Does HfP have an ‘anti-BA’ bias?

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• Oh! Matron! says:

  9 Jun9 June 08:35

  Silos. Silos are the problem. I work in an IT function at a large IT company and have the luxury of working across multiple functions. I meet many people who are very siloed in their job, and don’t have the same broad visioned views.

  When you work in a company who compete with others, unless you are lucky, you’ll never experience your competitor’s products, and, thus, become very narrow minded (not consciously, I may add). You may believe that you have a fantastic product, and are doing enough to stay competitive and in business.

  So, when you read criticism elsewhere, it’s very easy to take this personally, and as an attack on the very company you work for.

  Whilst probably not warranted, I do understand your readers email.

• James Alexander says:

  9 Jun9 June 08:45

  Re The accusation that you dissed BA and your effusive response………Methinks you are justifying too much !!

  I am BA Gold and see much (not all) of the criticism of BA as valid.

  Stop apologising and over-justifying your critiques!

• Lady London says:

  9 Jun9 June 08:49

  And the magazines are still cr*p.

• Bob says:

  9 Jun9 June 08:50

  I’ve always had the impression that the comments on here are quite hard on BA (rather than the articles) but only because of the familiarity we have with BA – just as people can be a lot more critical of family than of strangers because their flaws come to mind more readily. If BA was based in Buenos Aires, I think we’d refer to it more in terms of how lucky those passengers are to have such a reliable and professional airline transporting them around the world. I’ve flown on five airlines in the last six months, 12 flights on BA which were not the most plush but all ran like clockwork.

• krys_k says:

  9 Jun9 June 08:54

  If anything it’s the commenters that are at times anti-BA. I’ve read so many comments where someone is peeved that they weren’t addressed in the right way in Club Europe, or that the food wasn’t up to scratch in First, or that the seats aren’t aligned the right way in World. I for one, having discovered HFP a year-and-a-half ago, am pleased as punch that I can now travel in Buisness in Eruope and the world when previously I was using Ryanir and whatever the cheapest flight, no matter how long the layover.

  • Polly says:

    9 Jun9 June 09:12

    Agree. We also flew Paddy Air back and forth to Dub like a bus route. Now we can afford to pick and chose eg Y out and CE back. Or even CE both ways if Y is n/a. Plus we usually pick up a J sale somewhere on their routing, so we now fly BA more than others. My only beef is that even as Silver, we cannot access the AerLingus biz lounge in Dub, it’s reserved for Aer Lingus flyers only. Would be a nice change from the usual DAA one they offer. So thanks HFP, we do fly BA more, QR a close second! and both QR and BA should be grateful for your publicity, and fair even comments. Term 5 helps too with its proximity.

• Seb says:

  9 Jun9 June 09:02

  Well the cold hard truth is that BA’s product is now bang average. I mean there is literally no other way of putting it. There hard product on long haul is beaten by at least seven other airlines, while there soft product is beaten by a similar number. Euro traveller is now just a glorified Easyjet, but a lot more expensive to get a decent seat. There lounges at Gatwick are a joke. The lounges at Heathrow are decent but are either beaten by Virgin or matched by others. Their award avaibility is poor. The only thing that I think is great is T5 and even that isn’t really theirs.

  Now what I said may be harsh, but I honestly think it’s the truth. BA are simply a textbook case of a company that has been squeezed from both ends (premium and budget) and doesn’t know what to do with iteself. As a result, it ends up an also ran as it doesn’t do anything badly but it doesn’t do anything great.

• vindaloo says:

  9 Jun9 June 09:04

  I think your coverage of BA (and everyone else) is very fair and balanced. The truth is that the BA product is not the best, and CW from London (as opposed to Amsterdam, Dublin etc. via London) is not remotely competitive on price either. Some aspects of BAEC are good, but the vast majority of changes made to it, and to the BA product, in the past few years have been downgrades. A 50% hike in the Avios required for CW redemptions, for example, was a pretty major blow.

  Where the changes are for the better you report them as such, for example the new semi-flexible ET fares that include a checked bag, where you were initially sceptical but then came back a couple of months later to praise what was a real enhancement.

  So anyway, keep up the good work!

• Richard says:

  9 Jun9 June 09:08

  HFP’s experience with BA is close to my own so don’t sense bias, simply observation. I regularly fly LHR-HKG (and further) either in Business or First, a poor product/service experience from BA drove my business to discover Cathay Pacific although I do like the BA A380 in first. The Cathay product is much better, the beds in Business are longer and more comfortable and the crew are very attentive & polite in contrast to the BA crew with sensible connection times. They treat Gold cardholders nicely. The CX lounges whether in HongKong or elsewhere are fab, clean with good food and facilities in contrast to the somewhat shabby efforts that BA have (or share). I feel that BA are trying to trade on a halo that was created in the past and now have an apparent status that is not justified, with many travellers like me, becoming disappointed when met with the reality. There is abundant evidence of badly thought out cost savings and pricing is not competitive. Flights within EU are buses and not special at all. FYI, I have held an ExecCard in either Silver or Gold since loyalty cards started in the 80’s so have seen the swing of the BA product from extremely poor to good and back again. I hope that BA sharpen themselves up again but currently not my favourite airline sadly.

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