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So this might not resonate with others but stick with me. I see so many parallels between the waitrose reward scheme and BA club right now, with waitrose being about 4 years ahead of BA.
In 2014 Waitrose were the first supermarket in the UK to introduce free coffee, for everyone.
The first ammendment to this was the removal of free cups, lorded as a sustainability initiative, a thin vail to cut their spending on single use takeaway cups.In 2017 this changed, after it was seen to be attracting “freeloaders”, creating long queues at coffee machines and attracting the wrong type of customer, to free coffee now requiring a purchase.
During Covid the free coffee scheme was suspended. And in 2022 free coffee reintroduced with purchase. Then in January they rolled it back to its initial offering of free coffee for all members.
If you’ve got this far you might see where I’m going with this. It feels like there are a lot of parallels with BA club and the membership benefits.
Waitrose grew their mywaitrose to encourage members, to drive engagement, spending, loyalty etc. And it worked.
If you review their market share, etc. It trends in line with their mywaitrose membership, but this is hard to pin to causation.
Then when the club gets too large the costs, prestige etc. are watered down and they cut.Does anyone know if BA have analysed the potential losed revenue if all club members that were buying BA through work, or spending the extra few hundred £ per ticket, because of getting silver lounge access now decide to opt for the cheaper flights and leave BA?
There will be a cost reduction in lounge running services, potentially club staffing costs / support staff etc.
Waitrose have reintroduced their coffee offer for a range of reasons, but primarily it’s to attempt to stop the erosion of their market share by other operators that are more agile, acting on customer engagement, targeting the “premium” market, which was once the stronghold of BA.
I can’t help but feel that BA are shining to hard in an attempt to bring back luxury. Unless they are happier being a smaller more premium airline, sacrificing the holy grail of growth, I don’t understand how there wouldn’t have been better tier changes instead of the £ requirements.
Even as a coffee drinker and holder of a My Waitrose account, I never use it as I never want a coffee when I am shopping, and when I am asked to present the card at checkout I can’t be bothered even though it’s in my Apple Wallet. The same virtual wallet I use to pay.
So the answer to “Do you have a My Waitrose card?” Is “No.” as that’s easier than saying “Your IT systems could just use my hashed credit card number to track my purchase history for little or no benefit to me.”
My conclusion is the scheme is not for me. And if you don’t like the BA Club, then it’s deliberately not for you. I am fine with that like I am fine without My Waitrose. But I will still likely shop at Waitrose much like I will fly BA: when it is the right choice for me based on product.
Does anyone know if BA have analysed the potential losed revenue if all club members that were buying BA through work, or spending the extra few hundred £ per ticket, because of getting silver lounge access now decide to opt for the cheaper flights and leave BA?
Whilst BAC members form a large numbers of passengers there are equally large numbers who aren’t members and a group of people who fly BA but collect points via another scheme (this latter group does appear to be growing but in the scheme of things is likely insignificant and whilst they may colelctin another scheme they are still flying on BA flights)
The people flying BA because of work are likely doing so because BA is the preferred option of the company or their corporate agent so are required to fly BA over there personal preferences.
People fly BA because of it’s extensive route network and some times the alternatives simply aren’t there or are too expensive.
My two main european destinations are AMS and BER. KL is simply too expensive for AMS and with LH it requires a change at either FRA or MUC (plus also more expensive).
The LCCs don’t appeal either and whenever I’ve checked aren’t that low cost at all and often times their schedules don’t work for me.
Despite all the keening and wailing most people will still be flying BA and overall there will be little revenue effect on BA
Like @masaccio I have never availed myself of the free coffee. It makes no difference whether they offer it or not. But I do actually have a My Waitrose card as it does offer some genuine discounts at the fish and meat counters and other products too. I never use the vouchers for xxp off though as it’s too fiddly to access them before shopping and I never have a phone/data signal in store so I can’t access the app instore. I got so fed up with it I deleted the app.
Sainsbury’s and Tesco are far better for this. Sainsbury’s even has free WiFi in the store I visit most often so I check the app even while shopping. It also helps me decide whether I should buy a product in Sainsbury’s or Tesco while on the go. I am fortunate that there is a Tesco on the way home from Sainsbury’s so I can stop en-route.
I am not yet at the same level of frustration with BA despite their woeful IT but I have basically given up on ever having status again with them unless it comes from a combination of accidentally via a BAH booking or I spend enough on a longhaul business class fare or they ever get around to offering the 2500TP on the BAPP card. I will still fly with BA but I won’t actively chase status.
I don’t really see any parallels. As waitrose doesn’t have points, I also can never be bothered to scan the card and I don’t really want a drink if I’m going shopping. I did big shops at waitrose instead of sainsburys when they sent me 20% off coupons, otherwise paid little attention to the scheme. I have used the free drink as an alternative to paying in a real cafe when I happen to be waiting in the vicinity of a big waitrose. When a purchase was required, I bought a pastry from the bakery if I really wanted the drink.
With BA, I have been taking a break from airline status since 2023 (while I didn’t predict how bad the changes would be, it was obvious something was coming), so am unaffected by all the angst over TPs. But avios is still a good scheme for me and I don’t see my flying patterns on BA changing that much unless (until) redemptions become Virgin-ised. I will never credit a paid BA or other oneworld flight to BA again but that will not change the revenue I give to BA.
I’m not sure of the parallels between Waitrose with its tiny market share trying to stabilise its position vs a mammoth airline.
It also fails to distinguish between the earning of TPs/status and the earning/redemption of Avios. I couldn’t care less about status, but Avios remains a great scheme for our purposes, so BA isn’t going to lose any of our business. These are very different considerations. Many seem to be jumping with status matches to non OW schemes where they might retain status but probably won’t earn so many many points for redemptions. They will often then have more inconvenient journeys to earn while still have fewer options to redeem.
Waitrose is the dearest supermarket. It can afford to offer perks, which used to include a free newspaper on a certain spend. Now the coffee’s back, but the paper is not.
Rather than any particular club benefit, I find the perk in BA is one suitcase included in ticket (or two if flying Club World – I can’t carry them anyway). As a short haul flier, I attach less value to other comforts.
I normally go to Waitrose just for the coffee, an acceptable brew off a Swiss machine; one visit out of three, I may spend up to £50 there. The system flags me as a low spender: I no longer get the vouchers as well (£1 – £2 per week).
Sainsbury’s offer a free ‘day pass’ for their WiFi; you have to log on each time. Waitrose log you on automatically to BT WiFi – a dearer store, less hassle. Points, by nature, are fiddly: in Waitrose, there are no actual points …
In Waitrose, I have found dry cleaning items added to my groceries, which I never bought, apparently ‘transmitted’ from the Johnson’s stand in the store: Waitrose refunded the extra £30.
The problem of inflation at the till not yet reflected in the price tag on the shelf is common to both Waitrose and Sainsbury’s. Tesco, I find more reliable: you do normally pay what it says on the shelf. Not to be taken for granted.You also don’t need to spend in a Waitrose to avail yourself of the free coffee. Just scan your My Waitrose card and that’s it.
On BAC , it’s a bit like Virgin and I sense that it’s a general direction we are seeing. It’s relatively easy to earn Avios etc but it seems to be getting more difficult to actually spend the points, particularly in long haul, unless you want to go to the USA.
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