New British Airways developments unveiled at the Gold Guest List lunch

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

• James67 says:

  20 Apr20 April 08:18

  I forsee the Gulf and LCCs gleefully increasing their capacity from the regions and profit warnings from BA somewhere down the line. Not that I care, I hate LHR transits and am losing respect for BA that are becoming more akin to Ryanair with each day that passes. The way things are going Easyjet will be the premier British airline by the end of the decade.

  • Lady London says:

    20 Apr20 April 11:08

    I thought it was already.

• Calum says:

  20 Apr20 April 08:30

  Thanks for sharing these.

  I wonder if the “even fewer frills” fares will be combinable with standard and/or HBO economy fares? Would like to retain lounge access at LHR/LGW on an outbound but not too fussed about some of the terrible outstation ones on the way back. Would also make sense ex-loungeless LCY.

  • @alastairtravel says:

    20 Apr20 April 09:34

    Calum – HBO are not combinable with standard economy fares so I doubt these would be either.

    Nothing to stop you doing 2 one ways of course.

• Judy says:

  20 Apr20 April 08:42

  With direct access from Fast Track to GF for Golds, will this mean the end of the “millionaire’s door” for F passengers to the CCR?

• CV3V says:

  20 Apr20 April 08:48

  I wonder if next up they will be buying some of the Ryanair weighing scales that used to appear at the check in desk just in time for boarding.

  Reading between the lines, if they want to allow Gold to board first (so that they can get some locker space!!?) does that mean Silver status wont be getting priority boarding? It all sounds a recipe for further confusion and hassle which at LHR we just don’t need.

  If they could but some new plates etc in time for my KUL flight in June that would be great, ta. (tip: Denby always seem to have a sale on) However, I get the impression that this is one of those announcements which is done to buy them some time followed by an overly long consultation period which they then make into a documentary.

  • raikje says:

    20 Apr20 April 09:29

    They may just move towards the American style of priority boarding, which is rigidly hierarchical. So Silver would still get priority boarding, but not before the Golds have had their turn. And then Bronze would follow, then general boarding (ignoring the premium cabins). If you’re a Gold and you miss the Gold boarding window, then you are welcome to join the back of the current priority boarding queue, but can’t skip it on the basis of being entitled to a higher one.

    It works pretty well and makes the benefit seem like it is actually worth something, which is not how I feel about BA priority boarding. Needs to be well policed though.

    • Alan says:

      20 Apr20 April 09:57

      Agreed, I much preferred the boarding groups system in the USA. Unfortunately at T5 the initial check for domestic flights is at biometrics and that means a 3rd party security person rather than BA staff – as a result they never seem to care in the slightest re eligibility! With a big focus on training should be doable though.

      The no lounge access fares would be a disaster, esp if on the GDS – I still remember lots of confused and miffed folks at bmi lounges!

  • James67 says:

    20 Apr20 April 09:58

    Don’t mention plates or a ‘bring your own plate’ fare will be the next thing on their agenda.&

• H says:

  20 Apr20 April 09:13

  The legroom is absolutely ridiculous – in both euro traveller and club europe that is. It feels JUST the same as being on a ryanair flight and I now have started avoiding fly shorthaul BA as much as I can.

• RT says:

  20 Apr20 April 09:27

  So is the BA First Class that bad….

  • Rob says:

    20 Apr20 April 10:28

    You mean the food? No. Neither, however, do you have caviar thrown at you (a la Lufthansa) nor are you offered the choice of Krug or Dom Perignon champagne with your meal (a la Singapore) …..

    • Mike says:

      20 Apr20 April 17:00

      I had caviar on my BA F flight to SFO (on the new A380). The food was surprisingly good.

  • CV3V says:

    20 Apr20 April 11:50

    On CX First they have the pre flight champagne (Amour de Deutz), followed by Krug during the flight. As well as caviar during the flight, they also have caviar at the Champagne bar in the First lounge at HKIA (so I’m told).

• Oh! Matron! says:

  20 Apr20 April 09:31

  BaxterStorey do the catering at T5, and also do the catering where I work. It’s abysmal at best in T5 (No dessert except biscuits: For the love of all that is holy!) and it’s MUCH, MUCH worse here. You could get Subway in to do the catering and
  1. It would likely be cheaper and
  2. Much more likely to be better 🙂

  • Oh! Matron! says:

    20 Apr20 April 09:32

    My bad: I though the food was lounges, not in the plane. Looks horrific!

• Neil says:

  20 Apr20 April 09:57

  So BA have heard we all hate the ‘enhanced’ legroom. But are doing nothing about it. So the product is still selling well – otherwise they would do something about it. I do wonder what it would take to convince people of the poor value of CE?

  • Rob says:

    20 Apr20 April 10:26

    That is not necessarily the case. In any event, all BA cares about is whether people stop flying BA long-haul because they are no longer to connect into Europe on CE and it would be impossible to know if that was happening from the outside.

    The combo of the ageing Club World seat, the terrible food, the pain that is Flight Connections Centre at Heathrow (not BA’s fault) and the reduced CE leg-room is not exactly enticing if you have various alternatives. Look at Lufthansa though. They stuck with their ‘slopes to the ground at a very painful angle’ business class seat for so long that they installed it on the first of their A380s. Change is slow.

  • Susan says:

    20 Apr20 April 10:32

    Would be interesting to know whether there’s been a reduction in intra-Europe travellers choosing CE rather than loads being primarily those interlining from TATL etc. Unless one needs the TPs then a Y exit row and snack in airport seems much preferable. The drop from CW to CE is absurd.

    • Calchas says:

      20 Apr20 April 10:48

      High density for feed outweighs shorthaul competitiveness

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