Bits: Emirates makes Manchester flights ‘all A380’, Priority Pass lounge card discount

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• Callum says:

  16 Aug16 August 05:49

  While I’d expect nothing less from such a vile rag, the standard of English in that article (the Express, not here!) is shockingly poor… I hope you got a good fee/good publicity!

  • Alan says:

    16 Aug16 August 09:56

    Totally agree – they’ve also clearly bought into the ‘clickbait’ style of journalism judging by the majority of their headlines!

  • Russell says:

    16 Aug16 August 11:38

    Yes indeed. I did like the “Soon-to-be-implicated plans” though!

    I assume that they are trying to outdo the Daily Mail…

• Sideysid says:

  16 Aug16 August 06:03

  Is it me or has it got worse over the years? With UFO and conspiracy articles and its tendency to change opinion from one day to the next, I don’t think anyone relys on it as a news source anymore.

• Emily says:

  16 Aug16 August 06:53

  I’ve noticed a few people on both the express and DM articles talk about the ‘snacks laid out during the flight’, however the last time I flew to NY those had gone too (the little boxes of chocolate bars in gallery). I was told they were only on the west coast routes now. Was that an official change or just a quiet one?!

• Mr(s) Entitled says:

  16 Aug16 August 06:58

  That is 1,800 seats a day from MAN. Anyone have any experience of how full these flights are? I wish them all the success in the world and only hope that Qatar up their game and so I have a good use of Avios from MAN.

  • Dylan says:

    17 Aug17 August 09:15

    Last year I flew regularly between DXB and MAN, and always on a 380. Can’t vouch for first, but certainly economy and business were usually at or near to full capacity.
    I had one flight last year where it was about half full in business, even the crew found it strange. It was the only flight where the service was well below the usual standard. Pleased hear it’s now all 380, it will make the overnight/early morning flight just that little bit better. 777 at the moment.

• Jason Hindle says:

  16 Aug16 August 07:00

  I was surprised to read elsewhere that one of the MAN services will have three cabins. There isn’t really much in the way of ground services, at MAN, to support First.

  • Alex says:

    16 Aug16 August 10:20

    A first check in, priority security and shared business/first Emirates lounge. No different from the vast majority of outstations?

    • Jason Hindle says:

      19 Aug19 August 20:21

      The lack of any kind of premium arrivals facility stands out. Though Emirates comes with the benefit that a first class passenger can scrub up on the plane.

• Ian says:

  16 Aug16 August 07:03

  These cuts happen every month and yet we all still fly with them and they know it. They have a monopoly at heathrow and as we all know, they have the best loyalty system.

  I think the new CEO will keep cutting prices and lowering the cost base because people will always fly with them and if they can lower prices, even more will fly. Ryanair shows us this!

  I think economy will slowly become more like easyjet while club europe will be what we all remember old economy to be like.

  world traveller will go the way of norwegian and world traveller plus will be how we remember economy to be

  club world will be competitively priced and first class will be their premium product they can charge what they like for

  I think they are betting on a totally different flying experience in the future where the lowest cost base wins and those who want luxury will fly with the gulf airlines via dubai, doha etc

  The thing with cuts is that they can cut 100 things until people are outraged and then bring 1 or 2 back publicly as a publicity stunt and the majority of people are happy and they get the free publicity.

  • John says:

    16 Aug16 August 08:51

    People keep talking about lower cost, but has the price of BA flights actually dropped?

    • Andrew says:

      16 Aug16 August 13:24

      Depends on where you fly from…

      I travelled with a mate to West Coast USA this May by BA. My journey started at LHR. His journey started at EDI.

      His ticket was £419, a staggering £190 less than mine.

      • Transgender says:

        16 Aug16 August 13:54

        Shhh! Don’t say that, otherwise all the people in the regions who complain about BA giving preferential treatment to Londoners won’t know what to think…

• Andy says:

  16 Aug16 August 07:34

  The likes of EK must be laughing at all of BA’s penny pinching! If you compare the food in economy and business between EK and BA, EK wins all the time. IFE is the same.

  There is a reason why EK are all A380 from LHR and now Manchester, an A380 from Birmingham and they are even thinking about an A380 from Glasgow!

  People would much rather use EK and connect via Dubai than connect via LHR on Penny Pinching BA. It’s the little things that matter to passengers that add preceded value to passengers.

  • Callum says:

    16 Aug16 August 08:07

    Hardly.

    Firstly, many more fly BA than fly Emirates from the UK (though that’s largely for obvious reasons).

    Secondly, I’m willing to wager that when comparing like-with-like (I.e. MAN-LHR-XXX and MAN-DXB-XXX) people are mostly choosing Emirates on price or convenience. Most people in the “real world” don’t have the slightest idea what the catering difference between BA and EK is!

    • Graeme says:

      16 Aug16 August 08:27

      I must agree with Callum. Looking at pricing EK from Newcastle always proves the best value compared to connecting to other hubs via other airlines. The majority of people couldn’t give a toss about whether they have an amuse bouche or not and can survive the flight length without starving to death on one meal. I appreciate the priorities on this site are somewhat different. Travel economy stay luxury is a mantra quite a few follow.

      • Concerto says:

        16 Aug16 August 09:41

        Really good mantra, that! I must adopt it myself!

        • Danks says:

          17 Aug17 August 07:10

          i prefer travel luxury, stay luxury 😛 😛

    • Leo says:

      16 Aug16 August 10:44

      +1

    • James67 says:

      16 Aug16 August 12:31

      Tend to agree too, I doubt food plays any significant part in choice, likewise other factors like perception of service. However, I do think the seat and pitch do play a part, as does the desire to fly an a380. Therefore, once EK gets people onboard an a380 and they experience better seats, IFE and a more pleasant cabin ambiance then they know they very likely have a repeat customer because passengers remember those things whilst they remember 777s for the same things but negative reasons. There is also the Heathrow dimension, many regional passengers avoid it like the plague although I personally prefer a longhaul direct overnight flight departing LHR than a middle of the night transit in the ME. What is interesting is that the totally horrid 10 accross 777s EK has operated for years has obviously not been a deterent for cutomers so at the end of the day price and opportunity to fly a380 are likely key drivers for EK exLHR, with the same plus avoidance of LHR exRegions. Where it gets interesting is if we ignore BA and compare factors influencing choice between ME3. EK clearly continues to be the dominant player here despite having what would appear (to me at least) the highest fares of the three so it is clearly not just about price. I think it is most likely a combination of competitive pricing, a380 brand association and the regions-DXB-regions opportunities that underpin their success whith your average 1-3 timesca year economy traveller. I get the impression to that TAs push EK big time so perhaps they make more money from EK than from other airlines

      • Ian says:

        16 Aug16 August 16:44

        or it could be the jennifer aniston emirates advert!

• Andy says:

  16 Aug16 August 08:03

  For what’s it’s worth and just for the reply I will get I did send a quick one line complaint to BA about the tiny packet of crisps on my recent flight to Krakow.

  I then got one of the email surveys and rated anything to do with catering as the lowest rating possible and then copied and pasted my one line complaint into the comments boxes!

  • Genghis says:

    16 Aug16 August 08:14

    And the response: “we’re sorry about your delayed flight from Kraków… We really value you as a [insert status level] BAEC member…” 🙂

  • Lord Snooty says:

    16 Aug16 August 13:52

    I just got back from Nice in economy. What sort of image does BA try to present with pinstriped waist coat attired flight attendants handing out crisps? To Fly to Serve : CRISPS! Easyjet will offer me something for a few quid. Free but poor quality just doesn’t say “customer service ” it says “mug”. BA need my bum to fill up their planes so they can demand price upwards faster but it’s just too mean and restricted now.

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