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

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• GeoffreyB says:

  9 Jul9 July 07:44

  Having read the article now, he’s been very diplomatic and not thrown anyone under the bus.

  Nonsense headline

  • degsy says:

    9 Jul9 July 08:43

    Agree – it’s the journalist rather than Doyle who is being critical

  • Steve says:

    9 Jul9 July 14:59

    Agreed, was expecting much more contentious commentary but was actually quite balanced.

    Presume Rob B had sight of this report way before this morning to be able to draft this story but surprised at his tone

• Can says:

  9 Jul9 July 08:02

  Thanks. I never got tired of that pic of A380

• masaccio says:

  9 Jul9 July 08:02

  Club Europe makes no sense to me. I could hardly care less about an empty seat next to me (I’d rather my wife was sat in it). Terrible legroom is not business class, but then I guess they are not alone in this nonsense. I’d rather save my money and take my chances on seat selection. And before somebody pipes up about row 1, the extra two inches or whatever it is at the bulkhead still doesn’t make up for 3-4x price.

  Anyway, regarding Doyle, I must be a fan as I bought plenty of IAG stock in the pandemic when it first crashed.

  • Jenny says:

    9 Jul9 July 08:06

    It makes a difference for my husband and I when travelling short haul. Whilst I would prefer a proper business class seat and legroom like American Airlines has, it’s still better for my very broad shouldered husband to have the missing middle seat.

  • Ben W says:

    9 Jul9 July 08:32

    I frequently travel solo. Not having met her, I’m unsure as to whether I’d rather have an empty seat or be sat next to your wife.

  • JDB says:

    9 Jul9 July 08:42

    @masaccio – CE may make no sense to you, but many of us value our comfort and are of an age and in a financial position where Y is just too uncomfortable. I simply don’t want to be squished in with one of us (ie me) in the middle seat. CE is a totally different and better experience. The empty middle seat not only gives one more space but makes the whole cabin feel more spacious, the food and service are fairly good, boarding much more comfortable etc. And the price is extraordinarily reasonable – Club to ARN, back from CPH cost me £220, less than an APEX ticket to Nice 20 years ago if you remember those and the additional Avios cost is peanuts.

    • Matt says:

      9 Jul9 July 08:50

      My biggest issue with CE is when you land somewhere without a gate bridge, and you end up first off the plane but waiting on the bus for everybody else. I find this the single biggest reason for not paying the extra fare.

      • Mouse says:

        9 Jul9 July 09:07

        I hate buses (not just at the airport) but that’s a pretty niche reason!

      • joseph jordan says:

        9 Jul9 July 09:24

        just travelled on Edelweiss (Swissair partner) via a united biz reward. Guaranteed no one beside you, and a separate bus transported the 6 people in biz from the remote stand.

      • Nick says:

        9 Jul9 July 09:36

        It’s a pain, yes, but the fun bit, if you’ve travelled that particular route a few times, is to remember the direction of travel to the arrivals door, and which side of the bus the doors will open, and to stand on that side, right next to the doors! Malta is a classic one for me, with the nearside bus doors always opening at the arrivals door. Out and in first!

  • AJA says:

    9 Jul9 July 09:14

    CE makes perfect sense to me. I value the extra space from that middle empty seat though I do wish BA had proper reclining seats like Bangkok Airways.

    I disagree that its not worth the extra cost over ET. If you don’t have Silver status or higher it gives you dedicated check in and lounge access and a better on board experience.

    And RFS reward fares in CE are remarkable value. Especially when combined with a 2-4-1 voucher. Even though the wisdom is that latter gets you much better value in CW I find the taxes fees and other charges make the long haul Avios redemption not very good value.

    I also think the business case for offering CE is very strong as it pays for most short-haul services especially when they manage to fill 14 rows ie 56 seats!, and allows BA to offer great value economy fares allowing it to compete effectively with the low cost carriers for those of you who decide to sit beyond the moving curtain.

    • masaccio says:

      9 Jul9 July 13:15

      But the seat pitch is terrible. Maybe we are different body shapes, but the width of a seat rarely bothers me. Up to 4-5 hours in an economy seat pitch isn’t made better for me by lunch and a glass of fizz.

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

    9 Jul9 July 09:22

    If the seat doesn’t have a table there is nothing stop you or her sitting in the middle seat to be closer together.

    And if it does the crew are usually than happy to remove the table if you politely ask them to.

  • Alex G says:

    9 Jul9 July 12:42

    Club Europe is awful, to the extent that I avoid flying short haul. Last time I flew CE (to Lisbon), I got back ache in Row 1 on the way out.

