British Airways throws Alex Cruz under a bus (again) in a Sunday Times interview

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• Alex G says:

  9 Jul9 July 05:45

  Yes, Club Suite is a remarkable improvement over the “dormitory class” high density seating that was common in BA’s Business Class cabins until recently.

  But the cost cutting definitely made it’s way to the front of the plane.

  It became common for BA not to load enough food for it’s Business Class passengers, based on the assumption that not everyone would be eating. This lead to the situation where food often ran out.

  And of course the biggest cost cutting measure has been replacing BAs excellent cabin crew with underpaid kids who don’t know the first thing about customer service.

  Cruz’s legacy will be with us for a long time.

  • Nick says:

    9 Jul9 July 07:00

    +1

  • JDB says:

    9 Jul9 July 08:04

    Club Suite is a hugely improved seat, but the problem is that in installing those seats, BA has compromised the galleys (and not just the A350s) such that they are unable to provide an appropriately decent and timely service to passengers. Staffing has also generally been reduced. With 76 Club Suites on a B777-300, BA has by far the most seats – I think the next highest would be United at 60, CX 53, AA 52, JL 49, SQ 48 etc.

    It is also rather pointless contracting with a premium caterer we know can produce decent food for other airlines but then only paying Tesco Value prices so passengers get slops. They do the same at outstations where Do & Co doesn’t operate. Club Europe food is of a fundamentally better standard which seems quite odd.

  • Alex Sm says:

    9 Jul9 July 09:01

    Yes, my partner and I got into this situation recently and they gave us a makeshift tray basically putting a hot meal (weird pasta dish) onto a breakfast tray, which was half a size of a normal tray with no starter and fruit salad as a dessert. So pathetic! Lufthansa would never do that, so Rob, excuse me, but BA service has gone out of the window a long time ago and never came back. Whoever you blame for that

    • Rhys says:

      9 Jul9 July 09:43

      Have you flown LH recently? They aren’t as good as you might think. Their short haul business class food offering is rubbish versus BA.

      • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

        9 Jul9 July 10:34

        I beg to differ. Flew 2x LH SH last week and food was great.

        Have two more flights with them tomorrow.

        Will write a more developed post next week when I’m back in Amex by the Sea.

      • Alex Sm says:

        9 Jul9 July 10:37

        Yes, we flew with them (SH+LH) in April, and everything was good. But my point is that BA can’t even plan properly for 12 CW meals – how can you treat your passengers like that? We were on reward tickets but does it make any difference? Dinner shd be included. And lounge food at BA lounges at Heathrow is pathetic compared to LH (even in London, let alone Frankfurt and Munich)

        • Blair Waldorf Salad says:

          9 Jul9 July 10:51

          LH short haul food is much better than the limp snack plate BA provide. I have often had my BA CE meal handed to me as the plane is descending, due to slow crew service – fannying around making cups of tea and cocktails for passengers in rows ahead. No such experience with LH, who hand deliver 2 trays at a time the moment the food is ready, then return with the drinks trolley. On shorter flights, LH group crew often take drink orders in advance to further speed things up. I regularly leave BA CE flights hungry; not so with LH/LX/OS.

          Agree though that bar breakfast on AF, AF/KLM short haul J food is crap.

        • His Holyness says:

          9 Jul9 July 15:02

          What are you on about Rhys?
          LH and LX don’t sell the adjacent seat on the Regional fleet, even down to the CR9. That’s much better than BA. Sitting just like Economy with a hot meal is not “Business Class”.
          BA offer hot meals on LCY because the experience ex-LCY is poor vs LHR. We all know this for years. LH/LX don’t differentiate LCY for catering purposes.
          The vast majority of C flyers pick C just to the space, not the F&B, which is crap on most carriers.
          LH and LX do offer hot meals on certain routes. They have bands too 🙄.
          Presently there is more hot food and protein in a LH lounge than there are in BA GC or GF. I dunno about you, but I just can’t eat a pile of rubbish carbs.
          Remember, OW Emerald is pegged higher than a Star Gold lounge.
          And obviously, despite the catering cuts at FRA, the proper F lounges at ZRH, MUC, GVA, FRA and VIE (accessible for HON and F ex-VIE) as well as the transfers for F are miles, miles better than BA “Concorde” lounge.
          Again, I don’t defend LH Group, I find them all pretty crap, both send crap aircraft far too far for example, but to suggest BA is miles ahead is just nonsense.

