Reply To: Club Europe water before take off

[JDB]

Wiseoldman wrote:

the airlines and hotels have figured out that there is a rising demand for their so called premium services CE/CW and hotels like six senses where people pay regardless of the value/service. Where is everyone getting the money is another issue!

There are a lot of people paying for premium service and not demanding a real premium product or service so why bother.

You are right about some hotel guests not having a clue which allows hotels to get away providing a poor service – you only have to read OTT reviews of how luxurious the hotel was because someone opened the door and a porter carried their bags to the room. Six Senses is a particularly egregious example of selling out to a mass market chain, over expanding, over charging and no quality control; they will reap what they sow in due course. Fortunately, there are still plenty of good hoteliers out there who understand and respect luxury.

With BA or any European legacy airline, on their short haul operations, it’s slightly different – they are basically loss making but they need to offer a product that’s a bit better than LCCs, yet not too expensive to provide so I see it as somewhat similar to the adage attributed to Colbert, Louis XIV’s finance minister: the art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing.