Highlights from Alex Cruz’s interview in the Mail on Sunday

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• Alan says:

  29 Jan29 January 08:48

  “It is also true, however, that the upside of having multiple carriers competing on most routes from London is that you can ‘do a Waitrose’ and focus on hoovering up people who are not obsessed with price above everything else including comfort”

  Absolutely. As I have said in the comments sections before, I used to be willing to pay extra to fly BA Economy (can’t afford Cub) rather than an LCC in the past – but not anymore. They have now put themselves in a position where they can’t compete on price and they can’t justify the extra cost for the service you get.

  • Cate says:

    29 Jan29 January 09:50

    Agree, we are the opposite side of the spectrum, typically fly in first or biz seats but we don’t fly BA any more. So between us that’s two sectors of the paying public who’ve walked (or rather been pushed) to the opposition. Perhaps it’s the premium economy market that’s driving BA now.

    • Mike says:

      29 Jan29 January 10:18

      I doubt it BA premium economy is dreadful – just not premium in the slightest just a tad more leg room. Not a patch on Virgin or Air France (the latter including Airport fast Track/Priority Boarding/Free Seat Selection/Pay to enter option for Air France lounge)

      • Leo says:

        29 Jan29 January 11:18

        Completely agree. BA WT+ cabin is ok but the lack of other ground services offered by many others (Virgin for one) makes it a pretty unappealing product. I can’t be bothered to read the article – we’ve decided to give up on BA after using up the 2 241s we have and blowing the avios stash. I’m bored of all the BA bashing everywhere but I’m also bored of BA being so crap. Fortunately I’m not limited to points to access business cabins if I feel like it. I’m just waiting to see whether the Virgin/Flying Blue situation develops into something useful. Otherwise I’ll just keep earning IHG points – which I don’t redeem….hmmmm…

• Doug M says:

  29 Jan29 January 09:15

  I’m not sure any certainty regards CW seats can be taken from a piece such as this.

  • Rob says:

    29 Jan29 January 09:49

    Given that seat numbers are being reduced, it also implies a degree of retrofitting, even if just to the 777 fleet.

• Charlie T. says:

  29 Jan29 January 09:27

  I see the virtue signallers are out in force here. I’m no fan of the Mail, but it speaks for a large cohort of the population. Claiming that the thought of reading it makes you want to vomit is more a reflection on you than it and if we’re ever going to start vaguely feeling like one country again then insulting by construction said large cohort of the population is not a good start.

  Cheers Rob for the great blog.

  • Adey says:

    30 Jan30 January 07:40

    Agreed.

    I’d suggest Rob is more proactive in deleting these type of posts. I’ve experienced plenty of blogs deteriorate due to politicalisation.

• Vinz says:

  29 Jan29 January 09:29

  I agree with you on this…

  The idea that the public can choose anything from a London bus to an Uber Mercedes S-Class to get to the airport, and stay in anything from a hostel to a 5-star grande dame when its lands, but has no interest in anything but a low price when picking their flight has always been ludicrous.

  Nut replying that something will always be premium without giving any support is basically bullshitting. Imagine Nobu restaurants saying the same and then serve rotten fish.

• Ramones says:

  29 Jan29 January 09:29

  I have flown 25+ flights with BA over the last year, mostly economy short-haul. Used Easyjet this weekend and to be honest the only difference when I compare them to BA is that the flights were half the price and the aircraft were in much better condition.

  • John says:

    29 Jan29 January 13:21

    BA planes are noticeably less clean today than even just a few years ago – and certainly compared to LCC rivals.

    They need to review their outsourcing in this area.

• Andrew says:

  29 Jan29 January 09:48

  The “red flag” for me with BA right now is the utter farce boarding at Edinburgh.

  Yet again yesterday, the boarding queues for gate 10 & gate 11 merged into one. Once a certain point was reached it was turn left for Easyjet to Luton or turn right for BA to Heathrow.

  Now clearly this isn’t all BA’s (or Easyjet’s) fault. EDI have now crammed in so many food and drink options in the lounge that there is very little space left to queue and essentially the only place left to find a seat whilst you wait is to sit down and order food.

  EDI’s security can also be an issue. Yesterday it took me 5 mins to go through, but last month it took me an hour – but that left me too much time to kill in the lounge.

  (Not forgetting Transport Edinburgh refusing to put an adequate shelter at Edinburgh Park Station tram stop, where I waited 15 minutes in a biting wind with rain blowing through).