        • Rhys says:

          10 Jul10 July 09:25

          I don’t disagree on many of your points, but I was responding to a comment about SH food service in J!

          Based purely on short haul catering, based on my experiences on both airlines in the last 6 months, BA is the better choice.

      • Paul Crimea says:

        9 Jul9 July 19:14

        Maybe there is room for LH to improve, I’ll give you that. But, I have flown LH J literally countless times and often on my own money and early last year started flying BA J, again mostly in my own money and once a week. I occasionally fly LH J for recreational reasons. Maybe travel blogging clouds the judgement, there is no denying the proliferation of travel bloggers arguing back is white and making sensationalist or contrary assertions- make no mistake LH J now is vastly superior to BA J. That’s just an objective fact. End of.

        • His Holyness says:

          9 Jul9 July 19:35

          You like Tasting Heimat? 😧

• Chris says:

  9 Jul9 July 05:46

  Sorry for my pedantic mood today; How can you be “briefly … first” to do something?

  • TimM says:

    9 Jul9 July 06:02

    Perhaps BA were not really the first but appeared to be briefly?

  • Can2 says:

    9 Jul9 July 08:06

    How else can you express that you held the title of being first briefly before being taken over by your close competitor?

    • GeoffreyB says:

      9 Jul9 July 08:17

      “Briefly the only”

      Easy.

      • Can2 says:

        9 Jul9 July 08:59

        Not the same

        • GeoffreyB says:

          9 Jul9 July 09:00

          You can’t briefly be first. You’re always the first. Forever.

      • Can2 says:

        9 Jul9 July 09:00

        Compare “briefly my first girl friend” vs “briefly my only girl friend”

        • GeoffreyB says:

          9 Jul9 July 09:10

          What?

        • Oviplokos1 says:

          9 Jul9 July 12:00

          You guys have gfs?!

  • Mouse says:

    9 Jul9 July 08:47

    Oh come on, the meaning was perfectly clear

• hedgecock says:

  9 Jul9 July 05:59

  Staff on budget carrier wages having the motivation that comes with that, 29″ seat pitches (even in Club) which is less than the budget carriers offer and worst of all no more ice cream or newspapers in the lounge. I’m not sure how one can can conclude a good premium experience here.

  • Nick says:

    9 Jul9 July 10:25

    No ice cream? Apart from the massive freezer full of Jude’s tubs that’s in the lounge?

    • Rob says:

      9 Jul9 July 10:26

      Yes, no shortage of ice cream.

      The newspaper situation is funniest at Gatwick, where the lounge is bare but the airport has around 25 stands dishing out free copies of the FT, Times, NYT, Sun etc.

      • Jonathan says:

        9 Jul9 July 10:35

        Weird that T2 always has free newspapers, and T5 doesn’t, (I’m unsure about 3 & 4, I haven’t used them in a while) do BA just want people to sit on the plane getting more and more bored ?!
        On a recent flight home from Istanbul, I brought a Wi-Fi package for the whole flight, and I was never connected !
        I should’ve flown with TK, but I needed to use an eVoucher, then they got extended 😑

        • Londonsteve says:

          9 Jul9 July 14:11

          Picked up a free FT in T3 recently from a rack that’s accessible to all. Looked like a broad selection when fully stocked but the racks were bare by the end of the day. Was glad for the FT though, same as I used to collect in the BA lounge or from the BA branded newspaper racks at the boarding gates that had lids they could close if the gate was being used for a non-BA flight.

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

    9 Jul9 July 10:39

    On the A319 the BA seat pitch in the part of the plane that is used for CE is 30 inches and the EasyJet 28.5 inches.

    30 is more than 28.5.

    Check yourself on http://www.aerolopa.com

• lcylocal says:

  9 Jul9 July 06:47

  Whatever the rights or wrongs of who ordered the aircraft being delivered I do think this article has rightly highlighted that overall the fleet is still getting older. I haven’t done a in depth analysis of it, but my impression is that BA are short of long haul aircraft and the orders aren’t there to both fill that gap and start retiring the oldest aircraft as quickly as would be needed. On short haul, it depends where the 737max goes but large numbers of A320 aircraft are getting old, with relatively small numbers having been delivered and planned for delivery.

  • SamG says:

    9 Jul9 July 07:00

    I personally suspect that Vueling and maybe LGW will see the 737 . The newest examples from Vuelings airbus fleet going across to BA LHR

    Re: CS I actually wonder if the A380 will go ahead of the 787 (though the A380 may go out externally I suspect – SQ are conveniently just finishing their last A380 refurb). They seem to be absolute dogs maintenance wise since they’ve come back including lots of out of service CW seats

    • Nick says:

      9 Jul9 July 10:28

      The A380 refit will absolutely have to be external, BA doesn’t have any capability to do it themselves. It will almost certainly be LH in Manila doing it.

      But the critical factor is seat production. The company that makes CS can only produce so many in a day, and it can’t be ramped up easily. So the 787s that are fully planned will go first, the A380 won’t jump ahead.

      • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

        9 Jul9 July 11:32

        Figures I saw ages ago on here is they can make 3 full seats a day so it takes 3-4 weeks to make enough to fit out one plane.

        Then comes the scheduling issues of taking a plane out of service whilst the seats are swapped out which also isn’t a quick process.

      • Graeme says:

        10 Jul10 July 00:59

        Yes have seen BA A380 in hangar at Manila recently

• Paul says:

  9 Jul9 July 07:14

  British Airways……… but the reality on a good day is far better than the perception. The impact of the Alex Cruz era may look better in 20 years time…..

  The issue is the good days are few and far between and Iam paying top dollar today to an airline that is overly protected, lacks innovation, service or customer focus.

  For example no ticketing facilities at Heathrow. Even in the hallowed and rarified atmosphere of the Concorde room they have to call a call centre and don’t have a priority connection!! Consequently In disruption, there is no one to help, no matter what colour your bit of plastic is.

  Yes if you have a gold card you can do the things you say, but not everyone has one. Moreover, group one boarding now comes after small kids, the ambulatory challenged and those who dodge baggage fees. S/H Boarding is a farce at BA and for me sums up everything that is wrong with the carrier. There is no operation expertise as evidenced by dumping the problem of bags onto gate staff.

  I too have a gold card on back of long haul flying on other one world airlines (I gave up BA long haul pre pandemic but as I live west of LHR Ryan Air and East Jet are not options)
  In the last 12 month I’ve flown 40 sectors with 20 of those being BA ShortHaul. Not one left on time. 6 resulted in U.K. 261 claims and 4 others in Avios compensations.

  Conversely, every long haul on other airlines left on time. In every case I could not fault the experience. I might not like grumpy AA crew but they deliver a consistent professional service. Qatar were outstanding to acceptable across 6 sectors. Vietnam airlines were excellent, Cathay very good, despite the covid nonsense at HKG late last year.

  I can’t wait 20 years for BA to become whatever it is hoping to be and right now I just want it to operate on time

  • Nick says:

    9 Jul9 July 07:45

    Nicely put Paul, and covers most of the issues I have with BA today too, along with Rob’s!

    You say, “The issue is the good days are few and far between…” and maybe that’s also a part of the issue that I have as well, being in my 60’s and having travelled on business, mainly on BA, for well over 40 years now, often away for over 50% of every year. These issues can often be perceived as the ‘norm’ and acceptable for some newer pax today.

