Bits: Avios Group CEO replaced, BA Buy on Board – just fancy that …

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• Bryan says:

  6 Apr6 April 07:39

  Flew business from LHR to TXL and they had 4 plough man’s for the whole of the bus cabin and the rest was a seafood/chicken combination. Ridiculous that first choices are not available at row 2.

  • Fenny says:

    6 Apr6 April 08:37

    Especially for those with seafood allergy!

    • Leo says:

      6 Apr6 April 19:28

      Like me. That would have ****** me off if I had paid for club.

      • Leo says:

        6 Apr6 April 19:30

        Having said that this was the position I found on CX regional business last month – no option but prawns. Sigh were apologetic but no alternative.

        • Leo says:

          6 Apr6 April 19:30

          *Staff.

• Hugo says:

  6 Apr6 April 07:41

  The really sad thing is how Alex Cruz so readily says that as BA clients we should expect EasyJet standards

  Definitely feels like a market gap for a premium UK carrier has now opened up

  • Rob says:

    6 Apr6 April 08:03

    If you look at the Business Traveller quick interview with Cruz, he goes on about what a £29 passenger heading to Rome expects. BA is actually flying business pax on £200 tickets, however, who want more and will end up on Alitalia.

    • Fenny says:

      6 Apr6 April 08:39

      I won’t be flying Alitalia again until they have explained exactly why I haven’t received the status upgrade I was offered and hit the criteria for. I’ve been emailing them since last July and have yet to get anything meaningful out of them. Does anyone have any idea what the Italian version of the ASA is?

      • Alex W says:

        6 Apr6 April 16:23

        You’re not missing much, i had their gold card from the status match and it got me pretty much sod all benefits when flying with Sky Team.

        • Genghis says:

          6 Apr6 April 17:03

          I got Business Class check in and fast track at XIY when flying CZ and that is all. Sky team = the alliance of losers

    • Julian says:

      6 Apr6 April 09:13

      Rob,

      Are you you talking about business passengers who fly on last minute purchased full price Economy tickets with BA because their employer is too stupid to let them buy a Business class ticket instead (often costing very little more) when BA short haul Economy fares rise above a certain price level?

      Last May bank holiday I actually found BA were selling a one way flight from LHR to PMI in economy for £529 one way about 29 hours before departure but strangely enough a last minute single Avios redemption seat in Economy was also showing as available for 7,500 Avios and £17.50 or alternatively 2,500 Avios and I think a further £40 cash on top of the basic £17.50 Avios charge (which would have made an Avios worth over 20p per point). Unfortunately someone else beat me to booking that seat by about 5 minutes so I had the probably unique lifetime experience (I mean for me, especially as the remaining IB Express LHR to PMI flight slots have all been cannibalised this year in to further much more expensive BA slots from LHR to PMI) of travelling on an Iberia Express Business class Avios redemption seat instead. Only hamburger or a vegetarian pasta choice seemed a rather disappointing offer for the 6 business class seat cabin (one and a half rows) but anyway I had both in order to see which was less disappointing (answer the hamburger was actually pretty tasty and made from premium quality beef).

      However my last experience of flying Alitalia in Economy from FCO to LHR in Nov 2014 was that they only provided some kind of bread stick and something like only either water or a child’s style orange squash for free (definitely no alcohol) and you also couldn’t buy anything else instead to supplement this. So are you in fact talking about the Alitalia Business class offering vs the BA business class offering from LHR to FCO or vica versa? Either way Alitalia don’t fly LON to BCN from any London airport so Alex Cruz surely couldn’t have travelled with them???

      So rather confused as you can see by your report………..

      Regarding the new Avios CEO I would be extremely concerned that after his recent Cargo work experience he will only be likely to see us all as Self Loading Freight and so treat us accordingly. It is also surely only a matter of time before the new Avios CEO further worsens any remaining short haul (RFS) Avios redemption value and increases BA’s revenue streams by making an Avios Economy redemption seat only come with up to 23kg of hand luggage (if you can get that much in the new smaller dimension carry on size limit) with any hold luggage then being a cash charge on top in just the same way as your Economy drink and sandwich will also now be………………….

      • Sean says:

        6 Apr6 April 11:13

        What’s confusing? AC said at the launch of BoB that it was being driven by choice. Now he says that one shouldn’t expect choice.