    On the way back in row 8 my knees were crushed up against the seat in front (and I’m a fairly average 1.79). I had been on the plane 45 minutes before I was offered a drink, and there was no choice of meal. We were kept on the bus at the bottom af the stairs for about 15 minutes as the plane was not ready to board. And the Lounge at LIS is carp (not BAs fault). If I have to fly short haul, which I do occasionally, I actually prefer Easyjet to BA.

    Its probably down to expectations. With EasyJet, you know what you are getting. With BA, I have enjoy flying long haul, so short haul always disappoints by comparison.

    I love Domestic First in the US. European short haul sucks.

    • Alex Sm says:

      10 Jul10 July 00:32

      And the worst thing about BA in LIS that they close check-in 60 mins before the flight on the dot, not 30-45 mins like anywhere else in Europe. I missed a flight only once in my life (of ca 450 flights flown), and it was a BA flight from LIS just because of this stupid rule and zero flexibility of the staff when I was at the desk 58 mins before the flight with no luggage to check-in (but I needed a boarding pass from the desk as the machine said no)…

• Can2 says:

  9 Jul9 July 08:03

  Thanks. I never get tired of that pic of A380

• patrick C says:

  9 Jul9 July 08:09

  I have to strongly disagree with some aspects here. BA is far below AirFrance and still below Lufthansa for in flight service.
  The food in AF and LH is actually superior to BA (long haul), as are the wines most if the time. Expecially accross the Atlantic the oligopoly is chagring insane rates for crappy service. (Unfortunately had to fly through london once this year).
  The hard product was really about not loosing all customers. Club suite is fine, but the AF product is the same apart from the rather useless door a d LH ist just better for tall people, something the airline is taking into account in their new cabin.
  You can’t shake the impression on BA that you fly an outdated aircraft that barely holds together, where someone applied too much make-up. The budget for really excelling has been cut and tje main goal is to make sure passengers are drunk. The security video is fun though.
  As for aircraft choices, ordering the 777-x, that is Crux’s mistake as he already knew that Boeing was falling of a cliff and that the planes would be years late. The correct move would have been tomorder additional a350’s

  • Panda Mick says:

    9 Jul9 July 09:58

    Back in the 90’s, I flew Air Inter from Nantes to, I think, Gatwick or Heathrow. Can’t remember, doesn’t matter. Anyway, got served medium rare roast beef and a bottle of wine on that very short flight. Impressed.

    Fast forward to last year, and I flew business from MXP > CDG > LHR business with AF. Yes, paid heaps more for the flight than back in the 90’s, but the service was excellent, as was the food.

    Platitudes I, sadly, could never muster for BA. I know that this forum tends to lean heavily towards BA, but you really are missing out…

    • Paul says:

      9 Jul9 July 10:53

      Agree, similar experience with Austrian connecting through VIE. Excellent food and great crew.

    • meta says:

      9 Jul9 July 15:58

      I doubt you paid heaps more than now. £1 in the 1990s has a different value to £1 in 2022.

      • meta says:

        9 Jul9 July 15:59

        *before

  • Alex G says:

    9 Jul9 July 12:47

    The age of the aircraft is more of an issue for BA than it is for the passengers. The old aircraft lack the fuel efficiency of the new ones.

    I flew back from BOS last week in a 772 with Club Suite. It had spent a week in Cardiff before flying out, and was in pristine condition. I wouldn’t have guessed it was 27 years old if I hadn’t looked it up.

  • Alex Sm says:

    10 Jul10 July 00:36

    “the main goal is to make sure passengers are drunk”

    haha, you are absolutely right! when BA crew fucked up our onboard dinner at CW, what did they offer us ‘in compensation’? Correct, “another drink maybe?”

  • x2000traveller says:

    10 Jul10 July 12:18

    Re 777-x, sure, but recall that airlines can cancel or modify orders as well, or even sell their slots to others, so never take the announced ‘orders’ too seriously until the aircraft is near-delivery.

• AJA says:

  9 Jul9 July 08:13

  Isn’t it common to blame the previous person for the problems you are suffering today and to take credit for things happening today even if they were planned by the previous person?

  That’s certainly what Labour and the Tories do. And I’ve seen it happen often enough in my working career.

  The reality is that BA’s problems today stem from Willie Walsh and Alex Cruz’s tenure with a large dose of Covid pandemic issues where BA took the opportunity dispose of its expensive to run but mainly paid off 747s leading to the aircraft shortages today and also the opportunity to lay off many experienced (and expensive) staff. But now that the pandemic issues are going away they have re-recruited many of them again.