    Indeed, it will, if at all, sadly take a considerable time to change. However, how many from the revolving door cartel of large corporation CEO’s stay too long anyway, resulting in another change in direction, not always good?!

    • Mikeact says:

      9 Jul9 July 08:34

      +1

  • Harry T says:

    9 Jul9 July 16:33

    I agree with all of this, Paul, as a fellow gold card holder!

• eppleby says:

  9 Jul9 July 07:21

  Mr. Cruz was, to my mind, a caring, understanding CEO! I had occasion to contact him twice during his time as CEO. The first time was to request an upgrade an Avios to F (no reward seats available) when my wife was recovering from breast cancer. He not only approved it but, also, didn’t charge the extra Avios (40,000 I think).
  The second occasion was when I requested to be able to use mv Avios to fund my Godson’s honeymoon flight. Mr. Cruz approved this but it didn’t happen because he had, by that time, ‘been thrown under a bus’!
  Since Mr. Doyle took over I have had occasion to contact him but with very negative results.
  I would much prefer to have a caring Mr. Cruz in charge rather than the non-customer related Mr. Doyle!

  • Alex says:

    9 Jul9 July 07:52

    It’s nice that Alex Cruz helped you but I don’t even know how a passenger would go about contacting the CEO anyway. I can understand the airline stepping in when someone is seriously ill but I’m not sure I want the CEO to be approving policy exceptions for godchildren’s weddings…

    • Sam says:

      9 Jul9 July 08:00

      “Generally”, you can “contact” the “ceo” by emailing firstname.surname@company.com of larger firms

      It is highly unlikely to be the ceo replying but the office of the ceo, some appropriate representatives

      The post above does sound a bit unusual.

      • krys_k says:

        9 Jul9 July 08:53

        I worked as a ‘fixer’ for quite a few very customer facing organisations who traditionally were very bad at customer service and CEOs would often get emails which were then forwarded to the appropriate person for fixing. More often than not me. These customers were then prioritised for resolution. They quickly learned that an email to the CEO brought results and would then bypass the usual routes.

        • Alex Sm says:

          9 Jul9 July 10:42

          Reminds me of these televised Q&As with Putin in Russia when old ladies from Vladivostok or Sochi ask the president to get their pipes fixed. And they get fixed!

      • Rivo says:

        13 Jul13 July 10:31

        There is an entire website dedicated to CEO Email addresses, you don’t even need to guess.

        I have emailed the current and last 2 CEOs of BA, primarily when I exhausted all other avenues. I have also emailed them if I have experienced good service from specific crew. Credit where credit is due.

        Having worked at multi billion corporations the CEO is so insulated from the front line they don’t get to hear what’s going on. In a B2C world the customer is king.

  • The Savage Squirrel says:

    9 Jul9 July 08:43

    This is clearly supporting clerical staff not the CEO. Sounds more like the CEO’s office do special treatment as a one-off for illness, but if a passenger then goes on to do the same thing repeatedly, contacting the CEO to request extras and freebies for no good reason, then they say no – which seems a very sensible policy.

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

    9 Jul9 July 09:18

    Why would you contact the CEO to book someone else a flight using your miles when it’s simple to do it yourself online?

    • Londonsteve says:

      9 Jul9 July 14:18

      Probably because the OP wanted the airline to open Avios availability for a specific flight when no reward seats were showing….

  • Chris W says:

    9 Jul9 July 10:06

    It’s not an airline CEOs job to approve individual passengers travel requests. That is not a good use of his time.

    Imagine if 1,000 people a day emailed asking for favours.

    • Blair Waldorf Salad says:

      9 Jul9 July 10:58

      It also just p1sses off other passengers waiting in a triage queue in customer services. In my view, compsnies should not go down this route. It’ll only lead to anger all roubd eventually.