• Rtid says:

  6 Apr6 April 08:03

  O/T

  I need to make a spend of £1k to reach a 2-4-1 target pretty quickly. its probably not morally correct to do, but does anyone have any suggestions on what I can buy online, bag the voucher, but then for whatever reason I need to cancel/return the item? sorry in advance if this behaviour is frowned upon.

  • CC says:

    6 Apr6 April 08:11

    Refundable hotel/flight is what Ive seen advised in the past.

  • C77 says:

    6 Apr6 April 08:14

    Yes have done this a couple of times/years with a flexible / refundable ticket (using Ukraine as country of residence to avoid the additional credit card fee). From memory I think there was a £25 refund fee applied when processed but this was a small price to pay in terms of what I was actually gaining. I only cancelled/refunded once the voucher appeared within my dashboard on ba.com.

  • joelyp says:

    6 Apr6 April 08:35

    Agree refundable hotel is best (avoiding airline ticket cancellation fee). Book something in the card’s home currency, though, to avoid losing out on exchange when refuding.

    • Save East Coast Rewards says:

      6 Apr6 April 10:26

      In my experience usually hotel rates that are refundable are charged at check-out and not when you book.

      • Alan says:

        6 Apr6 April 10:37

        Not if you use the likes of Expedia – they let you pick when you are charged.

      • Genghis says:

        6 Apr6 April 10:37

        hotels.com sometimes has the option to pay now in GBP or pay later in hotel’s functional currency on refundable stays.

        • Alan says:

          6 Apr6 April 10:40

          Haha snap – I suspect it may be all the Expedia-owned brands that offer this!

  • joelyp says:

    6 Apr6 April 08:37

    Should also mention that, assuming you pay taxes and fees on your Amex for your 2-4-1 redemption, shouldn’t be long before you can refund the £1k temporary spend!

    • Gill says:

      6 Apr6 April 09:51

      a Paypal transfer incurs fees but is pretty quick.

      • Genghis says:

        6 Apr6 April 11:40

        And is an easy way to have your Paypal account locked down pending investigation and funds frozen for a while?

  • Mr Walsh says:

    6 Apr6 April 12:02

    buy bunch of gift cards maybe to use them later?

• C77 says:

  6 Apr6 April 08:06

  While there appear to be copious amounts of ambient, non-fresh items to purchase, my recent experience of BoB suggests fresh items are in short supply. Crew member happily shared with me on a recent mealtime flight from Malaga that there was no yoghurts, 1 bacon roll, 1 beef sandwich, 1 cheese sandwich loaded and all of which had sold out in the first row. So I’m left with Tyrrell’s Crisps and the sodding Percy Pigs. Tourvest appear to run the onboard offering for BA and are the ones who seem tp have a lot to answer for in terms of quality and quantity of BoB product.

  • AH says:

    6 Apr6 April 08:30

    one guy on our flight was given his bacon roll after we landed. its a complete joke.

• AH says:

  6 Apr6 April 08:29

  BA still not replied to my issue about a booking BoB was introduced & then not feeding my large travelling party (group booking). At no point did they notify me of the change or offer refund/cancellation option on the flight.
  told them 1k avios miles was not enough to cover a meal oneway, let alone a return flight & they was in breach of the contract under the Consumer rights Directive 2013.
  9 days to wait before I escalate it Cruz. Since first escalation has not bothered to reply. Then I guess I will take legal action. As this was 3.5 hour flight BA should have done better. Especially as we had a 2.5hr bus trip to our final destination & only a planned stop near 2hrs into that bus journey.

  • TripRep says:

    6 Apr6 April 08:38

    Have you considered emailing CEDR to query if they would review this?

• Sam wardill says:

  6 Apr6 April 08:38

  When I saw this headline I misread it and thought it was Willie Walsh leaving. My heart jumped as I anticipated the reversal of the recent decline in standards. It fell again when I read the article.

• Rich84 says:

  6 Apr6 April 08:42

  Been flying with Ryanair/Easyjet for years and stopped buying the on board food a long time ago, we just get drinks on board. We always buy our sarnies etc in advance so get what we want and pay a lot less. I have always avoided flying with BA if possible but expect food/drink to be included when paying their prices – no point now and to be honest for short flights I have no problems with either Ryanair or Easyjet. In over 10 years of using them regularly we have rarely been delayed or had any other problem.

• Alan says:

  6 Apr6 April 08:45

  Sadly the statements from Cruz are very Trumpesque in the way they refer to “what I’m hearing” and “what we’re being told” rather than being based on actual logical reasoning and fact…

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