  Arriving at T5 yesterday, it then took me 20 minutes to get to the PODs from M&S at arrivals due to half the lifts being out of order and a staircase wasn’t immediately obvious.

  So overall, the 90 minutes on board was absolutely fine, it was everything else that was linked to my BA experience that was a bit rubbish. I’m booked with VTEC for the next trip.

• Callum says:

  29 Jan29 January 09:58

  “The idea that the public can choose anything from a London bus to an Uber Mercedes S-Class to get to the airport, and stay in anything from a hostel to a 5-star grande dame when its lands, but has no interest in anything but a low price when picking their flight has always been ludicrous.”

  Obviously it’s ludicrous, but equally it’s an opinion I’ve never heard. The argument isn’t whether such people exist, it’s whether they exist in sufficient numbers to cover the costs of running a more premium cabin. The answer seems to be a clear no, no matter how much the readership here wishes it wasn’t the case.

  • Brian says:

    29 Jan29 January 10:47

    I agree and the option for those individuals is Club Europe. Its not that much more expensive than economy, if you’re getting an S-Class to the airport, thats the target demographic.
    Look at the 3rd party lounges, most are filled with leisure travellers, rather than people on business, I suspect BA is targeting CE to a similar market these days. In all honesty, BA offers CE upgrades for a similar price as some charter operators like TOM/TCX ask for exit row seats.

  • Rob says:

    29 Jan29 January 11:04

    What else do you do if you are running a business where your fixed cost base is at least twice as high as your competition with zero chance (due to Heathrow PSC etc) of getting it anywhere close?

    • Kip says:

      29 Jan29 January 11:55

      Fly less out of Heathrow?

      Genuine question: I don’t know how many LHR-NYC BA flights there are a day but if you switched (say) two daily flights from LHR to MAN & EDI would that likely be more or less expensive for BA after fees, fuel and likely PAX numbers are taken into account?

    • Callum says:

      29 Jan29 January 19:13

      What they’re doing seems pretty good. Loads are high, profit is high…

      It certainly makes no sense to make a super-premium cabin the vast majority would never pay for just because you have high fixed costs (but double? I highly doubt it).

  • Billy says:

    29 Jan29 January 11:31

    No one I know buys flights based on perceived quality.
    They buy flights on price.
    Have taxi fares, supermarket prices increased in real terms over the years. Yes, they have.
    Air fares have most certainly not. And that’s because the market is driven by price.

    Given the amount of advice I’ve read here about exEU, sales etc. even faking your address to get extra Avios, to assert that price isn’t the main motivation of airline choice is laughable.

    • Alan says:

      29 Jan29 January 11:44

      I don’t fly a lot so maybe I’m not a good barometer but, as I stated further up the comments section, I used to pay more to fly BA because it was a pleasant start (and finish) to our family holidays.

      I don’t do this anymore as I don’t feel that the experience justifies the increased cost. I may as well save more and fly on a LCC.

      • Mike says:

        29 Jan29 January 13:45

        Alan – I agree I used to fly BA for short haul leisure for the same reason but when they took away my free G + T, glass of wine and snack I stopped. Quite simply it was no longer a premium experience

    • CV3V says:

      29 Jan29 January 17:03

      I think plenty people pay for to fly BA than Ryanair based on perceived quality, similar to the people that pay for BT Broadband and not the competition – as its BT it ‘must be better’.

• Marcw says:

  29 Jan29 January 10:10

  The reality is that 95% of travellers choose the airline by price – and here price comparison sites play a big role. And at the end of the day, BA’s aim is to transport people around te globe, while making a profit at the same time. essentially they’re mass people transporters like 90% of the airlines worldwide.
  And considering the price we pay nowadays to travel is a fraction of what we used to pay, that on average the product is much better and the choice of airlines is much higher nowadays, it’s not surprising that airlines are trying to fit as many pax as possible, reducing costs in order to transport more people.

  • Cate says:

    29 Jan29 January 10:42

    The reality is that 95% of travellers choose the airline by price.

    Source?

    • Drav says:

      29 Jan29 January 10:46

      Even without the source do you actually think that is as inconceivable statistic?

      • Rob says:

        29 Jan29 January 10:55

        Tell me one thing that you buy PURELY on price, irrespective of quality or service considerations. I doubt you can think of anything. I doubt you would even buy toilet paper on this basis if the cheapest was some weird super-thin brand.