  There are signs of improvement but let’s be honest BA has not been terribly good lately with multiple IT failures, poor service on board, pathetic issues with luggage handling, delays and last minute cancellations, denied EC261 claims, etc. Most of which can be laid at Sean Doyle’s door but were most certainly a legacy of the tenures of Alex Cruz and Willie Walsh.

  • Can2 says:

    9 Jul9 July 08:25

    It is common but is also true.
    Remember blaming the previous guy can only make sense if it is in practically free fall: flight quality and politics. It just gets worse and worse

    • AJA says:

      9 Jul9 July 09:21

      It only gets worse and worse if you choose to believe it is getting worse and worse.

      I’m fortunate that I’m now retired, own a very nice house outright and have a decent income. So the economic woes facing many others doesn’t apply regardless of the colour of government. That is also true for a lot of people while the opposite is unfortunately also true for far more.

      Apologies for the humble brag but I worked hard to get where I have.

      • Hak says:

        9 Jul9 July 11:05

        Ah, so it’s all in one’s head. Interesting take.

        • AJA says:

          9 Jul9 July 11:35

          I didn’t say that. Re read what I wrote. It depends on how financially secure you are as to how badly affected you are by economic woes. If you don’t have a mortgage or only have fixed rate loans it doesn’t matter what the borrowing rate goes up to. Likewise food inflation of 20% doesn’t really affect those who can afford to pay £1000 a night at a hotel.

      • Hak says:

        9 Jul9 July 11:41

        You wrote that “It only gets worse and worse if you choose to believe it is getting worse and worse”.

        So, you are suggesting that ones experience is entirely subjective. I guess the inverse is also true. So, if I choose to believe things are getting better and better, then they are!

      • can2 says:

        9 Jul9 July 13:03

        There are many parameters in economics that objectively show that the state of this country is deteriorating. Are you aware of the interest rates?
        I didn’t say it is getting bad for YOU, but, sorry for the news, there are other people in this country

      • Gordon says:

        9 Jul9 July 13:46

        @AJA, I am also in the same position as yourself, Also no brag intended! As are a very large number of people in the uk, As in my case “Worked Smarter” as oppose to “Worked Hard” would have sounded better….

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

    9 Jul9 July 10:28

    Lol.

    Liz Truss tried to blame the previous government apparently forgetting she was a senior member of said government!

• David Cohen says:

  9 Jul9 July 08:27

  I know there’s a new IT platform coming, but my biggest concern is that they’ve not rethought their entire approach to delivering services to customers.

  If it’s a one-off capex investment, then they’ve changed nothing other than putting a few sticking plasters on things.

  If however it’s an on-going multi-year investment in delivering services to customers online that’s baked into everything they do, then they may have a chance.

  United are probably a bad example as the new capabilities in their customer-facing app and website buckled under the loads of the past week, however having used it in anger prior to that it’s actually pretty good. I guess they just need to work on the stress testing a bit.

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

    9 Jul9 July 09:28

    The IAG investment in BAs IT is a multi year programme,

    Even 200 – the quoted number of additional staff – won’t be able to fix all the problems with BAs IT (internal and external) that have existed since way before Cruz and Walsh were in charge.

    • Nick says:

      9 Jul9 July 10:39

      The ‘IT investment’ referred to is not in designing a new website, this will just be a basic front end to a more major commercial platform change underneath (what those 300 people are working on). And this is essentially designed to turn BA into Wizzair… be careful what you wish for.

• meta says:

  9 Jul9 July 08:28

  Yes, Cruz signed a contract with Do&Co and then didn’t give them enough budget to do proper catering, so it’s really not the premium.

  In any case, it’s very hard for any airline to serve restaurant-quality food unless they actually sign a contract with a restaurant.

  • JDB says:

    9 Jul9 July 08:46

    @meta – your point is a fair one, but The Ivy gets away with serving ‘restaurant’ food when they have signed a contract with a food service company to make it! At least one of their contractors also makes food for a supposedly lesser branded chain that provides a higher budget.

    • Panda Mick says:

      9 Jul9 July 09:59

      The Ivy have just slashed the percentage of the service charge that goes towards the staff 🙁

      • meta says:

        9 Jul9 July 13:40

        @JDB
        There are all sorts of restaurants. Sometimes the food BA serves is even worse than at your local pub. And let’s not go into how often they change menus (and by that I mean it should change seasonally and yearly) . If you fly frequently, you’ll notice this very quickly.

        BA gets away with it because their network is very convenient and unfortunately they abuse this market position. It’s fine, they need to make money. It doesn’t mean it’s right (same as what Ivy does).

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