silver (OW Sapphire) will get you access to the Cathay lounge, which is where I would recommend going. Good food, nice bar, very pleasant surroundings.

        • Rashad says:

          6 Feb6 February 13:03

          thank you @daftboy you recommendations are are appreciated and that’s exactly where I will head. Many thanks 🙂

      • Rod says:

        6 Feb6 February 13:34

        I did try the Bangkok Louis Tavern CIP Lounge (the Priority Pass offering) back in 2014. Good choice of alcohol and some hot food and very few people when i visited (around 9 am weekday). Much prefer the other lounges though. Make sure you show your BA Silver at check-in so that you can get the priority lane security pass and the invitation to the Thai Royal Silk Lounge (this is the lounge QR has an agreement with) if you fancy trying it, although the spa treatment is only available for passengers on Thai Airways. Cathay Lounge is the best though in my opinion.

• Sam Wardill says:

  6 Feb6 February 09:05

  I’ve been caught out by the change in policy on through checked bags with two PNRs twice. In one case my wife and daughter were in First travelling via JNB and I had to get an affidavit from the ZA embassy because she had to go landside at JNB. In another case BA connection to Qatar in AMS was 5 & 1/2 hours late. BA staff were unable to sort me out because they didn’t have access to the booking (which they would have done had the bags been through checked). If operational staff could have helped I believe they would as I have a Gold card and they were trying to help. In both cases the change was made in policy after I made the booking. The BA bean counters really don’t care how much this inconveniences their high yielding pax who will just go elsewhere.

• Kathy says:

  6 Feb6 February 09:07

  It’s just so petty to refuse to check through BA-BA. Surely they’ll lose custom from people who can no longer risk a tight connection time?!

• Richard says:

  6 Feb6 February 09:11

  I regularly fly to Taiwan via HKG. BA have lost my business since the changes because it looks like that will not book my luggage through to the destination. I have now discovered that Cathay is a much better product, shorter flight, cheaper, better service, more frequent service from LHR, excellent lounges…. BA have made a big mistake. I can’t help feeling with the changes that BA are making that their customer focus has dissipated into a focus on making money, they have unhappy staff and this aspect is old – the start of a grand and slow decline, a really sad state.

  • Mark says:

    6 Feb6 February 11:23

    Where the LIKE button!!!

    I really cant see how BA can keep on alienating their customer base and expect to continue… I wonder what odds I would get on BA going bust in the next 10 years.

    • Mark says:

      6 Feb6 February 11:26

      And Im sure if a few hundred of thousand off us all had that bet the share price would take a rather sharp dive!

      • Mark says:

        6 Feb6 February 11:26

        That should be or not of

• Trvlr says:

  6 Feb6 February 09:13

  It’s sad and depressing. BA has become a low-cost airline.

  • Leo says:

    6 Feb6 February 09:18

    It’s simply wrong to say that because BA are very expensive.

    • John says:

      6 Feb6 February 10:17

      Low cost is not low price!

  • Anthony Dunn says:

    6 Feb6 February 17:44

    Slight correction: BA is now behaving like a loco whereas its pricing regime very far from a loco. Taking the mickey is a rather more accurate description.

• Leo says:

  6 Feb6 February 09:25

  It’s never ending gloom and doom about BA. I won’t use them apart from the 4 short haul legs pa for silver (I even did those on IB this year). I wonder whether this separate PNR no though check-in etc. was identified as a “good thing” partly as a result of folks dropping the last leg – or as some sort of snitty response to people having the audacity to use redemption flights. I think this is a much more annoying and ultimately revenue losing step than BoB. This “cut” really could be the deciding factor between choosing BA and (especially) another OW airline if you still want TPs and points.

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