        If that were true then 95% of baked bean sales in Tesco would be Tesco Value, which I very much doubt is true. In fact, if that were true Tesco wouldn’t even have any customers.

        The issue is what people are prepared to pay for a better product AND how you persuade them that you offer it. BA’s problem is that it got so much bad PR last year that it is a massive mountain to climb if they change tack.

      • Drav says:

        29 Jan29 January 11:03

        the OP did not say PURELY on price. Price is undoubtedly the most important factor for the vast majority of people who fly. they see it as a means to get from A to B. Very few people are like us, who enjoy our time in the air. Even many many people who can easily afford business class prefer not to fly it so they can spend their money at their destination or elsewhere.

        Do you think price plays less of a factor when people choose their flights than when they do their weekly food shop? if cost wasn’t so important, please explain why LCC are so successful

        Even the cheapest toilet paper in all of my nearest corner shops and supermarkets are not some weird super-thin brand – nor are they some weird sand paper brand (unlike the awful stuff I recently had to use in a museum in copenhagen – still hurting from that). So yeah, sometimes I may buy my toilet paper based purely on price.

      • Alan says:

        29 Jan29 January 11:48

        Dra, price is important to some people (hence why people shop at Lidl and Aldi), however, it isn’t the only factor when buying flights – or any other commodity.

        Not all people don’t buy cars purely on price, or broadband or groceries or anything else. A lot of people buy on “Perceived value” – I know I do. Where I see no value in paying more then I don’t. Where better value exists – even if it costs more, then I would pay the extra.

        I don’t feel that I am alone in this thinking.

      • Alan says:

        29 Jan29 January 11:49

        Excuse the shoddy English in my above reply. I’m sure you can probably make out what I meant to say!

      • Alan says:

        29 Jan29 January 11:56

        But that’s my point, previously I would have paid the extra for the little things (inflight service etc) and regularly did. That’s because I saw extra value in it (for me).

        Of course, this would probably have been for our only flights of the year (occasionally we may go overseas twice a year) and so the cost difference for 3 of us was worth it to me. I guess if I was flying more regularly then the additional costs would add up and I might not see the “value” in the same way.

      • Rob says:

        29 Jan29 January 12:29

        It costs me at least £15 to get to Gatwick by public transport, it costs me £5 to get to Heathrow on the tube. That would wipe out £20 of the £50 gap. And what do you think that Canaries holiday is costing?

        £50 may be too high but BA should be able to sustain a decent premium, and as long as SOME of the premium is profit then all is good. And some, enough, people would pay more if they got more for their money. BA’s marketing would have failed dismally if the average wealthy OAP heading to the Canaries for a four-figure holiday isn’t, at their age, willing to fork out £50 for some extra comfort.

      • Steve says:

        29 Jan29 January 14:23

        I would pay the premium just so I don’t need to listen for four hours to constant scratch cards announcements (and I always travel with headphones). I did my mileage on Ryanair and Easyjet but I am getting too old for this

      • Lumma says:

        29 Jan29 January 14:26

        I don’t see BA economy as being that much more expensive than the LCCs in general and they’re usually far cheaper than the traditional airlines (KLM, Lufthansa, etc.) on the routes with direct competition. The really cheap rates on the LCCs tend to involve getting to Luton or Stansted for stupid o’clock in the morning or very late in the evening, meaning paying for an extra night in a hotel.

        It swings even more in favour of BA if you have status to get a lot of the things you have to pay for included

      • Lady London says:

        29 Jan29 January 22:06

        Hum. I’m a Waitose shopper and I buy at Lidl for the quality. Seriously, if you look carefully there’s a lot at Lidl that’s high quality.

        Apparently shoppers like me are on the increase… well that’s pretty much my approach to buying airline tickets as well. I look first at the quality, and then and only then at the price. Unfortunately after considering British Airways I continue to still look for quality elsewhere… and when I’ve found that quality elsewhere, only then do I look at the price.

        British Airways is actually cheaper on a couple of the routes I fly, than the fares I;m paying currently. But yes I am getting quality. Not luxury (which I am rarely motivated by although Qatar does it for me) but quality. That’s why I’m not flying British Airways much any more.

    • CV3V says:

      29 Jan29 January 19:38

      9 out of 10 statistics are made up….

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