      • Londonsteve says:

        9 Jul9 July 14:20

        I agree. Most customers don’t contact the CEO asking for favours. Imagine if we all e-mailed Sean Doyle asking for a free upgrade before our next flight because it’s our wedding anniversary, birthday, name day or just because we’re a ‘loyal customer’.

• Alex says:

  9 Jul9 July 07:31

  The biggest piece of news in the article for now is the new website and app due later this year. Potentially transformational if it works.

  A lot of BA’s current reputations issues are a product of feeling cheap rather than necessarily being cheap. It’s small decisions that people notice because they remember what things used to be like. A few examples:

  – ordering new aircraft without the CE middle table (the most visible difference between CE and ET)
  – closing the MAN and NCL lounges, amongst others, and leaving passengers to start their journeys in fairly dismal third-party alternatives
  – completely failing to maintain the T5 lounges, to the extent that there are large ‘end of life’ signs on numerous pieces of equipment and furniture if you look for them
  – going with such a dense CW cabin on the A350 that you have to turn passengers away from the front toilet during food service
  – moving your wine offering in CW from £15ish bottles to £7ish bottles

  It’s not life-changing (except perhaps the destructive decisions on outstation lounges) but it is all very visible. And it combines with the biggest issue of all which is that crews are now so inconsistent in a way they simply weren’t five years ago. The service routine is so different from flight to flight now and the overall levels are lower. BA will be paying for the decisions taken in 2020 for a long time in that respect I fear.

  • Can2 says:

    9 Jul9 July 08:11

    Don’t get me started on T5 lounges.. if I had a penny for every time I Left Galleries for Plaza….

    • AJA says:

      9 Jul9 July 09:34

      Would you have £1 or slightly more?

    • WW says:

      10 Jul10 July 08:27

      Still waiting for BA at T5, to refurbish those AWFUL lounge toilets! Even the most premium Concorde Lounge has… what is akin to something you will find at an old NHS hospital; all lino and chipped formica!!

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

    9 Jul9 July 10:46

    On the middle table it’s IAG standard not to have them now.

    On such planes without them I just use the tray from the empty middle seat.

  • Blair Waldorf Salad says:

    9 Jul9 July 11:01

    The MAN lounge decision is unusual in that the CE cabins are always full and IIRC by next spring the flights are up to 6-7 a day to LHR.

    Escape T3 MAN at least has the quieter windowed area looking down on the scrum of the main terminal below. The lounge staff unofficially send BA passengers there.

    Escape T2 on the other hand – nowhere to hide, every part of the lounge full of 5am drinkers and spill stains on the chairs.

• GeoffreyB says:

  9 Jul9 July 07:39

  “Expert at cost cutting”

  Isn’t that like being an expert at getting out of bed without falling over? Pretty much anyone can do it.

  • supergers49 says:

    9 Jul9 July 09:13

    Actually no they can’t. Most people in businesses find it extremely difficult, hence why when left unchecked, businesses will become bloated and inefficient. The only thing worse than that is a cost cutter who doesn’t know when to stop.

    • GeoffreyB says:

      9 Jul9 July 11:52

      “Most people in businesses find it extremely difficult”

      Then they’re not very good then. It’s easy to find waste and then cut it.

      Most just do blanket things like “everyone cut 20% everywhere” etc which any bozo could do

  • AJA says:

    9 Jul9 July 09:38

    The tricky bit is to do cost-cutting effectively and well. Anyone can do it badly.

    There are also very good business reasons to do cost-cutting. Most businesses could do with trimming the fat. The trouble is that sometimes the cost-cutting ideas actually are counter-productive.

    • GeoffreyB says:

      9 Jul9 July 09:52

      There’s a difference between cost management and cost cutting

      • QwertyKnowsBest says:

        9 Jul9 July 10:07

        As a wise senior college once told me ‘every saving has a cost, identify it fully and implement only if you are prepared to pay it’.

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